Digital Nomad Nation - Inspiring Stories From the Location Independent Lifestyle

Travel Couple’s Airbnb Disaster and The Secret to a Full Refund with Remote Project Manager, Archie | EP 54

• Ryan Mellon | Serial Entrepreneur/ Personal Coach • Season 2 • Episode 54

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What if the hardest part of becoming a digital nomad isn't finding work or booking flights but knowing which countries actually want you there?

Ryan sits down with Archie, an "accidental digital nomad" who's been exploring Europe for three years with his girlfriend. After surviving a nightmare bed bug situation in Spain, Archie learned the hard way what to look for in an Airbnb. 

His girlfriend's insider knowledge from working at Airbnb reveals the tricks that can save you from similar disasters and even get you refunds when things go wrong.

Archie breaks down why digital nomads aren't just tourists passing through and how they are actually boosting local economies.

Chapters:

00:04:12 - Airbnb refund hack
00:13:22 - Searching for a forever home across Europe
00:17:10 - Portugal’s beauty and shocking prices
00:18:25 - Why countries should compete for digital nomads
00:36:30 - The best hidden food destination in Europe

Ryan and Archie explore the hidden gem destinations across Europe, from the tight-knit digital nomad community in Bansko, Bulgaria, to the food paradise of an unsuspecting country nearby where you can eat like royalty for under five euros.

Whether you're planning to travel solo or with a partner, you’ll discover how to navigate the constant planning, find the right communities, and avoid the places where you're not welcome. 

Plus, Archie shares practical frameworks for choosing your next destination, managing relationships on the road, and understanding why competition between countries makes your nomad life better.

Listen and learn why countries with digital nomad visas are competing for your business and how to use that leverage to live your best life abroad.

Grab Your FREE Guide - 7 Steps To Launch Your Digital Nomad Journey - https://www.thedigitalnomadcoach.com/

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DISCLAIMER:
Listening to stories of beachside zoom calls, mountainside work views, and island-hopping entrepreneurs may cause severe wanderlust and an irresistible urge to turn your laptop into a passport to freedom. Side effects include daydreaming about tropical co-working spaces, working with Ryan to learn how you can start working and traveling and buying a one-way ticket to Bali. Get ready to start living your dream life today!



[00:00:00] Ryan Mellon: Are digital nomads really destroying local communities and driving up rent prices like the protest in Spain claim, 

[00:00:07] Ryan Mellon: Today I sit down with Archie, who accidentally became a digital nomad while searching for the perfect place to settle down with his girlfriend.

[00:00:14] Ryan Mellon: Instead of finding one home, they discovered something better two and a half years across multiple different European countries without needing visas, all while working remotely. For a Seattle based company, you'll learn how to actually make this lifestyle work long-term as a couple [00:00:30] without driving each other crazy.

[00:00:31] Ryan Mellon: And why? Over 65 countries are now competing for digital nomads like you. Stay until the end because Archie reveals the insider Airbnb trick that saved them during their bedbug nightmare. It basically guarantees refunds when Jose no. 

[00:00:45] Ryan Mellon: /

[00:00:45] Ryan Mellon: Welcome to Digital Nomad Nation, where we inspire and empower you to achieve location independence and live life on your own terms. Today we have Archie Char Luca. Welcome Archie.

[00:00:56] Archie: Thanks for having me on our podcast. Hello to the listeners and all the [00:01:00] viewers too.

[00:01:00] Ryan Mellon: Yeah, man. Well, we were just talking before I hit record. Tell me about this Airbnb disaster that happened in Spain.

[00:01:09] Archie: Oh, it was definitely a disaster, but it was more of a nightmare for my girlfriend. So here's how it starts. Back in the summer of 2024, we were in Valencia, Spain. We usually rent out an Airbnb whenever we travel because we don't have any local contacts yet. So does the easiest way to get to a new place.

[00:01:26] Archie: Right? We were renting this Airbnb, which [00:01:30] was about 20 minutes south from the city center. It's looked decent enough. It, to be fair, it was also the cheapest Airbnb in town, which probably was a red flag at the time. But anyway, on our first night there, we didn't see anything unusual. We just went to bed at 10:00 PM our regular bedtime, and we woke up at 4:00 AM That is, I literally woke up to my girlfriend screams.

[00:01:54] Archie: I was like, what the hell is going on? Like, is someone trying to break into a room like what's [00:02:00] happening? And she was like, it itches, it itches what, what, what itches, what's happening? And then I suddenly sped. There was like little red dots all over her body. They were 

[00:02:13] Archie: literally all over. She had like 40 or 50 bedbug bites. The apartment had bed bugs. It was one of six rooms. It was like a house. We were in one of the rooms. So we immediately called up our [00:02:30] Airbnb host and she was like, come on, like move us out. Cancel the reservation, do something. So the guy offered us a room downstairs, which we accepted because like I said, it was in the wee hours of the morning.

