Slow Travel or No Travel! Why we have to stay longer

[@FindingGinaMarie]

For more information about how we slow travel, read this article that Judy wrote: findingginamarie.com/articles/slow-travel-and-why-we-do-it.

[@NCLC9_TEFCanada_TCFCanada]

Why would you not consider Tunisia (North Africa)? You will spend a good time and it costs alot cheaper. Everytime I go there, I stay for a month. Just saying

[@FindingGinaMarie]

@@NCLC9_TEFCanada_TCFCanada We are working on our 2024 travel plans. We'll add Tunisia for consideration. Thanks for the suggestion. -Judy

[@SlammyB...]

Pace is one of the biggest challenges with this lifestyle. We started traveling a few months after you. We have found that planning more than a few weeks ahead of time does not work for us. We like to remain flexible to adapt our pace to each location. Also, you just cannot see it all. No matter how long you stay. Really enjoying following your journey, and this video was great. We struggle with this issue also. Thanks for sharing. Safe travels.

[@claudiahansen4938]

It takes courage to acknowledge when you're feeling uncomfortable when traveling, and diagnose the reason why!

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thank you, Claudia! It's a little uncomfortable knowing that our schedule is going to be less ideal for the next period of time. It's been helpful for us to have these conversations, especially because we need to learn to be unapologetic about why we're so close to one place or another and didn't manage to visit it! I'm a HUGE Van Gogh fan and really wanted to see more of France where he painted, but there just wasn't time! I've been making a list of places we need to see that we missed when we were in the area. Thanks for watching! -Judy

[@karenwaltz-davis296]

Hi, as full-time traveling, some places are only short term visits - less than 1-2 weeks. When we go to these locations we always add 3-4 days, that gives us time to acclimate initially and a day or 2 on the end to finish off our list and the 3-4 days is not a deal breaker for overstaying and then not having fond memories of a location. It's the stress relief to know we can pack slow, wash, finish photo (video) processing and give our ados to the place we enjoyed. By preplanning those 2 days to start, 2 days to end, the middle becomes more enjoyable. Besides, you can always come back. 7 years and still going strong.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Hi Karen, That's a great suggestion. I am so glad that you are still going strong with full-time travel for so many years. It's encouraging for us to hear. We have so much more travel that we want to be doing! For the most part we have slowed down quite a bit since last summer when we recorded that video. We've stayed for at least a month whenever we can, and we now are in sync about what we need to do when we have to fast travel (like traveling with our daughter or when we are in the US!). Thanks for sharing your experiences with us! -Judy

[@GlobetrotterGranny]

I just love your perspective! I love your content, your descriptions, the places you go, and the fact you really delve into a community. Slooooowwww travel is something I’ve often thought of doing, but in a part-time way. One month in a place each quarter of the year, with the goal of 4 different locations every year. Takes care of the Visa restrictions, while allowing time to really discover the culture. No matter how much one travels, you always have to make choices and will never see everything. One of the really interesting things is that local folks often don’t see everything where they live. It’s okay to not see everything.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thank you for watching and for your sweet comment, Rebecca! I love your idea of a month in a new place each quarter of the year. It sounds fabulous. It really is lovely to live like a local, so long as you don't try to explore every nook and cranny and come home exhausted (unless that works for you)! And you are right about some locals never seeing the places they live! When we moved to San Francisco, we did a bunch of guided tours, and it was amazing. But that was the first time we ever thought to do something like that! -Judy

[@Delton05]

I know first world problem, but we found that is like having a job having to organize and be flexible to be able to change plans for often unforeseen reasons... and it was continually unsettling living out of a suitcase. It just got tiring. We now better appreciate our quieter (and safer) life back in Australia. We've gone back to vacation mode because we're older and enjoy being more selective, but we're glad we went for it when we did. 7 times around the world over the last 34 years, and we're fully content if we never travel again. We've been very fortunate, and lucky, and we know it. I wish you both well and hope you reach contentment one day in everything you've achieved.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks so much for tuning in and sharing your perspective! We've made some adjustments to our schedule since we recorded that video and it seems to have helped us both to be a bit more balanced. There still are a ton of places we want to visit and I still want to visit them all at once (!), but we've gotten into a rhythm with our work and know that for the most part, staying less than a month someplace isn't ideal and we've adjusted accordingly. I'm glad you had a chance to experience the world and the decision to stop traveling was your own. We recognize that health concerns can always interrupt travel before we're ready, so we're hoping that won't happen. We're currently in Thailand and having a very nice time so far. Seven times around the world is nothing to sneeze at, and I can imagine you had some impressive experiences. We agree that it is extremely time consuming to organize and plan travel! In fact, we have an episode coming out this Saturday on the 👍 and 👎 of full-time travel. We're still feeling very optimistic through 2025 and hope it lasts a whole lot longer than that. Best wishes and good health to you as well! -Judy

[@jwinters9974]

I feel your dilemma. We've been slow traveling, generally 30 days per location. What we've started doing is working in additional side trips/locations in conjunction with our travel days. Another option is to take a long weekend in the middle of the 30 day stay to explore a nearby location. This extends what we can see, while largely maintaining the slow travel philosophy. Travel on!

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks so much for chiming in on this! Yes, although we've talked about adding a few days to our travel days, we haven't done it...yet. Although we sort of did that for my birthday in September, which we spent in London for three days immediately after a month in Serbia, and that worked out really well. We have been open to taking a long weekend (in Vienna we went to Amsterdam), and I think that's actually a really good option. It worked well for us in Romania and a few other places. We've decided that actually is something that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for watching! -Judy P.S.: You might want to join our FREE La Famiglia forum. We could use more full-time travelers (even if you aren't one!). :findingGinaMarie.com/join

[@rebeccagriswold282]

You guys, I’ve watched numerous videos that you two have put together. I have to say, I sure do appreciate your brutal, raw honesty, which was put on display in this video. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable with your whole audience will only bring more viewers. Good job!

[@FindingGinaMarie]

We have tried not to sugar coat any of our experiences and have hoped that some of our conversations would open a dialog for our viewers either with us or for themselves about these same issues. Thank you for watching! -Judy

[@ginalindsey5962]

We just returned from our first trip to Europe, and this was the discussion we had throughout the trip. Having never been there before, I was way too ambitious! We went to 8 cities in 2 countries in 26 days. It's so hard to balance wanting to see everything with actually being somewhere long enough to enjoy it. Great to hear more experienced travelers struggle with the same dilemma!

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Are you a Gina Marie, too?! Thank you for watching and for sharing your experience! Yours was a hugely ambitious plan! When we were taking vacations, we generally tried to only spend time in two cities for two weeks (except for a random day trip or when we were on our 6 cities trip to try to find a city in Italy to live in full time: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5CblIiJo9uqn6M). But I share in this website article below about how I got a bit too carried away with our initial trip as full-time travelers. We are so glad we caught ourselves before we went off the rails! But it’s a good lesson for you. I can appreciate that a month feels like so much time, but it really isn’t! -Judy Article: findingginamarie.com/articles/slow-travel-and-why-we-do-it

[@ginalindsey5962]

@@FindingGinaMarie Yes, I am a Gina Marie 😊

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Love it! 😍😍😍

[@dkdisme]

FOMO. Fear of missing out is a dread disease of mental health. It is a choice we must make. To live in the present or live forever in a future that never arrives because you are always planning the next thing. It's the "kid in a candy store" conundrum. But by always planning your next move, what do you miss right now? You can't be in two places at one time, not even in your mind.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Hi David, One of the things we actually prefer to do is to plan out our travel well in advance so that we don't have to be in a constant state of planning. The challenge is more about whether we visit 12 countries in a year or whether we see more than that, which then requires fast travel. We both like to slow travel, but in retrospect, we've thoroughly enjoyed the places we've gotten to experience during our times of staying just a week or two. I do think 2024 will be slower travel than 2023. It's not that I'm not living in the moment, more that there are so many places I want to experience, which is in conflict with slow travel at times. Thank you so much for watching! -Judy

[@dianarider7712]

Thanks for your honesty, guys. We have traveled to Europe a few times, and each time we learn something new about how to navigate wherever it is we may be, and it's challenging, very challenging, sometimes. We've been pickpocketed, for example, while in a crowd of people in Florence, and encountered other uncomfortable situations. It sounds glamorous, but it's challenging, for sure. One thing we always ask our host if staying in an airbnb, for example, is where the doctor and/or hospital is in case we get sick. European pharmacies are not nearly as stocked as those in the U.S. so you can't just go get something you are used to having at your fingertips at home. These are things you learn as you go, as I'm sure you're experiencing. Again, I get your frustration at times, but at the same time you can't beat the beauty and intrigue of Europe. There's so much to see! It's almost too much. Haha!

