They Sold Everything to Travel Full-Time: Tom & Mike on Love, Freedom, and Slowmad Life
What happens when you sell everything, leave the traditional life behind, and decide the world is home?
In this episode of Pride Nomad Unleashed, Ken sits down with Tom and Mike of Take Time To Travel, a Canadian couple who did exactly that. In the middle of COVID, they made a decision most people only fantasize about: they got rid of nearly all their possessions and began traveling full-time.
Almost five years later, they’re still going.
This conversation is refreshingly real. It’s not the glossy influencer version of travel where everything is sunsets, cocktails, and suspiciously perfect linen shirts. Tom and Mike talk about the actual mechanics of living on the road as a couple: money, healthcare, Airbnb research, travel insurance, family obligations, packing, visa limits, relationship dynamics, airport stress, and the occasional cold shower in Colombia.
They share how they transitioned from careers in finance, real estate, and trading into a location-independent life supported by pensions, smart budgeting, YouTube, sponsorships, and choosing destinations where the cost of living actually works.
Ken, Tom, and Mike dig into what it means to be “slowmads”—staying in places for months at a time instead of racing through countries like a checklist. They talk about Mexico City, Spain, Thailand, Lisbon, Athens, Colombia, Paris, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, and the constant question that follows every great destination:
Could we live here?
The episode also gets into something many travel shows skip: what it’s really like to travel full-time as a couple. Tom and Mike talk about navigating travel-day stress, spending almost every waking hour together, maintaining connection with family and friends back home, and why compatibility matters more than age.
For anyone who has ever wondered whether full-time travel is possible after 50, whether it’s too late to start, or whether selling everything is brave or insane, this episode is both practical and inspiring.
Tom’s advice is simple:
If you have your health, go now.
Because at some point, health, insurance, family obligations, or life itself may make the decision for you.
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They Sold Everything to Travel Full-Time: Tom & Mike on Love, Freedom, and Slowmad Life
Guys, how are you? Now I am completely confused as to what we're doing, which is going to be perfect because we are totally unleashed. The whole idea of this show is that we're probably Nomad Unleashed. This is because my assistant's been out for the past few days. I am very much unleashed. I am going to tell you about you guys and your journey so that I do not sound like a complete idiot, and we will have you do the intro directly.
Selling Everything For Ultimate Freedom
I am Tom.
I am Mike.
We have been traveling full time for almost five years. It will be five years this summer. Five years ago, in the midst of COVID, we decided to sell everything and travel the world. We got rid of all of our possessions, and we have been traveling since then.
That's awesome. By the way, since I started informally, we need to do this as informally as we can. Actually, let me ask before we can get this. What did you guys do before you started traveling? What was the career thing?
Transitioning From Corporate Careers To Expats
I was a financial analyst at a mortgage finance company.
I sold real estate for many years. Prior to that, I worked at the stock exchange as a trader on the floor of the stock exchange in Toronto.
What was the thing that had you say, “We're out, peace out, we're going to go travel.” What was the thing that made that change?
We always had a long-term plan. We were thinking like, maybe five years down the road, we will sell everything and go somewhere hot. Once COVID came along and there was work from home, I really started hating my job. We're just like, “Let's expedite this. Let's just do it now.” Like, “Nope, time better than the present.” We just decided to do it. A couple of months after it started, we were like, “Let's do this.”
If you remember, COVID really got going in March, and then by the summertime, things looked like, “They're calming down now. I think it's going to be over.” That's when we decided, “Let's go.” By the fall, things had started to tighten up a bit again. Anyway, by then we had gotten rid of everything pretty much. We stayed in Canada for the first year, and we traveled out west to Vancouver Island to Victoria, which is the hottest place in Canada in the wintertime, and spent our winter there. After that, we headed to Montreal and spent six months there, and for the first while spent it in Canada, but then eventually once things loosened up, we headed out.
Many things I want to ask you about this whole thing. I guess the first thing that a lot of people will ask is, given that you're doing all the travel, how did you manage finances? Staying in Canada, maybe you were able to still work remotely, but if you were selling real estate, that's not always the easiest thing to do to show a property if you're thousands of miles away. How did you make the transition and manage it economically?
I had retired from selling real estate, and we do have some pensions coming in now, and we decided at the time when we were leaving that we were going to start a YouTube channel. Mike does all that work, and he does the editing and all the filming and everything. Once we got monetized, that does bring in a little bit of money, and through sponsors and a few things like that, we have been able to make it work. Plus, Toronto is a fairly expensive place to live for apartments, and we find that we can find places much cheaper to live in other places in the world than we can in Toronto.