[00:02:43] Archie: We had no place to go. We had a lot of luggage. So we simply just try to. Wash the bed bugs off in the, in the hot shower and just move down the stairs.I'm guessing that you can imagine what happened the following night. I woke up tomorrow of my [00:03:00] girlfriend, screams

[00:03:01] Ryan Mellon: Oh

[00:03:01] Archie: the, the bed bugs were back. The bad bugs were back.

[00:03:05] Archie: So we talked to Airbnb and they found us another accommodation. We moved out for about a week while our host was supposed to take care of the bed bug situation. So he invited the pest control over. They, sprayed the place all over. They allegedly took care of all the bad bugs and everything, and then the host told us that it was now bad bug free.

[00:03:25] Archie: It was safe to move back in. So we went back to the apartment [00:03:30] and, uh, guess what woke me up at 2:00 AM again,

[00:03:32] Ryan Mellon: Oh no, you guys.

[00:03:35] Archie: we ended up going, yeah,

[00:03:37] Ryan Mellon: You guys gave this guy a lot of chances.

[00:03:40] Archie: We did. Yeah, we're very trusting people.

[00:03:43] Ryan Mellon: As you should be. But, uh, after the third time of, you know, screaming girlfriend in the middle of the night, not good. what, what happened? So did, did you guys end up having to move a fourth time to another place?

[00:03:57] Archie: Yes. We ended up [00:04:00] moving, well, we were in Valencia for about six or seven months and we ended up changing 10 accommodations. Around 10. I'm honestly not that good with numbers. I'm probably, I might be exaggerating a bit, but I say it was around 10 and the bed box situation made us change our accommodation, three different times because we had to move to a hotel room, then we had to move to another hotel after that.

[00:04:25] Archie: And then we found, uh, another place after that.

[00:04:29] Ryan Mellon: Oh

[00:04:29] Archie: [00:04:30] So. Yeah, it was. It was quite something and like every single stain, Valencia had a different problem. So that's kind of the reason why we kind of kept on moving from one Airbnb to another.

[00:04:41] Ryan Mellon: Okay. Okay. So now, like now after you've had this experience, your, checking into a brand new Airbnb, is there anything you do like right away to like, check for bedbugs or anything like

[00:04:54] Archie: We check the mattress, we check the mattress, we check the bathroom for black mold because that's where it [00:05:00] usually is. we just make sure that this place smells nice, that there's no humidity in the air. 'cause once again, black mold, all the nest stuff in the air that you definitely don't want to be breathing in, especially if you're staying summer for longer than a week.

[00:05:13] Archie: And on top of all that, my girlfriend actually used to work for Airbnb, so she knows. All the tricks, which is a part of the reason why I would prefer not to reveal my real surname over here. So I can perhaps share some of these tricks with your viewers too,

[00:05:28] Ryan Mellon: Yeah, 

[00:05:29] Archie: in case. [00:05:30] I'm sure that you have a lot of people who travel around.

[00:05:32] Archie: So the thing is, if you ever spot anything unusual and whatever place you're at, always reach out to customer support. One. Sure way to get a refund is to mention mold. And weird smells. Now, when it comes to mold, they're going to ask you for photographic evidence, which should be fairly straightforward.

[00:05:55] Archie: When it comes to smells, they can't prove it. They will have to cancel the reservation and [00:06:00] they'll have to refund your money. So this might not be the most ethical of tips, but if you feel like you absolutely have to change the accommodation for whatever reason, it smells bad.

[00:06:11] Ryan Mellon: Okay. That's a really good one because sometimes maybe you'll get somewhere you don't feel safe or it's just not like the photos or, and you just really need to get out. And so saying it smells is a good way to kind of get out quick and get a.

[00:06:28] Archie: Another tip is to [00:06:30] always read reviews. If a place doesn't have any reviews, it does not necessarily mean that it's new or that it's the first time that it's in Airbnb in all likeness. It was already there before. It was getting tons of negative reviews and they simply removed the listing and they re-uploaded it.

[00:06:48] Archie: So never book a place without any reviews. You'll definitely want at least five reviews or more.

[00:06:53] Ryan Mellon: I agree. I don't, I try to book with Superhosts whenever possible. Um, 'cause I was a Airbnb host for a [00:07:00] while as well, and Superhost status of course. I never had any bedbugs or mold or anything like that. But yeah, like I generally try to, a minimum of five reviews is very good idea and just reading through everything.

[00:07:16] Ryan Mellon: And then if you do stay with a Superhost, they have much higher standards to be a Superhost. So sometimes that can come with a little bit bigger of a price tag. Maybe it's a professional company or whatever, but, I, I [00:07:30] find that the Airbnbs are better quality, so

[00:07:34] Archie: oh, I couldn't agree more. Never booked the cheapest place in town. That's another tip for the viewers. Like there's usually a reason why it's the cheapest one, especially if it's, if it really stands out price wise, like there's always a reason for it, and this comes from years of experience.

[00:07:49] Ryan Mellon: absolutely. You get what you pay for. So the second or third, maybe cheapest place might be the deal.

