If you’ve ever looked for information on cheap travel online, you know who Nomadic Matt is. Even though you might not realise it, you have definitely looked at one of his articles while you were planning a trip. Well, I got the opportunity to interview travel blogging titan Nomadic Matt about his life as a full-time traveller.

I asked Matt a number of questions about his lifestyle as a digital nomad and a travel expert.

Without any further ado, here’s the story of Matthew Kepnes, also known as Nomadic Matt.

Tell us the story of Nomadic Matt. Who were you before embracing the nomadic lifestyle and who are you now?

Hey everyone! My name is Nomadic Matt and I run the budget travel website nomadicmatt.com. In a nutshell, my job is to help people travel better, cheaper, and longer. But before I became ‘Nomadic’ Matt I was just regular Matt. I went to college, worked in a cubicle, and lived a pretty typical life in Boston. But like many people, I felt like there was more out there; I felt like something was missing. There has to be more to life than just working a 9-5 grind, right?

After going on a trip to Costa Rica for a couple weeks, I wanted to travel more. I had officially caught the travel bug! I eventually planned another trip which brought me to Thailand. It was there that I met some backpackers — full-time travelers — and had my eyes opened. As soon as I got back home I knew I had to find a way to travel more.

So, I worked a ton of overtime, saved up all my money, and eventually quit my job to travel the world. Along the way, I started teaching English overseas and eventually started a travel blog to share my travel stories with people back home. Over the past decade, Nomadic Matt has grown from a simple travel journal to a comprehensive budget travel resource that helps millions of people every month. It certainly wasn’t an easy journey, but it’s been an incredible opportunity. One that I’m grateful for everyday!

Let’s backtrack to one of your earliest travel experiences. Why did you decide to go to Costa Rica for your first overseas trip back in 2004?

For my first trip, I was just looking to go somewhere warm, interesting, and somewhere relatively safe. I was looking to take a break from things and go on vacation, but I didn’t want to just spend my time sitting on the beach at some resort. I wanted to do something more adventurous, but I wasn’t quite ready for solo travel — heck, I don’t think solo travel even crossed my mind! After doing some research, I decided to travel to Costa Rica on a tour. That way, I would be able to get off the beaten path but without having to worry about all the logistics. It was my first real trip abroad, after all, so going on a tour was a great way for me to test the waters and experience travel beyond the typical resort vacation.

Backpacking in Costa Rica really opened my eyes to the world of travel. Seeing and experiencing a different culture with my own eyes, meeting locals, and disconnecting from regular everyday life did wonders for me. I had an amazing experience, and as soon as I got home I was already thinking about my next trip. The only question was, “Where should I go next?”

To which degree did your first trip to Thailand encourage you to quit your job and fly out to discover the world? Did you immediately realise you wanted to pursue long-term travel or did the idea grow on you?

To be honest, I never ever knew long-term/full-time travel was a thing until I went to Thailand. I think like most people, travel to me was just something you did for a vacation; it was a chance to get away and relax, not an entire lifestyle. Meeting those backpackers when I was traveling in Thailand really opened my eyes to the possibilities out there. You didn’t need to work the 9-5 to get by. There were countless opportunities out there for anyone willing to break free of the norm and seize them. Working holidays, teaching English abroad, volunteering overseas — the sky was the limit!

Looking back, it was backpacking in Thailand that was really the catalyst for everything. Who knows, if I never met those backpackers in Thailand there might not have been a Nomadic Matt!

As we all know, Nomadic Matt is one of the biggest names in travel blogging. How long did it take for you to make a living from your travel blog?

It wasn’t until after starting a blog that I was making a living from my website. Initially, the blog was just a hobby; it was a way for me to showcase my writing so I could (hopefully) get a job as a travel writer for Lonely Planet. I had been teaching English in Asia for a while, which supplied me with most of my income when I was just starting out. I also sold some links to supplement my income (that was a common practice back in the day, but it’s long-since abandoned as Google has cracked down on that sort of thing).

Once I started to see that my blog was actually getting traffic, I decided to focus on it full-time. But even then, it still took me a couple of years before I was able to make a living from it. Making money online is the dream, but it’s not as easy as it looks! Sponsorships and ads will only take you so far, so if you really want financial independence you will need to make your own product or sell a service. That is what will set you apart from the crowd and get you on the road to financial freedom.

A lot of people think that starting a travel blog is easy and that it’s a great way to get rich quick — both of which are not true! But if you’re willing to put in the work and learn what it takes to succeed, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to build a successful business and eventually make a living from your own blog too.

