The digital nomad lifestyle celebrates the freedom to be wherever you like, experience new places, people, and things, and still tend to your career in a meaningful way. Digital nomads aren’t tied to one place like people who put down more permanent roots are.
This freedom comes with many benefits, but it also comes with a unique set of challenges. One challenge in particular is essential to navigate carefully: moving your belongings from one place to the next as you make your way around the world.
There’s a misconception about digital nomads, and that’s centered around the word nomad. That misconception is that we operate like backpackers, carrying a minimal amount of our things with us as we move from place to place. For most digital nomads, that’s simply not true.
While few digital nomads move around with a family (kids, dogs, and bicycles might be a bit too much to move all the time!), they still have their lives with them and may be planning a lengthy enough stay in one spot to need physical records, books, trinkets, clothing, and the like with them. Though digital nomads live a lifestyle that moves them from place to place more often than the average person, that doesn’t mean they don’t want to have familiar things around them for comfort and convenience.
The methods of transport available to you will depend on where you’re going and how far you’re going. That said, a few transportation methods are available in many places and will help you get yourself and all your goods and chattels from one place to the other safely, as quickly, and conveniently as possible.
A Private Jet Charter
A private jet can be hired to take you almost anywhere in the world and is a lifesaver for getting to more remote destinations without changing flights and buses a hundred times. A private jet charter affords you many comforts that taking a commercial flight wouldn’t, chief among them (in this case) is that the only luggage on board will be yours, the pilot’s, and the cabin crew’s.
While there are still weight restrictions on private flights, they are much more lenient than commercial ones, so getting a large amount of luggage from one place to another won’t cost you anything extra. There’s the added benefit that luggage won’t be lost, stolen, or damaged when you fly with a private airline, as much more care is taken of passengers’ things.
There are no stopovers with multiple luggage sets moving from one plane and part of the airport to another. Every meaningful trinket, all your favourite books, and winter coats will end up undamaged in the same place as you at the same time.
A Private Compartment on a Train
There’s nothing like a train ride to see as much of the country you’re travelling through as possible. Train rides put the travel back in travelling, and though some of the spaces are communal, booking your private compartment will give you some personal space.
Though there are luggage limitations on trains, they are nothing as strict as those on commercial flights, and moving a large amount of things and people from one place to another is what trains do best. Train travel takes longer than air travel, but it gives you a close-up view of every place you pass through and often gives you a chance to briefly explore places where the train stops on the way to collect or release passengers.
The more exclusive trains offer dining cars where passengers can enjoy excellent meals at a beautifully set table. There may also be bar or club cars with spaces for sitting and a physical bar that’s the perfect spot for an evening drink.
Get inspired:
Renting a Motor Home
If you prefer to be at the helm of your own ship, so to speak, you should rent a vehicle and drive yourself to your next destination. You could choose a regular car, but you likely need a trailer too. You could select a moving van, but that may not be the most comfortable choice.
Choosing a motor home gives you the space to haul a fair amount of things and also a built-in home, meaning that you can avoid checking into hotels wherever you need to stop, and you can move through your journey at your own pace. You can stop at any interesting-looking farm stalls, visit charming towns, take photographs of the scenery, and grab a bite at a delicious-looking restaurant whenever you like. It’s just you and the open road!
Being a digital nomad is about experiencing as much of the world as possible while living a life as fulfilling as any other in the daily ways: a morning coffee in your favourite spot, rearranging your bedroom, meeting friends for lunch. Now that you know how to get your things to your new home safely, all that’s left is to settle into your new surroundings and get down to the business of living life.
