I traveled like this years and years ago when I was young and didn't have responsibilities. This form of travel is a huge luxury, and you're very privileged to be able to do it. It's unrealistic for most people. But maybe when I retire, I'll be able to do it again.

As a portuguese fellow, and speaking for other portuguese fans out there, we would love to see a video about that whole process!

You’re seriously one of the best among KZfaq; this content is just gold. Thank you for sharing your experience with the world, Nath.

As someone who has spent the last couple years “slow traveling” (4 months in Stockholm, Sweden, 6 months in Amman, Jordan, the rest in NYC), I can verify that the benefits and drawbacks of this are totally accurate! Living in three places that are that different within the course of two years completely changes the way you see cultural difference. Even though I spoke Arabic before I lived in Jordan, the language became real to me in a way in never had before. You learn all of these expressions and cultural allusions that make you feel so at home in the language. Even though I never became conversationally proficient in Swedish, it’s amazing how much you learn of a language just by running errands and interacting with clerks at the grocery store and bus drivers, etc. It definitely helps you gain an incredibly deep understanding of the world and what it means to be an insider/outsider. At the same time, the honeymoon phase always wears off for me at about 2 months. At that time, there were things that were charming become a bit exhausting, but I find that by 3 months, there’s suddenly a point where everything gets easier and you really begin to feel at home! As Nathaniel mentioned, dating is really difficult, and it is often very painful for me to leave my friends and “family” and community when I go. Still, these places never leave you, and I find myself thinking about the politics, culture, festivals there as well as my friends and coworkers! My best tip for getting the most out of this is to pretend that you will spend the rest of your life in each place! Invest in friendships and the community! Invest in learning the language and the culture! And invest in yourself by really allowing yourself to experience it all! Thanks for the great video!

This is exactly the sort of travel I love. My family always makes fun of me when I say that I'd prefer to stay in one place for a long amount of time rather than see as many places as possible, but I am am the sort of person who loves learning the language, culture and making friends in that country. I want to experience what it is like to live there, which actually makes me appreciate the country for what it really is, rather than just a tourist's perspective who may only stay there from the week.

In 2019 I did slow travel in Japan, lived there for 8 months. Had a job, payed rent, learned the language, cooked for myself, got a girlfriend, the whole package. While I was there, I decided to go to other Asian countries, as Japan differs greatly from most of Asia. So I took 3 months for Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam - a month each. I also found some work there I could do (hostels, teacher, etc.), but the experience is still very different. One month is okay to see a country and also have great experiences, but you don't connect. You don't feel the country. I will return to Germany in a few weeks (still in Vietnam) and decided to study something international, as this wil give me the opportunity to do this again. And you're right, studying is for free in Germany. Even for foreigners. It's a bliss, really, haha.

I love that you mentioned how when you stay in a country for 3 months, you fall out of the "honeymoon phase" and see the good & bad of everything, which is actual immersion. I experienced this studying abroad in Florence Italy 2018. Slow travel is the wave! A collab between you and Damon & Jo would be aaaaaa-mazing! ❤

A passport with benefits makes it a whole lot easier. As a latin I'm struggling a lot to start my working holiday experience because they limit the amount of visas for us. It makes you feel unwanted.

when Nathaniel mentions DamonAndJo and all your faves come together 🧡

Teasing with the “if we would like to hear the Portugal story”.. of course we want it brother! Record, talk, film, publish! We will do the liking and subscribing

I think that whenever we talk about travel, we should include a consideration of the environmental cost of travelling. So, another plus of your travel style is less frequent plane trips, which is good!

i love how he’s self-aware that he’s coming from a privileged standpoint and he’s not forcing his ideas on us who have it less 😊

2:30 changed my view. I despise the 9 to 5 culture, which made me feel some aversion towards people who participate in it. But now I see that I can have a different lifestyle and respect other people their choice to be happy with the 9 to 5 lifestyle. Btw you are such a real guy, I love that.

When I was 18 I lived in Thailand for over 5 months and spend one month in Laos. I did volunteer work and travelled, slow, went off the beaten track a lot, spend time in places with no tourists. It was one of the most important journeys of my life and I still benefit from it 14 years later. Most people laughed at me or said how it was shame I didn't see more countries but it was truly majestic to fully emerge myself in Thai culture. Always follow your heart and do what feels right for you.

Done slow traveling for years now (1 month usually per country) and it’s amazing so much better than short vacations.