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thank you for watching and taking the time to share your experiences, Diana. I'm sorry you were pickpocketed. Our first time in Florence before getting to our hotel we got cornered by a scammer and it left such an awful taste in our mouths (the person who puts a bracelet on your wrist and then wants money). We were so naive then! But getting pickpocketed seems like it would feel next level violated and then hugely inconvenienced. We've been extremely lucky so far. Good suggestion regarding knowing about doctors and hospitals. Our host in Broughty Ferry included that information in the welcome packet and it was quite helpful to have handy. There is too much to see *everywhere*! In addition to Southeast Asia, there's more of Africa we want to see, of course more of Europe, we haven't even touched South America yet, and we've only scratched the surface of Oceania. That's the dilemma! It was helpful for us to have this conversation about how we can make it all work without feeling like we are committing a crime for missing a nearby city or museum or some other "must-see" place that we just ran out of time for. But having the conversation has been helpful for us to understand how we can find a middle ground when there's something we want to see or someplace that's too expensive to stay for a month. As you said, we're learning as we go and we're grateful to share our experiences here and learn from others. -Judy

[@dianarider7712]

@@FindingGinaMarie, in all honesty, the pickpocket thing was my fault for not paying attention to what I was doing at that particular moment. Lesson learned. We also got scammed at the train station in Naples, but again, lesson learned. It makes for a more smooth trip the next time around.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

@@dianarider7712 I'm sorry you had to deal with it regardless. And at least you can have a good attitude about it. When we were scammed in Europe by a papyrus dealer, we were annoyed, but we at least were able to say that it was an experience we could share here on KZbin and hopefully someone else could learn from our issues. It's made the medicine go down a lot easier when we know we can use our lessons learned with people here! -Judy

[@RoamSweetRoam.]

We're currently enjoying Da Nang, Vietnam. Even though it's a "beach town," the central location makes a great homebase because the Intl airport is 10 minutes from the city. It's easy to jump over to Hanoi in the north and HCM in the south....and a quick drive to Hoi An Ancient town. We've stayed 3 months and did a "visa run" to Bangkok and are back for another 3 months. Happy travels!

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Small world! We are currently in Ho Chi Minh City right now. We talked about heading to Da Nang last week for a few days, but we heard that it had been raining a lot. We're deciding whether we take a day trip somewhere or just hang in HCMC and try to really immerse ourselves for another two weeks. Thanks for watching! -Judy

[@RoamSweetRoam.]

It is rainy season in general for Vietnam, however, the mountain areas get the heavy rain. The city has actually been beautiful and sunny the last couple of days. HCM is definitely a vibe compared to Da Nang where things are more laid back. Cost of living is also cheaper in Da Nang. If you find yourself in Vietnam towards the end of January/early February, plan around the Tet (Lunar New Year) celebration. Lots of places shut down and travel costs can be higher, too.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

@RoamSweetRoam. We'll be in Cambodia for Christmas and then Thailand. We love your three months and then another three months, but as we mentioned in our video, there is so much we still want to see. We'll eventually get to a point where we want to slow down a bit more, but we aren't there yet. HCMC has had a few rainy afternoons, so it's been pretty perfect. Thanks for the reminder about the Lunar New Year, which does sound like it will be tricky. If you could do a quick side trip, would you suggest we go to Hoi A versus Da Nang, or vice versa (or somewhere else)? -Judy

[@RoamSweetRoam.]

I think Hoi An is a wonderful side trip. Happy travels!

[@FindingGinaMarie]

@@RoamSweetRoam. Thanks so much! Same to you! -Judy

[@carolinacadabra8278]

I think the leap is mental - from vacay mode to slow travel, living mode. You will never see it all, but the temptation is to try. Don’t let FOMO run your lives.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Good advice, Carolina! We do try to balance things, but there are places we want to visit that may not always warrant staying a full month-either because they don't have a lot to see there (but there are a few things we are eager to see) or because they are too expensive to stay that long. So there are occasions when we visit for shorter amounts of time and we have to make it work. I do prefer to slow travel, but even when we do that, I need to get over my guilt that we didn't see every point of interest that was on my to do list. Part of the reason we don't see everything is because we do give ourselves some down time, and I'm unwilling to give that up! Thanks for watching and for sharing your perspective! -Judy

[@bw5911]

Wow, where to start!?! First of all, I can totally relate to the problem raised in the video. My only solution is to find a balance. Not scheduling the next places too far in advance helps you be more flexible. Sometimes I might be bored and NEED to move on LOL and sometimes I find a sleepy village and stay for a period. Now to the important thing here is this particular video. I follow SO MANY KZbinrs in different arenas and this was HANDS DOWN the most engaging and authentic conversation a KZbinrs is having with their audience. The most genuine video I have ever seen!!! You set the standard~

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thank you so much, BW. That is high praise and we are humbled. We know we can't be the only ones who have these issues, so we are hoping that having the conversations in public can open up dialogues so that other travelers are better prepared and can avoid burnout. It really helped us to clarify what we need to do to find balance. Of course, we have to put our ideas into practice and not only talk about them! We've mostly tried to avoid scheduling too far down the road, but somewhere along the way, we got ahead of ourselves! Our summer/fall travel mostly allows us to cancel without any issue-which is great because it turns out that Bulgaria may be becoming Schengen during the time we plan to be there (October), so we are going to pivot. And sometimes planning builds excitement and makes it easier to leave some places "unfinished" because we're eager to move onto the next experiences that await us. It sounds like you've managed to find that balance. How long did that take? We still feel like we're in the honeymoon phase of traveling! -Judy

[@koufax174]

Slow down! I’m a slow traveler. There are only two speeds to my slow travel. Slow and stop. Sounds like you have the American mindset. Trying to do everything. Be in the moment. Let go of the crowded agenda. SE Asia is my favorite. KL, Penang, Siem Reap, Kompot, Ho Chi Min, Hanoi, Da Lat, Chiang Mai, Baguio, And so much more. Mostly, hair slow down.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

We'd love to understand what that means to you. Slow travel to us means one month in a city and exploring around it and maybe a day trip or two during the month. But we are struggling to figure out how to experience Southeast Asia, which we will be in at the end of the year through the first quarter (or so) of 2024. But I don't know how to do it this way, because day trips aren't very practical or possible. When we visit Cambodia, do we skip Kampot and Phnom Penh and only stay in Siem Reap? It seems like it would be this way in so much of SEA. We may end up stay 2 weeks in each city and stay in two cities per country. It's not ideal, though. And unfortunately, nearly every country only allows an American to stay 30 days (at least the majority of countries we want to visit initially). Would love your suggestions if you have any! Thanks for watching! -Judy

[@annetterobinson3213]

Loved this video guys. We’re in the planning stage ready to set off in April 2024 and after a cruise from Dubai to Rome our main destinations for our first 6 months are Spain, Portugal and Turkey. We have booked 1-2 weeks in each place as the distances from each main city to city are too great for day trips and I’m not wanting to miss out in case we don’t get back there. We have almost 3 months through Portugal and Spain then I have booked a month in Istanbul as I know by then we’ll be tired. Our 2nd 6 months will be SE Asia and I’m working on a month in each place as that’s the longest visa for most places anyway. I’m sure after our first 6 months we’ll be tired so I think we’ll be happy with the 30 days at a time. I feel exactly what you’re saying that you don’t want to miss out on places when you’re so close to them. I love your videos and your honesty and can so relate. Hope to cross paths some day 😊

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thank you for watching, Annette, and for sharing your upcoming travel with us! How exciting that your adventures will soon be beginning. April will be here in a blink! I've heard so many wonderful things about all of those places, and Spain and Turkey are high on our list to explore in 2024. When we visited Portugal, we were considering living there full time, but we weren't in the best headspace. We would like to go back and see it again with fresh eyes. We have a playlist about Portugal, including one episode from when we were there if you want to take a look: kzbin.info/aero/PLNT98lWfwdF1hInc3M9ex2TqkhO44yG5p Please keep in touch because we'd love to know if there are things you'd like to see from us and we'd love to hear about your adventures and experiences! -Judy

[@annetterobinson3213]

@@FindingGinaMarie thanks Judy. I’ll have a look at your Portugal video now. I’ve seen so many peoples videos of Portugal and it looks so good. I hope we enjoy it. 🤞

[@FindingGinaMarie]

We hope you enjoy Portugal as well, but we'd love to hear your thoughts, especially since we only visited Lisbon, Porto, and Cascais. Safe travels, the time will be here before you know it! -Judy

[@larissamiller8838]

There will always be a spot you didn’t get to that you wish you had. You will never get to a point where you have seen every spot you ever wanted to so try to accept that and relax. Accepting that our lives are too short to get everything ticked off I think is the key. It relieves the pressure. Good luck! I am a new subscriber and love your ease with your videos.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Hi Larissa, you are absolutely right; we are projecting out very broadly through 2025, and we have no interest in settling down. It's such a journey. We have some work ahead of us to figure it out moving forward, but we are excited for the challenge. We really are loving this lifestyle. Thank you SO much for subscribing and the very kind compliment. Let us know if there's anything you would like us to cover here! -Judy

[@holtkar]

