In 2017, Doug BarnardI was a college student at the time and traveled to India with my mother. The experience was so influential that it eventually inspired him to become a full-time traveler, a path he didn’t know.
“Going to India was an eye-opening experience for me. It was the first time I went to somewhere so strange and so exciting, for me, it was something I needed more epiphany.”
“The most exciting part is talking to people and understanding the way things work. Immersing is what really appeals to me.”
Barnard graduated in 2018 and moved to New York City to work for Walmart. At the time, he worked around $60,000 a year in the e-commerce field, and although he didn’t like to work, it certainly wasn’t his passion.
“I think part of me is looking for more meaning in my work,” he said.
Since leaving the United States, Barnard has traveled to places like Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Doug Barnard
While working at Walmart, Barnard opened a YouTube channel specifically for his trips. His first trip on the channel was in a visit to Saudi Arabia in 2020.
“At the time, from the American perspective, Saudi Arabia was this mysterious country. It had been closed for decades and they had just opened up tourism,” he said. “At that time, people thought I was crazy. My parents wanted me not to go. My grandfather was willing to reimburse me. But I went, it was amazing.”
Later that year, Barnard was fired due to the pandemic. While others may be nervous about unemployment, Barnard sees it as a chance to bet on his own.
“My dream is to travel full time, live abroad, immerse yourself in these foreign places, and make a living from YouTube.”
Barnard moved to Istanbul in 2023.
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From New York City to Istanbul, Turkey
About three months after his dismissal, Barnard booked a one-way ticket in the United States. In January 2021, he arrived in Serbia and then traveled for two years before deciding to establish Türkiye’s Istanbul in 2023.
“Growing up in Connecticut, I never thought I would end up living in a place like Istanbul, or going to all the places I was lucky enough to go,” Barnard said. “I found myself back to Istanbul over and over again. It was really the perfect place for what I was doing. It was almost the center of the world. I love the language, I love culture, I love history.”
His time abroad inspired Barnard to set up a boutique travel company called Doug Barnard Travel. They brought groups of 8 to 10 people in cultural immersion tours in places like Iraq, Syria and Pakistan. Barnard also offers private tours.
Barnard’s travel inspired him to start the tourism industry, and he directed his clients to immersive travel.
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Group tours start at $2,700 per person, while the package for all-inclusive packages may vary to the country. Flights are not included.
“It’s really real travel. I mean it’s real. It’s amazing to have places like Egypt and India, but they have mass tourism, places like Iraq are new to tourism, so much so that you get a real experience,” Barnard said. “People are happy to have you. Hospitality is not in this world, everything you see is unparalleled.”
Barnard’s YouTube channel helped bring in his travel company’s first customers. Many of the destinations that appear in his early videos are places where he offers immersive travel.
“A lot of times people assume we’re there and then once we tell them we’re there, because tourists are usually excited,” Barnard said. “They are very proud to show off their country. They are really happy to see foreigners interested in visiting their country and getting to know them.”
Doug Barnard Travel offers travel to other places like Syria and Iraq.
Doug Barnard
In 2024, Doug Barnard Travel conducted a total of five group trips and brought in $100,100 in revenue. Barnard’s YouTube channel business brought in $64,029 in revenue, according to documents reviewed by CNBC. That same year, Barnard was able to pay $83,808.
Barnard lives in a two-bedroom, two and a half-bath duplex apartment in Istanbul Pay 55,000 TL Lira or $1,368.91 per month.
The couple’s extra monthly fee is about 2,000 Turkish lira on average, which is about $50. These include bills such as water, electricity, internet and natural gas. Barnard said Istanbul is the ideal place for him because most of his business is in the Middle East. This is one of the main reasons why he can’t see himself returning to the United States
“The more time I live in Istanbul, the more people I meet, the better I feel about language and the more like home,” he said.
Barnard lives in an apartment in Istanbul with his girlfriend İlkay.
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It has been more than four years since Barnard left the United States, and he said traveling around the world has taught him a lot more life than he did in the United States.
“I think Americans tend to make this impression in their minds, making the whole world hate us that it’s not my experience,” he said. “We are geographically isolated in the Western Hemisphere, where there are a lot of worlds to see.”
Conversion from Euro to USD is done using Oanda conversion rate of 1 Turkish lira 0.02 USD on July 12, 2025. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.
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