In 2017, Doug Barnard, a university scholar on the time, took a visit to India together 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 attainable 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.
“Essentially the most thrilling half was speaking to the individuals and seeing how issues work. The immersion was what actually received me.”
Barnard graduated in 2018 and moved to New York Metropolis to work for Walmart. On the time, he earned about $60,000 a yr 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 in search of extra which means in my work,” he says.
Since leaving the US, 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 sort of this mysterious nation from an American perspective, a minimum of. It was closed off for many years they usually had simply opened for tourism,” he says. “Again then, individuals thought I used to be loopy. My dad and mom requested me to not go. My grandfather supplied to reimburse me. However I went for it and it was superior.”
Later that yr, 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, reside overseas, immerse myself in these overseas locations and make a dwelling from YouTube.”
Barnard moved to Istanbul in 2023.
Berkay Tunalı for CNBC Make It
From New York Metropolis to Istanbul, Turkey
About three months after being laid off, Barnard booked a one-way ticket out of the US. 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 dwelling 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 time and again. It truly is the right place for what I am doing. It’s just about the middle of the world. I like the language, I like the tradition, I 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 individuals on cultural immersion excursions of locations like Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan. Barnard presents personal excursions as properly.
Barnard’s travels overseas impressed him to start out a tourism enterprise the place he guides shoppers on immersive excursions.
Berkay Tunalı for CNBC Make It
The group excursions begin at $2,700 per particular person and what’s included in that all-inclusive package deal can range nation to nation. Flights should not 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 presents his immersive excursions.
“A whole lot of the time, individuals will assume we’re there on enterprise after which as soon as we inform them that we’re there as vacationers normally individuals are thrilled,” Barnard says. “They’re actually proud to indicate off their nation. They’re actually completely happy to see that foreigners are desirous about visiting their nation and studying about them.”
Doug Barnard Journey presents 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 an extra $64,029 in income, in accordance with paperwork reviewed by CNBC Make It. That very same yr, 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 toilet duplex residence the place he and his girlfriend, İlkay, pay 55,000 Turkish Lira or $1,368.91 USD a month.
The couple’s extra 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 right location for him as a result of a lot of his enterprise is within the Center East. It is one of many principal the reason why he would not see himself transferring again to the U.S.
“The extra time I spend dwelling in Istanbul and the extra individuals I meet and the higher I get on the language the extra it looks like house,” he says.
Barnard and his girlfriend, İlkay, reside collectively in a duplex residence in Istanbul.
Berkay Tunalı for CNBC Make It
It has been over 4 years since Barnard left the U.S. He says that touring the world has taught him there may be a lot extra to life than being in America.
“I feel Individuals can are inclined 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 carried out utilizing the OANDA conversion fee of 1 Turkish Lira to 0.02 USD on July 12, 2025. All quantities are rounded to the closest greenback.
Wish to be a profitable, assured communicator? Take CNBC’s on-line course Change into an Efficient Communicator: Grasp Public Talking. We’ll train you how you can converse clearly and confidently, calm your nerves, what to say and never say, and physique language methods to make an awesome first impression. Get began right now.
Plus, join CNBC Make It is publication to get ideas and methods for fulfillment at work, with cash and in life, and request to hitch our unique group on LinkedIn to attach with specialists and friends.
[/gpt3]
