2021 Annual Travel Year In Review: Go Seek Explore
Santorini, Greece
Happy New Year!! As the world slowly started to re-open in 2021, I took advantage of (safely!) traveling.
After doing far more logistical planning than usual due to the pandemic, taking 17 negative COVID tests, and filling out a number of health forms and PLFs (Passenger Locator Forms), I still ended up traveling in 9 out of 12 months in 2021.
I feel very grateful for a number of reasons, and I’ve felt so happy to have been able to support the hard-hit tourism industry in many parts of the world.
Additionally, my online marketing business continued to thrive and grow! I balanced my online business with all of the travel throughout the year, and even launched my first live group program, The Limitless Nomads System, in Summer 2021.
It was such a lovely success and I am so proud of the members of the inaugural group for creating and growing their location-independent businesses!
More on that later - without further ado, let’s get to the year-in-review!
You can read previous annual review posts here:
2020: the year the world shut down
2019: the year I hit my goal of stepping foot on all six inhabited continents in my 20s with Morocco in Northern Africa
2018: the year I made it to South America
2017: the year I made it to Southeast Asia, Australia, and got really into personal growth and inspirational topics
2016: the year I quit my 8-5 office job and started my digital nomad lifestyle
2015: the year I made it to Asia and did my first blog collaboration (a tour in New York City)
2014: the year I started Go Seek Explore!
As usual, this year’s review is split up into these sections:
Where I traveled
New countries visited
Travel plans for 2022
Digital nomad business update
WHERE I TRAVELED IN 2020:
Amsterdam, Netherlands
New Countries Visited in 2021 (2): Greece, The Netherlands
Total Countries Visited in 2021 (8): USA, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Italy, Greece, The Netherlands, Spain
Total Countries Visited (All-time): 34 countries/six continents
Cities Visited in 2021 (17): San Diego, California; Newport Beach, California; Tamarindo, Costa Rica; Miami, Florida; Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic; Tulum, Mexico; Playa del Carmen, Mexico; Seattle, Washington; Fort Collins, Colorado; Las Vegas Nevada; Florence, Italy; Rome, Italy; Santorini, Greece; Athens, Greece; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Madrid, Spain
Full Travel Recap Reel on IG:
California (Home)
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
Tulum, Mexico
Colorado
Las Vegas
Cinque Terre, Italy
Florence, Italy
Santorini
Athens
Amsterdam
Madrid
Seattle
Travel Plans for 2022
I am starting 2022 with a completely blank slate!
After a busy final quarter of 2021, a less-than-favorable non-relationship situation with a guy in Italy, and going through my biggest healing journey last year, I am leaving things open!
Since I am a little last-minute when it comes to travel planning, this is quite normal for me!
Possible Trips: I might hop down to South America in a couple of weeks and see some friends. I have a friend getting married in the US next fall so I’ll likely be traveling for her wedding!
I’d love to do a tropical jungle/beachy trip, and go back to Europe for European Summer. I LOVED my September trip in 2021 during the tail-end of European Summer so as long as travel is open, you’ll probably find me somewhere along the Mediterranean!
I’d also love to return to Southeast Asia if possible, and do at least one of my two bucket list trips: Egypt and an African Safari.
We’ll see!
Digital Nomad Business Update
Cinque Terre, Italy
Koola Creative
My fully location-independent (online) marketing agency, Koola Creative, continued to grow in 2021!
I started my marketing business in 2016 as a freelancer, offering social media services to small businesses. This helped support me as I moved to Southern California and started my digital nomad lifestyle: I could live wherever and travel whenever, while making money at home or from my laptop as I traveled the world.
Since then, the business has grown after a LOT of trial and error and I am proud to say that 2022 will hit six figures+ in annual revenue again, and will likely hit multiple six figures+, with pretty low overhead costs!
In 2021 I further streamlined my systems. My team had four team members (a social media content creator, a social media content creator & graphic designer, a virtual assistant, and an online business manager).
My virtual assistant then got a full-time job in June, so I divided her tasks so my two content creators and am rockin’ and rollin’ with three awesome people supporting our clients.
My clients are all month-to-month (recurring) which is one of the top things I recommend for service-based business owners: it essentially replaces a “paycheck” which frees up financial stress since you know you have a certain amount of money coming in every single month. Plus, it allows you to really work with your clients and see them grow and thrive over time.
Florence, Italy
Go Seek Explore
This year I launched my first live group program, The Limitless Nomads System, in Summer 2021! This program is intended to help you launch or grow a service-based online business to consistent $5-10k+ months.
I put all of my BEST advice into this program from my experience running a freelance business for five years and focused the program on the most important, needle-moving tasks that will get you to consistent $5-10k+ months.
Seeing the members of the live group go through the content and connect and support each other in the Facebook group was really amazing.
It felt so rewarding to see aspects of the modules “click,” to celebrate when they booked calls with potential clients, landed new potential clients to grow their income, booked trips, and hear how these teachings helped shift their mindset for the better.
Ah! I loved that group and would love to host another round in 2022. Stay tuned!
In 2021, I also hosted two online workshops: Launch Your Limitless Nomad Lifestyle and Limitless Nomads Roadmap, both of which promoted TLNS.
On top of the work-from-anywhere business content, I published blog posts about my travels to the destinations I visited this year, did a few brand collaborations, and started posting more consistently on TikTok!
Wrapping Up & What’s Next
Costa Rica
Overall, 2021 was truly a great year. I had many personal ups and downs, and there was a lot of heaviness going on in the world collectively.
However, being able to travel more freely in 2021 compared to 2020 was wonderful. I will never take travel for granted again. Being able to see the world, meet new people, and experience other cultures is such a blessing!
Plus, I moved into my dream apartment in my dream neighborhood - something I had been working on making happen since 2020. It is so nice to come home to a place I love. It’s also been fun decorating on it and discovering my interior style!
As for what’s next…I may or may not be working on my next book! :)
When I have the details, I will share them with you! I am SO excited about it.
Writing puts me in such a flow state and I get chills thinking about all the people I can serve with my message, stories, and advice.
In addition, I hope to launch another round of The Limitless Nomads System in 2022. If you’d like to be in the loop, sign up for my email list - you can do this by signing up for my free guide on digital nomad business ideas.
And as for travel content, I always post to Instagram first when I am traveling somewhere! Come hang on IG Stories! I’ve been diving into more video content as well with Reels and TikTok. I’m @allyarcher on IG and @theallyarcher on TikTok.