I can so relate to the comment at the end about hearing suggestions from other travelers and wanting to add to your list of destinations. Everytime we strike up a conversation with a stranger, the list gets longer.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Yes! It's absolutely no joke! There are so many places in the world we did not know about and are really wishing we started all this much, much sooner! -Judy

[@cosmopoliteancie]

Now my travel plan is done - from Sweden to south Europe, for the winter. I will stay in one city for a month, then move to the next for one month, and so on. I did so last trip...to Figueres in Spain, and it worked out very well. Now I know all that matters for Me about that city 💖

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Hi @vanilla_vanancie, We prefer staying in one place for a month at a time as well. But there still are times when we don't want to or can't afford to stay longer in places due to cost, so we fast travel as well, but that happens much less than it did at this time last year! We've slowed down and we've been so much happier for it! Safe travels, and thanks for watching and sharing your experiences! -Judy

[@cosmopoliteancie]

@@FindingGinaMarie In May, when I started to travel as a retired, I did the same 2-4 days at each place. I ran out of money fast..even the bus-/train ticket were cheap (in Sweden it is very expensive). During the Summer heat and European holiday season, I went back home to Sweden. I "have" a very small cottage to stay in - " just" have to help the farmer 3-12 hours/day. So, now I am in a hurry to get away again... Feeling a little bit tired of it

[@FindingGinaMarie]

@@cosmopoliteancie We've never actually traveled that fast consistently. It's been more like a two-day trip in Barcelona and then spending a month in Madrid. But at times it's been few days (12 days in Orvieto, 8 days in Lyon, etc.), but infrequently and only because there's a very specific reason to travel that way. We could tell early on that traveling too fast would blow our budget but we also really needed time to decompress from travel days, take time in a place to get to know it and live normally versus as a vacationer. If you are getting free accommodations during the period you aren't traveling, that's nice, but hopefully there are other ways you are accumulating money for the times when you want to travel. Three to twelve hours is a huge range. I'm hoping that the long days of helping are only at certain times of year. Are you part of a specific (international ?) program that does that? We have heard about programs that offer organic farming assistance in exchange for accommodations, but don't have any first-hand experience with it. Is it something you'd recommend? We were pleasantly surprised that Tirana, Albania is an affordable place! -Judy

[@lindab5789]

There is a big difference between being 'on a vacation' and actually 'living' somewhere else. I can totally understand the dilemma between wanting to see everything on the bucket list and not having to rush from place to place. It is a real balancing act. It also sounds like you both have slightly different travel goals. To me, the most important thing is to ENJOY the experience. Are you enjoying yourselves? Are you trying to fit your travel plans within too many constraints? Sounds like you are coming to terms with all these questions. This is great content for all travelers - even if they are not full timers.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Hi Linda, You are 100% correct about being on vacation being totally different than "living somewhere else"! We are completely enjoying our travel experiences, and we are very aligned in having no desire to settle down someplace in the foreseeable future. We've tried to be strategic about some of the content we delivered during the time of fast travel, which has helped. And in a few cases where the Airbnbs had some knits, it was somewhat good that we didn't have an extended stay there! But thank you for bringing this up! Your comment prompted us to discuss some travel I have been working on scheduling in October. I think we're going to end up in a country five or six weeks to give us some extra time because our time will be broken up with some shorter stays (still in the same country). Kevin enjoyed the places we visited during our recent fast travel, so my tendency is to think that he adjusted to it better than he actually did. I have to remind myself to check in to ensure we're on the same page. We appreciate your comment so much! -Judy

[@wizardofoz4284]

I am with Kevin 100%.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks so much for watching and for your comment. I agree in so many ways, but then there's always the feeling of missing out or not doing enough. We're heading to Southeast Asia soon and will be there for several months. We'll be in Japan, but visiting three cities in five weeks. Not ideal, but it's an expensive country. But for the other countries where we're limited to a month because of their visa requirements, we're trying to figure it out. Perhaps we have a home base in Vietnam and take a couple of two day trips to experience other places if the cost of round trip travel isn't unreasonable. How would you tackle Southeast Asia? -Judy

[@wanderingteacup39]

I really appreciate this video. I just discovered you. I suggest, is there a central hub for your slow travel destinations. You probably already do this. But for example, we stayed in Strasbourg, France last November and used that as a base out in a location and then did the Christmas markets in all directions and little towns because they were all within a short train ride (day commute 30 minutes) or even an overnight into Germany in one case. But we came “home” each night or the next day and then stayed several days and had “home food” and reset with chores. Because “home” base was familiar it was a mental relief to return back. We could also leave stuff there which helped. We did the same in Lake Como (Como village) and hit all the lake villages around, but grocery shopped in the farmers market to save money when making meals inbetween day trips to help off set the ferry costs. Etc.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

We are so glad you found us! We have done what you are suggesting, and that's worked well for the most part. Because we also are working on our KZbin channel (which is quite time consuming), we've figured out that Sundays are our days off, or at least the mornings are unscheduled. We try to do touristy things on Mondays and Tuesdays and then are head down in work on Wednesdays through Saturdays. When we're in affordable places, we'll eat out and try to wander a bit after breakfast or later in the day to get a sense of the city. It's been working out for us, and so long as we try to book things mostly on Mondays and Tuesdays, we can move around our schedule. And we're all for leaving our suitcases at our home base and only taking a backpack for overnights. It's great to hear that you've made something similar work for you. It makes us much happier. We have an additional episode and articles about how we are trying to slow travel better since this episode aired. Here are some links. -Judy 🎥 The truth about full-time travel: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGSvmIymjphknNk 📝 Overcoming Homesickness and Overwhelm: findingginamarie.com/articles/homesickness-overwhelm-and-travel-challenges-life-as-a-full-time-traveler 📝A kindness in Chiang Mai, Thailand: findingginamarie.com/articles/a-kindness-in-chiang-mai

[@CuriousMind1011]

Thank you for your real, honest and real helpful conversations, you guys would be amazing travel companions or tour managers.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Bieber, thank you so much for watching and for your kind comment. We are so glad to hear that this conversation was helpful. It really was useful for us to have as well! -Judy

[@joannemberube]

So very helpful! Thank you!🇨🇦

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thank you so much, Joanne! We are so glad to hear this! We'd be happy to answer any questions you might have, and we also have a Q&A video we recently shared. I'll link it below. -Judy Our First Q&A: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2evaYqelN-AmZo

[@lisalowe132]

So glad to find this channel - we are 6 months out and planning the slow travel but completely understand the dilemma....planning a SE Asia trip ahead of Europe due to distance and feeling as you that we may need to fast travel. We will be watching your journey

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks so much, Lisa. We have a series of articles on our website that also may be helpful for you if you want to dig through them. We recently wrapped up seven months in Asia/Southeast Asia, and it was a great experience. For the most part, we spent time in one city for an entire month. We moved around a little more in Japan, but we enjoyed settling in and living like locals. In addition to Japan, we spent time in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan, and South Korea. Feel free to ask any questions; we are always happy to help! -Judy

[@LindaQ.-qj1ex]

First and foremost, appreciate more than you know all the selfless efforts to produce an excellent travel you tube channel. What an accomplishment to provide such informative, accurate, entertaining content. Both are exploring the rudimentary adventures of slow travel for us, the viewers benefit, Thank You! To listen to each other’s needs, to recalibrate, to pause and reflect, to laugh, to compromise, to reassess; finances, transportation options, daily life tasks, maintaining health, the nuances of travel that creates extreme flexibility in the journeys. Your positive energy is phenomenal in being a world class travel adventurer couple!! You both rock this world! Keep the laughter going, being true to yourselves with being focused on the objective, and continue to enjoy each other, every foot step, every speed bump, and every moment. You both have valid points, to experience every location, enjoy every downtime when possible. Yes, you’re both right, life is short. I’m not an expert, it truly is a joy to witness the love you have for each other, the willingness to listen to one another, having patience, the compromises, along with the joy of laughter. Together sharing your dreams over treasured cappuccinos. Cheers! Thank you for being genuine.♥️

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thank you so much for watching, Linda! What heartwarming words of kindness and encouragement you have sent us! It truly is our joy to have this community and be able to share our travel experiences and our pain points and thought processes. It means more than you know for you to take time to leave this comment. ♥️ -Judy

[@Property2030sg]

Thks for this video. It is also interesting to read the comments of your subscribers regarding the points raised in your video. I think everybody will eventually find their own “balance” after a while :). I also feel that while time consuming, doing YT and writing a travel journal are adding “color” to your slow travel, esp if you have a fan base interacting with you along the way :). This comment is my small contribution to your slow travel journey ;) Btw, will you be doing a video on GENOA and the Italian Riviera? I think you also previously mentioned South of France in one of your videos. I have been thinking that it would be really nice to spend 3 months staying in various cities while moving along the coast from the French Riviera to the Italian Riviera :). May all dreams come true, hahaha 😂