[00:07:56] Archie: yeah, definitely check out the part of town. Definitely just [00:08:00] walk around on Google Maps, get the feeling of the place. Make sure that, that you're not behind the train station. That's another good tip. so, uh, definitely just keep those, those things in mind. Yeah. The cheapest is not always the better.

[00:08:12] Ryan Mellon: Yeah, for sure. So you're traveling, you say, you mentioned your girlfriend. So you guys are both digital nomads. 

[00:08:20] Archie: Uh, 

[00:08:20] Archie: yes. We didn't start off as digital nom. Uh, we met back when we were both living in Croatia. she's actually originally from Argentina. [00:08:30] She moved to Croatia when she was 18, so her story is actually a lot more fun than mine. I was just, uh, local. We met. Some five years ago. I'm not really good with dates.

[00:08:42] Archie: I'm really hoping that she's not gonna listen to this podcast and hear me saying this. But yeah, I've been been together for about five years, some six months into our relationship. We just decided to move to Ireland. We moved together. Then we were living in Ireland for a [00:09:00] little under two years, and that was the last time that we actually had a rental contract.

[00:09:05] Archie: We've been living in Airbnb since Airbnbs, various other states, but we've been on the road for the last, two and a half, three years.

[00:09:14] Ryan Mellon: Okay. That sounds awesome. So,

[00:09:17] Archie: accidental digital numbers, I'd say. They weren't planning for it, it just happened.

[00:09:22] Ryan Mellon: so what, what do you mean by accidental di digital nomads? Like what was the catalyst to start traveling? 

[00:09:29] Archie: we wanted to [00:09:30] find a home base. She wanted to return back to Croatia, and I didn't because I spent more than, well, I spent 26 years of my life in Zab, so I reckoned I I could use a change of place. It's not healthy to, I, I'd, I always say that it's, you should always leave your hometown. Like whenever you read Wikipedia articles about the greatest mind of humanity, like you will never see that they're, that they died in the same place where they were born in.

[00:09:57] Archie: It's always a different place. It opens [00:10:00] up the mind. I definitely wanted to explore the world, see a bit more of it. Now, the thing is, my job contract was in Croatia. And I had to work in the central European time zone, which meant that we couldn't really go to Thailand like most other digital nomads. So we were really just looking for a, for a home base, a place to, to settle down in.

[00:10:21] Archie: So we were going from one place to another in search of a new home. But, uh, we never really found it. What we did found [00:10:30] was a, a different lifestyle that we actually got to, like over the years.

[00:10:34] Ryan Mellon: That's awesome. Yeah, that's normally like people are like, I'm gonna do this digital nomad thing, I'm gonna travel around. But you guys were kind of searching out like a place to like put some roots down 

[00:10:46] Archie: Literally, literally.

[00:10:48] Ryan Mellon: and ended up being becoming nomads. 'cause that's way more fun.

[00:10:53] Archie: And that's where really we really got to know the places where we were living in because we actually wanted to stay there [00:11:00] forever. We actually wanted to make it our new home. So it wasn't just a temporary thing for us. We never ended up staying in a single place for more than six months. Because it just happened that way.

[00:11:13] Archie: But we were actively trying to find a new place to live in forever to make it our forever home. So really put a lot of thought into it, the tax systems, the bureaucracy, the job market in case they needed to find another job. And I wanted the contract in that country. [00:11:30] So it was all a factor. It all played into it.

[00:11:32] Ryan Mellon: So the job that you had in, in Croatia, did that allow you to just, become a digital nomad? Like was it 

[00:11:39] Archie: already remote?

[00:11:40] Archie: yes, it's a Seattle based startup. I work in customer success. My company doesn't have an office in Europe. The only office is in Seattle. And, uh, it's a, it's a long commute between Croatia and Seattle. So they don't really expect to show up at the office.

[00:11:57] Ryan Mellon: That's perfect. That's exactly what you want.[00:12:00] 

[00:12:00] Archie: Exactly, exactly. I don't mind.

[00:12:03] Ryan Mellon: Do you need to work, US specific times like.

[00:12:08] Archie: Fortunately not because I'm not a fan of working in the evening, although I do have a bit of an overlap with my American colleagues who I do have some evening meetings, but I mostly work nine to five central European time because I cover Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East.

[00:12:25] Ryan Mellon: Okay. And so that's where you guys have been traveling the past two years.

[00:12:28] Archie: [00:12:30] this, we were basically staying within the European Union. the greatest thing about having a European passport is the fact that it basically opens up 27 different countries for you. You can literally go wherever the hell you like. You can move there forever.

[00:12:45] Archie: You just have to show up at a local municipal office and say, Hey guys. I'm here, can I get your id? And that's basically it. It's insanely easy to move to another country within Europe. We could have traveled outside of the European Union too, [00:13:00] but since we were looking for a place to settle down in, we figured that well, the European Union might be the, the easiest route.

