Now that it’s summer, we’re all about the beach. Both of us grew up near some of the most amazing beaches in the USA. We stumbled upon this article one winter day. We both thought how amazing it would be to spend a year chasing an endless summer at the best beaches all over the world. 

One of our ideas for avoiding boredom and having adventures during early retirement is trying out a nomadic lifestyle. Slow-traveling the globe, a month at a time, sounds like a fun way to do this. We plotted out a somewhat sensible plan to spend a month at each of 12 beaches, traveling for a year. Based on some [very] rough estimates, we believe we can make this year of travel happen for approximately the same annual cost as a year at home. 

The Endless Summer Project as we named it is unlikely in the first few years of early retirement. One limiting factor is pet ownership. Another is that we hope to ease into early retirement by keeping our expenses low. The first few years present the biggest sequence risk. So it makes sense to avoid such elaborate travel in unfamiliar areas straightaway. We are also a bit leary of cutting ties with the community where we’ve established our professions too abruptly. We are planning for success, but at some point retirement is stepping off a cliff into the unknown. It’s best to have a few contingency plans in place.

For now, though, we enjoyed looking at the list to figure out how to most efficiently travel from place to place. We’ve even mixed in revisits to places we love, like Phu Quoc island in Vietnam. Nine of the destinations we’ve included are new-to-us countries (as of this writing–we may pick up one or two of these before this big trip could happen). We would also pick up Africa as a new continent (again, as of this writing). 

Several of these destinations appear to be a little rustic and off the beaten path. I’m curious to know more about them, and also interested in learning how to find month to month apartment rentals that would be cheaper than a hotel. Send me your tips and thoughts about chasing summer around the globe and being a global nomad in general. Here’s our tentative plan.

Do you have any ambitious travel plans? What’s holding you back from your dream trip(s)? Let us know in the comments!