2018 was the first year we became digital nomads. We didn’t expect it or really plan it. We were very surprised when we reviewed the year and discovered all the places we’d been! Somehow it didn’t seem like all that many until we’d pulled it together in a list

2019 seemed less ambitious in our minds. We felt like we got more of a “detail view” of the places we went rather than an “overview.” Once again, we were surprised when we reviewed the year at how many places we’d seen.

Changing our mode of travel really seemed to shift the level of detail that we saw. While in 2018 we spent a lot of time in planes, in 2019 we did a lot of travel by car, train and ship. Those slower travel experiences showed us a view of other countries that you just don’t see from the air, and we’re going to try to continue it in 2020.

We also experienced many more travel disruptions due to labor unrest in 2019 than 2018. It feels like this is an international trend. In 2020 we will be booking more refundable and changeable tickets to give ourselves more flexibility.

2018 Countries visited: 13 

US (yes, it’s our home nation, but it counts!), Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany

Some people may argue “But Britain, Scotland and Northern Ireland are part of the UK!” That’s true, but they’re all considered separate countries within the nation of the United Kingdom. Also, each one fields a separate soccer (football) team that can participate in the World Cup if they qualify. (It was clear from watching England play in the World Cup at a pub in Scotland that the Scots don’t feel much allegiance to the English team!) Therefore, they are distinct countries.

Not counting: Hong Kong – we transited through the airport, but that’s not enough to qualify.

2019 Countries Visited: 12

US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Finland, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, Singapore.

Estonia was only a day trip, but because we explored a section of it and had a meal there we feel that it qualifies, unlike Hong Kong in the previous year. We were both surprised that we visited almost as many countries in 2019 as we did in 2018.

2018 Places we spent the night: 35

For this calculation, we’re counting municipalities or locations. If we included every distinct venue we slept in, we’d be up around 40, as we stayed in several different neighborhoods in LA, London and Bangkok across our travels. We spent the night on Cathay Pacific twice (once in each direction), but since it’s the same airline we’re only counting it once.

  1. Los Angeles
  2. Bangkok
  3. Singapore
  4. Siem Reap
  5. Phuket
  6. Penang
  7. Ipoh
  8. Koh Lanta
  9. Kuala Lumpur
  10. Chiang Mai
  11. Cathay Pacific airplane over the Pacific
  12. Cape Cod, MA
  13. Brighton, MA
  14. Virgin Atlantic airplane over the Atlantic
  15. Nether Broughton
  16. London
  17. York
  18. Aberdeen
  19. Glasgow
  20. Caledonian Sleeper from Scotland to London
  21. Southampton
  22. Bath
  23. New Malden
  24. Dublin
  25. Norwegian Air plane over the Atlantic
  26. Rennes
  27. Nantes
  28. Paris
  29. Cobh, Ireland
  30. Killarney, Ireland
  31. Galway, Ireland
  32. Belfast, Northern Ireland
  33. Long Buckby, UK
  34. Brussels, Belgium
  35. Remerschen, Luxembourg

2019 Places We Spent the Night: 48

We averaged four places a month, but in practice we tended to spend 3-4 weeks (or more) in one location followed by 10 days where we only spent a night or two in each place. Estonia is not on the list as we did not spend the night there.

As Mike points out “That road trip really racked up a lot of XP.” Here’s a map with every stopping place, for those of you following along at home!

Road trip from Los Angeles to Cape Cod. Note: not the most direct route.
  1. Remerschen, Luxembourg
  2. Cologne, Germany
  3. Paris, France
  4. Los Angeles, CA
  5. Virgin Australia flight over the Pacific
  6. Melbourne, Australia
  7. Lower Hutt, NZ
  8. Wellington, NZ
  9. Sydney, Australia
  10. Brisbane, Australia
  11. Cairns, Australia
  12. Cape Cod, MA
  13. Berkeley, MA
  14. Fort Bragg, CA
  15. Eureka, CA
  16. Medford, OR
  17. Ashland, OR
  18. Portland, OR
  19. Issaquah, WA
  20. Redmond, WA
  21. Seattle, WA
  22. Vancouver, BC, Canada
  23. Prince George, BC, Canada
  24. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
  25. Medicine Hat, AB, CA
  26. Regina, SK, CA
  27. Winnipeg, MB, CA
  28. Keewatin, ON
  29. Thunder Bay, ON
  30. Sault Ste. Marie, ON, CA
  31. Kagawong, ON, CA
  32. Kitchener, ON, CA
  33. Thornhill, ON, CA
  34. Toronto, ON, CA
  35. Niagara Falls, ON, CA
  36. West Springfield, MA, USA
  37. Air France flight over the Atlantic
  38. Rennes, France
  39. Freiburg, Germany
  40. The Finnlines Finnlady, Baltic Sea
  41. Espoo, Finland
  42. Helsinki, Finland
  43. Stockholm, Sweden
  44. Copenhagen, Denmark
  45. Hamburg, Germany
  46. Berlin, Germany
  47. Frankfurt, Germany
  48. Singapore (okay, this one was a 6-hour span in the morning, but it was night where we’d just been…)
  49. Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Brisbane