i would be curious if people spend 6 months in the schengen and then go to asia or south america.
There are some European countries that are not in the Schengen that you're able to "duck" into for a short while.
United Kingdom, Ireland, Croatia, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania do not fall within the Schengen Zone and are all in close enough proximity that you can wait out portions of the "cooling off' period, to re-enter the Schengen again when you're re-eligible.
My wife and I are EU citizens so it didn't matter to us, but we've escaped to SE Asia for a couple of winters to escape the cold weather. Flights are cheap and the cost of living even cheaper.
it sounds like fun, but LT travel can make you crazy too, and break up marriages
Depends. We've been on the road full-time for over 6.5 years now and our relationship is stronger than when we started.
I have a theory that long-term, close-quarters travel doesn't make or break a relationship, it just accelerates the direction it was originally headed in.
In a normal relationship, you see each other for only the few hours before work and after work. A large chunk of the day is either in the office, commuting or asleep in bed. You really spend quality time together on the weekends, two days out of seven.
When you're together 24/7, your relationship develops in fast-forward. What could have taken years or decades to discover about the other person (good things and bad things) happens much faster. Separation and divorce might always have been an inevitability, just that you were too much of a stranger to each other to realize it in the beginning.
there is the 'yeah, it's another waterfall' syndrome that occurs after about 3 motnhs of straight travel, IMO
That's probably the biggest misconception about long-term full-time travel - that you're constantly sightseeing all the time, the same as you would if you were to take a two-week vacation. Obviously that intensity is impossible to maintain over months, let alone years.
It is true that you do get burned out from moving and sightseeing and experiencing new things all the time. But when you're living on the road, you do just that: Live. You settle in a place for a few weeks, maybe even a few months. You develop a routine.
What do you normally do when you're not traveling? Is it possible to do it somewhere else?
We settled in Cape Town for three months. I like playing music, so I found some musicians nearby where we lived and joined a band. We got together every couple of weeks to jam. The Internet has made it so easy to connect with like-minded people the minute you drop into a new place.
My wife likes to do yoga. Every time we settle somewhere for a short (or long) while, she finds a local yoga studio to practice.
You meet people doing the activities you like doing. Then you get invited to dinners and get togethers. Being a full-time traveler makes you very popular at social gatherings.
And you don't have to fill your time with social or productive pursuits. You can watch movies, TV, read, etc. just like you would if you had a house.
Outside of hanging with dear old friends and family, and doing activities that require you to have expensive equipment (racing cars) and be in a certain geography and climate (skiing, etc), there's no reason why you can't have as close to a normal life as you would at home when you're on the road.