What is Mid-Term Travel? The Case for Living Differently for a While
When most people think of travel, it’s a PTO request for vacation. It’s five to ten days away someplace, and for a lot of families, the prep and recovery from vacation trips adds a lot to an already full plate. There is another way to travel together — one that blurs the line between vacation and everyday life. More time allows for perspective, more experiences, more learning, and reflection on what’s important.
Mid-term (or medium-term) travel is a term that seems to have evolved from property rentals. Most towns and cities call anything shorter than 30 days a short-term rental, and a long-term lease is typically a year or longer. Mid-term rentals are those between one and twelve months.
When we talk about mid-term or medium-term stays at Life From Anywhere, we’re talking about transformational travel — actually living temporarily someplace else for at least a month. Why a month or longer? The idea is to settle in and start feeling somewhat like a local, not a tourist. By that point, you’ve got the grocery store figured out, you have a favorite coffee place, and you’ve met the people next door. It’s long enough to establish a new rhythm. The experience shifts from “trip” to “life.”
The concept of occupying a furnished rental for less than a year is not new. Traveling nurses and other contract healthcare professionals have been doing this for over 40 years, particularly in the U.S., as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. The average duration of their stay is three months. You could say that traveling nurses were the original Life From Anywhere pioneers, in that they aren’t “nomads” but professionals with portable jobs. They live differently for a while, then circle back home.
If your time away takes you someplace where they speak differently than you (a foreign language, or a different dialect), you’re also starting to experience immersion in terms of how people communicate. According to CIEE, a nonprofit international exchange organization with a 75-year history, one month of immersion is equal to a year of studying a language in a classroom, with the added benefit of learning how native speakers actually communicate with each other. Even if you technically know the language, every place has its own unique phrases and slang.
“When I arrived in Australia, I thought I spoke English — until I heard words like arvo, brekkie, and no worries… Months later, I didn’t just speak the language like a local — I understood the culture that shaped it.”
— Marit Skare, Oslo, Norway
Mid-term travel is not a vacation, though it can feel relaxing to let go of the daily pressures that become habitual at home. Let’s illustrate what we mean. Yours may not be exactly like the average family living in suburban America, but some of this may still feel familiar:
|
Typical Home Life |
Mid-term Travel Life |
|---|---|
|
2,400+ square foot house that gets regularly picked up, organized, stocked, and decorated for the seasons |
1,100 square foot rental with basic amenities |
|
Lots of “stuff” to manage — gear in the garage, boxes to go through and donate, things that need repair |
Only the essentials |
|
Two or more activities (like sports and music) to shuttle kids to and from |
Maybe you bring a ball for impromptu neighborhood games at the park, or do some virtual lessons |
|
Weekend tournaments/performances, sometimes split in different places |
N/A |
|
Parents passing each other in the garage |
Usually only one vehicle. You go together |
|
Social calendar to plan and manage: what to say “yes” to, what clothes everyone will need, gifts, food to plan |
If you meet people, gatherings are simple (because that’s all you can do) |
|
Family communications are mostly logistics; if kids are teens, it’s probably via group text |
Family conversations about what was different or interesting today (lots to talk about!) |
|
Quick breakfast, quick lunch, quick dinners |
Time to prepare real food |
|
Sunday-night laundry and planning the calendar for the week |
Sunday-night rest |
We’re not saying typical life is all bad. Some people love their crazy life and are grateful for it (most of the time). But if you find yourselves spending more time in different spaces of a large house — each on your devices — to “unwind,” maybe it’s time for a real break.
You don’t have to sell everything or move abroad to feel this change. A few weeks of living smaller, slower, and closer together can reset the way your family connects and how you approach life longer-term.
Q. Are mid-term travel and slow travel the same thing?
A. Slow travel is a philosophy that travelers should stay in one place for longer periods, experiencing the culture, rather than bouncing around from city to city just sightseeing. So you could say mid-term travel is the ultimate form of slow travel. You’re going to live there for a while, do your errands and shopping, probably get to know some of the locals, and maybe even experience a different way to approach daily life (like eating dinner at 9 p.m. in Spain after your evening walk).
Q. Is mid-term travel the same as being a digital nomad?
A. The digital nomad movement tends to be singles or couples who work remotely while moving from place to place. They may stay for weeks or months at a time, but don’t necessarily have a home they return to regularly. If they had an apartment or a house previously, part of the appeal (for those oriented toward this lifestyle) was to sell all that stuff. Being on the road forces people to simplify and carry fewer things with them. Digital nomads like “location independence” – the freedom to pick up and move whenever they like.
Mid-term travel à la Life From Anywhere is more oriented toward professionals and families who want a break and change of scenery without untethering completely. Flexibility, but with a sense of place.
Q. Is mid-term travel like a family gap year?
A. Mid-term travel and gap years are similar in that they are both an intentional break from the norm. Gap years traditionally have meant a break from any formal education or work as well. While we love the concept of a family gap year, our take at Life From Anywhere is that the amount of planning and saving most families would have to do to make a full year possible may put it off too long. It might mean scraping and saving for years to quit jobs or take a full year of unpaid leave.
Even if you have the financial flexibility to take a full gap year, depending on where you live, there may also be residency and tax considerations, and more complex visa requirements if your time away is outside your home country. It’s all doable; it just takes more time to plan around potential pitfalls. To quote Marc and Tricia Leach, founders of Keep Your Daydream, better to “start small and start now!” Their preferred mode has been RV living, but we think this is great advice for any family. A month or a season away can still have a big impact.
Q. Do we need to stay in one place?
A. One of the very cool things about living somewhere new for a while is exploring what’s around you. Once you’re settled into your temporary home, there’s a whole region to discover. Day trips and nearby things to do can be a part of how you choose a location, and the people and places you visit can spark more dinner table conversations.
Some people do choose a roaming style of mid-term travel, such as RV life. If you’re keeping to one region (like the Southwest U.S., for example), it can be a similar cultural experience to living temporarily in one town or city.
Q. This sounds great. How can we make it happen?
A. You’ve heard this before: the difference between a dream and a goal is a plan. By making a plan together, breaking it down into steps with timelines, you can make this your reality. If you’d like an occasional nudge and reminders of why this was important to you, sign up for our free, non-spammy, occasionally entertaining email.
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