Reid & Robie

Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.

– Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz

This week’s post comes from Robie. After writing a few articles while I was on the Camino, several people asked to hear more from him, and I wholeheartedly agree. -Reid

Hi, Robie here. When I talk to friends back home some think what Reid and I are doing is crazy. Others say, “You visited eleven countries in Europe and North Africa this year? That’s amazing!” But they usually envision what we’re doing as one long vacation – eating out all the time, visiting museums and historical sites daily. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have a strict budget, so things like eating out every night just isn’t feasible. We do go to restaurants, of course. Sometimes once a week, sometimes more. It all depends on the cost.

The reality is our roving retirement is a lot like the one we left behind in the states. Grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning the apartment and the like. It’s just that we’re doing it in places with strange names like Essaouira, Sarandёand Ikaria. Don’t get me wrong, we have a healthy budget for travel. During the seven months we stayed in Albania we visited many of the Balkans countries as well as Italy and Tunisia. Liverpool was the most expensive city we’ve stayed long-term, but the flight to Dublin was so cheap we couldn’t pass up the chance to visit the Emerald Isle and while on Ikaria we took advantage of the missing crowds to visit Mykonos in the off-season. But these monthly trips make up only a portion of our time. The rest is filled with more conventional, at-home entertainment like music, books, movies and TV.

Sometimes it’s a struggle to find these things when we’re constantly moving and trying to keep our suitcases from exploding at the seams. So here’s a look at how we enjoy a few of our favorite pastimes. 

Books

This one’s pretty easy. While we occasionally run across book exchanges or discover English-language books lurking in an apartment, carrying books in print just doesn’t make sense for a nomadic lifestyle. Instead, we each have iPads and share a Kindle app so we can both read books we buy.

After a year we’ve developed quite a library of titles. We both signed up for BookBub which sends daily deals on eBooks from sellers like Amazon, Apple, Nook and more. Simply provide your email address and select your preferred genres and they send titles tailored to your taste featuring some significant deals. Recently I purchased Steve Berry’s The Medici Return for $1.99. But keep in mind that to get the most out of BookBub, they’ll send emails every day. Still for us, it’s a great source for free and heavily discounted reading material.           

Music

Most of my forty-plus years in broadcasting was in radio so having music playing all day is normal. To keep the tunes playing we carry a small Bluetooth speaker, the TriBit XSound Go. It’s waterproof, has a long battery life and provides great sound.

For music we carry an iPod classic filled with our entire music library, over twelve thousand songs from every genre. Most days though we listen to Spotify’s free content with commercials. It has great playlists from every music genre. Another option is YouTube with channels that play hours of background music like waves on the beach, rain and more if you’re looking for something soothing to break the silence.

VPN

A VPN (virtual private network) is a crucial part of both entertainment and on-line security for traveling nomads. If you’re not familiar, a VPN creates a secure and encrypted connection over a public network hiding your IP address while providing privacy, security and access to geographically restricted content. Reid and I use NordVPN because they have more than 8,000 servers in over 160 countries. It gives us to access all the content from home while we relax in places like Greece or Morocco. We just connect our VPN to a location in the US, fire up Netflix, and we’re good to go.

The VPN also helps when accessing our financial data from both a security and a location standpoint. There are a lot of VPN options out there so do your research, check reviews and select a plan that fits your needs.

HDMI Cable 

One thing to note before I dive into the streaming services we use, we carry a six-foot HDMI cable as part of our electronics gear, running the cable between a laptop and the apartment TV. This allows us to switch VPN services on the computer and view our favorite shows on a TV screen. Plus, it gives us the flexibility to watch a wide variety of programming wherever we go.

Here’s an example of how it works. While our current apartment in Essaouira, Morocco comes with a smart TV installed with Prime Video, Hulu and Netflix, in Morocco those apps offer limited English-language programming via the apartments Wi-Fi using a local IP address. By connecting the TV to the computer where we can dictate the IP address, we can watch different programming from around the globe.

If you travel without a laptop but have an iPad or iPhone, there is an HDMI adaptor available that does the same thing. You just need to have a VPN downloaded to those devices.

Streaming Video

There’s a plethora of streaming services available these days. Some are free with ads but the majority cost money. If you’re on a nomad budget like me and Reid, you’re probably interested in the least expensive options for your viewing entertainment so that’s what I focused on with the streaming services listed below. All of these are ad supported.

When we arrived in Liverpool in August of 2024 our Amazon Prime membership was paid through November, and with two smart TVs already loaded with the Prime Video app, we logged in and watched all our favorite series. In the UK we also learned about Channel 4, a British streaming service with live TV and on-demand movies as well as British shows. Another free service in the UK is ITVX with live channels as well as a large on-demand library. This is where your VPN comes into play. Once you set up an account with these services, set the VPN to a UK server and even when you’re traveling around Italy you’ll have access to both of them.  

We also have a free Netflix account included with our T-Mobile plan. They also offer an Apple TV account but starting in January 2026 that will cost an additional $3 USD to offset Apple’s higher fees. Still, $3 a month is a pretty sweet deal.

Roku Channel is free and offers lots of movies and TV shows, but only if you use a VPN set to a server in the US. Roku also accesses a variety of other streaming platforms putting them all in one place.

Amazon’s Prime Video now offers free content. That’s right, you no longer need to subscribe to Amazon Prime to get many of their movies and TV shows, all you need is an Amazon account. Simply log into your account and search Prime Video for what they offer for free. Get more information on what to look for here.  

Another we have bookmarked is Pluto TV. This free service has perhaps the largest collection of TV series anywhere. It’s owned by Paramount/CBS (now Skydance Media) and has hundreds of live channels and thousands of movies. (Full disclosure: I spent the last 8 years of my career working for Paramount/CBS.)

Pluto TV has everything from Gunsmoke and All in the Family to NCIS and Criminal Minds. Their movies include everything from the original Top Gun to the entire James Bond collection. It’s available in over 30 countries including the UK, Latin America and several places in Europe. Simply Google countries for Pluto TV for the most up-to-date list. But the key thing to note about Pluto is that if they detect a VPN, they send an error message and block the content. But it’s a great resource while traveling through one of the countries they service.

We have just added four new free services I found out about. We have not tried them but I wanted to share as they all seem to have a robust amount of free content. My Free Direct TV, Tubi, and Sling TV are US based so set your VPN to a server accordingly while Plex is worldwide but its content is geographically restricted so for the most content set to the US.  

Conclusion

There are a lot of options for entertainment when traveling abroad on a budget. Because free is key! The one thing we both miss is live sports, but those are quite costly and usually run too late at night for us to watch. Besides, that’s what our local pub is for. The other day Reid and I ventured into a dark corner of Essaouira’s medina and found three TVs playing a FIFA Arab Cup match between Morocco and Comoros. Plus, the bartender said he regularly plays EPL matches so we’ll definitely be back to watch Arsenal’s championship run.

I trust this provides some clues for consuming free entertainment while traveling. If you’ve got a great streaming service you love, share it with us in the comments. We’re always looking for more! 

Thanks for tagging along! Hope you enjoy the ride.