[00:13:08] Ryan Mellon: Right. You don't need to apply for new citizenship or get new

[00:13:12] Archie: Exactly. No visas, no crazy visa rules. Nothing. Nothing to think about other than just finding a place to rent out and showing up at the municipal office asking for a new id. That's basically it. That's the way it went down in Ireland when we moved from REIA to Ireland back [00:13:30] in 2021.

[00:13:31] Ryan Mellon: Okay. And so you've been around a lot of places in Europe. Anything stick out to you like, um, that you guys really enjoyed? and. Like, you know, how are you picking your Destin? How are you picking your

[00:13:47] Ryan Mellon: destinations? 

[00:13:47] Archie: that's a, that's a good question. I feel like in today's world, there's not that many secrets out there. All the information is out there. Everything is online, so there's not that many surprises. I don't think that you can [00:14:00] truly find a place that will like truly like blow you away and surprise you in all of those ways that you couldn't have imagined before.

[00:14:06] Archie: I think that like Google Maps covers like most of Europe, and I have this. Crazy obsession with Google Maps. I will literally sometimes, I mean, back in the old days when I didn't have that much work, I would literally spend like four or five hours a day just, just scrolling around random cities and streets and Google Maps.

[00:14:25] Archie: So a kind of new, uh, delay of the map before. Uh, there's [00:14:30] not that many countries in the European Union. There's only 27 I'd say that I know the tax systems and the ins and outs of living in all of them. So it was just a matter of prioritizing. What do we want? do we mind the rain?

[00:14:44] Archie: We actually do. That's where we left Ireland. We're climate refugees of sorts. so do we want the sun? Yeah, sure. We wanted the sunnier place. Right. What else is a factor for us? We want it to be international. We want to be surrounded with other digital [00:15:00] nomads, expats, immigrants, not just the locals, because it's always a bit harder to break into local social circles, so inner travels.

[00:15:07] Archie: we went to Cyprus, as that seemed like one of the places that would kind of tick all of our boxes. It was international, some of the lowest taxes in the European Union. It is a tax haven of sorts, especially if you have a gambling company, or a gaming one. Very international, very sunny beaches, beach wipes.

[00:15:29] Archie: but we ended [00:15:30] up virtually disappointed after about a month. So we ended up moving to Italy after that.

[00:15:34] Ryan Mellon: Okay. Okay. 

[00:15:36] Archie: So just to make like a list of all the places that we've been to. So we tried living in Cyprus. We tried living in Italy. we spent about a month in Portugal. That was amazing. It's just a bit outside of our budget. Spain. We spent, nearly eight months in Spain, more than any other place. We were on the verge of settling down there.

[00:15:55] Archie: and we've spent two summers in Bulgaria.

[00:15:58] Ryan Mellon: Okay. Which is where we [00:16:00] actually met in Bansko, Bulgaria.

[00:16:03] Ryan Mellon: At the 

[00:16:03] Ryan Mellon: center the known coworkings there, one of the coworking spaces there. Um, yeah, that was a really cool spot for me. Banks go, Bulgaria has come to the top of the list many times. on this podcast from other guests, and, uh, I finally made it out there and that's where we met in person and super excited to actually get some guests on the podcast that I, that I do meet in real life on my [00:16:30] travels.

[00:16:30] Ryan Mellon: Um, it doesn't happen as much as I'd like it to, so it's always good to, uh, circle back and hear people's story on the podcast. what would you say, what's special about Portugal? It seems like Portugal stuck out to you.

[00:16:45] Archie: yes. So like Portugal is one of the most popular places in Europe for digital nomas and experts alike. I'd say just, uh, it's just that it takes so many factors. So the, the climate is perfect. [00:17:00] It's beyond perfect eternal spring.I'm not sure about Fahrenheit, but it's always between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius.

[00:17:07] Ryan Mellon: 75 to 85 for our American friends.

[00:17:11] Archie: You got it.the set is the aesthetics of the place. It looks like a fairytale. It really looks like a place out of a fairy tale. I'm referring to Lisbon, Porto, all the, all the bigger hotspots. Food amazing. For Western European standards, it is [00:17:30] also quite cheap.

[00:17:31] Archie: Everything is cheap except for the crucial aspect. The rent. The rent is, a bit on the price side. It's say we were paying about, 1600 euros a month for a, for a room in a shared house with about 20 different rooms.

[00:17:49] Ryan Mellon: you said 1600 Euros.

[00:17:51] Archie: 1600 Euros. 

[00:17:54] Ryan Mellon: Okay. Wow. That's a lot of

[00:17:56] Archie: And that was, yeah, that was two years ago.

[00:17:59] Ryan Mellon: All [00:18:00] right. I, I've always wanted to check out Portugal, and so it's good to hear about, why it's so great. You know, you see it on the photos, looks amazing, but also seems like that's the, the rent's a little high. 

[00:18:12] Archie: the rents are a little high. I mean, if I'd say, if you can afford it, go for it. If you can afford it, go for it. I know that's a lot of digital nomads are like they're, we come from all different walks of life. I know that some of us are investors, some of us are simple graphic designers, and it also factors in short [00:18:30] decisions.

