What Influencers Won’t Admit About Life Abroad… and What You’ll Learn the Hard Way!
I had just arrived in Phuket, and I was convinced I’d cracked the Instagram code to life.
Freshly stamped tourist visa on arrival? Check.
Guesthouse with “strong Wi-Fi”? Check.
Me, imagining myself poolside with coconut water, writing prose like a modern day digital Ernest Hemingway? Oh yeah, I was locked and loaded, ready to go!
Reality, though? Not quite what Instagram promised.
The “strong Wi-Fi”? My guesthouse was so far from the router, I got one bar. And that was on a good day.
My poolside office?
The British guesthouse owner had claimed the tiny pool as his own personal dive tank.
He ran scuba lessons for guests while his gear sat shoved against a mildew-stained wall, right next to a lizard family clearly not paying rent.
And the coconuts?
They cost double what they did at a 7-Eleven back in Bangkok.
And yet, there I was…
- Scrolling through Instagram battling food poisoning with stomach cramps.
- Watching digital nomads edit videos in Budapest cafés or sipping Aperol spritzes on rooftop terraces in Barcelona.
No one warned me about the hours I’d spend stuck at a mobile provider’s local office trying to get my service reconnected, buying even more data every time I did so.
- Or the moments the power cuts out on a freelance client call while I was mid-sentence.
- Or that sinking gut-punch when your bank card gets blocked… or worse, eaten. And of course, the bank’s already closed.
So if you’re thinking of selling everything, grabbing your laptop, and “working from anywhere,” take a deep breath.
Before you book that one-way flight and wave goodbye, know this.
Remote life isn’t all smoothies and sunsets.
Social media skips the Wi-Fi blackouts.
- It ignores the accommodation headaches.
- It never mentions those pesky foreign currency transaction fees that keep eating away at your bank account balance back home.
Ready? Here are 10 seductive lies about the digital nomad lifestyle, social media forgot to mention.
And no, paradise isn’t always part of the deal.
1. “You’ll Work from the Beach”
Ever tried working from the beach? Try balancing a MacBook on your knees. Your eyes blinded by glare from the sunlight blasting your screen.
Sand flies feasting on your ankles.
Yeah, not exactly paradise.
You can shift, squint, and angle yourself like a solar panel, but no matter where you sit, you still can’t see the damn screen!
You find out real quick that the beach is the worst place to get anything done.
I tried it once in Corfu. Half inspired, half deluded. Within twenty minutes, the wind nearly launched my notebook into the Ionian.
I deleted three paragraphs just trying to adjust the screen brightness.
And my iced coffee? Turned the experience into a five-star resort… only for bees.
The dream was writing and ocean waves.
But the reality was sand in my keyboard and an overpriced Airbnb that smelled like bad decisions and regrets.
2. “It’s Always Sunny”
Unless you count too sunny. Or the kind of monsoon that turns your Airbnb into a canoe launch.
In Phuket, the rain doesn’t fall, it drops like a debt collector.
One minute I’m walking to the corner smoothie shop, the next I’m ankle-deep in brown water with my flip-flops floating away like it’s making a break for Laos.
Don’t even get me started on Saranda, Albania.
The WiFi and electricity cuts out so often, you’d think it’s part of the charm.
That is, until the jackhammers pummeling into the limestone outside to build even more apartment blocks, remind you that it’s not.
And if your neighbor starts renovating, yet again, for the next wave of tourist rentals?
Yeah, good luck with that.
And all that’s just in the off-season….
3. “Life is Cheaper”
Sure, until you factor in five $11 lattes a week because the only place with decent Wi-Fi is the cheesiest café in town.
And let’s not forget your “budget” apartment with a toilet that’s more ceremonial than functional.
In Tbilisi, I found a cozy one-bedroom for under $300 a month.
Score, right?
That was, of course, until I realized I was living in a moldy basement. A single window, barely the size of a cereal box, with a scenic view of ankles and shoes passing by.
Day and night, the soundtrack was the roar of scooters and cars that clearly never passed anything resembling an emissions test.
And the “double bed”?
It was just two lonely single beds pushed together trying to fool me into romance.
Then the pandemic hit!