It's basically what Erasmus travelling life gives you, that's cool For non-Europeans students: go check what Erasmus scholarship is

being an au pair in italy was the best decision i ever made. at the time i had practically no money but i had enough saved for a flight to rome so i just went for it. it's great if youre young and broke because not only are you given room and board but legally (in the EU at least) families have to give you an allowance each week. for me this was enough to travel to different parts of italy on weekends. also living with a family (if theyre not, yaknow, awful) is an amazing way to experience a culture. the only downside of au pairing, in my experience at least, is that it can be hard to learn the language of the country youre in since you're forced to speak your native language with the children. if you're young, have no money or concrete plans for the future, i'd say au pairing is the way to go. i just graduated college and am going to be an au pair in spain later this year :)

This guy is so amazing I’m doing the same living in South Korea learning Korean language at university and working In hostel

Nathan, when I first saw you I was like there is no way I just found my doppelganger. It's crazy!

I am literally you, OMG. You're the first person I've found who shares similar views on travelling and culture and language learning as well as just being real about the experiences and not talking about the glossy version of all of it. First time here and I'm definitely subbing. Thank you for this video~~ #SlowTravel

Casually puts a picture with Massimo Bottura, the best chef in the world.

I love that you're looking at travel from a different perspective, it's honest and relatable - not boasting. Really appreciate that!

Slow travel is exactly what I do as well. I started off doing the traditional travel method and hated it. I feel in love with travel when I slowed down and started living in a country for at least 30 days. Plus those AirBnb's are so much cheaper! when you reserve them by the month!

Traveling a lot is one of the most exhausting, stressful and productivity-draining things you can do. People that don't travel don't understand that and all they see is the social media posts from digital nomads while only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

seriously love all your videos, you've been such a motivation for me

What about loneliness? Don't you feel lonely when you go to a different place all by yourself? I want to travel so muh but this is my biggest fear

I want this kind of lifestyle when I’m done with school. I just turned 17 so I’m not ready yet haha

Since i'm half thai, I often travel to Thailand and feel integrated in the society everytime i come back. I really enjoy my time there, mostly i stay one month per year and because my mom lives there, i have a direct access to culture, people, food and the general lifestyle. I can completely understand understand your opinion and i found it quite interesting to experience a detailed sight on that topic, but honestly, i'm not that type of person who can stay for a long time in a certain country because at a certain point, i just have the desire to go back to germany. i love going to unknown places and stuff but sometime, i need to return.

Going to Thailand on Friday, didn't book a flight back :))) let's see how it goes!

Love all of this!

Just to note that being a 'person of colour' or openly gay will also affect this way of travel. Not knocking it just making people aware because a lot of travel videos portray mostly the privileged as you stated but not only in money and means but cultural and sexual background as well.

The transition at 02:39 is just amazing. Love to see a video on how you edit things.

This sounds fantastic. And I completely get your logic. I’ve lived in four different countries in the past four years, there really are a lot of pros, but there are massive downsides too, the main one being friendships/relationships. Whenever I move to a new country, I feel like it takes a lot of effort and time to build up new connections, and it is even bigger of a challenge to keep up with friends you made in the countries where you lived previously. And not to mention romantic relationships. I find that to perfectly settle in a country, and build up a network I am satisfied with can take at least two years, and even that doesn’t alleviate the fear of loneliness if/when you return to your home country.

I'm about to have my year anniversary of living in Medellín Colombia. I'm living with my boyfriend's (Colombian) family in a small town about 20 minutes outside of the city. My boyfriend nor his family speak English. I cannot stress enough that it's been the most life-changing, personhood-changing, absolutely exhausting and beautiful experiences of my life. I love the point Nathaniel made about having enough time in a place to see the bad - in reality it's not about seeing "the bad" but rather getting to really "see" in general. If you talk to any person in the city they live in they have things they love and things they hate, and until you've been somewhere long enough you often just see the place as you do through KZfaq or Instagram. My best advice to someone embarking on this journey is to try and avoid making friends with other foreigners. I know that may sound rude but I don't mean reject friendships if they come your way. What I mean is focus on fostering friendships with those that speak the language you want to learn, the culture you want to understand, and who are open to. sharing with you. Otherwise, you end up. making expat friends and distancing yourself away from anything that might make you uncomfortable.

Did this in another city in my home country, experienced it as a local, worked remotely. It was a fantastic experience.

I'd love to hear about your Portuguese citizenship journey. I'm trying to apply for Italian citizenship by descent and I know that it can be a very long and difficult process.

I’m always blown away by Nathaniel’s insight and awareness. What an incredible person. I feel it is ironic that I find his pragmatic observations about life inspiring. I can’t help but feel inadequate when I remember how young he is.

Goddamn. Not only this idea is smart but also this is so calming and just relaxing. Thanks for your advice man. Appreciate It.

