Do you hangout with backpackers, while still working remotely?

I get distracted way to easily so I would never get any work done at a hostel. I need to lock myself in a room to get work done and only step outside to socialize when I get hungry.

I love hostels. Always try to stay at one when I can.
Every so often you run into awesome people and before you realise you’ve made a friend for life. Generally you’re out of your conform zone and you just never know what a day looks like. The randomness is truly fascinating.
Oh and even though some will be jealous of your lifestyle, talking about work and being a digital nomad is generally a boring topic to bring up.

The backpacker scene has never been my thing.

I’ve gone out of my way to avoid it. I can’t imagine being productive or doing high-quality work in a backpacker environment.

I need personal space, haven’t ever done hostels and have never had trouble meeting people while traveling.

A lot of backpacker areas (especially in Asia) feel like Cancun Spring Break - and have that vibe.

Lots of fun for many, but for me personally, it’s not my style.

These days it’s pretty easy to rock up into most major cities in the world, hit the ground and “find your tribe” -

I never understand why people travel 6,000 km to hang with backpackers.

You have the chance to meet locals from a different culture than your own, that’s more interesting right?

I did this in 2014 when I traveled around South East Asia for about 1 year. I would have a normal work week. I would work Mon - Fri 9am to 5pm. After that I would workout and then eat dinner. I usually allowed myself to go out on Thursdays, Fridays, Satudays, and sometimes Sundays. I would usually do light work on Friday and the rest of the weekend would be completely open to anything that came up.

I run two websites, so I tend to schedule everything a month in advance. If I happen to meet a cool group of people I will take 3-4 days of to hangout with them and explore the city. It ended up as being one of the funnest years of my life.

I’m in the process of doing that right now. I live in Budapest and work a somewhat ‘proper’ 9-5 job on roughly US time. My hours are flexible, but I’m expected to work M-F unless I’ve taken vacation, which I rarely do. I usually start around 11AM when I’m home, but when traveling sometimes that can stretch to 12 or 1. At present I’m spending a week in Romania traveling around. It can be exhausting, but I have a bit of a routine:

-buy a SIM card immediately upon arrival, preferably with the ability to tether just in case I get a coffee only to find out the wifi sucks or if I’m spending daytime on trains/buses
-but try to travel only overnight/in the early morning so as not to interfere with my work schedule
-try not to end up in any ‘fun’ cities for only weekdays

As for my habits, I tend to like small hostels and I don’t always tell the people I’m working during the day-I just go out to coffee shops and get hella-caffeinated whilst working, then come back around 7 or 8 in the evening. If the hostel is a fun place I might end up staying around during the day, but I typically still like to get out during the day if I can. If it’s a fun city I’ll go out often, though I try not to have too crazy of nights to impact work in the morning. I love it-it means I can stay at home when I’m not getting the travel itch, and then can go for 7-10-15 days of backpacking, which is, for me, the perfect amount to not miss all the amenities of home but still scratch the travel itch. I’ve actually been working remotely in Budapest for 4 years, but somehow only recently realized I can do this-fingers crossed it doesn’t backfire on me…

Not my style of travel at all, I’m far to introverted. But, have you thought about Airbnb share places rather than apartments? That could be the best of both worlds, if you get in with a group of longer term travellers.

Btw I’m in KL at the moment and there’s a hostel near my apartment called Paper Plane. I’ve only walked by but it seems like the kind of place that would fit your criteria if yu are in this part of the world. http://www.paperplanehostel.com/

Most of the backpacker places I’ve been to are also party places which isn’t always conducive to getting work done. I still stay in hostels occasionally when I’m only somewhere a couple days or I feel the need to be social, and I choose them by reading reviews and finding the ones that mention partying the least and are a bit more expensive. Both things tend to weed out the party kids. Be prepared to get some shit about why you sit around on your laptop all day because people on vacation don’t get the working thing.

I’ve tried backpack nomading before and found it pretty unnecessary in cheap countries however it is a great way to get to know fellow travelers and locals alike.

Not entirely sure how being a backpacker would impact the nomad life though, when I work I go to a coworking space/cafe/library/wherever. Establishing a clear work vs play boundary is essential when you aren’t in a traditional workplace. Ideally choice of accommodation should have minimal impact to your career.

For example, I’m a 23-yr old freelance web developer. Last year’s summer I decided to move out of my home country to do some travelling around the world. Thus, I’ve been backpacking solo and working remotely around Europe and SE Asia for 7 months now.

Some of my notes that I’ve gathered so far, about hanging out and travelling with other backpackers:

• A lot depends on the decision which hostel/place I’ll choose as my accomodation.