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Hi Mike, You're right about everyone needing to find their own balance. But I think checking in and having conversations is really helpful because you don't want to burn out before you figure it out. Kevin's frustration/stress fortunately came early enough that we could make some agreements about how to navigate the next few months in a way that should create some middle ground. You are absolutely right that our channel and website might be time consuming, but they really bring us so much joy and connection, which is significant. It does "jazz up" our time! Thank you SO much for taking the time to comment-we really do love hearing from our viewers and subscribers. What you are suggesting is exactly the rub! It's not in the plan for us to be here for three months, unfortunately. We did leave just leave the South of France and have a few videos coming out from there. But are you proposing something like after Genoa, staying for a month somewhere in Cinque Terre or Positano and then taking day trips to explore along the way? Because that's exactly what we're trying to figure out! Italy is fabulous and that can work easily, but for a place like Bulgaria, where we may want to spend time in three cities that aren't easily day trips, that's harder to figure out. If we stay a week or more in a city, that requires us to move around and is what Kevin is trying to avoid. First world problems for sure, regardless. -Judy

[@mahtin]

Oh boy! This is THE ISSUE we struggle with all the time. My better half (and she’s quite correct) wants to travel to one place and stay. I want to pop here and there and maybe buzz over some close border for a day if it’s there. Balance is the answer. Balance. You’ll find Asia much easier to pull off long travel stats. Bali is very conducive this. So are places in Thailand. You’ll still have visa issues (ie. 30 day visa on arrival); but in places like Bali you’ll find visa extension processors (for a $ or three) everywhere. You can slow down there and still enjoy travel. Balance! Respect it.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thank you for watching and for sharing your perspective, Martin! I feel SEEN! Generally I'm fine with day trips someplace, but that doesn't work everywhere (e.g., visiting Bulgaria for instance. We could stay a month in Varna, but then we'd miss out on Plovdiv and Sofia. Staying in Plovdiv allows us to see Sofia on a few day trips, but Varna is supposed to be beautiful!). The dilemma is real! After skin cancer for me and Kevin burning like a peach, lounging on beaches in Southeast Asia isn't really practical for either of us. We plan to be in Japan, but it seems like a huge mistake to spend an entire month in Tokyo/Kyoto when we're hearing that Hakone, Takayama, and Hiroshima are must-see places. We could stay beyond a month in theory, but I'm not sure we can afford it! You are right about balance, though. And we are compromising. We've decided that when we only have a week, we won't book tours more than two days and Kevin will have one day free of any KZbin responsibilities. So we may still travel somewhere for a week, but we won't be booked up without any breathing room. And even when we're somewhere for a month, I will work on guilt about missing the "must-see" places in favor of a bit more downtime. We do factor it in downtime, but KZbin is time consuming! We appreciate all the good advice you've given us. Keep it coming; we're learning! -Judy

I say enjoy the places with less attractions too (i.e. learn a new skill, join a gym, read more books, plan your next adventure, etc). Stillness is also important.

[@wildbill6366]

Hey guys , I agree with you !! I prefer to spend months not days in an area .. I have been in Albania for over two months and loved it .. Will spend the winter months in Egypt as I know the area well ... A week or two does not work for most people ... Sloooow travel is the best as you have a homebase and can check out different areas ...

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences! There is a lot to explore in Albania, and we could have used more time in Egypt as well. Actually even when we do spend a month somewhere, we can easily convince ourselves it was a mistake not to stay a week or two more! -Judy

[@AprilWaller100]

I have just discovered your channel, and I really like the way you set out your videos I'm subscribed and 👍 everything I've seen. I enjoyed this one as it shows that sometimes you have to mix things up and not be too ridgid. I'm Australian so sometimes I might not get back to a country or city so a taste is okay than miss out completely. Safe travels and thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

We are so glad to have you travel along with us, April! We appreciate your kind words so much and are honored to have you as a subscriber. We visited Sydney in 2019 before we were full-time travelers. We are trying to make a trip to Melbourne and New Zealand work in 2025 if possible! -Judy

[@Jmcivor777]

I do appreciate your candour and reflection. Ahh the tyranny of choice! Many of the blogger travellers I follow seem to need to slow the pace after the first year. I think we'll aim for 4-6+ weeks per location-particularly bc we share your goal of connection. I think we'll need a part of our budget that includes, the (usually) wasted expenses of changing plans for our needs in that moment- rather than let the schedule or costs rule us. It would just be part of the whole experience. At least hypothetically!

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thank you for watching! We did try and learn from the bloggers that burned out from over traveling and really are trying hard not to do that. It was helpful for us to talk through this pain point and manage each other's expectations. If you're retired or wealthy and aren't a digital nomad or KZbinr, there's a lot more free time. KZbin and our website consume about 30 hours per week most of the time, which is a lot. But we love the creative outlet and bouncing ideas off of each other and the connections we are making with our community here, so it's very worthwhile for us. We've actually managed to do a decent job of not needing to change plans too often, but we've allowed ourselves to be flexible when we've needed it. I found a great tour in Edinburgh, so we left our Airbnb in Broughty Ferry a day early. Ditto when we needed to visit Rome for our Egypt vaccinations. We think five or six weeks in a place would be great, but it would be at least four cities or countries we'd miss in a year of doing that, and it becomes a challenge when you're getting around the Schengen zone. Oh to have EU passports and have that not be an issue! We would love to hear about your experiences when you are on the road! -Judy

[@Jmcivor777]

@@FindingGinaMarie Oh my goodness 30 hours a week on the videos. That's a job- Im so glad you two enjoy it! I appreciate that work would add another layer of stress while travelling. I know youtubers produce content weekly but I would wonder about whether it has to be that rigid- maybe you could still build and retain viewers with less frequency. But what do I know! It will always be a trade off between depth and breadth of experience for sure. I liked Kevin's comment about not worrying too much about FOMO with seeing other countries. Sounds like its really challenging you two around what your travel principles are- which is great of course!

[@FindingGinaMarie]

@@Jmcivor777 The work does add stress, but it's really fulfilling and gratifying. We are trying to balance some of our more time-consuming content that we produce alongside things like this episode, which while different, we hope will be equally useful. We know that it would have helped us to have heard more about the struggles and the process people used to make some of their decisions. The end result is great, but I always want to know what it took to make it happen! Our solution at this point is that when we only have a week somewhere, we'll spend only two days on formal tours and Kevin will have one day free of any KZbin responsibilities. We can still walk around, eat, sip cappuccino, and get a flavor for a place without always doing a deep dive. In some cases, we make the decision to travel to those places because (1) we can't afford to live there for a month-I'm looking at you Germany, Amsterdam, Switzerland; and (2) we back up against our Schengen zone time-if we spend six weeks somewhere means that often we can't stay a month somewhere else (although we could spend 6 weeks in two countries versus three, but I'd rather not...for now)! -Judy

[@JMJMJ1]

It would be nice if you could do once in a while a sample budget so people can figure out what to expect financially in a certain city / town. Your “struggle” videos are interesting. I think you put a little bit too much pressure on your self (but I understand since I am definitely the planer in the family and stress my self out, research for days, watch YT videos etc. I literally watched every DisneyWorld ride on YT to make sure they will be appropriate for my kids (I know pretty stupid), but I have learned that I need to stop that in order to enjoy myself and the vacation and go with the flow). I am from Europe living in the USA and my plan was to see as much in the shortest amount of time but I have finally figured out that I need to think more like a European again and just enjoy just the one place fully instead of seeing as much as I can. Also, I noticed that I enjoy the smaller cities more then the famous ones with the big attractions. Are you planning to go to South America as well?

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks for watching and for taking the time to comment. We do try to include costs of certain items at the end of our travels. But we can provide more information along those lines as well. We're glad to hear that you enjoy this type of video. We often wonder about others' thought processes or the steps to getting to certain decisions. Sometimes we only see the end result and not the messy middle. We've tried to share those things here since that's helpful to us! I do take too long to make certain decisions about where to go or what to see when we arrive! For the most part, I have a few things that I think are most important, and then we prioritize down from there. And yes, Europeans are much better at finding balance than Americans! I have slowed down more than I could have ever imagined-in a good way-but there's still more work ahead for me to not feel guilt about the things we miss. We are still learning about what we like. We love major cities, but Broughty Ferry surprised us. We enjoyed it much more than we expected to! There's a balance there, too. Cagnes-sur-Mer was much more laid back than Nice, but we were frustrated in Cagnes-sur-Mer that our food choices were more limited, the hours you could get food or a beverage were restricted, and wifi wasn't as powerful-which is especially critical for us! We absolutely are eager to explore South America. We have a list of places to visit, but do you have suggestions on where to prioritize first? -Judy

[@JMJMJ1]

@@FindingGinaMarie Hi Judy :) first of all let me tell you that you and your husband are one of a few You Tubers that actually will sit down, read comments, and reply in a well mannered detailed way, so thank you for that! I personally have not been to South America and can’t give you any tips, sorry. Can you give me a ballpark number about how much monthly income a single person should have to kind of live a traveling life like you do? I am pretty budget oriented and don’t mind saving whenever I can. You think $1,500 a month is a good budget? Or will it be too low?