100% agree. I have been slow traveling the last 3 years and don't enjoy the fast pace new place every day that others seem to like. My favorite feeling is when I notice I feel like a local and know my way around a place and where to do any necessary shopping etc.

_I spend all my time scrolling through Google maps tapping on random places to find the most beautiful and underrated places in the world._ *So far I have a list of 400+ places that are absolutely gorgeous.*

I've had an amazing opportunity to move to Spain (from Finland where I'm from) for eight months, straight after turning eighteen and finishing my college. I have family friends who work as missionaries here, and I worked as their children's homeschool teacher. It has been amazing, and I really look forward to having more experiences like this in the future. We did travel to multiple countries with family as I was a kid, and I always wished we could have stayed for longer, exactly for the reasons mentioned in the video. I even said to my mom I'd want to have both the tourist perspective of seeing the sights and the perspective of living in the country and be surrounded by the culture and people. I'm thankful I got to experience it with Spain, and God willing with other countries and cultures in the future. All the best for you, Nathaniel!

I did some slow travel once in 2012 when I went to Florence for 2.5 months followed by 2 weeks in France. (I had a Aunt and 4 cousins in France). While in Florence, I toke painting classes and later, jewelry making classes. I walked everywhere and on some weekends took a bus or train to a small nearby town, like Luca and Sienna. This is truly the best way to travel! I loved going to the same bakery and market so I could get to know people. My dream that I am working on, is to live somewhere in Europe for a least a few years.

You seem to have a natural talent for this. I'm 64, American, living in Poland, and I find your vids to be very positive and inspiring. Pozdrawiam i powodzenia!

I guess I'm going to slow travel when I'm going to live in Belgium, Germany and Spain for a year after I finish my masters abroad :D

I'm Portuguese and I must say, every time I see a video of yours I think to myself you would just love Portugal... Good luck😉

Hello from the Caribbean! What I appreciate most about your channel is the authenticity. You aren't just another youtuber putting on a dramatic show and acting like everywhere you go is absolutely perfect and all about capturing idyllic photos through obscenely inaccurate filters. It's quite irksome when people literally visit somewhere for only a couple days and take a ton of photos so on their feed it looks like they have been there for ages but they have in reality literally only barely scratched a tiny surface area of that country and experienced it primarily through their mobile phone camera lens taking selfies just so they can declare themself as a self-proclaimed "wanderluster" or "globe trotter" [insert obnoxious eye roll here]. I learned the hard way because when I visited popular destinations I was overwhelmingly disappointed at the reality because such youtubers really paint a false picture and give unrealistic expectations about places and rarely focus on the challenges of the journey which is an integral part of the experience of any country. You seem to really experience the places you visit and immerse yourself into the day-to-day life and cultures and THAT is what I believe makes you an authentic traveler. I appreciate that your videos also provide clear, concise information - good and bad - that is actually quite useful and can prompt someone to go into a more streamlined direction with their own travel research. Thank you for sharing your content - you're awesome!! :o)

On some channels I simply can't comprehend why people dislike, yours is one of them.

this is beautiful! immersing in the culture, learning how others live their life, spending a longer time to absorb their way of living, adapting and adopting new perspectives and ideas... it is absolutely amazing to have an experience like this

I completely agree with everything you said on this video! Last year, I lived in Spain for 6 months and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done in my short life. Next week I’m going to London for another 6 months and I cannot wait!!!!!! Hopefully I get to do slow travel for a while :)

I just started my nomade life as a videomaker and I'm a slow traveler as well. I went to California to make videos for hostels in exchange of hosting and I wanna do the episodes as real as possible. I love that youtube algorithm show me your video cause I love it! I want to experience new things and express myself through videos that will really inspire people and show them another way to travel, not just be fancy and get likes on social media.

Your luck is not due to where you're born or to not/going to college, rather is due to growing up with responsibility about your future (still thanks to your parents), hence why you saved as much money as you possibly could. Also, I was born and still live in Milan, and I've had the opportunity to study in Japan (so, to also visit) for four months. I have come in contact with many aspects that I would never discover if I stayed there for only two weeks. 100% agree with you!

Very similar to how I live and travel 👍👍🙏😊

As an aspiring short film maker you're videos serve as both inspiration and motivation Nathaniel, thanks for what you do :)

Growing up I lived in 6 different countries so what you are talking about makes sense. Each country I’ve lived in has influenced me on a personal level simply because I had the time/privilege to immerse myself in each place I stayed in. It had also changed my perspective on the world. In my cause though, I was a kid growing up thus I didn’t purposefully slow travel lol.

As someone who planned to go to a new country every week, this is refreshing. I thought I had to rush. Go go go. I never know when it’ll be too late for me. But as someone who does love language with every cell in my body, this would be very good for me.