That's completely true. Have you been to Thailand yet?
Yes. We love Thailand. We have been to Thailand, I guess, three times.
Sometimes just passing through for a week here or there.
The last time we spent a month or 45 days, I guess, was the longest we were allowed to stay at the time.
Without doing a visa run. I lived there for about ten years. I left the States in 2009 and moved to Bangkok after the GFC, the financial crash. I got taken out pretty badly. It was a great place to restart. Actually, the friend I am house sitting for right now was the guy who said, “You should go to you should go to Bangkok.” I did, and I stayed. The ability to stay there so inexpensively and still have all the modern conveniences makes it very easy to manage the economics.
Which is really cool. I am going to jump around a little bit. There is zero structure here. If there is anything you want to get to, just pop in with it. For a lot of people, when they're traveling, the way you manage your relationship is an issue of I am going to say contention, but question. How are you guys synced in terms of traveling together?
Secrets To Coexisting On The Road
We're pretty good when traveling together. I guess the one thing I would say is I get pretty stressed out on travel days. I always like things to be planned out in advance, and I want everything to go perfectly. You have to arrive at the airport like four hours early, which he does not like at all. He started to come around. Besides travel days, I think everything else is perfect.
I found in the beginning, it was weird that we had to go to the airport that early, but it's just so much easier now just to accept it. We go early, get our bags checked in as soon as we can. You go and find a spot, have a beer, relax. He's happier, and I am happier. Everything goes a little bit better. Another thing too, when we're traveling full time, we've left behind our friends and our family, and so it's just the two of us all day, every day together. You have to figure out how to work that out, and I think we've somehow managed to find the secret there, and we do manage to meet up with some people in different places around the world, and actually some of our friends travel around, and we run into them. We just had some friends here from Toronto, so that was fun.
That makes a lot of sense. You guys have some synchronicity. Also, when you're in such close quarters all the time, do you guys have a protocol for giving each other space, and how do you manage that? Do you not have the need for it?
I do not think it comes up very often.
We've just learned how to coexist, if you want. When it's time to maybe sit and be quiet and just look at your phone or watch TV, then that's the time to do it. Let things pass or whatever it is. For the most part, we do not really get crazy stressed out or anything. We have a fabulous life. There aren't a lot of things to get stressed out about.
We decided to sell everything and travel the world. There's no better time than the present to start living your dream life.
Sometimes if one of us wants to go for a walk or something, we'll go out separately. That does not happen very often, I do not think.
Not too often.
It's great when you have that relationship. It really is. A lot of people cannot manage that. For me, if I am dating somebody, the first big test of a relationship possibility is we go away for a weekend, and if it works out, okay, awesome. To me, it's the test. It's more than like, are you good sex? It's can we travel together? If we cannot forget it, that's critical. Just as you like everything perfect on travel days, I travel a lot as well.
When travel does not go according to plan, and the flights are delayed seventeen hours or this or that, how does the person cope with that? How do you deal with the next hotel reservation or the next city or the next adventure? Those are really important things relationship-wise. The content that you guys create, you could easily be like the relationship kings because what you're doing really is miraculous because when you add travel to any relationship, that's a whole other dynamic.
Another different dynamic for us is the age gap, obviously. We've been together for eleven and a half years. Somehow we've managed to make it work. We're having a great time.
That's awesome. Having lived in Thailand for so long, for me, the age gap is not anything I see. I mean, actually, it's like one of you is either too old or too young. What used to be, usually, it's like the guys that are in their 60s or 70s and the 22-year-old Thai boys, which was a bit unsettling. As we travel, we recognize it's not so much about age anymore. It's about compatibility.
That's true.
I am really grateful, Tom, that there are younger guys that like older guys like us. It makes it much easier. How are you managing health care?
Navigating Medical Insurance And Cancer Recovery
I guess we go back to Canada for six months a year so that we can make sure that we maintain health care in Ontario. When we go away, we just buy travel insurance. I hear you talking a lot about the States, and it's a lot cheaper than health insurance in the States. It may cost us, like during the conversion in my head, but maybe around $200 US a month for both of us for health insurance while we're traveling. That's for pretty much unlimited coverage. It's incredibly expensive.
Now, I did have cancer a couple of years ago and went through the treatments and that. The first year after that, it took a little bit to find an insurer that would cover me, not being that far out from my treatments. Now the prices have been dropping down each year since then as we go further out. That's been helpful.