[@FindingGinaMarie]

@@JMJMJ1 I think that would be tough when you factor in accommodations, traveling from one place to another, food, and any activities you want to do. I'm not saying it's impossible, but you will have to be very intentional with your spending. If you're open to staying in hostels or getting a room in an Airbnb versus an entire place to yourself, that may be your best route. For a month in a budget friendly country like Egypt, we only paid $900 for an Airbnb, and Serbia will cost us $1162 ($38.74 per night). We try to keep our accommodations reasonably low, but the cost still is a chunk of money. Airbnbs offer a price break for staying 30 days, which we try to do as much as possible. In Italy, food prices are reasonably low, but in France, they were fairly high. Of course you will want to primarily grocery shop and home cook most of your meals. If you use geographic arbitrage (you move from one place to another that are near to each other), pack very light (8kg) so your backpack can be your personal item and you don't ever need to check a bag or pay for a bag on budget airlines that charge for everything!, it's possible, but not easy. We haven't traveled to Southeast Asia yet, but that area of the world is more budget friendly. You'll want to choose to stay in locations in the off season as well, so the weather or the activities may not be ideal, but you won't be fighting crowds and costs will be lower. Keep in mind you'll need travel health insurance, and e-SIMS for a data plan, and a monthly cell phone service. There are people who travel on a shoestring budget, so I never want to say it's not possible, but you may need to be clever at times. Free activities abound, so your experiences may be different than ours, but that's not bad. Oh, and you should definitely look into housesitting, which still takes money to get to a destination, but they'll give you free housing in exchange for taking care of their home and pets while the owners are elsewhere. www.trustedhousesitters.com/. Best of luck to you! -Judy

[@morpheuszzz662]

I love watching how the two of you process and discuss this situation when you are coming from slightly different perspectives. I can relate to Judy's wish to see everything you can when you are in a certain region "just in case" you can't make it back. I'm not sure what your backgrounds are, but if she came from a background that didn't offer much travel, she may still be carrying that notion of these opportunities being limited, despite the full-time traveling lifestyle you two are currently living. Kevin, you seem to have the same thoughts as my husband and even my kids--all who have grown up with a lot of opportunities for international travel. They all have a laissez-faire attitude about not checking all the boxes because they are confident that travel will be in their future. (The travel vs. no-travel backgrounds that I mention may not apply to the two of you at all.) I appreciate how the two of you communicate with each other and validate the other person's opinion even when you disagree. I can tell you are really good people. Thank you for sharing these real-life conversations with us.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Kevin and I spent significant time today over lunch discussing your comment. What we came to is that in general Kevin is more laid back over a lot of things. He has a bucket list like I do, but his must-see list of places is much smaller than mine. And while it's true that some places will still be there, he's okay with not seeing some of them. Whereas my list of places is longer and I definitely want to see them all! I'm also more of an A-type personality than he is! We both came from similar backgrounds of not really having traveled much until we were in our 40s, although he traveled internationally for work before we traveled together. What's been interesting is that although there are places Kevin is initially ambivalent about, when we do visit, he enjoys them thoroughly. I have always had "FOMO"-fear of missing out whereas he's okay with doing less. Fortunately, we are able to communicate well (always it could be better though!) and we each try to be sensitive to what the other wants/needs. We are blessed to have found each other when I was 14 and he was 16, so we've had nearly our entire lives together. We'll be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary this December! Thank you so much for this lovely comment, for watching, and for sharing your thoughts with us. We truly love this community we are building because it's primarily made up with incredible people like you! -Judy

[@sharonbradley9011]

Have you considered applying for a digital nomad visa to get around Schengen 90 day rule?

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Hi Sharon, thanks for watching! Yes, we actually considered living in Portugal, but we didn't love it. And when we were in the process of making that decision, we decided that we wanted to travel the world, not just Europe. Digital nomad visas take money and time, and we weren't willing to settle down somewhere we don't love. However, I am in the process of obtaining dual citizenship in Italy. They announced a digital nomad visa would be forthcoming, but 15 months later, still there is nothing and I'm told there likely won't be. It's fine though, because we are eager to see so many places before we lock in a home base somewhere. Thanks for the suggestion! -Judy

[@EmmGee-pele77]

Slow slow slow is the best way to go . Cheers

[@FindingGinaMarie]

We really think so, too! We know we could go even slower, but there still is so much of the world we want to see! It's silly, but we wish the year were longer so we could see more in a year than we can right now. I'm not sure why a year matters and likely if it were 14 or 16 months, we'd still want to see more than 16 countries! In 2024 we'll be in a dozen different countries, but only eight will be ones brand new to us (due to a variety of reasons). We actually have a few additional resources about slow travel, which are linked below. -Judy Full-time travel pros and cons: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGSvmIymjphknNk Overcoming Homesickness, Overwhelm: findingginamarie.com/articles/homesickness-overwhelm-and-travel-challenges-life-as-a-full-time-traveler

[@erinaustin9968]

Great video. I love the discussions you have on travel. We’re getting ready to launch soon and are trying to figure out cell phone issues to ensure we can have 2 factor authentication for banking. What do you do?

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks for watching, Erin. We talk more about this in an article I just loaded yesterday as a companion to today's video (linked below). We use iPhones with T-Mobile as our provider, which allows us to keep the same phone numbers as we had in the US. We also pay for monthly 15GB International Data Plan add-ons ($50 each month per iPhone). This gives us free, unlimited voice calls on top of the data service. Kevin has tried to save money by buying local eSims for data, but they haven't been much cheaper and a different phone number gets assigned to each one. As family members are getting older, we didn't want to overly complicate their ability to get in touch with us, so it's been easier to keep our US numbers. So far it hasn't been an issue. -Judy Article: findingginamarie.com/articles/slow-travel-and-why-we-do-it

[@erinaustin9968]

@@FindingGinaMarie I would appreciate the name of the plan. Everything we read says its not intended for extended travel.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

We're on T-Mobile's Magenta 55+ plan. Since our mailing address is in the US (via Traveling Mailbox as a service), I'm not sure when or if T-Mobile will complain that we travel full time. There are also trips for us back to the US that will connect us to their local services. I'm going with the "apologize later instead of asking permission now" concept with our provider. ;) - Kevin

[@acarpio3]

In SE Asia, establish a base in Manila. It is a modern yet affordable city where everyone speaks English. Without the the language barrier, it would be a great option as a home base for months. Then it's easy to take short plane rides to the different popular islands in the Philippines and nearby SE Asian countries. You will definitely make connections in the Philippines since Filipinos are one of the most friendly people in the world....and not camera shy.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks for this suggestion, Albert. Is there an area in Manila that you would suggest we station ourselves? I'm not sure whether it will work out, but it's food for thought for us (and others following us here). Thanks for watching and for taking the time to share this comment. We agree that in our experience Filipinos are some of the friendliest people we know. We would love to meet people on their home soil. -Judy

[@claudiahansen4938]

Tips? Australia and New Zealand. Stay in “motel flats” for a month at a time. We did this in Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Cairns, Melbourne. In NZ, same idea, traveling by bus or train.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks, Claudia! Can you give us a link to someplace you've stayed or someplace random so we can get an idea of what you mean? When I think of a motel, it's a budget hotel, but it typically has one room and no kitchen. For the places you are proposing, we definitely will need to cook! We've been to Sydney, but we have more of Oceania on our list, and would consider visiting after Southeast Asia if we can make it work. -Judy

[@BillandJennTraveling]

Loved this video and loved your kickback attitude! I think we are going to struggle with the same issues as I am more laid back and kick back than my wife Where she would like to go see a lot of things so we're compromising. Question I have is do you have a home base? We started downsizing and sold our big home threere's a go and have a small home now. We own it free and clear. So we have been searching on KZbin for slow travel and out of all the ones that we subscribe to we do like your approach alot! I have a question, do you still own a home in the US or do you house sit or stay with family when you return for a short period of time? Thanks again! Bill and Jenn southern Idaho❤❤

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Hi Bill and Jenn, thank you so much for watching and for your question and kind words! We do not have a home base in the US any longer. We didn't want the maintenance and we couldn't afford to retire in San Francisco. For us it has been so freeing to not have to worry about stuff. We have a small storage unit for some photos we weren't able to scan before we left and for a few of Kevin's guitars that he wasn't quite ready to give up when we left the US. Our situation is slightly different than some in that we originally thought we'd look for a home in Italy or in some other part of Europe (we considered Portugal), and then Kevin was offered a job in London. We had a scheduled trip that was supposed to test out remote work, but at the last minute we decided to use that as the beginning of our full-time travel. That meant that we kept some things in a small storage unit until we could come back to the US and finalize the rest of it. We have a son in San Francisco, a daughter in Houston, a son in Austin, my birth mother is in Palm Desert, and my sisters and a brother are in Buffalo. So for us, no place is convenient as a home base because visits to the US require us to typically visit three cities. We suck up the cost and stay in hotels and rent a car for various reasons. It's some of the most expensive travel we incur, unfortunately. We have compromised since that video came out and for the most part, we've tried to stay at least a month in most places. It's worked out well, and before any fast travel decisions, we think it through very, very thoughtfully. It's been a great solution. We spent 42 days in Japan, 30 days in Vietnam, 30 days in Cambodia, 37 days in Chiang Mai (decided to skip Bangkok because that would have been fast travel), went back to Vietnam for three weeks, 30 days in Taipei, 28 days in Busan, South Korea (but we decided to spend 2 days in Seoul). We spent 10 days in Italy to acclimate back to Europe before some fast travel with our daughter throughout Italy. You can see that we are working very hard to balance how much moving around we do. Happy to answer any other questions you may have if we can. -Judy 🎥 Preparing for Full-time travel playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLNT98lWfwdF0Hm94IeHJksaTV37AcdchX 📝 Check out our website for additional information as well: findingginamarie.com/travel-tips (then filter by Nomad)