[00:18:30] Archie: Like some places will like naturally draw people who are, let's say, who make like above a certain level of money. Other places will draw people who are traveling on a budget. I'd say that Portugal is definitely long, longer a place to be on a budget.

[00:18:45] Ryan Mellon: Yeah. definitely some of the places are more expensive with the rents, but then you find that everything else is cheap and so it kind of counteracts. But 

[00:18:53] Ryan Mellon: you gotta take, yeah, you gotta take everything into considerations, 

[00:18:58] Archie: Absolutely.

[00:18:59] Ryan Mellon: as we're talking [00:19:00] about like digital nomads and how they contribute to local communities, can you speak to that and, and, and why should countries compete for people?

[00:19:09] Archie: Absolutely. Absolutely. That's actually one of my favorite topics in the world. So there's a lot of misconceptions about digital nomads. I'm sure that you're aware of old, uh, protests in Spain, that we were like mostly like against the tourism in general, We shouldn't mistake digital noes for tourists.

[00:19:27] Archie: Like they're not out there for just a week or two. [00:19:30] They're not on a vacation. They actually live there. And not only did they live there, they're actually not stealing anyone's job. They will always come with a job or a business of their own, so they're not competing for jobs with the locals.they're definitely not out there just to rack the place on a drunken charade that is sad.

[00:19:52] Archie: On a drunken Sunday evening, they're there to stay. They're there for, well, I don't know what. [00:20:00] What I put out as a, as a usual timeframe, but I'd say at least a month, at least a month, two months, three months. I've known people who have been staying in some places for like, uh, more than a year, and they still call themselves nomads because they're not expected to stay there forever.

[00:20:15] Archie: That also factors into it, like the locals will not have to pay into their pension funds just to just to fund those digital noad in their retirement. 

[00:20:24] Archie: In some cases, they team become the tax residents of the place. They're literally there just to spend money. [00:20:30] They're contributing to the local economy.

[00:20:32] Archie: They create jobs, but they're not taking any of those jobs. They're not competing with the locals for those jobs. So. At least in my book, the only downside that I can see is the fact that in a certain way, they're kind of competing with the locals for long-term rent. And it doesn't always have to be the case.

[00:20:54] Archie: That's where all the coal livings come in. That's where all the long stay Airbnbs come in.

[00:20:59] Ryan Mellon: Hmm.

[00:20:59] Archie: People [00:21:00] like me, I mean, we will usually, we can't be bothered like finding like a place to rent out for a year. Like we're gonna stay in a place for about a. Month or two. So what we're gonna do is we're just gonna find the easiest way to do it, which would be to just simply rent an Airbnb to reach the reviews, to find the best place, select it, and go forward with it.

[00:21:22] Archie: Airbnbs are route for tourists, primarily, like their main audience is not digital omas. So in a way, [00:21:30] the digital omas are taking up the place of tourists and they're not staying there for a month for, for just a week. They're staying there for months. They're contributing to the local economy. Now, the point about countries competing for people, competition makes everything better. I mean, doesn't it? If you have, like, if you have a bakery, like you can sell whatever, if you're the only bakery in town. But if there's like another big 300 block, then. [00:22:00] You better cut to slack. You better make some good bread. Shouldn't the same apply to public services? What about healthcare? What about infrastructure? What about crime in general? Safety, the aesthetics of the place, air pollution, this, these are all the things that are state controls, and the state can get away with many things because people are static. They're in place. They're not moving about too much. They're not really voting with their [00:22:30] feet to the extent that they would've been able to do if all the remote jobs.

[00:22:35] Archie: If, if the remote jobs were, let's say 40% of the job pool, if say quarter of the people would be able to leave the country overnight and move to another one because of, save. An income tax hike, maybe the politicians would pause for a second and did reconsider that income tax hike. If they'd lose a quarter for the population over it, would [00:23:00] it really be worth it?

[00:23:01] Archie: No. But they can get away with many things because people are static. They're not moving around and countries should be competing for people, though. They are. This is why we have visas for top earners. We have visas for entrepreneurs. We have, like, you have a lot of different ways of getting into countries in which you would otherwise not be able to get into if you were just a, if you were just a, an average Joe.

[00:23:23] Archie: I know that America specifically also has like a, a visa for top talents. So even if you're just [00:23:30] an actor, you can get a visa on account of being a famous actor. Countries are actively competing for people, but for now, it's just, I'd say the top, and it should be a wider pool of people. It should be middle class people, it should be working class people.

[00:23:47] Archie: The greatest thing about the European Union is once again, the mobility. You can simply move from one country to another. Now, this has actually directly caused like an absolute. [00:24:00] An absolute influx of foreign workers in places like Luxembourg, Germany, an influx from Eastern Europe, from Portugal, which we just mentioned.

[00:24:09] Archie: I think that Portugal lost like, 10% of its population ever since then of the European Union, simply because the working conditions were better somewhere else.

[00:24:18] Ryan Mellon: Hmm.