What's concerning me moving forward now is that a lot of the travel insurance caps you out at age 70. I do not know anybody on the travel insurance side yet. I am still looking for something that will take us beyond that. Unfortunately, I am getting there, which is like what I needed. Those were the things of concern. I had a heart attack about fifteen years ago. When I went through that whole crash. When I left Bangkok in 2019, just before COVID did its thing and went to Sydney and was there during COVID. It was nice to be locked up in Australia.
I can think of Washington. In the meantime, I got medical insurance there and went through the pre-existing condition year or whatever it was. It was a year. Now I'm keeping my Australian insurance as, with my tourist visa. I still keep the tourist visa. Even though not there at the moment, I'm keeping it because there is no pre-existing condition anymore. It's been handled. Those are the things we have to manage. It's crazy. I'll tell you what I do, do. You probably do not need it because of Canada, but I go to Bangkok. Even though I left Bangkok, I could go back at least once a year and do my full physical there.
The whole medical thing there is so good. We'll go in for a few hundred dollars. They'll check everything. They do a carotid artery thing. They'll do chest X-rays, EKGs, eye exams. All the blood you could possibly give them. It's only a hundred bucks. I'll do the stress test or the EEGs, whatever the hell they're echo, echocardiograms. They keep up. They make a book about you, and they track you. You like this little spot in my liver, and they're like, “What is this?” They look back, you had that five years ago, you're good. As travelers, we have such great advantages that a lot of other people do not.
I've seen videos and read about people doing the same thing as you in either Thailand or in Kuala Lumpur, and they do full blood panels and everything. The cost is minimal.
It's amazing. I did not realize that when I left, but when I first got to Bangkok, in the newspaper, they had like a sale or promotion on sex changes. I knew I was in the right place. I know. It was bizarre. Of course, I took a picture of that. That was brilliant. “Here's the special deal.” No, thank you. Where are you traveling most these days?
We change it up quite a bit when we travel. There are so many new places in the world that we haven't been yet. We like to try to always try to go somewhere new. That being said, we do revisit some of the places that we've loved before. Right now we're in Spain. Just before this, we spent three months in Mexico City. That was our first time in Mexico City, but not our first time in Mexico. It was beautiful there. We love Mexico City. We also spent time in Lisbon, Athens, Bangkok, Vietnam, and Colombia. Anywhere else you can think of?
We really do love Southeast Asia. In the last couple of years, we would have gone back, but the flights there have just been so expensive compared to what we're used to paying. We've been looking to other places, and the thing that we start looking at, first of all, has to be hot in the wintertime. We're not going to spend our time in Canada in the winter. We're looking for somewhere that's hot.
Toronto is an expensive place to live. We've found that we can live beautifully in other countries for a fraction of the cost.
We're looking for somewhere that the visas are easy now, whether we have to apply online for an e-visa or something like that. We want something that we can get like three months anyway out of if we can or six months would be great too. That narrows the search down to where in the world we're going and then has to be somewhere affordable. Mike does all the looking through all the flights and trying to check out all the costs and then places for us to stay and everything. He loves planning everything. He's the planner for me. I just leave it to the day before and then say, “Let's go here.”
You always need a Mike.
What starts our search is where we're going to go. We watch a lot of YouTube videos ourselves and do a lot of Googling just to try and find out what places that we would like to go.
Are you typically doing like a three-month, like a slow-mad thing or what's your average stay at a location?
The Slowmad Guide To Airbnb Stays
It's mostly three months, except that while we're somewhere for three months, like while we're in Mexico City, for example, we might go visit Puerto Vallarta because we love Puerto Vallarta over there. When we're in Athens, we'll go over to Santorini or something like that. We'll do short trips that are spectacular, and they don't cost a lot of money. Because we'd be renting two places at once, then we're not going to move out for a few days and then come back. We do not want to be too crazy expensive.
How we can get the best deals on Airbnb is usually Mike searches for the ones that look possible and price-wise too, of course. We ask them for further discounts because we're going to be staying for three months. Quite often we can get further discounts from the monthly stays that they advertise. That really helps too. It takes a little bit to try and adjust our schedules and figure out where we're going, but eventually we come up with something.
When you're doing that, you're booking an Airbnb typically for three months. Is that the deal?
Yes.
