After traveling for the last year and a half, Grant and I finally feel confident in passing along our travel wisdom in a section called “Travel Tips”. We’ve had some travel successes along the way but upon reflection over our past year and a half, it’s the challenges and setbacks that have taught us the most and stretched our creativity to come up with solutions. Other things are only realized way after the fact.

One such challenge, that we’ve only become keenly aware of recently when traversing the northern hemisphere, is the need to plan your destinations so you get enough sunlight if you are a digital nomad or traveling for a year or more. We had enough foresight to plan our routes to optimize the holidays or for the weather, like hitting the Alps to go snowboarding, but we hadn’t planned enough exposure to the summer sun to prevent a borderline vitamin D deficiency by the end of the year.

In Japan, last last July, we got plenty of sun. Switzerland wasn’t too bad in late summer as well, but it started to go down the proverbial “slippery slope” upon going to Ireland for the winter (cold and rainy) and Austria for the spring (still winter jacket weather transitioning into lighter jacket). Then here’s where we could have planned better… we went back to Ireland for the summer only to be greeted by… rain and cold. Who knew? It’s only when you see the phrase “You know it’s summer in Ireland when the rain gets warmer” plastered on souvenirs at Carrolls Irish Gifts. That’s when it hit me, ‘Oh, oh! This weather situation is not going to improve’.

Just kidding! The actual thought that jumped into my mind when I saw that phrase was ‘Oh, that’s cute!’.

Afterwards, we went to Croatia for the autumn season and did get some good sunny days out of the month of September (if you minus the “thunder storm of the century” for the first week, video here) but after that, we were back in jackets and jeans as it got colder. From there, we headed to Austria for snowboarding, which was awesome, and you can expose your face and palms to the sun on a sunny day. The real kicker was coming to the Ukraine after all of this where there is still snow on the ground and it is cold enough to require a winter jacket. When will spring officially arrive?

As someone who got tired of year-round-sun after living in Hawaii and who deliberately sought out the cold, I can now admit that a balance is best . . . snow in the winter and sunshine in the summer, sandwiched by two beautiful transitioning seasons.

Here are 6 benefits of getting adequate sun exposure (please mind not to get so much as to get sunburned):

• Uplifting of mood, helps with reducing depression due to seasonal changes
• Reduces stress and anxiety
• Can make you more alert in the evening
• May lead to the reduction of visceral fat
• Sunlight reacts with the oils on your skin to produce a hormone called vitamin D. Vitamin D has been shown to reduce your risk for certain cancers.
• Helps regulate your sleep cycle by encouraging the production of melatonin at night.

Note: If you are worried about getting too much solar radiation, please refer to these two links:

Why Sunlight Is Necessary for Optimal Health

Seven Amazing Health Benefits of Sunlight

To all the aspiring digital nomads out there, this is one aspect of travel planning you may not have considered but it is helpful to know and plan for. It doesn’t mean you need to flock to the tropics for the summer but a less rainy destination for the peak summer months, if you are expecting to be in colder climates in the winter, will do your body and mood wonders with effects lasting through the rest of the year. I know for this year, we will better plan our route and I look forward to bringing out my shorts and summer dresses as soon as the weather gets warm enough – they haven’t seen the light of day since two summers ago. And I won’t take the sun for granted anymore.

Introducing the three jackets I’ve been living in:

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