As an independent SEO consultant, I have the privilege to, within reason, work anywhere in the world.
My client work is global in nature and is best suited to UK and European time zones, though with my time needed with clients across the US and APAC as well as closer to home, I can theoretically make my work happen anywhere.
While I often take my work with me on trips both professional and personal and have spent periods previously working in other countries on longer business trips, I’ve never spent a dedicated period working and living in a different location for a solid amount of time since going solo.
I was fortunate to do just this and spend January 2026 working in Koh Samui, Thailand with my young family. For those familiar with the island (outside of its White Lotus fame), we were located in the Chaweng Noi area in the central-eastern part of the island. I’d like to distil some thoughts on my time here from both a professional and personal basis.
Firstly, this isn’t something necessarily groundbreaking. There are plenty doing the long-term “digital nomad” thing properly, both in Koh Samui, in other parts of Thailand and all over the world.
I’m also probably a bit long in the tooth for the “digital nomad” thing. The main driver behind this was to take advantage of my wife’s maternity leave and take our son who was 8 months old at the time, and experience living somewhere with an agreeable climate (and get away from the UK in January).
Here are some honest thoughts on the good and the not so good:
The Good
- I worked broadly on UK/EU hours which meant I got most of the day (up until mid-afternoon) with my young family. While I largely work remotely and often from home back in the UK and am lucky enough to be present for the most part, getting most of the day work free here was really special. Our routine of early mornings, breakfasts, play time, walks to the beach or a trip to another part of the island, and one-on-one father-son swimming lessons in our pool are special memories that I wouldn’t swap for anything.
- My wife and I are both big travel people so continuing this tradition with our young family is important to us and hopefully, curiosity and wanderlust becomes something that is second nature to him later in life. Obviously, he was only an 8 month old baby, but we want to make acclimatising him to new environments, countries and cultures a normal part of his early experiences.
- One benefit of being in a different timezone to where most of your work is that there’s always a nice period of quiet before the Western world wakes up. I started my day between 6am-8am UK time and found this period incredibly productive in clearing my decks for the day as well as finding clarity in setting short term (and some long term) goals.
- Boundaries. I’ve done this to myself before when overseas in different timezones where I’ve ended up burning both ends of the candle. On previous business trips to China for example, I’d be in meetings all day and back in my hotel room at 6pm and in sync with the UK working until around midnight. I’m one of those ones who likes being available where possible to people who need me. I’m a quick responder and occasional toxic martyr. Being strict with myself when on this trip on my working hours felt like a real breakthrough, and gave me clarity on what I wanted to achieve each day within my control. This is an improvement that I have tried to take home with me.
- It’s Thailand. It’s warm. Fresh tropical fruit. World class beaches. Wildlife. Lovely people. Jungles. Great food. (I’ll stop now).
The Bad
- The time difference for work. And yes, I’m aware I went to Thailand knowing full well that it’s 7 hours ahead of the UK… While I got all day with my family, as I mentioned earlier, my current clients are based all over the world. This was great for the APAC clients, fine for the most part for the UK/EU (where most of my people are), though less so for the US. It meant quite a few late nights. My brain would often be buzzing for a while after with work related stuff and goals for the following day. Fine, though unlike his father, my son is a real morning person. There’d be the occasional early hours finish and a 6am start with the little lad. This did start to take its toll, even before we take into the account the accumulated tiredness from being a first-time parent since May 2025. A small price to pay over the big picture however, and yes, I know I was in Thailand and yes, you can put your miniature violins away now.
- Having an 8 month old baby meant we had to stay somewhere with easy access to amenities such as hospitals, and the area was busy. We stayed in a lovely private villa compound with enough space and all mod cons, though there was frequent turnover in guests over our month-long tenure which meant a bit of a dice roll each time new people came in. Now, I first visited Thailand around 10 years ago, and saw in full flight the vast array of the somewhat varied calibre of tourist sometimes associated with the country. Koh Samui, while a large island with quiet parts, is pretty touristy and rather busy. We got lucky for the most part, though there were one or two instances of me going full dad mode and requesting politely (but incredibly firmly) that varying degrees of ghastly EDM music were kept to a minimum late at night.
- I found a pretty good coworking space straightaway (laptops on a beach sipping pina coladas was never on the cards, dear reader.) Owing to its reputation as a digital nomad hotspot, the area in general was quite good for this. It was comfortable enough, though my work is meeting heavy and there wasn’t much on offer in terms of private enclosed office spaces. This did mean having to enunciate my voice over a background cacophony of “disruptors” and AI hustle bros from time to time. Even at the reasonable age of 38, I felt like the old man in the office keeping the cool kids in line at times.
Would I Do This Again? Probably.
Now, this was never intended as a “move to Thailand life hack” post. I spent a sizable chunk of my 20s living in China and have seen a lot of Asia and the world in general and have a worldview shaped around the somewhat unfashionable maxim that we have it pretty good in the UK. Not perfect by any means, but pretty good. Additional tax rates or whatever inconvenience to my business won’t see me up sticks suddenly. I’ll get off my soap box now.
While Thailand has many benefits from a cost of living and business overheads perspective, this wasn’t really on our mind when we chose the location. Koh Samui, for Thailand, is actually quite expensive, and asdie from travel costs back home we were roughly spending similar amounts each week to what we would in the UK. This was aided by wanting to make the most of our time there and see what we could when we could (carefully crafted around nap schedules) and we of course ate out all the time. You’d be silly not to in Thailand.
In summary? The work side of things was tough from a schedule point of view. I didn’t want to stay in the coworking space any longer than I needed to. This made my working habits quite productive, though it was tough when I was the only person the office on the phone to a US client at 1am.
The personal side of things was largely brilliant, however. It was an incredible experience from a family point of view and we would explore possibilities to do it again while we’re able to before the boy starts school. It’s also something I’d highly recommend to young families in a similar position if they’re considering it.