Let me ask you this with your history. My strategy when I was doing a lot of traveling in Southeast Asia was, and I wasn't doing Airbnb because I was only doing like a week or so at a time in a place. Being single, it's easier for me to run around because I travel with a backpack and a roller board. That's it. Only carry-on. Except for the cheap Asian airlines. They do not make you check everything anyway. That's a problem. I try to be very portable. I was always afraid to book a hotel for the long term because if it was a shithole, that being a technical term, of course. I'm stuck. We had that in Barcelona, and I booked a place, and it was so small you could not even change your mind in it. It was that tiny. How do you protect yourself from not ending up in an Airbnb that you do not love?
There have been at least a couple of times that I can remember where we ended up in an Airbnb that we did not love, but because we booked for a couple of months or three months or whatever, you cannot really back out very easily. In Colombia, we did not read the fine print too closely, and we realized that after we got there, there was no hot water. We thought there was pretty much hot water everywhere, but I guess that's a first-world mindset thing. It's so hot there that you just get used to it anyway. We just muddled through, and it was fine. We got used to it.
Usually what you do is he always looks through. Usually we have to have super hosts on Airbnb we look for, or now they have a guest favorite. Is that the classification on Airbnb? We always go through all the reviews that people have left to try and see if there are some people who are really picky. Once in a while you'll see something, but if it keeps coming up again in all the reviews, then you know that's something.
We also look on Google Maps and go down to Street View, see if we can find the actual building that it's in, and have a look around the streets in the area. It takes quite a bit, but we've been quite lucky. With a super host, it makes it much safer than just any listing on Airbnb. Now, having said that, sometimes, like when you were looking on Airbnb in Vietnam, you'll see the same listing 3 or 4 times at different addresses, and I do not know how that happens.
We've got the super hosts that also have multiple units in various buildings, and there I see that in the Philippines a lot. It's the night bridge coming up to me in Makati. It's like there's tons of units in this building, and it's like who's to say they may be the same-looking unit, but it's different owners with different features and everything else. It's very strict.
For us, for the three-month days too, we cannot really book hotels for that long of a period of time. I think on like Booking.com or Expedia, I think the maximum you can stay is 28 days at least when I was looking, unless you want to do multiple different bookings. It also seems to be more expensive that way. Also, we really need a kitchen when we're staying for that long in one place, unless it's like Southeast Asia, like you've been staying in. We went out for food every single meal, and we realized it's cheaper to eat out than it is to dine at home.
If you had an apartment with a kitchen, you would not cook anyway. There are no ovens in the apartments. Nobody cooks.
We prefer to have something with a separate bedroom, and we do like to have some outdoor space, whether it's a balcony or a bigger terrace or here. Actually, we have a roof terrace. We have two balconies and then a roof terrace here. That's really nice. We want something a little bit bigger than a hotel for spending that amount of time.
It will make sense. You're gone for a while. It would also mean I was going to ask you. What do you travel with? You're talking about checking bags. If you're staying somewhere for three months, you do not need to be as portable as, for example, me, because you do not need to be. You're not packing and unpacking every day, which is cool. You get the benefit of having more creature comforts than just five pairs of underwear.
We do actually. Each one of us has a checked bag. Each one of us has a carry-on bag. Mike has a laptop bag. I have a backpack. We carry pretty much everything that we have. We bring with us all the time because we sold all our things before we left. We always have to make sure that's another thing we have to have. A washing machine.
Yes. I'm so tired of doing underwear in sinks with shampoo. You've taken it down to a science, and doing it together is great. You make it a lot easier along the way, which is really cool. I've got the pool guy out here. Unfortunately, it's not the fantasy pool guy at all. I was like, “S***.” At least I'm not distracted.
Where are you right now?
Right now I'm in Fort Lauderdale. I've been hanging out in the States for a little bit. Much to my disappointment, my mom is 91 now, and keeping an eye on her, but look, I've got a reprieve. My friend is now in Scotland. I am dog-sitting for like the next week. I go back to my mom's. When they get to that age, the other challenge is like, how do you manage this life when there are other family obligations and things? It's very interesting.
It's not easy. It's the same for us. First, you took off and left, and you're leaving all your family and friends behind. The first few years, I guess, we did not go back to Toronto for a long time. We spent two summers in Montreal, and then the third summer was in Vancouver. It was only last year that we went back to Toronto for an extended period. It was nice to have a chance to see everybody and reconnect again. We will be going back to Toronto again this summer.
You stay in touch, I assume, either in Zoom calls or FaceTime calls or WhatsApp calls?
