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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?

#911

Post by garyclarke27 »

mattlondon wrote: post #588
garyclarke27 wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes Portugal is a good choice now, I moved here 1 year ago from UK because of various factors, Brexit, tax, quality of life etc also because I believe it will be a great location to recruit IT talent to. I live in Cascais which is a bit expensive, (still much cheaper than San Francisco of course) but has wonderful quality of life for family, Capital city amenities next to beach. Great infrastructure, motorways, ultra…

> private medical cover including dental, for family of 4 unbelievably cheap, less than 200 Euro pm, i paid nearly that much for just dental in UK Almsot 200 EUR a month on dental seems outrageously expensive. Getting a simple figure on the prices is difficult but it seems like the going-rate is appox £16-21 pm (lets say 20-30 EUR): https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/dental-insurance... The amount I have to…

Your company had a good deal, cheaper of course in corporate plan, but I suspect your dental cover is very limited. Most dentists in UK now will only accept patients on Denplan, is very comprehensive but is very expensive cost me £160 pm for whole family.

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

#912

Post by garyclarke27 »

markdown wrote: post #495
garyclarke27 wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes Portugal is a good choice now, I moved here 1 year ago from UK because of various factors, Brexit, tax, quality of life etc also because I believe it will be a great location to recruit IT talent to. I live in Cascais which is a bit expensive, (still much cheaper than San Francisco of course) but has wonderful quality of life for family, Capital city amenities next to beach. Great infrastructure, motorways, ultra…

> no Amazon Really? I live in a developing country middle of the Pacific Ocean and I regularly buy from Amazon with no issues. How come Portugal doesn't have Amazon?

No distribution centre in Portugal, so no Prime free delivery. Also many items don’t ship here, in UK we used to literally get at least 1 delivery per day (courtesy of my good wife bless her) now only twice a week mainly from German site, which is much better than Spanish Amazon and has English option (unlike Spain) delivery costs soon mount up though.

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

#913

Post by ttroyr »

Tulsa, OK. For my Midwestern town's relatively small size, low cost-of-living, & southern hospitality, there's an incredible diversity of ideas. Just recently, I've discussed internet security with Mozilla staff, augmented reality with a credit card processing programmer, media in West Africa with an international, Native-American university, theology with an well-known U.K. author, oil discovery with a geologist, language learning with a Spanish author, poverty education research with a doctorate-earning Nigerian, and permaculture with a data-scientist. There are endless niche tech clubs; international, artisan restaurants; and high-end art, music, & athletics ~ surprises most people who visit.

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

#914

Post by elyobo »

jpgvm wrote: post #718
elyobo wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It has been ranked the most liveable city in the world for some years in a row. Melbourne would beg to differ; there were headlines when we lost the first place position a few months ago after quite a few years at the top. Not proposing Melbourne as an alternative though, while it's a nice place to live it's far from cheap.

It is comparatively cheap compared to SF, London, NYC and Sydney though... Everything is relative. Personally I find it a very affordable place to live for a number of reasons: 1. I don't need a car (~$10kAUD+ a year) because transport is sufficient. 2. Queen Vic and South Melbourne markets are very accessible which make buying fresh ingredients for home cooking very affordable. 3. Entertainment is cheap, tons of che…

I'd largely agree with your assessment; it's not cheap, but the cost of living to income ratio is good and therefore it's relatively affordable.

It sounded like the OP was not intending on earning a lot though, and so somewhere that was outright cheap was probably better for them.

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

#915

Post by alt_f4 »

calgoo wrote: post #272
alt_f4 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barcelona is not one of the best all-around cities for sure. 1) climate -- not moderate, only good if you enjoy extremely hot summers 2) culture -- obscured by the tourism industry in the city. Pretty much all restaurants try to rip you off, public parks charge entry for certain areas, everything culture-related is aimed and priced for tourists. 3) architecture -- nice, but not really exceptional. buildings really ti…

As someone who has lived in Barcelona for over 23 years now I agree with some of these points, but it also depends where you go in the city. 1) Climate - Yes the summers are warm, but not extremely hot, I have a lot worse time when i go visit the southern US for example. 2) Yes I totally agree we have way too much tourism in the city. However, the restaurants that try to rip you off etc are all in the touristy areas,…

> also there is tons of walking culture in this city

Your biggest pedestrian street, La Rambla, is a 10m wide sidewalk with intense car traffic on both sides. You walk in the middle of traffic and inhale the diesel exhaust that makes you choke whilst strange looking people try to offer you counterfeit bags and shoes from the large blankets they've (probably illegally) put across the pavement. Not my idea of a good time and probably not the best way to run your most famous street.

