Digital Nomad Diaries: Amazing Travel Experiences Available For Women Over 50

Positive Aging Thought Leader: Maria Leonard Olsen

So I have taken advantage of this flexibility and have spent much of the last decade traveling around the world.

Initially, I did month-long trips with Remote Year, an organization that caters to digital nomads. There are about a dozen other companies with similar offerings, like Unsettled, WiFi Tribe and Hackers Paradise.

Array Of Digital Nomad’s Needs:

Remote Year sets its participants up with apartments, co-working spaces, a community, and a city manager, who is a local who can help with an array of travelers’ needs. Remote Year has programs in about 30 cities around the world. Users can buy trips for one month, four months or an entire year. For the multi-month trips, the cohort moves to a different site each month, sometimes to a new continent.

I have done five month long trips with Remote Year, to Antigua, Guatemala; Lima, Peru; Medellin, Colombia, Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Istanbul, Türkiye. I recently did a five day adventure through Remote Year to the salt flats of Bolivia. Remote Year makes travel easy, and facilitates cultural immersion and lifelong friendships.

The cost for a month long Remote Year trip is less than a month of rent in a major U.S. city. If you are willing to have a roommate in your apartment—though you will have your own bedroom—the cost is less than if you request a private apartment. 

“Remote Year makes travel easy, and facilitates cultural immersion and lifelong friendships.”

Having Roommates:

I have enjoyed having roommates on these trips. In fact, I spent Thanksgiving at the Chicago home of my roommate from the Remote Year Istanbul trip earlier this year.

Those who are attracted to digital nomad trips want to learn more about the local cultures. That is, for me, a distinction between being a tourist and a traveler. Those on Remote Year trips want to see more than the highly visited tourist sites. Remote Year ensures that. Most Remote Year trips include a volunteer component to give back to the communities.

Remote Year also welcomes retirees and other travelers. While the median age typically is in the 30s on the trips I have taken, there always have been people in their 50s on these trips, as well. Remote Year says that they have participants in their 70s on some trips.

Outsite:

This fall, I tried another accommodation that is geared towards remote workers—Outsite. Outsite has houses in various places across the globe and rent out rooms in the houses to its guests. I stayed in an Outsite house in Encinitas, California and in Los Angeles, California, in the Venice Beach area.

My accommodations in Encinitas, just north of San Diego, was its own standalone building in the yard of the larger house. The property included a swimming pool and plenty of parking. It was walking distance to the beach. The price to stay at an Outsite was lower than to stay at a comparable Airbnb or hotel, at least when I checked in the environs of Los Angeles and San Diego.

I had coffee with one of the women staying at the Encinitas house, and hung out a bit with another in the common area at the L.A. house, but social events when staying at an Outsite property is generally up to the individuals staying at the sites. There are WhatsApp groups for each property on which people organize outings. In my experience so far with Outsite, the guests seem to stay mostly to themselves.

“Having a kitchen, laundry, privacy and internet are usual perks, as is the experience of living like a local.”

Travel While Working Remotely:

An option I plan to try is home swapping, a cost-effective way to travel the world. It isn’t a co-living option, but is a viable choice for those of us who want to travel while working remotely. Having a kitchen, laundry, privacy and internet are usual perks, as is the experience of living like a local.

There are dozens of platforms for home swapping, and a wide array of lodgings and amenities. Kindred and Home Exchange are services that receive good reviews. Guests are vetted and being vetted takes time, as does getting your home ready for paying guests.

Co-living/co-working housing works for me. Not only do I save money on housing, but I am guaranteed a good internet connection for working while I travel and meet interesting, fun people.

It is a goal of mine to visit 100 countries in this lifetime. So far, I have been to 67 countries. Affordable accommodations, like those offered by Remote Year and Outsite are helping me tick off desirable destinations, with company, if I want it.

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