We do. Texting and emails, whatever needed to be done.
I could not imagine living the lifestyle that we live without having that, without either FaceTime or WhatsApp or Zoom. I live on Zoom all day long. That was when COVID hit, because I was dealing with stuff with people in the States and had been gone for ten years. Longer than that at that point. It was no different to me. I was still on Zoom all day long, whether I was in the apartment or not.
It was still the same conversation, like what we're having right now. I never felt like I was losing anything. In fact, the good news was that since I'm not terribly social, it was like since I could not go out anyway, I wasn't like a loser. I was still having the ability to do that. What's your favorite place? If we're going to take people who have never traveled before, which is so many of our readers, viewers, and so on, and probably for you too that are living the fantasy through us, what's been your favorite places to go?
You go first, I guess.
Let's have both of you. Let's play the Newlywed Game. What's your favorite individually?
I guess for me, my favorite place that we visited, and it was not for a long time, but we have been there a couple of times. It was Paris, to go to Paris. I am not sure why that is, just growing up or something. It was always like you would see it in movies and on TV. I always wanted to go there and just could not wait. When we actually did it the first time, it was just a very short trip. It was even better than I had imagined. The hotel was on one of those winding little streets, and there were cafes, and everybody was sitting out there at the cafes, sipping their coffee and smoking long cigarettes. It was just like my dream, even better.
That's awesome. Did you go to Angelina's for Chocolat Chaud?
I do not think so, no.
You remembered. When you go back, I assume you will go back at some point. Angelina's, and there are a couple other places apparently that people told me to try in lieu of that because it has gotten very famous, but it is on the side of Tuileries on the way to the Louvre. They serve this hot chocolate that is so thick that your spoon can practically sit up. They are so good, guys. It is so good. Did you go to the Emily in Paris site, that little neighborhood?
No, because I think we were in Paris before that was a hit on TV. To be honest, we do not get a lot of TV because we are always traveling. We never really have connections to watch that thing. We do like Emily in Paris.
I have not been back in a while, but I have to do the tourist thing. It is like when I went to Dallas years ago. I had to go to Southfork to be at Southfork Ranch, which is a lot.
When you're traveling full-time, you leave behind friends and family. It's just the two of you, and you have to learn how to coexist.
You do not know what that is, Ben. No, I do not know.
That's not a lot. Those of us of age. Mike, what's your favorite place?
For me, I really love Singapore, actually. I just loved the weather there when we went. It was just perfect weather. Just such a clean city. Picturesque and just looks landscaped perfectly. Tom says it looks like Disneyland for adults. I just really liked it there, but we have only been there once, actually. I would like to go back again.
We always say we could live in Singapore. We just could not afford to.
That's true. Away from the airport to downtown, just seeing how the roads are manicured, it is crazy. Did you go through the airport? Did you go through the new thing in the middle where the fountain comes from the ceiling down? Have you seen it?
Yes.
While we were there. Spectacular.
I have not been back in ages, but I have been through it because I have long layovers. It is like it will be hours. I am going to have to spend some time on that thing. It is a cool place. It really is. Have you been to KL?
Not yet.
We're hoping this winter to go to Kuala Lumpur. That's very high on our list right now. It looks like a very nice city with KLCC Park and the Petronas Towers. The food looks delicious as well. Shopping malls are crazy.
If you stay at any of the hotels, and you have been to Southeast Asia, when you stay at any of those like the Hilton, the Sheraton, or whatever, their breakfasts are incredible. Humongous buffets with everything you could possibly imagine. Of course, a lot of the local food, but it's really good. I would say either spend a night at one of those hotels or just go for one of their buffets, because it's an experience. It's good, and from our standpoint, it's inexpensive. When I was standing there, I was speaking there. I managed to get the nicer hotels, and breakfast was included.
I was eating very well. They had Western stuff for those of us, and then they had the local stuff. It’s really nice. KL did not feel repressive in terms of being gay. Malaysia is not high on our Pride Nomad index list. I am not even sure where it appears on the list, to be honest with you, because they are not really fond of it. It felt okay in KL. It is definitely something that would go. The Batu Caves are nice. It is worth going to. I think you will like it. You have been to Thailand already. The whole history of Singapore and everything gets me. I love Southeast Asia. I have to send the food over there.
It's incredible.
When things get spoiled as we travel, I live in the Caribbean. When I go to another beach someplace, it is like, no, it does not compare to St. John. I am used to it is not the same. It is nice. Where is next?
