Ten Years a Nomad: A Traveler's Journey Home

by Matthew Kepnes

Overview

Part memoir and part exploration of the wanderlust that drives us from the New York Times–bestselling author of How to Travel the World on $50 a Day.

Founder of the award-winning budget travel site Nomadic Matt, Matthew Kepnes knows what it feels like to get the travel bug. After meeting some travelers on a trip to Thailand in 2005, he realized that living life meant more than simply meeting society’s traditional milestones.

Over 500,000 miles, 1,000 hostels, and 90 different countries later, Matt has compiled his favorite stories, experiences, and insights into this travel manifesto. Filled with the color and perspective that only hindsight and self-reflection can offer, these stories get to the real questions at the heart of wanderlust. Travel questions that transcend the basic “how-to,” and plumb the depths of what drives us to travel—and what extended travel around the world can teach us about life, ourselves, and our place in the world.

Ten Years a Nomad is a heartfelt comprehension of the insatiable craving for travel, unraveling the authenticity of being a vagabond, not for months but for a fulfilling decade.

“This book isn’t just for travelers; it’s for anyone who has wanted more and has taken off to find it.” —Los Angeles Times

“His story is one of heartbreak, self-discovery, and the constant travel itch he had to scratch in order to become the man he was supposed to be. An entertaining, quick read by a man who did what many of us only dream about.” —Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250190529
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/06/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	225
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

MATTHEW KEPNES is the New York Times bestselling author of How to Travel the World on $50 a Day, and runs the award-winning budget travel site Nomadic Matt. His writings and advice have been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Time, and in countless other publications. He is also a regular speaker at travel trade and consumer shows. When he's not on the road, he's usually found in Austin, Texas.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Stepping Out the Door 7

2 Taking the Leap 19

3 The Pressures of Home 39

4 The Planning 53

5 The Start 65

6 Finding Your Kindred Spirits 79

7 Life as an Expat 93

8 Love on the Road 113

9 Burning Out, Coming Home 135

10 Going Back Out 151

11 You Can Only "Run Away" For So Long 173

12 The Light 183

13 Home 203

Acknowledgments 219

Appendix 221

Editorial Reviews

07/29/2019

Travel blogger Kepnes (How to Travel the World on $50 a Day) recounts his decade traveling the world and outlines the lessons he learned along the way. Bored by the postcollege life, Kepnes booked a trip to Costa Rica in 2003 because it looked “different.” He returned from that trip a “nomad,” he writes, and from there, his globe-trotting adventures continued for the better part of 10 years, and his passion for travel became a career when he founded budget-travel website Nomadic Matt. He visits Bangkok, Rome, and Prague, where he realizes that “hostel life forces you to confront the years of conditioning so many of us have endured about what we ‘need’ from our lives.” Throughout, he falls in and out of love with a number of women, including Samantha, an Oregonian he meets in Thailand, and Charlotte, a Chicagoan he meets in Laos; his wanderlust compels him to keep traveling and leave both of them behind. Eventually burned out by his rootless lifestyle, he settles in Austin, Tex., where he continues to run his travel website and write travel guides. Though Kepnes’s epiphanies aren’t exactly world-shaking (“My elsewhere had arrived”; “The world has a funny way of always keeping you in your place”), his stories will have readers plotting trips of their own. Fans of Kepnes and travel enthusiasts will enjoy taking this adventure with a reliable, amiable guide. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"This book isn’t just for travelers; it’s for anyone who has wanted more and has taken off to find it." —The Los Angeles Times

"[These] stories will have readers plotting trips of their own. Fans of Kepnes and travel enthusiasts will enjoy taking this adventure with a reliable, amiable guide."—Publishers Weekly

"His story is one of heartbreak, self-discovery, and the constant travel itch he had to scratch in order to become the man he was supposed to be. An entertaining, quick read by a man who did what many of us only dream about."—Kirkus Reviews

"With hard-won experience, wide-open eyes, and the spirit of a dedicated wanderer, Kepnes encourages his readers to find their own adventures, and his story provides a road map for anyone opting to follow their dreams, wherever they may lead."—Booklist

"Matt is possibly the most well-traveled person I know...His knowledge and passion for understanding the world is unrivaled, and never fails to amaze me." —Mark Manson, New York Times bestselling author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

"Matt is living the dream. The dream is: quit your job, live wherever you want, live without compromise, figure out how to do it cheaply while still making a good living, and live the life you choose, not what society will choose for you. In other words, read this book." —James Altucher, entrepreneur, investor and bestselling writer

"In his heartfelt explanation and exploration, Matt runs through just why he’s been out there, backpacking the world for 10 years. By the end we’ve definitely realized, like Matt, how important travel is and how getting out there, on the road, can make you, me and the world a better place. It’s a great pity certain people at the very top of the world’s power pyramid never had just a little taste of the nomadic experience."—Tony Wheeler, founder of Lonely Planet

"Ten Years A Nomad is an inspiring memoir from an unconventional person. His book engrosses you in the nomad mindset: that you are never stuck in one identity, that you can always change and the world has so much more to offer you than you know."—Booktrib

From the Publisher

2019-05-12
How and why wanderlust kept a man traveling around the globe for a decade.

At age 23, Kepnes (How To Travel the World on $50 a Day, 2013) was on the conventional track—he graduated from college and got a steady job in the real world "at the bottom of the middle-class corporate ladder." However, he found that he was dissatisfied: "The real world had things that college lacked: a place of my own; money; a steady relationship; the ability to go where I wanted; to do what I wanted; freedom. It was where I could finally start my life. Except the real world turned out to be as boring as hell." He had reached a junction: Should he continue with the status quo or throw it all away and travel the world? Despite his introverted nature, Kepnes chose travel—and never looked back. In this candid memoir, the author examines how he was completely changed by the decade he spent on the road, living in hostels, working in foreign countries, and making friends in hundreds of cities and towns. He discusses how all his experiences—good and bad—have helped him be more in tune with others and become a better listener and friend. He emphasizes the importance of listening to your inner self rather than the skeptics and naysayers, both of whom he encountered often. Throughout his ruminations on how travel affected him, Kepnes interweaves his tales of friends, girlfriends, and great loves discovered among exotic backdrops and how starting a blog (nomadicmatt.com) about his adventures altered the way he traveled. His story is one of heartbreak, self-discovery, and the constant travel itch he had to scratch in order to become the man he was supposed to be.

An entertaining, quick read by a man who did what many of us only dream about.

Kirkus Reviews