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Nomadic Matt

Matt Kepnes writes about seeing the world on a budget, sharing practical travel guides and stories from the road as Nomadic Matt.

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Matt’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus their backstory and Starbook, where fans write.

Known for

Overview

Name
Matt Kepnes
From
Boston, Massachusetts
Work
Travel writer, blogger and author
On the road
Set off for long-term travel in July 2006
Blog began
2008
Book breakthrough
How to Travel the World on $50 a Day, published in 2013

Mini bio

How it started.

Matt grew up in Boston and caught the travel bug on a trip to Costa Rica. In Thailand in 2005, five backpackers in Chiang Mai showed him that long-term travel could be affordable. He finished graduate school, left his office job and set out in July 2006 for what he thought would be a year away.

Finding his voice.

Back home in 2008, Matt started a website to build a writing portfolio, hoping it would lead to guidebook work. He learned HTML with help from friends and wrote for other travel sites. The blog gradually became his livelihood. By a travel conference in 2010, people were already calling him Nomadic Matt.

From blog to books.

His 2013 book How to Travel the World on $50 a Day became a New York Times bestseller. Ten Years a Nomad followed in 2019, bringing together stories and reflections from a decade of backpacking. In 2025, he updated his practical budget guide as How to Travel the World on $75 a Day.

Creditschronological, newest first

Online publishing

Awards

Quotes

I started out on one journey but ended up somewhere completely different. I couldn’t be happier.Matt Kepnes, How I Became Nomadic Matt

Reflecting on becoming a travel blogger after originally hoping to write guidebooks.

Trivia

  1. He considered calling the site mattdoestheworld.com before friends steered him toward Nomadic Matt.
  2. He learned basic HTML from friends so he could build the first version of his website.
  3. His original long-term trip was supposed to last just one year.
  4. The five backpackers who inspired him to travel long-term were people he met in Chiang Mai.

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