After we're in Marbella, Spain, right now, it's down by the southern coast. There are nice beaches in that, which is actually probably another one of our favorite places that we have been to. For the last week that we're here in Spain, we will be going to Madrid. That will be the first time for us. We have not been before, so we're looking forward to that. We will be going back to Toronto for six months for the summer. After that, we have not had anything planned yet.
For flights, I think you can only really book out a year in advance. We have to wait at least a few more months before we start booking our flights and accommodations. As you said, Kuala Lumpur, I think that's actually probably at the top of our list right now for where we want to go. I also would really like to go to Taiwan, Taipei specifically, but I do not know if that's a great idea right now.
I would say yes now rather than later. It's like I have not been back to Hong Kong in quite a few years. Part of me is like, I do not want to go back to Hong Kong because of what's going on. It's still Hong Kong. People that I know that live there, it's like it's still Hong Kong. We obviously hear different things. I would, frankly I would do Taipei first only because of the instability while we can. I have not been there either, and I really want to go. I have been writing about it a lot in the newsletter. Think about it. Gay marriage approved. Nymphia Wind, who won RuPaul's Drag Race, performed at the presidential palace.
It's not about your age when you're traveling together. It's about compatibility and how you handle the stress of the road.
Because of that, I am inspired because I want to support that country. I think that that's really, to me, miraculous. I was doing a video a while ago, and I started getting a little choked up. Are you going to find that in other parts of the world? Certainly not in the United States. Forget that. We're seeing the whole US dropping on the Pride Nomad Index. It's at seven right now, and I think it will not even be in the top ten within the next six months. Just by virtue of what's going on. This leads me to a question. When you're choosing places to go, what are your considerations? What do you think about when you choose a place?
It has got to be hot, number one. It has got to be nice weather because our main reason is to get away from the cold. Good food is also very important to us. A lot of our YouTube videos are about food as well. That's what we like doing the most, eating, I think. We travel to eat.
You guys look like you're in great shape.
Thank you. We do eat way too much, I think. Affordability is pretty high on our list as well, too. We are not going to go to Singapore or Paris for 3 months or 6 months. It just would be crazy expensive. Places like Kuala Lumpur are very affordable, have a very high quality of living, and delicious food. That is very high up there on our list of places to go.
Another thing, we do not talk about this all the time, but something I think that we're always looking for is maybe a place for us to live permanently. As we're traveling around to some of these places, it's always, could we live here? I do not know. It is always something in my mind anyway. I do not know if it's top of your mind, but it's something. At some point, I think we're probably going to have to settle down somewhere. I do not know if it's going to be back in Toronto. Where is that going to be? The issue, like in Europe for me, is that as a Canadian, a non-EU citizen, I can only stay there 90 days. We're here in Spain for 90 days or 89, I think, just one day of grace. Mike does have an EU passport, so he can stay here longer, but I cannot.
Are you guys married?
No.
If you got married, then by virtue of the marriage do you get to be able to change your passport to have the same benefit? Yes, we could. Depending on where we are. In Spain, if we decided to live here, we could get it recognized as married and that. He would have freedom of movement in Europe. That would be no problem. I would be able to come if we are married on his passport, but I am already married. Got a bit of an issue there. I have to get that taken care of. It never happened. It has been many years, and I never got a divorce.
I get it. That was meant to be a conversation stopper, but it was just like, but it is an important conversation because if we want to do Europe for a long time, we're stuck in the Schengen rules of 90 days, 89 days, which is challenging, and where do we want to settle? I do not like the word settle, but it sounds like we're settling. As opposed to land long term. Have you guys been to Australia?
Not yet. I would like to go to Australia. Tom, not so much.
Go.
What I see is absolutely beautiful. I have this thing, though, when we're traveling, that I want something a little bit more difficult. I want to go somewhere where we cannot speak the language, we do not know the food, and customs and culture are completely different. That's what I am looking for. When I listen to Australian people, I cannot understand what they're saying. I guess it's almost a different language.
That's great. By the way, you get around Bangkok pretty easily, as you would have been because they do speak English. The language of ASEAN is English, not that it means a ton. Of course, you can get by in Australia easily. It does. It's very Western, let's face it. You'll have no transition issues there at all. The natural beauty and all that are an art element of uniqueness. For a few weeks, and you cannot go for just a week because the distance is too far.