[00:24:19] Archie: the country should be competing, the people, because competition will make the public services better.

[00:24:24] Ryan Mellon: Yeah.

[00:24:25] Archie: that's that's my main point.

[00:24:27] Ryan Mellon: and how it applies to digital [00:24:30] nomads too is like, you know, there's like 65 plus countries now that offer Digital Nomad Visa specifically for us. So, and they can tell, and that it usually costs money, right? And there's income requirements and stuff like that. So. They can literally just check their data and be like, how many digital nomads are coming in?

[00:24:51] Ryan Mellon: How long are they staying? How much are they contributing? And if they're not staying long or they're, you [00:25:00] know, just, coming and going very quickly, they might rethink about cleaning up the place or help, you know, working on crime and, infrastructure and all that stuff that. It's gonna help everybody, not just the digital nomads.

[00:25:15] Ryan Mellon: It's gonna help, it's gonna help the locals 'cause a rising tide raises all ships. So I think that's a really good point. and there are some places that are just, they have too much tourism going on and the [00:25:30] locals are bitter about it. And my, Take on that to anyone who thinks they wanna go there, go to someplace like that, is to not go to places like that.

[00:25:40] Ryan Mellon: If the locals truly don't want you there, don't go there. You know, there's, the world is, the world is so big. So go vote, like you said, vote with your feet and your money and your time and energy and go to the countries where the locals are. Embracing you and where you [00:26:00] feel like your dollars are spent at that mom and pop restaurant who can charge a little extra now 'cause you're there or have more steady, people coming in to eat out Because us digital nomads don't cook, I think as much as Reg re regular people. So I think what. 

[00:26:21] Ryan Mellon: We're boosting restaurant economy. The digital nomads boost the restaurant economy all over the world.

[00:26:28] Archie: They definitely [00:26:30] do. Restaurants, cafes, coworking places. I mean, we're also known for hosting lot of events, so like there's lots of opportunities for skills sharing, which is also an amazing fear for the locals. Making connections with people who come from a different side of the world. You know, like just practicing even just the mere fact that you're practicing your English or Spanish or German or whatever you're practicing, like you're a, another language is.

[00:26:54] Archie: Someone else, you are, uh, getting another perspective. You're hearing some different opinions. [00:27:00] Digital communism is literally the best thing about globalization because it's basically only the upsides without too many downsides.

[00:27:07] Ryan Mellon: No, I agree with you a hundred percent. I wanted to circle back to how you're traveling with your partner. So how is that, do you have tips for maybe a couple who's sitting at home right now and they're like, I want, we wanna do the digital nomad thing, but maybe we don't wanna be in an Airbnb 24 hours a day with each other working on our laptops [00:27:30] and traveling and all that.

[00:27:31] Ryan Mellon: So like, maybe you have some, tips and tricks for how to, how to nomad as a couple and do it well.

[00:27:40] Archie: Absolutely, absolutely. I have about a hundred different tips to give. I've been with my girlfriend for about five years now. Well, I'm calling her my girlfriend, but I might as well just call her my unofficial wife. here's what I say, like when it comes to working together, you definitely need separate rooms.

[00:27:57] Archie: Especially if you have meetings, especially if you [00:28:00] have to talk. I'd say the digital nomad relationships come with two additional layers on top of the usual relationship cake. Just to use the bakery analogy again, the first layer is all the tr, all the additional planning required, very heading to next.

[00:28:17] Archie: How long are you staying there? There's a lot of planning required that's not usually required in normal relationships, so to say. The other layer is the fact that you'll be constantly together. Because if you're in a [00:28:30] new place, you don't really have a group of friends or family to fall back on. You only get each other's back.

[00:28:36] Archie: So I'd say it's either a fast trick way to a perfect relationship or a breakup. If you don't truly enjoy each other's company, ear gun, you gunner definitely

[00:28:48] Ryan Mellon: It's either gonna make you stronger or you're gonna be like, all right, maybe this is, this isn't the right partner for me.

[00:28:56] Archie: Now I've also talked to like some couples out there [00:29:00] who are not always traveling together. That just, that might just be a case with my girlfriend and I, but like some couples will occasionally split up for about a month or two and go to like different locations then, and then meet up in another location.

[00:29:12] Archie: But that once again goes back to my first point. It's that additional layer you have to plan. Things don't just happen. You have to like actively plan. Where are you gonna be in like three months from now? Okay, that might be up too far of a future for some. Where are you gonna be next month? You get a plan and you get a plan [00:29:30] together because if you're a couple, if you don't have like a, okay, you can still be a couple with a long-term relationship, but if you live together like we Goen and I do, you will travel together.

[00:29:41] Archie: So you have to agree on the next location. You have to constantly plan together.

[00:29:46] Ryan Mellon: So does that, it takes a lot of time. what are, do you have any tips for like, plan, like planning, like, and trying to get on the same page?

