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My job is remote. I decided to relocate from big European city to very small asian tropical island in the middle of nowhere. Best decision ever.
What's the internet like?
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any examples of such cities?
Yes, cities like Budapest, Prague, Austin, Medellin, Tbilisi tick those boxes. If you don't care about humidity, the usual nomad hot spots come up like Chiang Mai, Ubud etc. If you don't care about humidity and don't care about it being a bit crowded, you also get Canggu (which can be busy now), Bangkok, Taipei and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Asia is just very humid. My personal challenge is that I don't like sweating…
There seems to be an inverse (I guess pretty unsurprising) relationship between being decent and being cheap. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be 1 to 1. But almost everywhere attractive in Europe is now very expensive. Cities like Berlin, or even Lisbon, are pricing themselves out of the race. The US doesn't seem to be worth it anymore overall for Europeans.
So what I have managed to find on paper is Slovenia which supposedly has low taxes and decent quality of life but is tiny, relatively inaccessible and still a bit expensive. Another option seems to be something like a second tier city of a bigger country. Like Porto, Valencia and Montpellier and maybe Hamburg.
What sort of surprises me is that I haven't really been able to find any, at least not European, city which seem to want to attract people based on quality of life. All these "next silicon valley" type statements always only talks about things that largely doesn't matter. Not how to live there for 1 week, 1 month or 1 year. Have you noticed any city, or even region, doing better in this regard?
I would try Austin, Texas. The weather is not extremely cold or hot. The cost of living is reasonable. It's not super crowded. And if I lost my job, there's a growing demand for tech workers. Are there any Austinites that can comment on this?
The Bad: Very long winters with lots and lots of snow. Not a whole lot of economic opportunity if you're not in healthcare.
The Good:
1. The most beautiful Spring/Summer/Fall seasons I have ever seen, and I've been lucky enough to see a good portion of the world.
2. Vibrant and walk-able downtown area. Arts/Culture/Music are taken very seriously there.
3. A ton of affordable yet beautiful housing in mostly desirable areas. Low cost of living in general.
4. Close proximity to beautiful countryside and the criminally underrated Finger Lakes (which are home to some of the best wineries in the USA).
5. Rochester Public Market. Think a farmers market that exclusively sells "ugly" produce for bottom dollar cheap. It's huge and quite fun to go to on the weekends.
The TL;DR I usually give people is that it's a Portland, OR that no one really knows about. It's the third largest city in New York State behind Buffalo and NYC. It's not a perfect place and it has its fair share of problems, but it is a great place to live. Assuming a decent tech salary, one could live very well there.
I am currently in Stockholm and would probably move somewhere more remote in Sweden, where I can pursue my dreams of running a small chicken rescue operation.
I had that same question a few years ago and made a site to answer it (for myself and others) called https://nomadlist.com . Personally, I like cities with lots of nature in or around it, with low people density (not crowded), with a creative culture (like art, but also startups), in mild climates (like 20'C - 30'C, 68'F - 86'F), where it's not humid (so between 30% and 65% humidity).
any examples of such cities?
My first serious programming job was fully remote I immediately moved to the island of Guadeloupe. It was great. My current job is fully remote... I live in the San Francisco Bay area, am I doing this wrong?
Paying Bay Area prices when you don’t have to seems silly.
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Hey! I’m from the Flathead valley (Yellowbay & Kalispell). We should get coffee when I’m back in town.
For sure! My email is in my profile. Hit me up. I'm in Polson.
I'm thinking about Boulder Colorado or Eugene, OR, but I haven't been to those places yet.