Photo by normalityrelief.
Want to quit your day job, work online, and travel the world?
Or maybe just step up your game from grungy backpacking or two-week vacationing to a lightweight, high-tech travel style that lets you work, play, and see the world with minimal burdens and maximum fun?
If you’re anything like me, of course you do.
And if I can do it, you certainly can. You just need the desire to see it through and a plan to make it happen. That’s what got me doing this, and it’s what can turn you into a flashpacker too.
Nearly six months after I stepped onto a plane to begin this amazing journey, I’m still learning a rapid-fire series of lessons about the flashpacking life –and I’m learning them much faster than I have the time and energy to blog about them while I’m driving a campervan through the Australian outback or making sure my French rail tickets are booked.
But they’re good lessons, so I’m keeping notes, and I think they’re worth sharing. I’m doing something I would hardly have belived possible a few years ago: earning money online, traveling the world with my wife, and seriously considering the possibility that I may never return to a regular day job.
So my question to you is… would you like to know how I’ve done it?
I’m thinking of adding to the scope of this blog and turning it into more of a how-to resource on flashpacking with one or more series of articles on a few of the topics I’ve listed below… possibly with the eventual aim of using them as the jumping-off point for writing a book on flashpacking. If you like the idea, or if there are other topics you’d be interested in seeing covered by this flashpacker, please comment on this post and let me know!
Here are a few of the topics that could be covered here:
- Are you a flashpacker? Life on the road with a bag of gadgets isn’t for everyone — and even if it’s for you, it may very well not be for you for life. How do you decide if the flashpacking life really is for you? What attitudes, qualities, and beliefs make someone a flashpacker?
- Your road to flashpacking: This lifestyle is all about being able to use communications technology and the internet to earn money wherever you happen to be on the planet. How can you develop your current skills and career path to break out of the nine-to-five pattern and take yourself global?
- Planning your escape: Work, family, your home, your cluttered basement… a thousand things give your stay-at-home lifestyle an inertia that can make change feel impossible. How can you reach your dream of global work and travel without alienating friends and family or losing the roof over your head?
- Packing and gear: Do you really need that SCOTTEVEST? Bags, clothes, and gadgets… what’s essential, what’s optional, and what’s just plain dead weight?
- Hardware and software: Travel writer Kathleen Crisslip calls flashpacking “backpacking with bucks and toys.” So which toys are tools, and which ones really are just toys? From laptops to keychain wifi locators, learn what you need… and what you just think you need.
- Working online: The internet makes flashpacking possible… at least most of the time. If you’re spending fifteen minutes waiting for your email inbox to show up on a Balinese dial-up connection, though, you might disagree. From productivity tips to transforming your offline work into online income, learn how to set up a digital workstyle that goes with your global lifestyle.
- Online flashpacking resources: The best websites and services for booking transport and accommodation, contacting people, finding your way, and getting things done.
- Road finance: From budgeting to banking to finding a decent rate on internet access, how can you stretch your travel budget until your income outstrips your spending? (By the way, let me know if you have the answer to this one; I’ve had months where I earn more than I spend, but not many so far.)
- Living globally: Life on the road is different from life at home in every conceivable way… or maybe not. Learn how to take the life you’re living — relationships, work, family, money, the pursuit of happiness and all that — and make it dance across the face of the planet.
- Road stories: The best teachers are the ones who’ve been where you’re going. So far this blog has been all about me — I’d like to change that and include stories, advice, and other valuable content from other flashpackers.
- Troubleshooting: Things get stolen, work goes south, and you get dysentery. Or, like me, find that the hostel’s internet has glacial upload speed… at 11pm on the night the project is due. What to do when flashpacking disasters strike… straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
Does this sound like an article series to you? Which topics interest you the most? Is there anything else you’d like me to cover?
Get in touch!
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Email me: curtis at
I can’t imagine switching my life over to that of a flashpackers, no matter how tempting that might be …
that aside, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be interested in reading a book about it.
Hey Curtis,
Cool ideas, man! This is an exciting post, for sure. I suspect that Matt and I will have periods of time where we’re doing exactly the same thing as you - both of our work is mobile (yay!), and thanks to online distance ed universities, I can earn money teaching wherever there’s a good internet connection. I doubt we’ll ever do it for a really long stretch of time, because if I ever want tenure, I need to be associated with a credible university, but we’re already thinking about doing a house swap somewhere in Europe for next summer, yay!
In any case, I suspect you may be onto something with your flashpacking guide. I look forward to seeing where you take it!
Cheers,
Stacey
I’m flattered you used my photo .. it works well with the post!
That said, I’m gonna have to start checking back here. This is the kind of lifestyle I’ve imagined for quite some time (not for life, but definitely for a few years at least), and I’ve really enjoyed the few posts I’ve read so far. Keep it up, and have fun!
Oh, and PS, you’re more than welcome anytime to use any of my photos!
Yes to the book!
Just finished the 4-hour Work Week, which is light on details about the recurring income side, and the practicalities of traveling lightly…
See you guys in Spain!
Ric
I’ll second the motion for a book! I’ve been backpacking for years, and more recently a year ‘flashpacking’ as it now seems to be called
Would be great to read your tips and ideas. If you’re ever back in Oz, by all means get in touch.
Keep up the great work,
Michael
Hi Curtis,
I need the book. Your ideas sound interesting and I want more. I want to travel and not feel like I’m being counterproductive financially. I am web-savvy and know there are many ways of earning money online. However I have never earned a buck on the internet besides hawking my wares on craigslist.
What are the most common ways a flashpacker can earn funds? What are some different ways to earn for different people with diverse sets of skills?
I look forward to reading more, best of luck.
Kelly
I would be very interested in the above book. The one addition I would suggest to the outline above is a discussion on creating and marketing a great website, like this one. I am particularly interested in how to balance creating a site that is relevant and engaging for readers you have a professional relationship with and ones that are more personal, like friends and family that are keeping up with your travels.
Also you seem to be effective in your media outreach, what suggestions would you have in creating a PR campaign for the site and the flashpacker.
Great post, i am finding it very interesting this distinction that many are drawing within the backpacking circles. Ive touched on this sensitive issue of “tourist” vs “traveler” and even “flashpacker” vs “real backpacker” in my latest blog post.
http://www.whatsabackpacker.blogspot.com
come on down….
I’d love to hear more on your “how to” side of things! Living literally out of a backpack has always fascinated me.
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