It's not like going to South Africa or going to Colombia or other places where it does fit that category for you, but worth going. Frankly, for me, in terms of places to settle, I am working on getting myself back to Australia. They do not like people our age, just to be clear. If you are a reporter, they are not happy. I am working on something that will hopefully get me there. For me, for like the place for the end of the rest of my life, it's what's sung to me. Spain, number one on the Pride Nomad list. Portugal's up there in the top ten.
We created this index, which is not just a digital nomad index. It also reflects the whole gay-centric piece. Is gay marriage legal? How we deal with discrimination? What's social life like? We're not outcasts. It is like people who love Dubai. Dubai may be great, but the rest of the country will kill you. Same thing with Bali. In Bali, go out, you will have a field day with all the young boys, but to get to any of the other islands, no, do not hold hands. How are you navigating that? Have you been in any places where you have not felt comfortable together?
Finding Safety And Community Abroad
No, everywhere we've gone we felt pretty comfortable. That does help a lot because we do not normally hold hands when we're out in public or show public affection or anything like that. I think people probably just assume father and son or something like that. They do not really assume that we're gay. We've never actually had any issues.
You can use the father and son. Let them think what they want to think.
Sometimes they'll say something like that. It just depends on what the situation is. If it's something that, if we were staying at a hotel and they said something like father and son, we would probably straighten them out because we're going to see them again and again. If it's just somebody at a store and mentioned father and son, we're not going to take the time to stop and explain to them. We will just smile and say thank you.
A lot of the discussion and a lot of challenges with people staying in hotels are one bed, and the IGLTA having conversations about training hotels to be sensitive to that and to not act weird with us. It is an important conversation with people. With Airbnbs, you do not have that issue.
No, we never have that issue. This place we're staying in now, it has got like two bedrooms anyway. I do not think they would think anything of it.
Usually when we're messaging them right in the beginning, you always say, my partner and I are coming.
At the beginning when we were first staying, and we weren't really too familiar with Airbnb and that, we would say, “Is it okay that we're gay?” They would be like, “Nobody ever had any problems with it. It is fine.” We just stopped asking if it was okay if we were gay.
That's good. It is something that people I think about and get concerned about. You guys have navigated it all really well. If you were to give a novice digital nomad or someone that's considering our lifestyle, some quick pointers, what would you tell them?
It is going to be more expensive than you think it will be. That was what we learned very quickly when we were traveling. Make sure you do your research on where you're going and staying. Do not just do a last-minute thing like you would like to do. Make sure to check that there is hot water at the place you're staying. That's a big one now for us.
That's the first time I've ever heard it. I appreciate it.
Another thing we do when we're traveling is we check on the visa situation too. For us, because we're Canadians, we check the Government of Canada website to see what's required there and then use their link to go to whatever country you're going to, if we have to apply for Vietnam's e-visa, something like that. Make sure you have got that in lots of time because I read about people all the time whose flight is tomorrow and they're still waiting for their e-visa to come through. Why would you do that to yourself?
You could have applied for that e-visa weeks ago. That's another thing you've always got to keep in mind. Some of the places, like I see Colombia now, maybe you're going to have to have a yellow fever vaccine shot because prior to that, they have not been doing that. There is so much yellow fever now, and it's starting to come into the country. They are requiring that. There aren't a lot of details. People like me over 60 are not recommended to get a yellow fever shot. I do not know what they're doing with older people, too.
That's interesting.
There's just all kinds of things you've got to keep in mind. As Mike says, it will cost you more, but there are ways you've got to set what your priorities are. For us, we need a place to stay that's a one-bedroom and a little bit bigger. Maybe some people can stay in just a studio apartment. You've got to know what your priorities are. For us, we want to eat in restaurants some of the time, but we can also save money the rest of the time by shopping in grocery stores, local markets, and buying our fruit and vegetables locally where the people that live there do and save money that way. Decide on what your priorities are and save money on one thing to spend on something else.
We always want to stay in a central location as well. Since we're traveling full time, we do not have a car. We have to be able to walk everywhere to the grocery store and the restaurants. I am sure it is a lot cheaper to stay like an hour or an hour and a half outside of town. It is like, then you're stranded. You cannot really do anything unless you pay a bunch more to get a car and learn the rules of the road in the new place you're traveling to. We've never rented a car in a foreign country. I definitely would not want to drive in a foreign country.
We actually did it in Portugal. We rented a car in Lisbon, my mom and I, and then drove down to the Algarve. It was great. It was actually okay. Lisbon was a bit interesting.
Narrow streets for sure there.