[00:29:56] Archie: I'm a project manager, so I sit down at the end of each month, I [00:30:00] bang out a spreadsheet and we make a list of places and 

[00:30:03] Archie: then we just cross them out and then we just cross them out. Oh, no. Deer pollution, dairy is horrible this summer year. We haven't been there yet. let's check it out on Google Maps.

[00:30:12] Archie: Oh, no, it doesn't look that good. Next, please. And that's how we come to, we come to a conclusion together,

[00:30:20] Ryan Mellon: Okay, so you, so you got, you have all the data, you've done the work, you got the data, and then you sit down, you guys talk about it and kind of. Do a little bit of [00:30:30] research. The weather, is it burning season? Is it, you know, rainy season? How much is the plane tickets to get there and 

[00:30:38] Ryan Mellon: all that, you 

[00:30:39] Archie: Chiang Mai I ha I can see you have Chang. Mind, mind.

[00:30:42] Ryan Mellon: No, I've been thinking about heading to Thailand this winter. I'm still, I still dunno where I'm going this winter.

[00:30:48] Ryan Mellon: I'm waiting to be told, but yeah. We'll, we'll see what happened. 

[00:30:52] Archie: one of the most popular spots for digital nomads. We haven't been to Southeast Asia yet. We've been to Japan, a short [00:31:00] three week trip, but that, that's not proper digital nomadism. That was like a vacation.but Thailand is next on our bucket list. We just have to see it in person. We just have to see what the fuss is all about.

[00:31:11] Ryan Mellon: Well, it is a good spot. It is, is there's, there's, it's a big country. For as, as skinny as it is. so they say it's for the, for the US listeners, it says, you know, from top to bottom it's like from Miami to Boston, which when you put that in perspective, [00:31:30] that's pretty significant amount of, of. Land to get across.

[00:31:34] Ryan Mellon: Plus they have islands, off the coast and in the Gulf of Thailand, which is just makes it even better. And so, and I think that with the amazing food, the friendly people, it being inexpensive and it now being kind of a digital Noma and hotspot, especially in Chiang Mai, um, when I was there last, it was before [00:32:00] COVID and Chiang Mai was not that.

[00:32:01] Ryan Mellon: Big of a digital nomad hotspot. So, um, I am curious to see how it's changed over the years. Um, and so yeah, maybe I'll see you there.

[00:32:12] Archie: That would be exciting. And I think like that's the point about digital Nomads like seeking communities, like the mere fact that there are some digital nomad spots out there means that digital nomads are always out on the prowl for, for a community. They're always looking for other digital nomads, not just necessarily other digital nomads, but [00:32:30] other people who are like open to hanging out digital nomads.

[00:32:32] Archie: So that always factors into our decisions. And I believe that's also why we met in Bansko which is otherwise a rather unassuming place in the Bulgarian and mountains. It's actually a huge ski resort in the winter, but there's, if it weren't for digital Nomads, there wouldn't have been much to do in the summertime.

[00:32:50] Archie: And the mere fact that there's so many digital omas around there, it is just an account of all the digital lo it's showing up and going there

[00:32:58] Archie: and, uh, [00:33:00] the community is amazing. It's literally one of my favorite places in Europe.

[00:33:04] Ryan Mellon: I mean, for such a small town that's like super walkable. It has like eight coworking spaces to me is like crazy, right? but they're all seem to be pretty full and doing well and they even play well along together. So like, you know, one, one coworking space has their thing on Monday night, another. coworking space has game night on Tuesday night and [00:33:30] improv on Wednesday night. So like you can get around to the different spaces and there's something going on within the community every night of the week, which I thought was pretty cool and I haven't really seen that in a lot of other places. Um, so I really did enjoy the amount of. Interactions with other nomads. We're all kind of cut from the same cloth, but we do very different things and we, you know, we like to share stories of our travels and, you know, [00:34:00] often places come up that, you've never been to, but they have, and now you're putting that on the map and stuff like that. So,I think it's really the community's super important.

[00:34:11] Archie: Couldn't degree more. Yeah. And the mere fact that it's so walkable and that the place is like so small. well, according to Wikipedia, it has about, 12,000 people. so the mere fact that it's such a small town means that you will always bump into the same friendly faces. So like, just watch out for your reputation over there, because you'll always bump into the same [00:34:30] people on the street.

[00:34:31] Ryan Mellon: Yeah. 

[00:34:31] Archie: is why the community is so great. Like everyone is, uh, so close together. There's so many things to do. There's so many events, and you're never, you never really have to miss out on anything just because it's so far away. You can just like, finish up with your work at like five in the evening.

[00:34:48] Archie: Just, grab a quick bite and just meet your friends like half an hour later. Wherever your friends leave, you can always meet up with them.

[00:34:55] Ryan Mellon: Absolutely. Yeah, no, I think banks Go was great for that and it was, [00:35:00] it was a really good experience and, and, and having that community is, is really nice. So as you're looking back, what, is there something that you wish you knew before you started this lifestyle?

