Our Travel Toolkit

Our go-to card for international travel. 3x points on travel and dining, Priority Pass airport lounge access, $300 annual travel credit, and the best travel protections in the business. The annual fee is steep, but it pays for itself within months if you travel regularly.

Essential for any digital nomad running a business. 3x points on travel, shipping, ads, and internet/phone services. 100k+ sign-up bonus regularly. Pairs perfectly with the Sapphire Reserve to maximize Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

The $395 annual fee is almost entirely offset by the $300 travel credit and 10,000 anniversary miles. Unlimited 2x miles on everything makes it the perfect everyday card. Capital One Lounge access is a growing bonus.

We use Proton for email (ProtonMail), VPN, and password management (Proton Pass). Swiss-based, end-to-end encrypted, and genuinely private. When you're accessing sensitive accounts from hotel WiFi in three countries a month, you need this level of protection.

The best personal finance app we've found. Tracks spending across all accounts, handles multi-currency, and gives you a genuinely clear picture of your financial life. Essential when your income is variable and you're spending in euros, lek, and dollars simultaneously.

Our primary accommodation booking platform. The filter for apartments (not just hotels) is essential for long-term stays of 2-6 weeks. Loyalty status genuinely pays off after your first few hundred nights. Widely accepted in Eastern Europe where Airbnb is less established.

We use their monthly unlimited data plan. It's not the cheapest option, but it's eliminated the headaches of buying local eSIMs in every country — researching providers, reading terms and conditions, dealing with early cancellation fees, coverage gaps between borders. Comes with an Austrian phone number with unlimited SMS. For digital nomads who consume a lot of mobile data (especially with AI tools), the convenience is worth the premium.

We keep our US cell numbers through Google Fi. We've learned to limit data roaming since it's primarily for US usage, but it's essential for keeping a US number active for banking, two-factor authentication, and staying reachable by family. Works in most countries.

Albania's answer to Uber. We use Patoko for taxi rides in Tirana, Durres, and Sarande when walking isn't practical. Pay through the app, no cash hassles. Essential if you're spending time in Albania.

Claude powers a significant chunk of our publishing workflow — research, drafting, editing, and code. Claude Code is what we used to build this entire website. We've found it to be the most thoughtful and nuanced AI assistant for long-form writing and analysis. The Pro plan is worth every dollar.

We use ChatGPT alongside Claude for different tasks — particularly for quick research, image generation with DALL-E, and tasks where GPT's particular strengths shine. The Plus plan gives access to the latest models and is worth it for serious daily use.

All our domains are registered and managed at Cloudflare. This website is hosted on Cloudflare Pages (free tier — unlimited bandwidth). Their DNS is the fastest in the world, their DDoS protection is the best available, and the free tier is genuinely excellent. We've consolidated all our domains here.