In our current lifestyle experiment every 1 to 3 months we switch an apartment, city and sometimes even country. How do we choose which country to travel next?

Travel is still considered as something out of ordinary, something that you do during your vacations once per year. But being a tourist for a week, and living in a place for extended period of time, are two completely different experiences. There is nothing wrong with either of them. They are just different.

In our current lifestyle experiment every 1 to 3 months we switch an apartment, city and sometimes even country. Within last year we’ve been in Brazil, Egypt, Turkey and three different cities in Ukraine.

How do we choose which country to travel next? There are several factors that we keep in mind when deciding on our travel plans:⁣⁣

Our curiosity about country and culture. It doesn’t have to be related to our professional activities, but if this country stays on our mind for a while, it’s on our list of considerations.⁣⁣

Visa/document requirements. I wish borders didn’t exist, but for now we have to deal with them. Also, we pay close attention to the maximum duration that we are allowed to stay inside the country without too much paper work. ⁣⁣
Cost of living and flight. We are not luxury travel bloggers, so some countries are out of our price range (at least for now) even despite they seem interesting to us. Regarding flight specifically, it not just about the price itself, but we compare ticket price with allowed time period that we can stay in the country. For instance, even if it’s a bit pricier ticket for further destination, but we can stay 3-6 months there, then a one-time cost of flight ’spreads’ along a longer period of time.⁣⁣
Current weather conditions in each particular country. If it was up to me, I would cancel winters at all. But on other hand, we don’t want to go somewhere with +40C either for a long time. So some trips are pushed for later, in order to catch better seasons.⁣⁣
⁣⁣Health situation in the country. With current worldwide events I don’t think I need to comment much here, but it’s always one of the checkpoints: how safe it is right now, and how easy it would be to get a medical help as foreigners in case we need it.

Travelling as a lifestyle is not that complicated as it looks. If you manage to transfer your work online, then does it matter from which country you work? It’s usually our fears that hold us back. ⁣⁣

If you enjoyed this article, don’t forget to like and share! :)

Author: Iana Komarnytska
Photographer: Pedro Bonatto