This article is based on her conversation with 31-year-old Daisy Dyke about her foreign trips and how she pays for them. Her Instagram and TikTok profile is @daisytraveldiaries, where she posts her experiences and shares travel tips. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I’m from the south coast of England and grew up in a very small town near Blandford with about 2,000 people.
When I was young, I was obsessed with nature documentaries and knew from a very young age that I wanted to travel and explore.
In 2011, when I was 18, I took a gap year and went to Australia on my own. While in the country, I got a job, made friends and found a place to live.
After traveling for about 8 months, I returned to England and studied at the University of Liverpool. I chose Liverpool because it was one of the biggest, busiest and furthest cities from my hometown.
After 3 years of studies, I did my graduation in Psychology. At first I didn’t know what to do with my professional career. All he knew was that he wanted to explore the world and find a way to do so while earning money.
I learned that if I want to travel the world, I have to work
Before Brexit, it was extremely easy and common for Brits to summer work in Europe.
Dike and Grecia.
In 2014, I flew to Greece and worked as a waitress at a resort on Zakynthos. To find a job, I literally searched “summer jobs in europe”. I applied, got interviewed and got the job.
The company paid for my flights, accommodation and meals. Besides, they gave me salary. it was perfect.
Although I didn’t leave with savings, the money I earned was enough for booze and day trips.
How to request a discount on Interrail and Youth Buses: You must meet these requirements
In 2014, I came home for a few months and worked 2 full time jobs to save money. During the day I worked in an office, and at night and on weekends I worked in a bar.
After saving £2,500 (around €2,875 at current exchange rates), I left the UK and flew to South America, where I spent 2 1/2 months backpacking through Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil .
I spent almost all my savings.
sometimes i had many jobs
After traveling to South America, I headed straight to New Zealand to start working on a holiday visa. It depends on the country, but this visa allows you to live and work abroad for a maximum of 2 years.
Dike and Patagonia.
I came to New Zealand without much money. After some time, I made some friends and got a job at one of the biggest hostels in Queenstown.
This meant that all my rent and bills were covered. I only had to volunteer 15 hours a week to change beds or clean rooms. While I had that job, I also had another one at a time that paid well.
After living in Queenstown for about 5 months, I had saved enough to move.
People have a misconception that digital nomads don’t work
By 2023, I have visited 59 countries.
When I started, I didn’t consider myself a digital nomad. That changed in 2021 when I took off for Mexico.
I started teaching English online and earned about $1,500 (1,375 Euros) a month. I then spent 6 months applying for remote jobs, and finally found a fully remote job with a digital nomad travel company that paid me $2,500 (2,295 Euro) a month. That was enough to cover my stay and travel expenses.
Dike in Türkiye.
In 2022 I started working for myself. I create travel content for brands, teach classes about living and traveling abroad as well as host group tours.
Right now I’m on a digital nomad retreat in Colombia. There are 18 of us traveling together across the country and staying in a hostel. 80% of us work in companies with fixed hours.
During the week, everyone does their job. But after work and on the weekends, we go out to explore.
This year, for my birthday, my friends threw me a surprise party. I went into one of their rooms and 20 people I had just met a few weeks ago counted down to my birthday. that was beautiful. Everyone hugged, jumped and took pictures.
I think people look at our lives and think it’s one big party, but don’t believe everything you see on social media.
We all work hard. What happens is that we do it from beautiful places anywhere on the planet.
