Kasem Hato won the Best Digital Travel Content Creator Award at this year’s NomadMania Travel Awards. We interviewed him to find out more about the person behind all those YouTube videos. And in this incredible interview he kindly shared with us a sneak peek into the world of Kasem, a curious boy from Amman who grew up with an atlas in his hands and became one of the world’s most fearless digital nomads.
In this exclusive chat, we’ll discover the early spark that pushed him toward travel, how his Palestinian-Jordanian identity shaped his worldview, and the wild stories behind building a YouTube career from scratch. From visa struggles to near-kidnapping moments, favourite countries, future dreams and even his fantasy dinner guests you wouldn’t expect.
This is Kasem behind the scenes. Let’s dive in.
Kasem, tell us a bit about your early life and how your love for travel developed.
I grew up in a loving middle class family in Amman, Jordan, we were financially stable but not rich, so international travel was something we couldn’t afford. The only trips we took were domestic road-trips with my extended family, my grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins for a weekend by a public beach in Aqaba, or a weekend BBQ in one of the parks around Amman. I’ve always been curious about the world around me, I remember my favourite book being the Atlas, looking at maps and learning about the world using them. I also remember studying about the ancient Arab traveler Ibn Battuta and I used to be very fascinated by his story and legacy. Later on, I signed up for boy scouts and I used to go camping with them each now and then.
I remember coming back from summer break to school and hearing from friends about their international trips with family and I used to get a bit jealous, I wanted to be someone who traveled more, but I understood that travel is expensive and my family had more important things to take care of. I believe this upbringing made me very curious about what lies beyond our borders, especially that I didn’t get to experience it, and I had an itching sensation that whenever I get an opportunity to start an adventure, I’d take it, and probably that’s where my motivation later came from.
First time I traveled internationally for tourism, I was 16 years old, my father decided that it was finally the time for us to travel as a family and we went to Istanbul. It was a quick 4-day trip, but since that day I was sure that traveling was going to be a big part of my life. I loved every detail of getting to know a new country, culture and people.
You’re Palestinian from Jordan. What identity is carved out by that and how do you see this affecting your view of the world and your travels?
This question could go in many directions. Firstly, I believe I’m blessed to have been born into this culture, there are so many values that I treasure from my cultural background. Generosity for one is crucial for us, honoring guests and standing up for the oppressed. I used to think that it was just the way the world is, and that everyone had the same values. But when I grew up and started traveling, sometimes I go out with people from different parts of the world and I notice that some of these things are very different. For example, if any friend of mine from outside visits me (whether in Jordan or somewhere else that I consider home), it would be default that I make sure not to let them pay for anything in their visit, especially food, and I’m always happy to do it, really makes us happy welcoming guests. Whereas in many other places this wouldn’t be the case.
Secondly, being brought up as a son of a Palestinian refugee family in Jordan of the longest standing occupation in the modern history, hearing about what my grandparents went through during the Nakba and being forcefully exiled from their homeland, having adopted the Palestinian cause even before being born, this made me connect more with people who have been oppressed, it made see their pain and feel it like my own, and it helped me understand the importance of learning about the struggle of others. I remember one of my first trips to India, I was staying in a hostel and I was minding my own business, a girl working in the hostel approached me and asked where I was from, “from Palestine” I said, she looked at me with compassion and asked if it was ok for her to hug me. We hugged. Then I asked why that was? She told me she’s from Kashmir, and because of that, she understood the pain of Palestinians.
I’ll never forget that encounter. Because of her, I decided to visit Kashmir in one of the hardest times and I shared a couple videos about Kashmir and their struggles on my Youtube channel.
Since Jordan is a popular country, give us some hidden gems that few tourists visit but you would recommend.
One of my favourite places in Jordan that is less known is Ajloun, especially if you get to stay a night in the national reserve there. Beautiful nature! Also, we have many hiking trails in the wet valleys between Madaba and the Dead Sea that are absolutely stunning, the most popular being Wadi Mujeb which is a must see, but also there is Zarga Maeen, Wadi Hmeira and many more. I’d recommend going with a local hiking group. Lastly, Dana nature reserve, many people skip it even though the landscape there is out of this world.
You’ve become a very well-known digital nomad and YouTuber in the Arab world. Tell us how your journey began, your initial challenges and how you’ve changed through this process.
My journey on social media began by my friends asking “how could you afford that trip??” I started a written blog to share my backpacking experience with friends who were not familiar with the backpacking culture, how to book hostels, couchsurf, eat local… etc.Some of my first trips were Sri Lanka, Turkey, India and the UAE. People were amazed with the fact that travel could be that cheap!! So, I kept writing. After a while, I noticed that interest in written blogs was much lower than interest in video blogs, and that shifting to video could make me some income, so I decided to shift my focus to video, and still it was mainly to help people with their trips. Lots of tips and tricks videos and even in the vlogs I was making sure to tell all the details for those who want to do similar trips.
