The pandemic has undoubtedly had a profound impact on our work and travel habits, the most obvious change being the widespread adoption of remote work. This change has led to a particular lifestyle where working from different countries has become a widespread choice.
The type of work you do, how much money you make, and how flexible your position is will all affect where and how much you can travel.
If you are toying with the idea of going abroad to work, there are more and more countries that issue visas for digital nomads, but each country has different requirements. Therefore, the choice can be very overwhelming.
Norton Finance, a provider of credit, conducted research on the most favorable European capitals for digital nomads, and the results are in.
The company’s travel specialists evaluated 184 nations and ranked them according to their average prices for rent, utilities, transportation, food, gym membership and Internet access, as well as round-trip airfare from the United Kingdom.
Although it obviously depends on where in the world you are traveling from, the other criteria provide a fairly thorough analysis of how affordable a city is, with Skopje in North Macedonia coming in at number one.
The city is known for being an inexpensive tourist attraction and is also known for its delicious street food. One factor that contributes to Skopje’s high rating is the affordability of public transportation, which is an incredible eight times cheaper than the equivalent transportation in London.
The picturesque capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, ranks second. The average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the city center is an insanely cheap €275 (£238, $289). The third-place city on Norton Finance’s list is Chisinau, Moldova, where a pint costs just €1.30 (£1.12, $1.37).
Cities like Copenhagen and Dublin, which are certainly among the most expensive places to live in Europe, are at the other end of the scale. Here, the average rent is about five times as high as in the ten largest cities.
The following ten cities in Europe are the most affordable for digital nomads:
- Skopje, North Macedonia
- Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Chisinau, Moldova
- Sofia, Bulgaria
- Bucharest, Romania
- Belgrade, Serbia
- Budapest, Hungary
- Warsaw, Poland
- Vilnius, Lithuania
- Riga, Latvia