15 Feb 2026 5 min read

🌏 Eight Months In: What Full-Time Travel is Really Like

We’ve found our rhythm, and it’s opening up a whole new way of living we didn’t know was possible.

Eight months ago, we left our apartment in Philadelphia.

Since then, we’ve visited 14 countries and spent 155 hours in airplanes. We’ve summited mountains, paraglided, dived, and smuggled suitcases full of wine across continents. We’ve met friends from all over the world.

We have a backlog of stories from all of it, which we're looking forward to writing about and sharing soon. The past eight months have been nothing short of incredible.

We’ve learned travel is the easy part. What’s challenged us most is everything it takes to make a lifestyle like this actually work.

Basics like building a routine, getting workouts in, and figuring out laundry in a new place… again… and again... and again. When people imagine “traveling full time,” some may picture a life with no responsibilities. They might not picture hunting for a new gym and a laundromat every few days, or shoveling snow in their single pair of running shoes, or meal prepping baked chicken while in another country just to try to stay consistent and healthy while living out of a backpack.

But after a little while, we found our rhythm: we put our heads down for 4-8 weeks to work in the U.S., then take 1-6 weeks to travel. When we first started, we genuinely didn't know if this would be sustainable - physically, mentally, or financially. But we think we figured it out.

Right now, we're in the middle of a work block in rural Ohio. It's 10 degrees outside. Sunlight is shining through the window and the snow is gently drifting and glittering in the wind.

Inside, it's quiet. Tony is sleeping between night shifts, and I can hear the dishwasher running in the background. It is 180 degrees different from the life we just came from in Southeast Asia. But it all feels... grounding.

This time, Tony is working 25 twelve-hour night shifts over 28 days. Life is: wake up, exercise, work, sleep, repeat. Meanwhile, I’m working and keeping the household running, and we’re both planning ahead excitedly for the next travel block.

In their own way, these sprints are a relief. A real kitchen. Laundry. Eastern time hours. Healthy ingredients. Drip coffee. A routine.

The very things that can feel monotonous are what we have learned to actually look forward to between our travels.

These work blocks are as intense as ever, but we’re not burned out (yet). We’ve traded micro-flexibility (evenings and weekends) for macro-flexibility (weeks off at a time), and for us, that trade is worth it.

And through all of this, we've gained something so special to us: quality time with the people we love.

This year, for the first time in more than a decade, we spent Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year with our families. We visited a handful of close friends. And one of our favorite moments was surprising Tony's mom for her 65th birthday - something we never could have done before.

Which brings us to the question everyone keeps asking:

“So… how’s it going?”

We're loving it. It's not effortless. It's not all one big vacation. It's a roller coaster of incredibly beautiful, rewarding, and challenging experiences made possible by planning sprints, long hours, and constant tradeoffs.

But when we’re exhausted, we often look at each other and say, “we’re doing it.” What we mean is: even when it’s hard, we’re building our life around our values - health, time with the people we love, and travel - not the other way around. And there’s nothing more important to us right now than that.

And our biggest takeaway: after eight months and 14 countries, we've still only scratched the surface. There's so much more to learn, explore, and build, and we plan to keep living unconventionally for the foreseeable future.