I was a bit scared. Just because, like, please do not get me in any trouble, but it made it easy. Certainly, we're able to do the coastal towns more easily than buses and so on. You are 100% right in the city. No. The thing that I keep reminding myself of because when I was in Australia, my apartment was like $4000 a month in the US. I was overlooking the opera house and the harbor, and I was paying a premium price, which was crazy. I also wasn't traveling. I was like locked down, but I also did not have a car. I did not have car insurance. I did not have all the other stuff that went along with it, so I was able to justify having a crazy ass price for a single guy. I had two bedrooms.
I had one bedroom for an office and for a video studio, so that's how I justified it. It is not sustainable unless you've been able to divert other expenses away, you know what I mean? It's funny too because as travelers, we're used to using public transportation or our feet, which makes things so much healthier for us. In other parts of the world, like if you use public transportation here in South Florida, people think you're broke. In New York, I'll be in New York tomorrow, actually, and you take the subway. It's what you do. It's no big deal. Same thing with Boston, other parts of the world, they're like, “What's wrong with you?” It is a lifestyle change. Do not use an Uber for God's sake. Take the bus.
If you have your health, go now. There'll come a time when you can't travel or get insurance, so make the move today.
When we lived in Toronto, we had a car, but quite often it sat in the underground garage. If we were going downtown, which we live right near subway stations, we would always take the subway because we're going downtown, we're meeting friends, going out to dinner, maybe having a couple of drinks. We do not want our car downtown because of parking. You'll end up paying a fortune more. Most of the time it just sat in the underground garage. We sometimes would take it out maybe once a week to go grocery shopping. That's it.
That's the beautiful thing about us being portable to where we are, which is really cool. Anything else you want to tell people before we call it a day?
Go Now While You Have Your Health
If you're thinking about traveling and maybe doing as we did and selling everything and traveling the world, of course there's going to be some hesitation. You're going to wonder, are you doing the right thing? As far as my age is concerned, I would say do it now. If you have your health, get out there and see the world because there's soon going to come a time when either you cannot travel because of your health, or you cannot get health insurance to be able to travel. Do it now. If it's not for you, maybe go back. You can always start again, but get out there.
You guys did it. You guys made one hell of a commitment when you were like, “We're getting rid of everything, we're going.” I typically tell people, bring in a roommate or something, leave for three months, or just give it a ten-minute something and then go hog wild as you did. I did the same thing as you. Although it wasn't really by choice, it was like my whole economic world fell apart. You guys did this voluntarily and for a lifestyle shift. I have got to hand it to you. That's pretty admirable. It really is to be that committed to that journey. It's where the success of it is as well because there were, I'm sure, times when you're like, “What the fuck are we doing?” You made the commitment.
I do not know if we've had moments where we've wondered whether we should have done it or not. Having a cold shower and trying to hit maybe that moment. Other than that, I do not really think we've had thoughts of, “We should never have done that.” We've enjoyed every minute of it. We're always excited, wondering where we can go next and thinking about it in the future. Mike loves to plan. That's what gets him excited. I always like to watch videos and read things and just, “Where's the next hot place that we're going to spend the winter on?” When we come up with something, then the plan starts, and he takes over.
That is truly the best way to live a life. Honest and to be able to do that with the man you love is, I think it's just the most fabulous way to live a life. I want to applaud you guys for people who want to learn more about you and stay in touch with your journeys. We'll make sure that we have a link so that everyone can follow you. Is there an easy name for the YouTube channel that you can share with us? I believe we will get a listing in their cars.
It's Take Time To Travel. I love it. So cool. Instagram, it's @TomandMikeTakeTimeToTravel.
I'll make sure we get links and so on and get them in the show notes. Any final words, gentlemen?
I think that's pretty much it.
We've covered it. It's been great talking to you.
Likewise. It's been fun. I'll let you know as soon as we get it live. Ladies and gentlemen, Pride Nomad Unleashed. A very casual way from Marbella, Spain, and Florida. God knows where we'll be next week, next episode. Stay tuned, and thanks for joining us.
Important Links
About Tom & Mike
5 years ago, we decided to sell everything, other than what we could fit into a couple of suitcases and travel full time and try amazing food from different countries around the world. We started our journey exploring and eating through Canada in places like Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto, and then started travelling internationally to places like Mexico, Colombia, Thailand, Vietnam, Greece, France, Portugal & Spain. It's been an incredible experience, but there's lots more to check out! Join us on our travels as we explore and eat our way around the World!