I spent months battling mold, sleeping with earplugs, and waiting for the powers-that-be’s thumbs up to start apartment hunting again.
4. “Every Day’s an Adventure”
Some days, the only adventure is figuring out how to ask a pharmacist in rural Bulgaria for a nasal steroid spray without using Google Translate.
Because let’s be honest some adventures are just glorified inconveniences.
Like the time I ate a questionable “tuna kebab” from a stall in Tbilisi and spent the next 48 hours hallucinating about whether I’d ever trust mayonnaise again.
That wasn’t wanderlust, it was food poisoning with a view.
5. “Everyone’s Doing It”
Not true. Everyone you see online is doing it.
Everyone else?
They’re back home, enjoying stable Wi-Fi, family dinners, and not dodging visa restrictions every 90 days.
You’ll land in a new city thinking you’re about to find your tribe, only to discover the local “nomad scene” is three crypto bros and a yoga instructor who swears by breathwork but never answers messages.
It’s less “community” and more “coworking space with a blender.”
6. “You’ll Meet Friends Everywhere”
You will. And then they’ll leave.
Or you will.
Or you’ll both promise to stay in touch, and three weeks later you’re reduced to watching their Stories like a nostalgic ex.
Friendships on the road are intense and short-lived, like summer flings with Wi-Fi.
In Dublin, Ireland, I met a group of travelers from Canada over a few pints of Guinness.
We hit it off straight away.
Talked politics. Swapped stories. Laughed so hard we nearly cried over cultural screw-ups.
We continued on our own little pub crawl, chasing music and soaking up the Irish craic.
Then poof, they were gone.
Off to the Ring of Kerry on the West Coast before heading south and taking the ferry over to France.
I never heard from them again.
7. “It’s All Passive Income”
Try being passive when rent’s due, your client’s vanished, and the only gig wants you to code and write ad copy.
I once got charged $35 in fees on a $28 payment.
That’s not passive. That’s predatory.
The only thing automated was how fast the money disappeared.
8. “You Can Live Anywhere”
Technically, yes.
Practically? Not without the right visa, local sim card, functioning internet, non-predatory landlords, and the will to navigate a Byzantine healthcare system.
In Georgia, I tried to do a Zoom call from a cozy little café with vintage décor and character.
Problem was, the coffee grinder screeched like it was dying, and a couple behind me started arguing loud enough to drown out my mic.
I’m not saying you can’t work from anywhere.
I’m saying some places are better suited to espresso than Zoom.
9. “It’s Glamorous”
Until you’re hand-washing underwear in a sink, blow-drying your only clean shirt, and waiting on a Western Union transfer because you got pickpocketed at a fake Irish pub in Tbilisi.
On your first night!
In Thessaloniki, I once booked a place with an unexpected perk: a full-blown excavator pummeling the vacant lot right behind my wall at 9 p.m.
No heads-up. No refund.
Just a 7% discount from an Airbnb rep in Bangladesh after hours of copy-paste replies.
Glamorous? Only on Instagram!
10. “You’ll Never Want to Stop”
Look, I love this lifestyle.
But anyone who says they never get tired of it hasn’t spent moving every three months to renew tourist visas or tried surviving on street food pretending it counts as a balanced diet.
After bouncing around from country to country, I found myself late one night in an attic apartment in Dieppe, France, Googling “Americans 1 year visa free stays.”
I wasn’t ready to settle, but I was tired of living out of a suitcase and meeting fair weather friends.
The Real Dream
Living abroad isn’t palm trees and laptop selfies.
It’s paying your electric bill in a language you barely speak.
It’s laughing when things break, and finding magic where you least expect it.
It’s in Madrid street music, an Georgian wedding, a Soviet-era massage therapist in Kyiv who fixes your back and your faith in humanity.
Chase the dream. Just don’t blink!
What’s the biggest myth you bought into, or still kinda want to be true?
David Peluchette is a Premium Ghostwriter/Travel and Tech Enthusiast. When David isn’t writing he enjoys traveling, learning new languages, fitness, hiking and going on long walks (did the 550 mile Camino de Santiago, not once but twice!), cooking, eating, reading and building niche websites with WordPress.