Hi All,

I just hit my 100th UN country in Armenia 🇦🇲 with 15 new friends I met on this month’s WiFi Tribe chapter. I was able to convince them to join me for an epic road trip after just a few days, which tells you a bit about the community WiFi Tribe is building. If Yerevan isn’t on your list yet, it should be 👀

Plus:

But first: I’m thrilled to announce that Pangea WON NOMAD PROJECT OF THE YEAR at NomadWorld in Albufeira last month! A HUGE thank you to everyone in our community for your support! We’re honored to that our Beta won, and can’t wait for our 1.0 release this summer 👀 🚀 🔥

And if you haven't already:

I took a 3 night road trip through Armenia with a group of 16 WiFi Tribe members to celebrate my 100th UN Country! Armenia boasts dozens of UNESCO heritage sites and some of the oldest monasteries in the world. The capital, Yerevan, is also an incredible city to spend a weekend - or longer. With a compact old town, great restaurants, fun nightlife plus a rich showcase of Armenian history and culture, it’s definitely worth a stop. We drove out Friday morning and visited Haghpat Monastery on the way to Yerevan where we stayed at the Ibis (cheep, nice, central). We met some local friends for dinner & live music at Sherep before hitting a few of the local bars (DABOO, Minas, Beatles & EVN) The next morning, we had brunch at The Green Bean and climbed the cascade before visiting the Armenian Genocide Museum which was incredibly powerful & heavy - but so informative and important to learn about especially as the conflict around the world continues to escalate. Saturday afternoon, an Armenian friend I met last year at NomadWeek in Cape Town invited us to a pool party hosted by a local salsa club he's joined. Moni, the host/instructor was originally from Colombia before moving to Yerevan a few years ago. She's put together an awesome group of salsa enthusiasts from around the world that get together regularly to both dance and just hang out. That evening, we met up with the rest of the group at Yerevan Tavern for an incredible dinner show on the river.  

Sunday we drove out to Lake Sevan, visited the Savan Monastery, and spent the night Glamping before driving back to Tbilisi. There’s so much to do around Armenia, and we could have easily spent a full week on the road, and perhaps even longer in Yerevan. If it wasn't on your list already, you should definitely add it! Plus, if we're lucky, there will be a WiFi Tribe Chapter here soon since we all floated it to Diego as a great potential option 👀

One criticism I hear often about nomadic travel programs is that people think they can do the same trips cheaper on their own. And while sometimes you can technically travel for cheaper, what most people fail to realize is that these programs don't just provide travel logistics, they focus on building and enabling community along the way, which is by far the most important part. As the Wizard of Oz said: It's not the places you go, its the people you meet along the way. And I couldn't agree more. The people are what make the experiences we share while traveling so meaningful. 

Curating community is not simple - it takes a lot of work just to get a group together - generally between 16 to 30 like minded folks all eager to visit the same location at the same time. Anyone who's tried to plan a group trip knows this isn't easy... My favorite part of a month long program is the fixed date model as it becomes one of the most powerful elements for building bonds between strangers. Everyone is in the same phase of the bonding journey vs the traditional model of travelers arriving and leaving randomly. Don't get me wrong, apps like Pangea are a game changer for meeting new people when you’re in an unfamiliar city - but if I have the option, I’d always prefer to join a NomadNest or WiFi Tribe Chapter if the dates line up with my plans (and don't forget you can see all of their trips directly in the app!)

The people I’ve met on these programs have become my closest travel friends, and even Advisors, Investors & Team Members for Pangea. The bonds you create over a month in a new place are so valuable, and the experiences you'll share together are worth the slight premium (which largely goes to pay the incredible teams behind curating these experiences for their time).I honestly find it crazy that in 2025 it's harder to make a living as an IRL Community Creator (which brings people together) than an Online Content Creator (which only further drives the world's loneliness epidemic and rise in screen time). I hope to see this change in the years to come. The world needs more Community Creators, and I love supporting the ones which are as passionate about this space as I am.   

My vision is that by 2030, there will be community options happening in most major cities around the world at any given time. Currently, between the top few players, there are only a handful of chapters operating in a given month - leaving SO MUCH opportunity.   I still struggle to find programs in the cities I want to visit, during the times that work for me, and hope to see existing players expand, and new high quality, community first programs continue to popup. We all saw how tough of a business it can be when Remote Year collapsed in December.  And while NomadNest, Outsite, Noma Collective and WiFi Tribe are all going strong - there is still a lot more potential for the nomadic space.  If you’re going somewhere where any of these providers offer a program, I highly encourage you do join. You’ll have a blast, and help fuel the community travel movement for years to come. If you manage a travel community, or just want to talk about the evolution of the space, get in touch with me!

We extended the deadline for our summer flight giveaway until July 3rd. Remember, you get 1 entry per person you refer to the app - so be sure to get your travel squad onto Pangea before the deadline on July 3rd!

I fly to Bansko Nomad Fest on Wednesday! If you'll be around, let me know or join our group to stay in the loop on everything our community is planning. 

We've teamed up with NomadMania and Outsite to host our July Meetup in London at The Miller Pub on July 17th.  Be sure to RSVP if you plan on joining us. I'll be in London from July 14-25th with tons of Pangea community members, so you can join our group here to stay in the loop as we make other plans! 

I'll be bouncing around South East Asia with several Pangea Partners & Ambassadors in August. The plan is still evolving but will involve both Bali 🇮🇩 and Vietnam 🇻🇳 (two of my all time favorite places) along with some new countries -  likely Laos 🇱🇦, Myanmar 🇲🇲 and possibly even Brunei 🇧🇳. Stay in the loop below:

With ONLY 1 SPOT LEFT, you should be sure to join the Special Edition that NomadNest is organizing in Porto. I was there last summer, and its truly an amazing city. NomadNest was started by RY Alumni Walid & Joanna, and they've brought on the best of the former RY city-team leads.  Thiago who used to run the RY Floripa program will be hosting the Porto Special Edition, and you don't want to miss it!You can also checkout their programs in Marrakech or Tirana in September!

If you manage a Digital Nomad program that you think would be relevant to our community of 25k+ Digital Nomads & Solo Travelers, just reply to me directly and we can get you featured. We only showcase programs that we have personally verified - but are always on the lookout to support new projects trying to reach this community 💪🚀 

I continue to be blown away by how far Pangea has come, and can't wait to share our Summer 1.0 Release with you all. Winning Nomad Project of the Year is just the beginning of what we have planned as Pangea continues to grow into the leading social platform for travelers.  

We've also got TWO HUGE announcements coming this week that I'm super excited to share during Bansko, so stay tuned on IG for that!

Hope to see you soon!

-Matt

Founder & CEO of Pangea

101/197 Countries (120 UN+) & 7 Continents Travelled

View My Upcoming Travel Plans

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