Web Working Nomads Ahoy!
In Working Anywhere by Skellie
Photo by Ahron de Leeuw
BootsnAll travel network has published its top 10 destinations for independent travelers, based on a criteria combining history, culture and value. Some of the locations (like Thailand, Ethiopia and Nepal) offer decent hotels at less than $10 USD a night. At those prices, you’ve got a much better chance of juggling bills at home and hotels anywhere.
As someone gearing up to spend much of 2009 working internationally and traveling solo, I’ve found this list insanely useful.
Here are the locations that made their list:
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Budapest, Hungary
- Morocco
- Chiang Mai, Thailand
- Ethiopia
- Queenstown, New Zealand
- Sicily
- Jordan
- Belize
- Nepal
Sadly, no mention of internet cafes and free wireless, though.
What’s your top destination for independent, working travel?
Top 10 Destinations for Independent Travelers in 2008 [BootsnAll]
January 16th, 2008
Cool!
Freelancing while traveling the world huh? What a great idea!
Maybe I should do it.
January 16th, 2008
I’m more of a Bangkok boy myself, but Chiang Mai is excellent. I lived about an hour from Chiang Mai for 10 months last year. Now I live in Hua Hin, Thailand which is a great destination if you love bars, beaches, and other foreigners.
Internet access and internet cafes are abundant, most charging 50 cents an hour for access (unless you go to the tourist internet cafes). Access can be slow sometimes, though.
Justin Dupre
http://www.blogosis.com
January 16th, 2008
The Working Nomad doing just that, and his blog is an interesting read…..
http://www.workingnomad.com/
January 17th, 2008
In Mai, I’ll have my first experience on Bali, Indonesia
Thailand and Nepal are definitively on my wishlist
January 17th, 2008
hmmm, i don’t want to work from any of these places.
PEACE!
January 17th, 2008
Hey! My wife and I are heading to SE Asia on Jan 29th to do exactly what you’re planning - traveling, and laptop freelancing. Our agenda includes Malaysia, a volunteering stint in the wilds of Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and so on.
Our first destination outside of Singapore is Melaka, where were staying at Ringo’s (http://www.ringosfoyer.com/) for $4 per person per night. Free wifi - check!
Whereabouts are you planning on traveling & working? We’ll be in SE Asia for a year anyway.
January 17th, 2008
This is something that is VERY close to my heart right now. I’m engaged to someone in another country, I’m a webworker, and paid in dollars. The trouble is, I live in the UK, so my income is actually halved thanks to the exchange rate. We can’t afford to go through the visa process yet, plus my lack of a ‘paycheque’ income counts against me. So I have been seriously considering heading the two of us out to some exotic locale where we can save a lot more money much quicker, as well getting to spend time together.
Good luck with your travels! Take photographs
January 17th, 2008
Hey! I don’t see Canada on that list!
January 17th, 2008
Litomerice, CZ - The Czech Republic is already a wonderful vacation spot for the history-curious and train-loving crowd. Plus, you can find free wi-fi on most corners in pubs and cafes. I lived there for three months and never went hungry when it came to wi-fi…and that was two years ago!
January 17th, 2008
Great new blog Skellie…just found time to visit in between our travels! It compliments the one I’ve been running for a few months really well (http://locationindependent.com) and nice to see lots more people adopting this way of work.
My husband and I have been running our business on the net for the past 12 months and have so far lived in Panama, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Grenada (West Indies), Dubai and we’ve literally just arrived in Cape Town, South Africa.
Of all the places we’ve been to so far - we’ve never had any problems with the internet and my parents are currently in Thailand doing a similar thing (except not working of course) and the internet is fine there too.
Where are you planning to travel to in 2009?
January 17th, 2008
Aside from the historical aspect, it would be nice to see a ranking of locations based on dependable broadband access and exchange rates with the U.S. and Europe.
January 17th, 2008
Would love to be in Cuba, but of course US restrictions don’t make that very possible. Second would be London . . . if price were not an object!
January 17th, 2008
Funny,
The picture is of a street in Israel. Sadly it did not make it into the list.
The top sign says: “Important notice”, and the bottom left says “Happy notification”. - both apply to this post
- udi
January 17th, 2008
Hey Skellie, I am from Nepal as well currently living in USA. If anybody needs any information on Nepal drive em’ my way.
January 17th, 2008
How about Brazil?
We’re heading to Rio and Florianopolis this October after a stint in the Swiss Alps and Zurich.
January 17th, 2008
I live in a city in the Czech Republic and I’d echo Read Scott’s suggestion. Litomerice is a great town, but there are dozens like it across the country and the rest of Central Europe. Free Wi-Fi is very common in bars and cafes, and it’s not expensive to set yourself up at home if you’re staying awhile.
Our broadband access cost about $200AUD ($180USD) to set up (routers, antennae etc) and then around $20 per month for unlimited access. A cup of coffee in a cafe on the square goes for about $1-$1.50, 250km on the train is about $17 and a month’s rent can be $250 for a bedsit in a good location, up to $750 for a three-bedroom apartment with a view. The information on my website is aimed more towards people travelling through the country, but some of it might be useful for intending expats…
Budapest is the only place of the ten on the list that I’ve been, and I wasn’t especially taken by it. I wonder if Boots’n'all also considered smaller cities in the region or just stuck to the capitals?