> Regarding paying for parks, its 1 park

could be, but you can probably understand how charging entry for (parts of) a fairly small park is unusual and is going to make visitors feel like they're being nickel and dimed wherever they go.

> So im sorry if you have had a bad time in Barcelona, and I agree there are things that need work, but its not as horrible as you say. Hopefully they keep adding bike lanes and continue to reduce the car traffic in the city center.

That's alright, I had an OK time overall, but I came in with higher expectations and was disappointed that some things (like the traffic pollution in the city center) felt a bit behind the times for modern European cities.

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

#916

Post by alt_f4 »

EugeneOZ wrote: post #320
alt_f4 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barcelona is not one of the best all-around cities for sure. 1) climate -- not moderate, only good if you enjoy extremely hot summers 2) culture -- obscured by the tourism industry in the city. Pretty much all restaurants try to rip you off, public parks charge entry for certain areas, everything culture-related is aimed and priced for tourists. 3) architecture -- nice, but not really exceptional. buildings really ti…

1) Summer is less hot than in California; 2) Looks like you were here only as tourist - locals just avoid touristic restaurants, there's a plenty of good restaurants in Barcelona; 3) Barcelona has a lot of really exceptional architecture examples, not just "old church" buildings like in all other cities of Europe. "Really tight together in the center" - 4.75 meters sidewalk on the each side of the street, it's number…

> 5) Pure lie. Really, you want to say you measured air pollution levels? Or you can see transparent gases?

I don't need a special device to tell me the air is bad whilst I'm suffocating :)

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

#917

Post by alt_f4 »

sanedigital wrote: post #376
alt_f4 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barcelona is not one of the best all-around cities for sure. 1) climate -- not moderate, only good if you enjoy extremely hot summers 2) culture -- obscured by the tourism industry in the city. Pretty much all restaurants try to rip you off, public parks charge entry for certain areas, everything culture-related is aimed and priced for tourists. 3) architecture -- nice, but not really exceptional. buildings really ti…

There's no way you've spent more than a week total in the city if these are the conclusions you've come to. Barcelona, like all large cities, has its drawbacks, but they're not the ones you've listed. 1. Climate is far better than most large US cities, and moderate. July highs of 86F are hardly "extremely hot". 2. Absolutely not true for 95% fo the city. Maybe get out of Gotic next time? 3. I don't even know how to r…

> 1. Climate is far better than most large US cities, and moderate. July highs of 86F are hardly "extremely hot".

How about August. I was there in September, it was 28-30C throughout the day almost every day. Either way, that's a personal preference.

> 2. Absolutely not true for 95% fo the city. Maybe get out of Gotic next time?

I did and I have also been to places outside of Barcelona. For example, I've had much better quality food at same or lower prices in London, Rome and Milan. The truth is, in this regard, Barcelona is very much second rate.

> 3. I don't even know how to respond to this point. Most cities have dense centers. Few have buildings like the Palau de la Música Catalana, the Sagrada Familia, or the Cathedral.

Sure, I don't really mind it. I was somewhat amused at how certain parts are overbuilt, but not with really old buildings, but just stuff that looks to be from the 70s or 80s. Most historical cities have done a better job at protecting their historical city centres.

> 4. High cost of life? Compared to the rest of Spain, sure. Compared to the US? Not particularly. Salaries are low locally but purchasing power is higher.

I think your claim here is obviously false. According to Numbeo:

Local Purchasing Power in Barcelona is 40.50% lower than in San Francisco, CA

Local Purchasing Power in Barcelona is 20.21% lower than in New York, NY

Local Purchasing Power in Barcelona is 48.42% lower than in Austin, TX

and so on. I don't think there is even one mid-sized or major city where that holds true.

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

#918

Post by wenc »

reustle wrote: post #562
davidscolgan wrote: post #138

I've recently moved to Chicago and am thoroughly loving it. There are tons of programming meetups here, seems pretty progressive, super good public transportation (at least for the US) and costs seem to be mostly reasonable. My studio apartment is about $1k a month in a nice part of town right next to a train stop. I really like that since Chicago is the third largest city in the country, you can probably find just a…

Curious to hear your thoughts after winter

Winters are fine here if you're from the northeast. It's comparable to Toronto, which is actually not that cold.

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

#919

Post by taysic »

wprapido wrote: post #786

Osijek, Croatia. University city. Thriving tech hub. Close to 4 major international airports (Budapest, Zagreb, Belgrade, Timisoara). Low rents. Low cost of living. Decent food. Very walkable. English is widely spoken. There are many other cities all over Central and Eastern Europe like this. Other options are Novi Sad in Serbia, Szeged in Hungary, Brno in Czech Republic (the major tech hub), Timisoara in Romania (sa…

Croatia sadly does not have a tax treaty with the US so one would be paying extra taxes if they were a US citizen.
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