Ask HN: Did some of you try the digital nomad lifestyle and not like it?

Not wasting 5-10 hours per week in rush hour traffic is a pretty big perk, even if the working hours are pretty much set.

So far I love it. Though I will admit, it sometimes can be difficult to put in the hours when there are so many things to see, people to meet, and things to explore. Also, I am not exactly doing it like a backpacker/cheap either, which improves the experience.

Happy to answer any questions.

Financial independence is the goal. Digital nomading can help get you there by extending your runway, and it can also be a benefit of the independence once you achieve it.

* I spent a lot of time moving from city to city. Eventually, I learned that staying put in the same place for a month or more was the best strategy — but this was hard to do with Schengen travel limitations (as an American citizen).

* Finding housing was sometimes a pain (and expensive). Hostels were definitely a no-go: too loud, no personal space, impossible to get work done. Hotels were too pricy. Owner-listed rooms on Airbnb worked pretty well overall, but finding ones that weren't exorbitantly expensive ($35 or less a day) and that were rented out by people in the ballpark of my age required hustle. Longer house shares (often students living in a large house with a spare room) were the best bet, but finding them involved a lot of last-minute e-mails, phone calls, and even in-person interviews. (All this would have been much easier with a traveling companion.)

* Speaking of getting work done, I basically couldn't figure out a way to be productive. Towards the second half of my travels, I discovered that I worked best if the room I was renting already had a desk, chair, and window, and sticking to that requirement helped quite a bit. But even then, the temptation to go out and explore was often too great. Before then, I tried cafes, libraries, and co-working spaces, all without much success. I think I really need a stable place to call "home" to be productive.

* As a life-long loner, travel made my social life a whole lot worse. I barely talked to anyone during my travels, and neither hostels nor bars were of much use. I didn't really mind most of the time, but the fact that my only fulfilling interactions were over the phone did start to weigh on me after a while. (I felt the most social when I was living in house-shares with students, but those were only conversations in passing.)

I'd definitely travel again — it was a fascinating experience in the end! — but this time I would probably commit to staying in a single city for several months. I'd also try to find a large house (10-50 people) inhabited by people who share my age and interests.

This was partly because of not staying in one place for long enough to build meaningful relationships, and also because at my stage of life many significant things require money, and the lifestyle was a tremendous drain on finances. I was in front of my laptop Best places for focus were Marseille (very little else to do albeit unbearably hot in our un-airconditioned apartment), Wellington in New Zealand (a beautiful country but Wellington felt very familiar and stable), and Dublin (some interesting history but not the classic tourism experience ... weather condusive to being indoors).

Amsterdam, Geneva, Queenstown (NZ), Prague were all just too exciting and/or beautiful. Prague felt like it had the best chance of working out once the excitement of tourism was done: low-ish cost of living + decent Internet.