[00:35:12] Archie: I wish I knew that there would actually be a proper digital nomad that would've saved me a lot of money and effort because at first, when we first started traveling, as I said, we were just looking for a place to settle down in, which means that we weren't necessarily looking for, other digital nomads.[00:35:30] 

[00:35:30] Archie: We were looking at like experts in general, so that's how we ended up in, say, Romania for example. We ended up in Transylvania because we saw that there was like a, a semi-active expert community over there. We figured that we might, be able to fit in, find some friends at, just turned out to be, uh, well engineers.

[00:35:53] Archie: They were, they were lovely, but they were not our age. We could not find as many common topics.[00:36:00] 

[00:36:00] Ryan Mellon: Yeah, no, that's the thing with the expat community, right? It's generally a lot of, retirees. And people that are in an older stage of life where the digital nomads are in that 25 to 40 ish range. And it's a little bit different. Right. You know?

[00:36:18] Archie: Absolutely. Absolutely. It depends on what you're looking for. It depends on your perspective. Of course,

[00:36:23] Ryan Mellon: yeah, for sure. Awesome. Well, as we wrap up, I'm gonna just ask a couple [00:36:30] rapid fire questions.

[00:36:32] Ryan Mellon: So.

[00:36:33] Ryan Mellon: What is one expected item that you would never travel without? That's like, besides your laptop, phone, passport, wallet.

[00:36:41] Archie: this is going to sound a bit strange, but it's my, it's blushy. Like, I always like having like this blushy for like destressing at work, so like I could never travel without it. It's a small shark.

[00:36:56] Ryan Mellon: Ah, like a stress, uh, ball type deal.

[00:36:59] Archie: [00:37:00] Yeah. It's a, it's a toy. Yeah. We always travel with a toy.

[00:37:03] Ryan Mellon: nice. All right, well, you gotta a de-stress from work somehow.

[00:37:07] Ryan Mellon: Exactly. Tell me a place in your opinion that has the best food.

[00:37:11] Ryan Mellon: all right. Now here's an interesting one that I'm sure Noman has bought up before, north Macedonia.

[00:37:17] Ryan Mellon: Okay.

[00:37:17] Archie: a gourmet destination and no one knows about it.so after, so as you were just telling our viewers, we were in Bansco together about a month ago, and after we [00:37:30] left Bansko, we went on a short trip to North Macedonia.

[00:37:32] Archie: We were there for about a week. we gained about three or four kilos in that week. 

[00:37:38] Archie: I don't know how much that is in pounds. Perhaps you can translate for your 

[00:37:41] Ryan Mellon: It is like eight to 10 pounds.

[00:37:43] Archie: Yeah, in a week. Less than a week, actually it was six days. Everything is amazing. Like you literally can go wrong. The standard of restaurants is so good because all the food is like so fresh, amazing.

[00:37:57] Archie: I think it's just the fact that they have a [00:38:00] really big agricultural sector, so they produce everything domestically. Didn't import any, any vegetables. Didn't import any fruit. I think that, uh, well, I'm a big meat teacher and all the meat was also local from what I could tell. So the quality of ingredients is amazing, the way they put those ingredients together, it's amazing.

[00:38:21] Archie: It's kind of like a cross between Turkish, Greek kitchen, right? With some like Slavic influences. So like you 

[00:38:29] Ryan Mellon: Okay. 

[00:38:29] Archie: go wrong [00:38:30] with that.

[00:38:30] Ryan Mellon: That sounds great.

[00:38:32] Archie: And not to mention that we managed to like eat a full plate of chicken with some potatoes, veggies on the side, a salad, a bottle of water, and I think we also had soup with that.

[00:38:47] Archie: It was less than four euros Per, per person.

[00:38:50] Ryan Mellon: Okay, so about $5 and you're eating good.

[00:38:54] Archie: Yeah.

[00:38:55] Ryan Mellon: That's awesome.

[00:38:56] Archie: That's the best deal you can find in Europe.

[00:38:58] Ryan Mellon: Yeah, no, there was not [00:39:00] many, many $5 meals even in Bansko. So that's really 

[00:39:04] Archie: were none. 

[00:39:04] Ryan Mellon: Yeah. 

[00:39:05] Archie: I tried really hard to find them, but there weren't any.

[00:39:09] Ryan Mellon: even with our deep discount at the house, we, uh, we were still spending more money on that and that, and that was one of the restaurants in Bansko for the viewers that was, had really amazing food.

[00:39:20] Ryan Mellon: And because we were, because we were part of a coworking space in town, they gave us anywhere depending on the day, 20, 25% off on the [00:39:30] food in town,

[00:39:30] Archie: They were very generous 

[00:39:32] Ryan Mellon: Very generous. 

[00:39:33] Archie: too.

[00:39:34] Ryan Mellon: Yeah, everything on the menu is great. So if you're in Bansko check out the house. It is absolutely awesome. 

[00:39:41] Ryan Mellon: Thank you so much for taking the time today and talking with me. and I hope you have a good rest of your day.

[00:39:48] Archie: Hey, thanks for having me. You too. Have a good one. 

[00:39:51] Ryan Mellon: See ya.

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