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

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

#671

Post by pc86 »

amm wrote: post #358

Vienna, Austria. It has been ranked the most liveable city in the world for some years in a row. Cost of living is low compared to the European average; you can rent a medium-sized apartment for 600-700€/month. Everyone speaks English. Co-workers from Spain never bothered with German, because they can get anything done in English. Viennas public transport system is cheap (30€/month) and excellent. You can get anywher…

€700 is certainly cheap compared to just about any US city but what are the tech salaries like? Even in small US markets a senior developer or architect can get the equivalent of €87-110k. If the highest paid devs are topping out at €65-70k that's an important point.

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

#672

Post by aiisjustanif »

techcode wrote: post #107

I can wholeheartedly recommend Amsterdam (or surrounding places). Everyone speaks English, pay is good, and work-life balance makes a lot of difference. Commutes are generally short, you get ~26 paid holidays per year (sick leave is separate from that)...

Amsterdam is expensive.

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

#673

Post by baby »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #189

In North America I would vote Montreal. It's 1/2 price of most American cities and 2x funner and cooler than almost any of them. LA and NYC have tons of cool, but they are expensive and doing fun stuff is generally expensive. Not so Montreal. Mtl has way more going on than even SF ever had back in the day, and it's much bigger than Austin, Boulder/Colorado Springs etc. etc.. During the summer, Montreal has an unbelie…

I think I would agree, Montreal is the nicest city I've been in north america (perhaps with Ottawa) but the cold is definitely a deal breaker for me.

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

#674

Post by baby »

amm wrote: post #358

Vienna, Austria. It has been ranked the most liveable city in the world for some years in a row. Cost of living is low compared to the European average; you can rent a medium-sized apartment for 600-700€/month. Everyone speaks English. Co-workers from Spain never bothered with German, because they can get anything done in English. Viennas public transport system is cheap (30€/month) and excellent. You can get anywher…

As someone who travels a lot, I really couldn't see anything I liked in Vienna. Not sure what people see in this city.

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

#675

Post by baby »

siquick wrote: post #90

Barcelona - one of the best all-around cities in the world (climate/culture/architecture/world proximity/quality of living/beach/mountains) and a growing tech scene. Very easy to pick up development work here for a local company, you won't be required to know Spanish/Catalan for a job. The only downsides are that the pay is relatively low (€43k average for SE) and it can be quite difficult to find a place to live wit…

Barcelona is the worst place you can go to in Spain, it's just filled with tourism and lacks culture and identity. Go to Madrid.

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

#676

Post by baby »

tropdrop wrote: post #147

If you would like to remain in United States and do not mind having proper seasons, I would strongly consider Chicago, the last affordable big city in the United States. University of Chicago pulls a robust intellectual community (81 Nobel Laureates), but there is also a deep intellectual history around the arts and music that transcends the work of the university - something that I'm not sure I can say for a place l…

I've lived there for a while and there were a lot of deal breakers for me:

* security: you feel unsafe in most of the city, past a certain hour and you can't walk nor take the public transit (actually even during the day, the public transit is filled with crazy people). I could never take walks around my place when I was living there. A lot of poverty.

* no real life: there is the loop, but it's mostly offices and it dies down at night. Then there are a few single streets (wicker park, logan square, etc.) but they are rather small places where you can't really walk for a long time.

* the winter: it's freaking cold

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

#677

Post by datainplace »

St. Louis, Missouri. You have a two top schools, WashU and SLU, along with several other strong colleges. The city has become the Chess capital of the US. And you can buy a house for $450K in a walkable neighborhood that would cost well over $1M anywhere else in the US. A very underrated city.

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

#678

Post by jayalpha »

edsonmedina wrote: post #664
jayalpha wrote: post #632

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wanted to buy an apartment in Lisbon (I speak Portuguese). Forget it. You don't get anything decent below 500k (speak Golden Visa Program). Big chunk of change for a comparably poor country. "visa issues"? Portgual is Schengen. You need a residence visa if you want to live there. Possibly but far from trivial. On the other hand, if you want to buy real estate anyway and can cough up 500k you can go the golden visa…

You can also get a Golden Visa if you buy property in an urban rehabilitation area (or any property with more than 30 years) for 350k. If you don't need a golden visa, you can buy a very decent flat in the outskirts (within 30 mins - 1 hour commute) for less than half of that.

Golden Visa is irrelevant for me. Trust me, I checked the prices in Lisbon for some time. What do you consider "outskirts" of Lisbon? Sentubal?

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

#679

Post by baby »

victorpascu wrote: post #289

Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Per month: Rent is 500-600 EUR max (worst case unless you're actively looking to splurge), with the average going around 250-300 or so. You can cover food and taxes at a basic level on another 300. Of course, YMMV if you only order restaurant food and such, but if you stop by a supermarket every now and then you're set to go as low as 600 EUR/mth to live comfortably. I got by on 400 when I reall…

I was there, cool little city. I think I could see myself living in Cluj if I wanted to save a lot of money, but I did stay in cooler cities in Poland, Czechia. Also heard a lot about Budapest or Istanbul. But a short term stay in Cluj (maybe 3 months) would definitely be an option.

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

#680

Post by eequah9L »

sergioj97 wrote: post #499
nelsonic wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stats would be nice, I agree. I have searched but haven't found anything concrete ... the best data available is: https://www.ef.edu.pt/epi/regions/europe/portugal in lieu of stats, I'll give you the logic [facts] instead: English as a Second Language (lessons) begins in the 5th grade in Portugal. It's compulsory for all people and generally high quality. see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Portugal Stude…

Isn't English compulsory almost everywhere throughout the EU? I live in Madrid and it definitely is here in Spain. It's true, however, that the fact that every TV show is completely dubbed makes it harder for us to develop our speaking (our listening doesn't seem to be so affected for some reason). When you finish college you're only supposed to have a B2 English level. I don't know about it, but I wouldn't be surpri…

> the fact that every TV show is completely dubbed makes it harder for us to develop our speaking

Same in Czechia. English has been mandatory for almost two decades now, and yet somehow nobody seems to be able to speak it. Grocery store clerks, waiters, even policemen, unless you are in a touristy area, and often not even there, you are basically out of luck.

On the other hand, I'm sure having everything dubbed is a boon to foreigners trying to master Czech. All three of them.

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