[@BillandJennTraveling]

@FindingGinaMarie my wife and I are new to KZbin we are currently working on a channel ourselves. I was not expecting a very informative reply and I thank you so very much sorry it took me awhile to get back to you still trying to navigate through KZbin and figure out how to respond and reply and check responses! It sounds like you guys have this pretty much figured out we're getting ready to go for an 8-week Stateside trip starting on Tuesday July 9th 2024. The reason why we wanted to keep a home base is because my wife and I have been married for 38 years have no children and it's hard to stay with folks I have one sister that lives in Nevada we are from idaho. Maybe in the near future we will get rid of our house but since it's paid off we have no mortgage of course however the upkeep Power Water insurance is all that comes out to about $551 a month. We are originally from Reno Nevada and move to Idaho 20 years ago and love it. Again thank you so much for getting back to me in a very informative text I appreciate it I'm not checking my spelling because I'm voice texting LOL technology it's challenging for us for sure exclamation mark thank you for your links I will definitely check those out. And have an outstanding day. By the way when we were going to college in Reno we would go once every 3 months to San Francisco! Love that city! A lot of fun! Yesterday, we were playing with thumbnails and our descriptions we are going to do a lot of videos on our 8-week trip and see how that goes . Again, thank you very much For Your Precious time!

[@BillandJennTraveling]

@@FindingGinaMarie ❤️❤️❤️

[@FindingGinaMarie]

@@BillandJennTraveling We wish you the best of luck with your channel, and we are happy to answer any questions about what our experiences have been with KZbin. We are leaving for the US for three weeks tomorrow. There's a lot to get done (restocking some things we don't want to have to try to acquire on the road, some paperwork we have to sort out, and of course traveling to multiple cities to see family and friends). We hope your time in the US has been smooth so far! I have used the talk to text trick quite often myself, so no worries! What a small world regarding your visits to San Francisco. We love that we don't need to rent a car there, but the price of a week in a hotel is more than what we pay for a month in some cities in other parts of the world. Good luck with your channel! It has its challenges, but it can be very rewarding, especially getting to know people like you and other fellow travelers or travel lovers. It takes time to build a community, so give yourselves patience with it all and most of all, have fun! -Judy

[@dansouth2088]

Love this discussion. Am jealous because I've always done the 1 or 2 week whirlwind trips. But with that said I've developed a style and method to the research and planning so it's been a rewarding set of experiences. Listening to the "first world problem" my thought is if there was a way to compress or streamline the vlog creation and editing that might help with the feeling of only being in one location for a week.. I understand you want to create a quality product, so that may not be possible. Another idea might be to not travel so far between locations, so you don't get worn out from a long day of buses, trains, planes, etc. Again always not possible, but the planning is the key.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks so much for watching, and for taking the time to comment, Dan! I'd love to hear what your style and method is! When we were traveling for vacation, I would do copious amounts of research and it worked great! Maybe not so time efficient, but planning a trip is nearly as fun as going on one! But it's different when you travel full time and may have a limited amount of time and desire to focus on your next destination (versus fully enjoying where you are at the time). It's tricky, but not impossible. For the next few weeks in Italy, we needed to book things ahead of time because we knew that once we got here we'd be moving fast-not just seeing sights, but getting the lay of the land and immediately working on our next video. Kevin has started tracking his time so we can understand a bit more what consumes us the most. We have a video from Cagnes-sur-Mer that will be done slightly differently as a result. It won't always work to do it that way, but we're trying to examine our processes more. And you are right that we aren't willing to compromise, either! Also, we generally do use geographic arbitrage so that we are going from one place to another that are near to each other, and that is how I got us into this mess this time! From Nice to Italy is not a big travel day, and we did wander around Genoa after we arrived to get a lay of the land, but we were beat enough, partially from the heat, that we got nothing of significance done. Maybe we're just wimps, but it's okay, we give ourselves grace on a travel day. We are going to be more intentional going forward, though, to ensure that we don't overwhelm or over schedule ourselves on those short stints. -Judy

[@sr9253]

What do you do when your Airbnb isn’t working out or you just can’t stand the place you are at? Can you cancel the Airbnb and adjust travel?

[@FindingGinaMarie]

We've been super fortunate in that we haven't had any significant troubles in our Airbnbs, and we've been to 18 of them in our 13 months of travel. We try to be as proactive as possible and only book from hosts who have a lot of reviews and we read every single review and we look at every single picture. And we now now to look for certain things and ask about some other things. Since this is our life now and we don't typically stay someplace for more than a month, when there have been small inconveniences like threadbare towels or too much clutter everywhere or a shower issue or no hot water in the kitchen sink, we try to suck it up because in the scheme of our incredible lives, these are small inconveniences. HOWEVER... If there are safety issues, I would #1 notify my host, and if I didn't feel safe doing that, I'd contact Airbnb's customer service immediately. I would always recommend trying to work with my host to see if there's a way to fix my issues. Most good hosts will not want your bad review, so if you are kind when speaking with them, there's a good chance you will find a compromise, and if not, Airbnb should be able to arrange for a refund or some sort of compensation to book elsewhere. You can't always canceI without a legitimate issue. I've been unsuccessful at getting refunds from some hotels I've booked as well, so Airbnb isn't necessarily any different. I hope this helps, and that your stays at Airbnbs all are positive ones. -Judy

[@Teachmond]

I think I would have to admit I would feel same way.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

We are making compromises to include both types of travel. And the most recent places have been well worth seeing even if only for a short stretch. We are adjusting our content so that we post some that requires less editing on weeks with more travel. It seems to be working (so far)! -Judy

[@haikuty]

Can’t see it all. If you don’t get back, you don’t get back. That’s ok! Slow Travel sounds highly preferable to me.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

You are right. In some ways, I just need to get over my guilt. People tell us that you "must" see this place or that place when we're in a country. And we really do want to, too! So it sometimes feels like we are failing or disappointing people when we don't do what they suggest-and their suggestions nearly always are top notch! I do have a running list of things we didn't see so that when we do go back, we know what we want to do when we're there and can decide which of those priorities deserve more time (or not!). And I agree about preferring slow travel, but sometimes you just want to see something on your bucket list. We want to visit Amsterdam, but we just can't afford a month there. So we're planning to take a three-day detour. I desperately want to see the Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank's house, and visit the Rijksmuseum. It will be a whirlwind, but then we'll be able to settle down for a month. It's all a balance. Thank you for watching and for your thoughtful comment. -Judy

[@recettesnaturedegina3863]

Hello, Mexico will be a good country to visit

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks so much for watching. We do have it on our list to visit. At one point when our children were young, we escaped to Cancun for a brief getaway and found the history fascinating, particularly our time in Chichén Itzá. We would love to have a more authentic experience exploring more of Mexico. -Judy

[@recettesnaturedegina3863]

Mexico could give you a temporaire residence if you visit Mexico in 2015-2022😁

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Unfortunately, it's been many years since we were there. And we are enjoying full-time travel too much to settle down anywhere yet. But thank you so much for the suggestion! -Judy

[@sophiabarger22]

Hi, I'm Sophia and I hope to be a full-time. Traveler like you 1 day and hopefully soon. So yeah, one month in 1 place I think is a great idea. Cause it's a lot to see an experience. So hes right and I do speak Italian. Siet multoBelli Chow.😊

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thank you for watching, Sophia! We hope you are able to live your dream of being a full-time traveler. If you have any questions about that, let us know. And while we don't always take a full month in a place, it's always a great feeling when that works out for us. It does allow us to take a breath and live somewhat of a normal life along with experiencing the place we are in and seeing the important places. We appreciate that you took time to comment! -Judy

[@nancyl7989]

Maybe volunteering and learning the language will anchor you in a particular place a little longer than the usual quest for something new. I mean, you will still find something new in everyday life by living life through a different point of view.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Hi Nancy, Thanks for watching and for this idea. We're not quite ready to slow our pace down by much in order to add on these great suggestions because there still is so much of the world to see. But it's definitely a strong consideration when we need to slow down a bit more, even temporarily. We've done a great job since this video was released to have slower travel for the last seven months, where we stayed between 30-42 days in each place. Our pace will pick up a little out of necessity in order to connect with family and friends, but otherwise, we are committed to seeing fewer cities/countries in a year in order to have a more relaxed pace. It's been working for us very well. I did try to learn German when we were in Austria, and Kevin and I both are learning Italian (I work with a tutor twice a week, except during travel weeks). Your suggestions are great ways to more deeply connect with the people we meet. People truly appreciate when tourists/visitors take the time to learn a few words or sentences and speak in the local language. -Judy

[@wildbill6366]

Americans can spend a year in Albania ... Tirana is very nice and Vlore and Sarande are beautiful and inexpensive ... 35 minute ferry to Corfu .. Egypt is awesome but Luxor West bank is much more local and relaxed ... East Luxor is busier but doable ... West bank is nicer and very chill ...

