In 2017, Doug Barnard, a school pupil on the time, took a visit to India along with his mother. The expertise was so impactful that it will definitely impressed him to turn out to be a full-time traveler—a path he did not know was potential for him.
“Going to India was an eye-opening expertise for me. It was the primary time I might been to some place so overseas, so stimulating and for me it was this epiphany that I wanted to expertise extra,” Barnard tells CNBC Make It.
“Probably the most thrilling half was speaking to the folks and seeing how issues work. The immersion was what actually bought me.”
Barnard graduated in 2018 and moved to New York Metropolis to work for Walmart. On the time, he earned about $60,000 a 12 months working within the e-commerce sector, and although he did not dislike his job, it definitely wasn’t his ardour.
“I feel part of me was searching for extra that means in my work,” he says.
Since leaving america, Barnard has traveled to locations like Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.
Doug Barnard
Whereas working at Walmart, Barnard began a YouTube channel devoted to his travels. The primary journey he featured on his channel was a go to to Saudi Arabia in 2020.
“On the time, Saudi Arabia was type of this mysterious nation from an American perspective, not less than. It was closed off for many years they usually had simply opened for tourism,” he says. “Again then, folks thought I used to be loopy. My mother and father requested me to not go. My grandfather supplied to reimburse me. However I went for it and it was superior.”
Later that 12 months, Barnard was laid off from job due to the pandemic. Whereas others may need been nervous about being unemployed, Barnard noticed it as a chance to wager on himself.
“My dream was to go journey full time, stay overseas, immerse myself in these overseas locations and make a residing from YouTube.”
Barnard moved to Istanbul in 2023.
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From New York Metropolis to Istanbul, Turkey
About three months after being laid off, Barnard booked a one-way ticket out of america. In January 2021, he arrived in Serbia after which traveled for 2 years earlier than deciding to make Istanbul, Turkey, his house base in 2023.
“Rising up in Connecticut, I by no means would have imagined that I might ever find yourself residing in a spot like Istanbul or touring to all of the locations that I have been fortunate sufficient to journey to,” Barnard says. “I discovered myself coming again to Istanbul repeatedly. It truly is the proper place for what I am doing. It’s just about the middle of the world. I really like the language, I really like the tradition, I really like the historical past.”
His time overseas impressed Barnard to start out a boutique tourism firm referred to as Doug Barnard Journey. They take small teams of 8 to 10 folks on cultural immersion excursions of locations like Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan. Barnard affords non-public excursions as properly.
Barnard’s travels overseas impressed him to start out a tourism enterprise the place he guides shoppers on immersive excursions.
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The group excursions begin at $2,700 per individual and what’s included in that all-inclusive package deal can fluctuate nation to nation. Flights will not be included.
“It’s really genuine journey. I imply it’s as actual because it will get. Locations like Egypt and India are superb however they’ve mass tourism industries and a spot like Iraq is so new to tourism that you simply get a extremely genuine expertise,” Barnard says. “The individuals are excited to have you ever. The hospitality is out of this world and all the things you are seeing is unparalleled.”
Barnard’s YouTube channel helped usher in his tourism firm’s first shoppers. Lots of the locations featured in his early movies are the place he affords his immersive excursions.
“A number of the time, folks will assume we’re there on enterprise after which as soon as we inform them that we’re there as vacationers often individuals are thrilled,” Barnard says. “They’re actually proud to point out off their nation. They’re actually completely happy to see that foreigners are interested by visiting their nation and studying about them.”
Doug Barnard Journey affords excursions in Syria and different locations like Iraq.
Doug Barnard
In 2024, Doug Barnard Journey ran a complete of 5 group excursions and introduced in $100,100 in income. Barnard’s YouTube channel enterprise introduced in a further $64,029 in income, in keeping with paperwork reviewed by CNBC Make It. That very same 12 months, Barnard was in a position to pay himself a wage of $83,808.
In Istanbul, Barnard lives in a two-bedroom, two-and-a-half lavatory duplex house the place he and his girlfriend, İlkay, pay 55,000 Turkish Lira or $1,368.91 USD a month.
The couple’s further month-to-month bills common about 2,000 Turkish Lira, or roughly $50 USD. That features payments like water, electrical energy, web and fuel. Barnard says Istanbul is the proper location for him as a result of a lot of his enterprise is within the Center East. It is one of many most important explanation why he does not see himself transferring again to the U.S.
“The extra time I spend residing in Istanbul and the extra folks I meet and the higher I get on the language the extra it seems like house,” he says.
Barnard and his girlfriend, İlkay, stay collectively in a duplex house in Istanbul.
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It has been over 4 years since Barnard left the U.S. He says that touring the world has taught him there’s a lot extra to life than being in America.
“I feel Individuals can are likely to have this impression of their heads that the entire world hates us that hasn’t been my expertise,” he says. “We’re remoted geographically within the western hemisphere over there, and there is a lot world to see.”
Conversions from euros to USD have been executed utilizing the OANDA conversion charge of 1 Turkish Lira to 0.02 USD on July 12, 2025. All quantities are rounded to the closest greenback.
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