How to work abroad with a digital nomad visa
Many countries around the world now offer digital nomad visas that allow employees to work remotely from anywhere. According to travel experts at NerdWaller, a digital nomad visa is essentially a temporary residence permit for remote workers.
Unbranded – Lifestyle
- There is a growing trend for travelers to use travel to test the compatibility of their relationships.
- According to a Booking.com survey, 37% of U.S. travelers are open to this “turbulence test.”
- Traveling reveals how your partner deals with stress, solves problems, and keeps pace with you.
Dan Lidwin loved a good adventure, and whoever he married would have felt the same way. So in 2021, after a few months of dating, he put their burgeoning relationship to the test.
A well-travelled man, Lidwin has visited more than 80 countries in search of active experiences such as scuba diving and hiking. While on a trip to Ecuador with friends, the publicist went on a solo side quest, renting a car and going on a bird safari in the middle of the Colombian jungle.
Naturally, Lidwin knew he needed someone to keep up with when it came to love. That’s where I met Sydney.
The two met while volunteering for the same service organization and began dating in March 2021. Her love of travel caught his attention, and she herself was a daredevil, having visited around 30 countries. She went on trips like running marathons and hiking from one end of the Grand Canyon to the other in one day.
“I knew she had a passion for adventure,” Lidwin said.
During the first few months of their relationship, the couple made plans to visit Yosemite National Park. TWe wanted to see how they travel together, from their paces to overcoming travel troubles. “You really learn a lot about a person when you’re in a pressure cooker, when you’re in a difficult situation, or when you have to think quickly or change direction,” the Georgia-based resident told USA TODAY.
He’s not alone in this sentiment: Booking.com’s 2026 travel forecast shows that 37% of U.S. travelers are willing to experiment with romantic, platonic, or professional relationships through travel.
Whether it’s watching how they deal with the chaos of a stressful plane ride or navigating a new city together, traveling can make or break relationships.
“The ultimate human relationship check”
Travel can be a powerful pathway to growth by pushing people to their limits, revealing how they cope with stressors, and broadening their horizons. When you introduce a companion, it becomes a real compatibility test.
“In 2026, we expect travelers to lean into what we call the Turbulence Test, which uses travel as the ultimate relationship check to see how well you’re in sync with the people in your life,” said Ben Harrell, Booking.com’s managing director in the US. “Let’s be honest, traveling is no longer just about where you go. It’s also about discovering who you are and who is actually worth going with, because nothing tests compatibility and communication more than traveling together.”
Lidwin has a similar philosophy. Some of his dream destinations are Peru and Bolivia, but he knows he can’t travel there with everyone. “I know what it’s going to be like there, the long bus rides, the insects and the nature of that stretch. I have a lot of people I don’t want to go with, but my wife will go,” he said.
He said he knew shortly after their first trip together that Sydney embodied many of the qualities he was looking for in a partner, but it quickly clicked. It started with a missed flight change and connection, and continued with a minor rental car accident that forced me to return to San Francisco that night.
Even though we were both exhausted, she quickly came up with a solution and remained calm. (He also notices that she packs less and is a better hiker than he is, and loves to show it off.)
“She showed me that our ideas about good times, our ideas about great trips, and our ideas about how much we want to cram into a long weekend are actually really, really similar,” he added. From there, the rest is history, and the two recently welcomed their first child together.
Teammate or not?
Romantic bonds aren’t the only relationships that can benefit from traveling together. Some travelers have used their trips to see if they can take their relationships to the next level, from work colleagues to friends. That’s what travel influencer and writer La Carmina did in 2015 with her photographer friend Joey Wong.
She met Wong through a mutual friend and liked his work, so she took him on a trip to Iceland as a photographer. Not only did they work well together, they quickly realized they had a lot in common, from their travel styles to shared interests like trying local cuisine.
“There are so many important things on a trip that you only think about when you’re always together, like how they spend their money, what experiences they prioritize, their quirks and habits,” she told USA TODAY. To this day, La Carmina and Wong remain close friends and have traveled together numerous times for both work and leisure.
Somatic coach and writer Vera Graham also tested a working relationship with a friend in 2022. At the time, Graham hosted wellness events for women under her Muse by Midnight brand and was considering hiring a friend to work as a cinematographer to film the retreats.
They went on a scouting trip to Italy’s Lake Como and Cinque Terre to see “how we’ve been working professionally, creatively and energetically before committing to a larger collaboration,” she told USA TODAY. They encountered some challenges during their trip, including accommodation issues and inclement weather that canceled the sunset boat ride, but they smoothly overcame them.
By the end of the trip, the two found themselves growing closer as friends and creative collaborators, and worked together for several years.
“The future of a relationship, whether it’s romantic, platonic, or professional, can usually be determined based on observations from when you travel together,” Graham says. “You can quickly tell whether you feel safe with someone, whether you can trust them, whether you can rely on them, and whether you truly enjoy being with them.”
(This story has been updated to correct a typo.)