[@FindingGinaMarie]

We actually had a month scheduled to be in Albania, but we shifted in order to see a few cities in Italy. For us, we know there are places to travel slower, BUT there is a Siren song calling us to sometimes travel fast and see more places. At this point, we are no where near ready to spend a year in Albania or anywhere else. But this is helpful information for others that are looking for places outside of Schengen to spend some time. You may not have seen the videos from our month in Egypt, so I'll link them below. We stayed in the West Bank of Luxor and on the West side of the Nile in Cairo as well. -Judy Egypt travel series: kzbin.info/aero/PLNT98lWfwdF1WcH9GxfK4ngH49MXf5oOv

[@claudiahansen4938]

I note how you usually or always refer to cities, the city, rather than an area. Perhaps because you lived in cities, you have become city-centric. That's definitely how I thought when I lived in New York, then traveled to Europe.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

I'm not exactly sure what you mean. Are you referring to regions versus cities? We aren't typically in small towns or villages because we don't rent vehicles and also we prefer to not have to take an assortment of transportation to get to a smaller location. That certainly may change in the future. We're visiting a lesser known city/town called Nervi while we're here in Genova, but it's still easily reachable by train. But I'm not sure yet if we're ready to stay in a smaller place like that for an entire month. Again, that may change though! If I've misunderstood, please clarify for us. So far as full-time travelers, we haven't visited an entire region in a month, because we just really don't have time and haven't been prepared to stay longer than that (for now at least).-Judy

[@louismartinez2570]

My wife and I have been traveling for a year and doing what's called full-time travel. Yet by your own described experience, I don't think you realize that you are not slow travelers. In our opinion, if you're interested in the culture and nuances of a city or town, At least a month is a must. 3 weeks or less in one place will never give you the opportunity to enjoy yourselves IN the place that you are. Are you running out of time/resources? Then do as much as you can. Slow traveling and full-time travel is possible. Yet, if you're tired or exhausted at one point in your travels, you are doing something wrong. 🐌 slow down. Respectfully.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Hi Louis, Congratulations to you and your wife on your life of full-time travel. Thank you so much for your comment and for watching. For us, eight of the last 12 months were spent with one month in a city, so we would still consider ourselves slow travelers. We're not as slow as people who spend three months in one place, but definitely not as fast as people who spend the bulk of the year in a new place every week or two or three. For the most part, we much prefer spending a month somewhere, but there are places we want to see that we will never get to visit because they are too expensive for full travel (Amsterdam, London, Finland, Germany, USA (!) among others). So we don't skip those places, but we squeeze them in how we can. There's also a difference for us when it comes to "do as much as you can." We may visit someplace for only two weeks, but we aren't busy with typical sightseeing every day. We work on KZbin 3-4 full days per week, so in those situations we take long walks and just see what's around and eat out to be exposed to some of the local flavors. Those aren't ideal, but we have typically been glad for the detours. We're not running out of resources, but no one knows how much time they have, so there is a mindfulness about the clock in the backs of our minds. As Kevin mentioned, we've both lost parents at early ages (61 for Kevin's father and 56 for my adopted mother). We have a deep appreciation that tomorrow isn't guaranteed to us. For 2024 we have fewer short trips and closer to ten of twelve months lasting 30 days based on our learnings from 2023. We are planning to slow down more in 2025 after we see a bit more of the world that we are covering this year. -Judy

[@divinaflamingarrow9556]

Hi.I just saw a video by Vagabond Awake. They do slow travel too. They are creating some promising ideas and are doing a survey where expats, digital nomads and travelers who want to create wheels of Cities by country, where potentially expats already living in a city might be ambassadors there and others who want to travel could be club members in these wheels. I am planning to slow travel and spend one month in each City . Maybe you could enter your input in the survey.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks for this suggestion. We are looking at his channel now. Thanks for watching! -Judy

[@scottdeboy9006]

Great video, this balance is tricky, others will struggle with the same thing. If posting a video feels like a ton of work due to short stops, maybe just post a message on your website that you're at a location for a brief period. We will understand :)

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks so much for understanding and for reassuring us that others are in the same boat. We want to continue to grow our channel, so we don't like to take too many breaks, but it helps to know that people will be understanding. We are so grateful when our viewers show up for us every week, so we want to do the same and provide consistent content-as long as it's thoughtfully prepared, since we never want to deliver content that isn't valuable or interesting or that isn't our best effort. Thank you so much for the cappuccinos as well. Here in Italy is the best place for them, and will definitely help when we crunch our time this week! -Judy

[@garypyong]

Singapore - 2 weeks Malacca - 4 days Kuala Lumpur - 1 week Penang - 2 weeks then fly to Thailand for 1-2 month

[@FindingGinaMarie]

That's exactly the stuff we struggle with! Those short stints and travel between places gets expensive and doesn't allow us to settle in. Plus, we are working on KZbin, which takes us at least 3-4 days a week, which means in a place like Malacca, we won't see much of it or we focus on Malacca and then are compromised for time in KL. It's ideal for us to spend a month in one city and deep dive into it, with possibly a day trip or two days visiting another nearby city. It's hard to make those compromises, but we have gotten better. We moved around a lot when we were in Japan and it compromised some of our time in Vietnam because we needed to get work done and play catch up! -Judy

[@jillybe1873]

Yeah I've had enough after 3 years. I'm looking for a home and then will just do extended visits

[@FindingGinaMarie]

If you've been a full-time traveler for that long, lucky you! We've only been traveling like this for 13 months, but we already have nearly all of 2024 broadly laid out. We foresee potentially taking a few months at a time in one place versus one month or less in each place, but probably not until 2025. There is still so much that we want to see and do and so much of the world we haven't seen. We've opted to spend a month in a home base but then potentially taking a long weekend somewhere nearby as a way to expand our worldview. So far that's been working out for us this latter part of 2023 and how we're planning in 2024. Do you have a country/city in mind as a home base? Thanks for sharing your experiences and for watching. -Judy

[@caroltimlin5071]

It seems that you want to see it all rather than relax and enjoy the day to day. Sometimes you miss the spectacular by rushing on to the next thing. To me that’s like vacationing rather than experiencing the world. You seem to be putting a lot of stress on yourselves.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks for watching, Carol, and for taking time to comment. It's because we take time to breathe that we sometimes miss out on doing everything we want, even when we stay a month. There are times we would prefer to extend our stay in a place for an extra week or two so we can see a bit more from the place we're in, but over the course of a year, we'd miss four or more countries, and I'm not sure if the extra couple of weeks in a place is a good tradeoff. If we weren't working on videos and our website, we would be able to squeeze in a few more activities. But we absolutely love the creative work we are doing. As a compromise, I've created a list of things to do that we'd eventually like to come back and do, even if that's not the most efficient way to see them. For example, I've had Krakow and seeing Auschwitz on my bucket list for a very long time, but we can't stay a month in Poland due to Schengen constraints. I'm willing to go for 11 days, which will give us a little time to see some highlights and get some work done. It won't be at the pace of a vacation, but not slow travel, either. It's definitely a juggling act. We only had started traveling internationally in 2011 and that was one country per year-and we'd return to some of those places multiple times. It was great, but it means that we have so much more of the world we want to see. We know we don't want to make a habit of moving around every two weeks, but we aren't ready to live somewhere for three months, either. It was helpful for us to hash out what's working and not so we can level-set expectations with each other. -Judy

[@StaceyPetersdbspouse]

Why didn't you pick a non-Schengen country to set up base so that you aren't fighting the visa and you can travel regionally, which is cheaper than hopping all over the world like you are doing, in my opinion, you are making it harder.then you both can have your way-- see as much or little as you want to see.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thanks for watching and for your feedback! We actually are really interested in seeing the world versus having a home base somewhere. Since we recorded that video last year, we have made a conscious decision to slow down our travel. We spent 42 days in Japan, 37 days in Chiang Mai, and several other countries had 30 days apiece. We've also figured out a better schedule for recording/editing our videos and have scheduled some down days where we just chill. There are times where we are fast traveling, but it's much rarer and we are adjusting our expectations when that happens (e.g., we are in Orvieto, Italy for only 10 days because our daughter is meeting us in Italy for the next two weeks. We'll be fast traveling because it's her first time and she wants to see several cities). But we're following it up with a month in Madrid. We didn't do side trips in Orvieto, so we kept a reasonable pace. There have been countries where we wanted to see other parts of the country beyond our home base (we skipped Bangkok when we were in Thailand and focused all our time in Chiang Mai and skipped Phnom Penh in order to spend time only in Siem Reap), but we will visit those other cities on a followup trip. It's working out well for us. It may take us a lot longer to get to all the places in the world that are on our bucket list, but we're doing it in a more peaceful, sustainable way. -Judy