At the time, I was a university student, and by the time I graduated, I’d accumulated more than 100K subscribers on Youtube and I thought that maybe, just maybe, instead of pursuing a career in my major (Computer Science), maybe I can make a career of this Youtube thing!! Prior to that, I never thought that I could make the blog into a career. I thought I’ll graduate, get a nice job with lots of days off and travel a couple times a year, and continue doing the blog for fun. But with the views and revenue from Youtube increasing, I thought I’d be crazy not to give it a go! I took my savings and started full-time travel, never stopping since then.
I had two big challenges in this journey:
– Firstly, having a weak passport, traveling on my Jordanian passport was a big hassle as most countries required a visa for me. I had to go back home so many times in order to apply for different visa as otherwise I wouldn’t be able to keep traveling. For example, until now the Jordanian passport needs visa for nearly ALL the Latin American countries, and many of them are hard to obtain. I remember once I was in Mexico and I had the spontaneous idea of visiting Guatemala right after. Went to the embassy, and after a couple hours of waiting and convincing the consul to allow me to apply without an appointment, I was told that I wouldn’t be able to apply unless I held a US or Schengen visa, so I had to go back to Jordan later that year, get a Schengen visa, then once again going to Panama to apply from there. Fortunately, now I also have a Turkish passport, I got it through investment in Turkey last year, and with it, traveling become much easier.
– Second challenge was maintaining myself with my savings and such low income for a couple of years until my social media accounts blew up and started generating good income that allows me to travel to countries that are less affordable. In that stage I was traveling on a very tight budget for the entirety of the two years. Traveled through Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, India again and Indonesia among many others. Thankfully, during that time I got few invites from tourism boards to travel to their countries for free to do my content which really helped, especially the expensive flights.
What is your favourite thing about travelling? And what is your least favourite thing?
My favourite thing must be the sense of freedom that travel gives me, the sense that I miss every time I’m back home. When traveling you can be whoever you want, whereas back home you must be the self that everybody knows of you. And surely the conversations with locals about their life, and answering the questions they have about my life and my country, I remember last time I was in Afghanistan, in my first day, an old man invited me to have a tea with him in Kabul, we sat and talked for an hour about life in Afghanistan and the atrocities that are being done in Palestine, it was one of the most memorable conversations, spontaneous and sincere.
Which countries have most surprised you, positively and negatively, and why?
Positively, I’d say Venezuela, going to Angel Falls is one of the biggest highlights during my years of travel. Russia also was a beautiful surprise. I only knew the stereotypes before visiting, lots of cold drunk people. But the reality hit different. People were very welcoming and kind. It had so many things to offer, huge diversity, beautiful nature, very affordable, it was one of my best trips.
Negatively, ummm, probably Haiti for being very dangerous and I couldn’t wait to be out of there (Port au Prince). And also Nassau in the Bahamas. People there were nice and overall it wasn’t bad, but everything was super expensive and there wasn’t much to do, I thought it had more to offer. I think I should’ve just gone on a cruise rather than traveling alone for few days, that would’ve been a more pleasant experience.
What do your friends and family think of your travels to strange places? And how do you see yourself in a few years’ time?
Everyone used to see it as strange and urged me to stop going to places that are far and stereotypically dangerous, but now after many years of doing it, they are less worried as they know I’m very aware of what I’m doing and even in strange and dangerous places, I know how to deal and not let myself get stuck in a bad situation. Actually, now they enjoy it, they watch my videos and they get in touch to give feedback and tell me how much they like that moment when I almost got kidnapped.
So what haven’t you seen yet which is high on your bucket list?
I have a few places: Hawaii, New Zealand (they refused my visa), and exploring Patagonia in Argentina.
Have you considered writing a book? Yes or no and why?
I did consider writing a book. I actually started with the media as a travel writer. I used to enjoy it very much but it wasn’t possible to monetize articles, so I switched to videos. But I think it’s still early for me to write a book. I’m considering publishing a book after finishing my mission of making videos from every country.
And turning to NomadMania, what do you like most about us?
As I’m new to the community, I yet have to explore more things that I like here, but I love the sense of community it brings, being part of a group of people who have a very similar interest in travel and adventure.
Finally, our signature question – if you could invite any four people or fictional characters, from any time period, to an imaginary dinner, who would you invite and why?
– Ibn Battuta, the man that inspired me to start traveling and inspired the name of my blog, he’s one of the most underrated travelers of all time, he deserves more attention and I’d love to sit with him and hear about his stories.
– Arya Stark of Game of Thrones, I just loved how adventurous her character was! Meeting Maisee Williams would be the second-best thing.
– Floki from Vikings.
– Che Guevara.
Thank you Kasem for this exclusive, and You can follow Kasem’s journey around the world here on his YouTube Channel.
