6 minute read.

I’ve been living the nomadic lifestyle for nearly a year now (it’s August 2021 as I write this). I’ve traveled through four different countries in that time (not including the US). Croatia for a few months, Malta for a few months, Mexico for about six months, a few weeks in the US, and now I’m in Guatemala. I did quite a bit of traveling before I went full-on nomadic, so my country count is up to 18. 

In the past year traveling during a pandemic, I’ve learned to be very discerning about where to go. The pandemic made everything more uncertain. You would assume that makes it incredibly difficult to travel, and in many ways, it has. But for the kind of traveler who doesn’t have to be anywhere, in particular, it’s still very navigable. 

Here’s what I consider when deciding where to go (and what I’d recommend anyone who wants to travel internationally take into consideration):

What’s Open to US Passport Holders (Or Whichever Country You Hold a Passport In)

When I went nomadic in August 2020, only a dozen or so countries were open to US passport holders. US passport holders lost their grand privilege of traveling nearly everywhere in the world (and we very much deserved it). COVID was raging hardest in the US at the time, so many countries didn’t want us. 

Nowadays, many countries have opened back up to US travelers, but most require either a vaccine or negative COVID test. Side note: Get the vaccine. It will make traveling more accessible and it’s just the right thing to do. Consider the ethical implications of traveling to a community you don’t belong to and posing a public health risk to them like that.

Just Google which countries are open to you. What’s open still changes often.

The COVID Situation

How a country is handling the pandemic is super important. If a country (like the US) is doing more to protect “personal freedoms” than to protect public health, that’s not a wise place for you to be. You should want to travel to a place with legal restrictions around the pandemic because most countries aren’t yet at a rate of vaccination that will keep them safe (Yeah, we see you New Zealand and Australia, and we are envious). 

Many countries lack adequate access to vaccines, so it could be a long time until there’s any semblance of normalcy again (sorry, but if you want to travel, you’re going to have to accept that brutal truth. #MaskUp). 

Note that having legal restrictions in place is different than a society actually adhering to those restrictions and local authorities enforcing those restrictions. We learned this early on when we decided to go to Croatia because they had a national mask mandate and low infection rates, but when we got there, we discovered how few fucks southern Croatians gave about following that mask mandate. I even complained about it in this interview with a local Dubrovnik publication (lol, don’t translate the comments at the bottom of that article, they’re not very kind). 

But, it makes sense that a country like Croatia would be skeptical of any national mandate by their government– the Balkan countries have had some rough history, and there’s a lot of corruption in the government. 

Be that as it may, their COVID infection rates spiked a couple of months after we arrived, so we left and went to Malta, where they had a mask mandate that they enforced outside. 

It’s easy to Google a country’s legal COVID restrictions but much harder to know how locals handle those COVID regulations until you’re actually on the ground there. I recommend using this nifty tool to get a good idea of the COVID situation in any given place. 

But if possible, seek out someone who lives there to get insight into what the pandemic is actually like there. 

No matter where you are, following COVID safety protocol is the best practice. 

What’s Safe/Can Be Navigated with Relative Safety

There are some places I will probably never go to because I don’t think I can travel there safely as a woman (and a mouthy leftist activist who is also President of a secular organization). There are some places I will probably go as long as (and I hate to say it) I have a male partner with me in case shit hits the fan. 

But some places have questionable safety that I still want to visit. For example, I’d like to go to Colombia, but how the Colombian government responds to current protests poses a severe safety risk. Guatemala is where I am now (August 2021), and that’s a country with questionable safety. However, because I have connections that I trust, I can navigate this country relatively safely (more on that a bit later).

The Climate

I am not a fan of cold climates. I get SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Cold weather and low light bums me out bad. So I pursue sunlight and warmer temperatures. Even the brutally hot and humid climates like you can find in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula are preferable to anything wintery. 

It’s up to you. I don’t know what you like. But if climate matters to you like it does for me, Google that shit. 

Connections

Whether or not I have connections in a place is not a determining factor in deciding where I go. I am comfortable going somewhere where I know nobody. I can make new connections (I date non-monogamously and have access to an extensive global humanist network). 

However, knowing people in a new place that I’ve never been to certainly helps. I probably would not have come to Guatemala if I didn’t already have humanist friends here to guide me. 

I recommend surveying your network and asking around before going somewhere. Sometimes someone in your network knows someone you can speak to for insight.

The Duration You’re Allowed to Stay on a Tourist Visa

Many countries allow you to stay for 90 days. Some shorter. Some longer. Mexico lets US citizens remain for up to 6 months at a time. 

Just another thing to Google.

Cost of Living

Disclaimer: This subject is loaded with privilege.

You have to budget, so knowing what it costs to live in a given place is an essential factor. Europe, North America, and Oceania are generally more expensive. Latin America, Africa, and much of Asia are generally less costly. 

Some General Tips for Choosing Where to Travel:

• Nowhere is the “right” place to be. Every country has its pros and cons.

• Learn how to be okay with making last-minute pivots. It reduces a lot of the stress in navigating nomadery. 

• Some countries require proof of onward travel. Make sure you know which ones do. (Pro tip: If all you need is proof, book a super cheap flight that you won’t care about ditching).

Got questions? Want me to write about something else? Email me: anya@anyaovermann.com