[@9344music5]

You will never be able to "catch" all of the "deals" out there in terms of how long to stay. Get in there and stop looking for "better deals" when you arrive. Use the energy to see what you need to see. You should be able to "see what you want to see" if you stay two or three months. Stop shopping. You need to relax. Travel is imperfect. But the experience is perfect. Go SLOWER

[@FindingGinaMarie]

We aren't looking for deals. We don't travel ever or anywhere because there's a cheap deal, but if it's a place that sounds interesting and is nearby, we say why not. It fits into our plan of geographical arbitrage. We have viewers who recommend interesting places and we'd like to see them, especially if they're in the area. Also, if we book far enough ahead, we can afford certain places because of supply and demand. We wanted to visit Barcelona, but when we finally were ready to book it, it was too expensive, so we were forced to pivot. Some places, like Germany, aren't necessarily affordable to stay a month, let alone two or three months. And neither of us is looking to be anywhere for two or three months yet. Six weeks? Maybe. Five, probably better. Right now a month is a good compromise. There is an entire world of interesting places we want to explore and no one ever knows how long they'll be healthy enough to travel. -Judy

[@9344music5]

If you can only stay in a place for a few weeks, you should not be disappointed that you cannot see other places around you. You can always come back later. We have to be practical and flexible. You guys are doing long vacations but I would not call it slow travel. But I understand. We cant afford to do it sometimes. Trying to do too much in that three week period would burn me out and frustrate me as well. Thanks for what you do. It's always good to hear other's experiences. @@FindingGinaMarie

[@FindingGinaMarie]

@@9344music5 We are coming to the realization that even when we are in a place for a month, which needs to be our goal most of the time, that we recognize that we aren't going to travel outside of our home base beyond a day trip or two. The reason we wouldn't call it long vacations is because we are working quite a bit and really don't have the energy to book a ton of sightseeing. We get our bearings, we cook, we clean, we grocery shop, we take long strolls, and try to see the significant points of interest, but we absolutely don't see everything. At least on our vacations we tried to jam everything into two weeks and then came home exhausted. Here we watch television and live life at a much slower pace than we did before traveling. And we still get to be exposed to a place well beyond the few days that most people will stay in one spot, which I get, but which also feels like a terrible injustice to getting to know a city. But you may think that about not staying even more time, which I totally understand! There will be times and places where we can't stay a month and are coming to terms that those need to be the rare exception in a year versus half of what we do (Australia, New Zealand, and Germany, and the Scandinavian countries are what I'm thinking about $$$$). We don't typically stay 3 weeks because staying a month gives us price breaks. Staying longer doesn't do much unless we work out a side arrangement with a particular host. So those short trips are usually a week (which isn't workable for us anymore) or else 12 days to two weeks. It's definitely been a learning process. Thank you so much for allowing us to clarify a bit about what and how we do it and for sharing your insights with us as well. Sorry for being so long-winded. -Judy

[@livingworkingoutsidebox]

Hello, Do you find you all are getting into a slow travel groove yet?

[@FindingGinaMarie]

We have been doing a lot of slow travel since last October, which has been wonderful. For the most part it's gone really well. We are planned out through the end of 2024 and overall, most of our travel will be a full month. We have a few places where it will be less, but we think it will be fine. We are more in a groove with our KZbin work, which also helps. So yes, it's coming along nicely. We have some travel expenses to cover this year that also throttle some of the fast travel that we might have considered. All and all, we're pretty happy with how our schedule looks for this year. Thanks for asking! -Judy I just wrote an article addressing how we deal with homesickness, overwhelm, and travel challenges if you're interested in reading it: findingginamarie.com/articles/homesickness-overwhelm-and-travel-challenges-life-as-a-full-time-traveler

[@livingworkingoutsidebox]

@@FindingGinaMarie Great article thanks. We use Whatsapp to keep in touch with my family up north and my wife’s family in Mexico. Google voice was a great option when I traveled overseas for work. So true communication is key. Forming those local friendships and routines helps feeling grounded in an area. I enjoyed your writing style. ✍️

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Thank you so much for sharing what works for you and for the compliment! We have a few relatives in our family that aren't technologically savvy for us, so even WhatsApp is beyond their capabilities, unfortunately. But it's a good option! I'm not sure if this still is an issue, but Google Voice can stop working on your mobile device because it has frequent app updates. The mandatory updates can only be downloaded if you are physically in the USA, and at that point, Google Voice would stop working for you. If you know something different, we'd love to know it, if only so we could be more comfortable sharing the option with other viewers. -Judy

[@sr9253]

Is your goal to find a country to live full time in the future?

[@FindingGinaMarie]

At this point, it's not the focus of our full-time travels. I've applied for dual citizenship with Italy, and that's likely where we will land, but we don't have a final destination sorted. Also, we keep an open mind about whether there's someplace that we can see ourselves settling down (even outside of Italy), but right now our goal is to see a good cross-section of the world. We aren't focused on visiting X number of countries and we don't have a checklist that we're trying to check off, per se. But we want to explore some of South America and more of Africa, and get to India and nearby countries there, we're in Southeast Asia right now and want to explore more of that, and there are swatches of Europe we haven't seen, and more I haven't mentioned. We've been retooling our 2024 travel plans to try to see a broad assortment of places while still traveling on a budget and taking advantage of geographic arbitrage. We are loving it! -Judy

[@sr9253]

@@FindingGinaMarie where in SE Asia? I’m flying to Vietnam tomorrow

[@FindingGinaMarie]

@@sr9253 We are in Ho Chi Minh City, but we're going to shift to Hanoi on Thursday. Where will you be? Safe travels! -Judy

[@sr9253]

@@FindingGinaMarie We fly to Ho Chi Minh City tonight arriving there Wednesday December 13 and staying 2 nights then to Phnom Penh and Siem Rep for 4 nights.

[@sr9253]

Staying at Cecilia Saigon Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City

[@Teachmond]

Do you ever feel unsafe in your travels?

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Very rarely. We try to stay alert to our surroundings and be mindful that issues can happen anywhere. We try not to wander into certain areas, and we also are learning about ourselves and our biases based on what some people have told us and changing our thinking. Because sometimes it’s more about cultural differences than being unsafe. It helps that overall we have a positive outlook on travel and the experiences we encounter. -Judy

[@9344music5]

Doesn't sound like you have been doing "slow travel" so why are you complaining? You should be staying for two or three months at a time yeah?

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Hi Angel, for us slow travel is to stay a month in each country. And for awhile we were doing it and it worked really well. We had a month in one city in Greece, Cyprus, Scotland, and France. The complication arose when we left France and then took a week apiece in two cities in Italy and then took a series of overnighters to ride the Glacier Express and then get to Poland, which only was for two weeks and then Romania for two weeks. We learned that we really appreciated having a month in one city where we could explore it deeply. The dilemma is also wanting to see more places, which led to a lot of short travel of two weeks or less. We've only now been traveling for a full year, so it takes a while to have a rhythm and learn what works and doesn't, especially with two people who have different energy levels and ambitions on what places to visit. We thought shared the video because we know that there are other people like us out there who have to sort out their feelings and communicate what they need to be happy living on the road full time. Thanks for watching. -Judy

[@9344music5]

One month is not long enough. Two or three will give you the amount of time you need to go to a few other places. If I saw a few locations in the surrounding area, I would just stay a bit longer in order to see them. Y'all need to chill. You are too up tight. Your wife has too much nervous energy. Go slower. "Spend a month in each place" is not enough. Stop "creating dilemma's" lady. Stay longer. See what you want to see. That's the idea. Be more flexible.

[@FindingGinaMarie]

Staying more than a month in the South of France wasn't practical, nor was it what we wanted to do. It was expensive, and we were fairly ready to move on. Sure it would have been nice to see more of France, but mostly because we were nearby, not because we had a burning desire at that moment to explore more of the country. I'm not sure whether you book an Airbnb for two or three months at a time or if you just "wing it, " but that can be very expensive as can booking last-minute flights somewhere when you're ready to move onto your next destination. Continuing to use France as an example, we were somewhat interested in seeing Arles and Avignon, but that would have required a few overnights. Cagnes-sur-Mer was expensive enough that we didn't want to keep that space and then be double booked in those other cities. That's expensive travel for us. Certainly workable in other parts of the world, but not everywhere. And if you're suggesting that we spend a three months in France and move every couple/three weeks, then that's fast travel for us. Speed of travel is something we have to work out weighed against where in the world we want to see. At some point when we're tired of moving around or have seen enough that we are okay with settling down more, we will do that. For now, though, we both have places all throughout the world we are eager to experience. -Judy