LOTS:of people do this. I did it myself for such a long wonderful time. In every destination there was an Angel there to meet me, and/or my companion. I was invited into peoples homes. I accepted and know I was able to experience a country, their culture, in a genuine way. Keep it up. I am 81, I just may do it again. Going to have to if then dystopian nightmare in America is not contained.

You have literally summed up what I've been trying to explain to my parents as what I want to spend my life doing. Summed up very well.

I've been living like this for a few years, I have lived in three European countries because I love languages and I love being immersed in different cultures. Currently, I live in Sweden and it has been a surreal experience, extremely difficult at times but so rewarding. I never thought I would be speaking fluent Swedish ever!but here I am. haha I never knew this type of travel or whatever was a thing since I am the only one I know who lives like this so seeing someone else on a similar journey, loving languages and moving around exploring and trying life in different countries makes me feel less crazy haha Best of luck to you on your adventures.

Your videos are so well structured. These videos are amazing

So true! Slow travel is the best travel in my opinion. I’ve been able to really get to know a place and build lasting friendships.

I really aspire to travel like you someday. ❤

I'm headed to Mexico city this Thursday to do exactly this! 5 weeks to just live life, explore the city, work on my food projects, and be in a new culture.

The slow travel lifestyle will gain in popularity and you're at the front of the curve in sharing realistic thoughts and points in this video. We have lived the slow travel lifestyle fulltime for 8 years and counting, living in many different countries for 6 month periods. There are so many options for making money/cost reduction, hopefully you sharing some of these will encourage others to consider their options!

Nathaniel, you are exactly what I needed! Thank you 🙏🏽

Hell yeah. I'm about to travel to South America in various countries for a while and I wanna take it all in. I wanna do alot of stuff but enjoy, take it easy. Video couldn't of come at a better time

Love from Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 ❤

Such good points! And your clips are amazing 🙏🏻

I love how real and upfront you are about things!

This is what I call: Traveling but leaving as local

Keep it up from pakistan ❤

Inspirational! Thank you for this video! Bless you all.

I love your approach and really resonate with your style!

5:16 the way he says Bologna lmaooo

Irland is so difficult, my mum married abroad and I'm stuck here, does anyone have advices.?

I love your color grading! The shots look fantastic.. and your advice here is really good, thganks!

I love and appreciate your thoughtfulness so much!

Slow Traveller = Digital Nomad ?

not everyone gets visa on arrival....

Please keep making videos, absolutely love your channel its super helpful and inspiring!

I'm so in love with your clarity, simpleness and sincerity... The message it's brilliant!

Anyone else still blown away that is guy can speak English, French, Italian and Spanish?

"There is a Better Way to Travel The World : for the people without a permanent job". You completely forgot the point that majority of people travelling have a permanent source of income for which they need to work generally staying in a particular place and that's why not all like you can afford living somewhere for a longer time period. However if talking about digital nomads, they are a different species altogether.

Thank you for giving the useful information☺

Dude thank you so much!! Your channel has been so helpful and informative, I’m so glad I found you for this new decade!

Hola, ¿qué tal, Nathan? Like si eres hispanohablante y te gusta ese canal 😊

*A Better Way to Travel Za Warudo:* 1. Succeed in No Nut November and Unlock the Secrets to Space and Time

This is the most information I ever plan on sharing on the internet: After two years of trying to get a scholarship for a foreign exchange program in China I got to the next step (the semifinals) right after I was made an offer by a division one softball program that could essentially make my college experience free.They won’t accept me if I do this thing I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. And so life continues, 4 years of holding off dreams because of what’s realistic. I wish I could do both.

You are indeed sparking ideas! Options and possibilities. Thanks

MAY I ask a personal question: were you born in September?

Still waiting for technology to be so advanced that we can travel around the world in under 12 hrs. Imagine the possibilities, like celebrating New Year several times a year.

This is the content I’ve been looking for!! 👏🏼

Your Work and how your film making & content are always improving is just inspiring man.

Does anyone know the reddit r/ he's talking about

Not to mention that flying is one of the most destructive activities for the environment, so the less you fly the better...

Thank you for this video!

I love this... his perspective is so refreshing

Step 1: Have a career that you can do remotely anywhere in the world.... Ohh..

*Dude make a video about mental health issues. I'm dealing with severe stress , anxiety & depression* *GUYS GIVE A LIKE SO HE CAN SEE THIS*

Great Video. Thank you for posting.

Yep!... Never realized this is what I am but I love slow traveling... I don't like making plans. I like just letting a place unfold itself to me gradually.