To readers of a travel blog, it might seem like travelling full-time is all sunshine and rainbows. What do you consider to be the biggest downsides to being a digital nomad?

Social media definitely paints a picture that working online is easy and hassle free but that is hardly the case. Working remotely usually means long hours sitting at your laptop, it means always hunting for Wi-Fi and putting in a lot of hours to make sure you’re not falling behind. Anyone promoting pictures of laptops by the pool or at the beach is likely just doing that to entice you to buy something because that isn’t the reality!

Working online can make it really hard to find that work/life balance, since there aren’t as many clear-cut divides between your work life and your personal life. It’s very easy to overwork and always be stressing about your next project or initiative. Or conversely, it can be really easy to slack off and not get anything done because you’re your own boss — no one is there to get you in trouble if you just relax on the beach all day!

So you’ll want to make sure you make a conscious effort to develop a solid work/life balance so that you can avoid the major pitfalls that most remote workers fall into. Because if you can do that, then this lifestyle has a lot of benefits that you’ll be able to enjoy!

To help me stay on track, these days when I travel I usually don’t work. Sure, I’ll answer emails and maybe tinker with some smaller tasks, but for the most part I leave my laptop alone. I find this lets me focus more on the destination, allowing me to soak it all in and relax more. That way, when I get home I can focus on writing better content because I was actually able to immerse myself in the destination, meet locals, and get a much better sense of the destination. It really helps me find a better work/life balance and gives me a chance to disconnect, which I think is vital in this day and age.

What made you decide to eventually settle down in New York City after spending yeas on the road as a nomad?

After traveling for years, it just felt like it was time to settle down a little bit. Constantly moving around can be exhausting — especially if you’re trying to also run a business. I felt like I needed to spend some time really focusing on my website, which was just too difficult to do when I was constantly bouncing around. Settling down gave me the time to make tons of improvements to the website, launch new content and initiatives, hire staff to help me manage things, and grow the website like I had never done before. So, while I wanted to slow my travels down it was also a smart business decision.

As for why I picked New York, that’s simply because I think it’s one of the best cities in the world! I’m a city person at heart, with my favorite destinations being places like London, Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Stockholm. And when it comes to cities, few places can compete with the Big Apple. It has everything you need no matter what your interests are, offering amazing museums and attractions, a wild nightlife, amazing food, and everything in between. Even if you’re not a city person, I think everyone should visit New York City at one point in their lives, just to see the city for themselves. Because if you ask me, I think it’s one of the best places in the world!

How important is slow travel to you? Do you still feel the influence of staying in one place as a nomad for a certain amount of time in the way you travel now?

I think slow travel is the best way to travel. At the end of the day, it comes down to quality over quantity. I know it can be tempting to see as much as you can as fast as you can (especially if you don’t get a lot of vacation time) but it will all just end up a blur if you rush around too quickly. You’ll spend more time on trains and buses than in the actual places you want to visit! I think many travelers — including myself — learn this lesson the hard way.

For that reason, I always encourage people to slow down. Stop and smell the roses. Soak in the destination. Get under its skin. Not only will you learn more, but you’ll open yourself up to more spontaneous experiences and be more likely to meet locals. Don’t waste your vacation by zipping around to a new city every other day. Slow down. Focus on quality. I promise you won’t regret it!

Would you ever consider becoming a nomad again? Why (not)?

I think my days of full-time travel have come to an end. Then again, every time I say I’m going to travel less I never really do so what do I know! I just booked a trip to South America! So while I doubt I’ll ever go back to full-time travel, I think travel will always be a big part of my life. Because even when I say I’m going to stay home I always end up booking a flight somewhere. Once the travel bug bite, it’s hard to resist for long!

In general, would you recommend being a digital nomad to others? How much does it depend on someone’s personality if they’d even be able to live as a nomad?

I think anyone can learn the skills to be a successful digital nomad or remote worker, but whether or not it’s the lifestyle for you will depend on your personality. Are you self-disciplined and self-motivated? Can you create deadlines and stick to them or do you need someone to tell you what to do? Do you mind working long hours for little money — or no money — when you’re just starting out? How are you when it comes to teaching yourself new skills, including tech skills?

Starting a blog is the same as starting a business. You need to have what it takes to plan, to prepare, and to stick with it no matter what. It’s a tedious, risky process that isn’t guaranteed to succeed. But, if you can pull it off you’ll be rewarded with the freedom to explore the world on your own terms. And if you ask me, that is more than worth the price.

A huge thank you to Matt for taking the time to answer my questions and for letting us know what it’s like to be one of the biggest travel bloggers in the world. You can follow Nomadic Matt on his blog, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.