Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 1001 posts

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#331

Post by nelsonic »

galfarragem wrote: post #255
nelsonic wrote: post #229

Depending on your ability to work remotely, I would make the "case" that you should consider Portugal . Lisbon and Porto are super popular with ["digital nomad"] remote workers who work for international companies so earn in USD but spend [much less] in Euros for a superb lifestyle. There's a reason @paddycosgrave moved Web Summit to Lisbon. It's one of the cheapest cities in Europe and [unlike Barcelona] everyone sp…

I understand skipping Porto and specially Lisbon as prices literally skyrocketed in last years. I also understand that Braga is maybe the cheapest relevant city in Portugal, but despite that I would pick Coimbra for the intellectual vibe.

Agreed, Lisbon and Porto have become more expensive in the last couple of years but still way more affordable than SF/NY etc.

[Sadly] while AirBnB has made it easier for "tourists" to visit the cities it has accelerated the [ridiculous] house-price inflation, especially in short-term apartment/room rentals often pricing "locals" out of the market completely.

Coimbra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coimbra is a lovely city. It was second on our list precisely for the "intellectual vibe" (as you say).

What "swayed" our decision toward Braga was:

+ Much Closer to the Porto international airport via Bus, Train or Uber/Taxi. So getting to London/Paris/Frankfurt/etc. is a lot easier.

+ More existing companies both tech and traditional e.g: Bosch & Primavera. So the MeetUps are more "practical".

+ Lower latency and generally faster Internet.

Our plan in Braga is to "recover" abandoned buildings (which are currently empty/unused) and renovate them into amazing places to live & work for "location independent creative/technology professionals".

We are morally against Landlords/investors who are simply buying up the stock of available "rental" property and jacking up the prices so locals can no longer afford them.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#332

Post by loriverkutya »

tixocloud wrote: post #71

Edinburgh could be a good option. If you look hard enough, it is still relatively affordable (especially compared to the Bay Area) and I’ve found very intellectual people to work with. There seems to be a big focus in the U.K. on collaboration between academic and industry and if you’re into data, Edinburgh is home to a The Data Lab, an innovation centre around data. I moved here from North America and have previous…

I not recommend any UK city, until the UK figures out the whole Brexit mess, because currently it looks pretty ugly.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#334

Post by kenneth »

nsomaru wrote: post #132
ronaldl93 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The northern parts of Durban (Umhlanga / Ballito) is also nice. Good fibre infrastructure, relatively safe. Well developed. Tropical Climate. Very English.

I'm actually a Durbanite living in Westville but I can't recommend Durban having lived in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Mumbai and Berlin. Spend too much time in Durban and I end up feeling like I'm intellectually frustrated. A lot of it might have to do with my race group and the fact that it is a minority nationally with a high concentration in KZN. You probably know what I'm saying ;) There's implicit racism in Durban…

Having lived in Durban my high-school years… I can't recommend it. I hated every second of it. I found the place to be utterly corrupt and demoralizing. It takes a toll on you to have to rely on private drivers and gated communities only to feel remotely safe. It's like living in a prison. Seeing the decline of the country via Jacob Zuma's rise, and the breakdown of infrastructure while I lived there was another level of depressing.

The traffic is horrendous too.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#335

Post by loriverkutya »

maxdo wrote: post #193

Kiev , Lviv , Kharkiv in Ukraine are extremely cheap, it’s still in Europe, and it has tons of talents. It’s a known talent pool actually. Eating out starts from $2 usd, for $3-4 you could even have a service in the restaurant. Renting a flat starts from $200/mo for some sub urbs areas. You can rent some office space for $150/mo I bet in most places you called cheap you spent more on coffee and smoothies.

And just be prepared to be invaded by Russia on a cloudy afternoon.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#337

Post by eggie »

mk89 wrote: post #56
inciampati wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sub 1k/mo bedroom...! Times do change, and fast. I lived there for seven years. I travel very extensively throughout the world for (research) work and Somerville offers by far the best social environment for hacker and intellectual types that I've ever found. I would be happy to return. If the OP is into anarchism, art, and culture I would recommend Napoli. An apartment in the best location imaginable would never be…

The OP asked for a place where he/she can speak English as well, and unfortunately this is not really the case.

Actually, you can get by pretty well in Napoli on english. Initially it was a struggle for me (native english speaker) to avoid using it all the time and learn the local languages.

It's true that it's not Berlin, but on the other hand it's not any harder to get around in english in southern italy than in portugal (the suggestion in the current top post in this thread).

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#339

Post by cleansy »

p2detar wrote: post #108
cleansy wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this. But definitely try to get a remote SE job there. The pay is laughable compared to for example Berlin. Which is also a great city to work and live in.

Not sure if it is much of an English-speaking friendly place, though. After visiting Barcelona and Valencia, I definitely think that without learning Spanish one can hardly thrive in these cities.

I have a different experience. It's easy to live there without speaking spanish. However, you should not move there if you don't want to learn it at all. In fact don't move outside any non-english speaking countries if you don't want to learn the local language. ;)

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#340

Post by siberianbear »

ur-whale wrote: post #263
nelsonic wrote: post #229

Depending on your ability to work remotely, I would make the "case" that you should consider Portugal . Lisbon and Porto are super popular with ["digital nomad"] remote workers who work for international companies so earn in USD but spend [much less] in Euros for a superb lifestyle. There's a reason @paddycosgrave moved Web Summit to Lisbon. It's one of the cheapest cities in Europe and [unlike Barcelona] everyone sp…

How is the income tax situation in Portugal?

If you're not already a tax resident of Portugal and you decide to legally move there, you can apply for a special tax rate as a "non-habitual resident" that gives you a lower tax rate for ten years.

https://www.livinginportugal.com/en/moving-to-portugal/tax-r...

Post reply on HN