Everywhere We've Stayed in the Last Seven Months — and What It Cost!

Our lives as nomads are weird but extremely affordable.

For the audio version of this article, read by the author, go here.

Michael and I have been nomads for six years now, and by this point, our life seems perfectly normal to us.

But we understand that most people don’t see it that way.

Take our lodging over the last seven months. It’s been a hodge-podge of hotels, apartments, a housesit, and a couple of other strange dwelling places.

Which, for us, is perfectly normal.

But if you’re not a nomad, you’ll have to decide for yourself what to think.

London, England, Nov. 30 - Jan. 23: Housesitting

Early last fall, we realized we’d soon have spent almost three months in Western Europe — in Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium — but that meant we would soon be out of “visa” time and would have to leave the entire 26-country Schengen Zone area for at least ninety days.

We were planning to return to the United States in February, so until then, we booked an Airbnb apartment for two months down in Mexico, in San Miguel de Allende.

But then some online friends suggested we stay at their duplex in south London, since they were going to be traveling for the months of December and January, and leaving their home unoccupied that long would create a tax event for them.

Fortunately, we were able to negotiate a 60% refund from the place in Mexico, and we agreed to pay our online friends the cost of utilities, over the minimum of what they would have been paying anyway.

The duplex was in Croydon, a working class neighborhood. It would have been a fine location, except the trains kept going on strike during our time there.

Total cost for 54 days: $420 USD + $550 USD for the cancelled reservation in Mexico = $970 USD or $19/day.

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Reykjavík, Iceland, Jan. 23 - 27: Hotel

Using frequent flier miles, we flew back to America on Icelandair, which offers something called the Icelandair Stopover — basically, you can stop in Iceland for up to seven days for the same airfare.

We stayed at a budget hotel, clean and modern with a modest kitchenette — perhaps the hotel was a bit too budget, as the room was very small. But it was fine for our short stay.

Total cost for four nights: $302 or $75.50/day.

(All prices include taxes and other fees.)

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Seattle, USA, Jan. 28 - Feb. 17: My Dad’s Old Time-Share Condominium

Once a year, Michael and I return to our hometown of Seattle, and we stay in my dad’s old time-share condominium. He’s allotted four weeks a year, but I bank the time throughout the year, then I schedule it all in a row for Michael and me during the winter low-season.