• if I choose a hostel/hotel/airbnb which serves as nothing more than just a place to sleep in, then it will propably serve just as a place to sleep and nothing more, because propably I’ll end up:

  • spending additional money & time for finding a decent place (like cafe with solid internet and comfortable chairs) around to work in (because I find working from my hotel room being a bit depressing in the longer run); because my accomodation doesn’t provide such conditions;
  • doing all the travelling alone - as I won’t meet any other travellers, because I’ll be either out in the area doing the travelling stuff, or just working.

• best hostels to stay so far me, in which I can do some work, usually have some small kind of lobby or bar with tables, in which you can sit, relax, read a book, or do some stuff on your laptop. That means: you can calmly work without any disturbances or weird looks from other people.

• The lobby/bar has to have a couple of tables though. If it’s just 1-2 tables, I feel like I’m killing the atmosphere of the hostel, because I’m constantly sitting there with my laptop, doing some weird coding, and not really talking with the others (cuz I’m focused on coding).

• If the hostel has a family dinner or organizes some group activities, that’s a big plus. I can do some work during the morning/midday, and then just join the dinner/group activity. This will make me quickly catch up my missed time while working, by having conversations and making friends with all the people in the hostel.

• About party hostels: that might be fun; but how much can you drink? Besides, sometimes I feel I have to find a different place to sit with my computer anyway (even if there’s a good wifi in the hostel), because some guys from the the hostel would look at me as a weirdo - propably because I’m working there as in an office, instead of partying & exploring with them.

• Another observation: usually every place has a couple of activities/things to do/see around (f.e.: some buildings/landscapes to see, a motorbike tour; canyoing, a beach, etc). A “typical backpacker” (sorry for the expression ) would appear in a hostel, do as much of those things in the shortest time its possible, and then move to the next location.

  However as a digital nomad, usually I don’t have such time/money limits. I can stay in a location as long as I want to. (I don’t have 1 or 2 weeks to do the whole trip - my trip is how I live)

  So what I would usually do, is to see all the area and do all the activities in the beginning of my stay in the hostel with the other travellers, and then spend the next ~3 days constantly working, and only then moving to a next place.
  However this approach makes the last ~3 days a bit boring. I noted I tend not to socialize that much with the others people from the hostel anymore, because I’ve already done all the things to do around (so I don’t have that much interest in meeting them).

  So instead, what I do now is:

  1. On the first appearance at the place, get info about all the activities that can be done around.

  2. Try to do an activity every one or second day (so you’ll avoid constanly working 3rd day in a row).

  3. Be flexible - if there’s a lot of people from the hostel [that you like] doing the activity today (which u planned to do in 3 days) - change your plans. Do it today with them. Being spontaneous is always fun

  4. Another advantage of this solution is that sometimes I can just convince newcomers to the hostel to do f.e. a hiking trip with me to a nearby mountain. If I already know all the logistics and good informations about the place (and I do, because I would gather them in discussions with other backpackers that have been there the day before), then convincing the other fellows from the hostel usually isn’t a problem.

• So in total, my best preference now is to find hostels that are medium-sized, with a family-like atmosphere. That makes it’s easy to find friends to do the activities around, or go out for a couple of beers in the evening, but simultaneously the atmosphere is a bit chilled out, so you can easily work for a couple of hours there during the day (and maybe make some friends in the lobby in the meantime).

As examples, a couple of cool places I’ve found so far:

• Life’s a beach - totally non touristy beach in central Vietnam, with nothing else there than just a small local fishermens’ village and 2 backpacker resorts with stable wifi, located literally on the beach. - Watch the sunrise during the morning, do some work in the midday, and hang out with the locals/travellers in the afternoon
• Any of the bungalows / guesthouses on the Long Beach / Khlong Kong Beach in Koh Lanta. - similar to above. Do some work in a midday, take a swim in the sea when u’re tired, and just make some friends with other people staying there during the rest of your time. Optionally, go to the nearby KoHub coworking space, if u need better work conditions.
• Hola Hostel in Barcelona - decent wifi and a huge lobby with a kitchen
• WE Bangkok - ok wifi, small lobby with a bar and a couple of tables - usually empty and good to work during the midday, and ok to meet the other peoples in the afternoon
• Tiny Tigers in Da Lat, Vietnam - ok wifi. the lobby is a bit too small to work in IMHO, but there’s a nice balcony with huge table and a couple of chairs (nice view on the town included). A family dinner with all the peeps from the hostel is held here every day!
• Granada Inn Backpackers (Granada, Spain) - very nice sociable atmosphere, big lobby with a couple of tables. the wifi wasnt very good though last time when I was there (u might need to use your own 3/4g internet in situations like that)