January 17th, 2008
@ Rod & Lea: Not sure yet — I’m not a very experienced traveler so I’ll have to take that into account. Probably the U.S.A. or Europe. Any recommendations? :).
@ Lea (about something else): You’ll have to tell me how you find Johannesburg. South Africa is in the top five countries I’d like to go but the security concerns are preventing me from taking the plunge.
@ Ed Sutherland: That would be great. I’ll keep an eye out.
@ Udi: Thanks for the translation. I knew it would be somewhere in Israel but the photo was too cool not to use :).
@ Ritu: I will definitely ask you about it some time :).
@ Captain Oddsocks: Good point about the big cities. I suppose they wanted to pick places with name recognition…
Well, with two recommendations the Czech republic might have to take a spot on my list if I end up heading to Europe.
January 18th, 2008
We’re hopefully heading to Australia later this year with our two boys (3 & 5) taking in a few places along the way.
Once we get there we intend traveling WA until we find ‘our place’.
All that stands in our way is Mount Visa.
Good luck everyone:)
January 18th, 2008
Hey Skellie - South Africa so far is fab!
Although I’m not sure I’d recommend Johannesburg - it is incredibly dangerous by all accounts and altho we flew in to it, we were advised to fly straight on to Cape Town. We’ll prob be going back to Jo’burg to take a safari to Kruger from there but it’s not somewhere that many people (even locals) go to visit, unless they have to for business.
Cape Town on the other hand is fantastic and where many people head for - we’ll be staying just outside of it (in a little surf town on the coast) for the next 3 months. High speed internet here is fine - altho wireless roaming service gets pretty expensive if you’re a heavy user. A few places have inclusive internet though, so that’s what we always go for.
Funnily enough it reminds me very much of NZ/Australia - and the Garden Route is very similar to the Great Ocean Road which I’m sure you know well!
Re. safety - as a fairly experienced traveller, I haven’t found it too bad but I’d def recommend taking sensible precautions. If you’re used to being sensible living in a major city though, you should be fine.
We’ll be posting more travel/touristy stuff on our personal travel site if you want to find out more about our wanderings in South Africa (www.wanderingwoodwards.com) or if you want more specific info Skellie, just email me.
January 18th, 2008
Well I’m biased, becuase I already live here, but a great place for saving money and living well online for me has been the Philippines … living is quite cheap, English is one of the offical languages, free WiFi is relatively common, there’s an Internet cafe on every other street corner, internal transportation is very cheap and I love the people … I married one.
The only downside is the same downside that hinders all abroad Americans these days … if you live in the US, and thus never deal with exchange rates, it’s really hard to believe how weak the US dollar really is.
But i won’t be coming ‘home’ any time soon, I’ve found acomfortable niche along with thousands of other Americans
January 19th, 2008
I spend a couple of months in Buenos Aires each year. I know it sounds great: working out of an internet cafe by day and dancing tango by night. But reality is different.
I found the work quite frustrating. Why? Because I found some connections so slow that I was tempted to go for a shower while my your emails loaded, I had difficulties coping with WiFi (try explaining to an illiterate waiter in Spanish that the wifi connection isn’t working …), and the fact that just as the next post is due on one’s blog all internet cafes seem to evaporate, or you just happen to be on a 24 hour bus ride.
As a writer, my output while traveling is much lower than normal.
I think it’s because a lot of energy goes into managing simple travel chores, such as organising how to get from A to B, deciding where to stay at night, making new friends in a strange language, and seeing one’s credit card debt creep up alarmingly.
I write better lazing in bed at home with the cat lying on my feet in a pool of sunlight, a cup of tea at hand, and my internet connection eagerly fetching me stuff at the speed of light.
January 19th, 2008
@Mary: Not to be a wet blanket about the roving writer concept, but you do mention one of the major downsides. The issues we take for granted when working from an industrialized and tech-saavy region can often consume a large portion of our time in some locations.
January 19th, 2008
@ Lea: Thanks for the advice. I have actually been talking to a friend about going for the 2010 World Cup (soccer). I’m thinking the security will be ramped up significantly at that point, anyway. Cape Town sounds great… I might email you at some point to plug you for more info :).
Checking out the travel blog now.
January 21st, 2008
That could well be the case although being in town at the same time as a load of football fans might pose additional problems in itself!!
I’d say it’d be a fab time to come though - although if security is the main concern then perhaps consider coming 6-12 months in advance when they’ll be ramping up for it but you won’t have to contend with the influx of tourists, pushing prices up everywhere and stretching the infrastructure.
Seriously though - as far as security goes - so far we’ve experienced no problems whatsoever and the little town where we’re staying is just the cutest place. In fact, it’s one of the only places we’ve stayed in so far that we think we could even consider living in (or at least coming back to every year) - which is quite a biggie for us!!
We know a few people here - can easily put you in touch if you do decide to come here.
January 30th, 2008
Although no wireless access points, Morocco has hundreds (i mean literally), hundreds of internet cafes. All running fake XP on dier machines that struggle to handle it….
January 31st, 2008
@Mary: I’ll take the cat and the sunshine over my office any day!!!