What's your ideal city in a 100% remote world?

Tokyo!

Pros:

- Safe almost everywhere even at night and generally very clean

- Infinite amount of things to do, you'll never finish exploring new restaurants (with delicious food) and stores

- International events happen there: conferences, concerts, etc.

- Very walkable (including the metro), especially around city center

- Reasonable housing prices - high, but comparable to cities in the US

- Politeness is baked into society and unpleasant interactions with strangers are very rare

- Rest of the country is fairly accessible by train for a weekend trip, and there's plenty of beautiful nature if you get out of the city

Cons:

- Difficult language and few people speak any English

- Fairly closed society/culture, you'll always be an outsider (but there are plenty of expats)

- Toilets in restaurants often suck and public trash cans are rare

- Bureaucracy is quite bad and inaccessible if you aren't fluent in Japanese

- Work culture is bad, though being remote could make that a non-issue

Some runner ups:

- Lisbon (excellent weather, low prices)

- Copenhagen (super safe, great quality of life)

For me though, the top 3 criteria by far are 1) a lot to do, 2) very safe, and 3) don't need a car, and Tokyo is pretty much the only major city that meets those.

Might be the city I'm currently living in: Albuquerque, NM.

It's very inexpensive, and sits at the foothills of the Sandia Mountains and Petroglyph National Park. It's almost always sunny, yet is rarely too hot for outdoor activities. As far as bike infrastructure goes it may just be in the top 10 for US cities. You almost need to go out of your way to not be an outdoorsy person here. It has a decent amount of restaurants, breweries, things to do, but if you're particularly starved for entertainment then there are cheap flights to Austin and Denver. Indeed, what makes Albuquerque really great is that you could use it as a nice place to decompress in-between destinations.

There are some downsides though. Crime is pretty bad, as is the poverty rate, but a lot of places here in the US are struggling with that right now. Truth be told the thing that annoys me the most may be the Gross Receipts Tax. Basically, if you freelance, your services are subject to what's basically a ~7% sales tax, only for services.

But given how inexpensive everything is, and how much I get, I can't really complain too much about the GRT.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I currently live in a small town in the mountains. Love the mountain aspect of it. The townspeople are progressive in some ways (they try to be 'woke'), but extremely regressive when it comes to development (NIMBYism on steroids). Housing is a major problem, all the restaurants are shit, nothing gets built pretty much ever, most of the tax burden is on the few businesses there are, etc... But it is one of the most beautiful places in the world, objectively (at least outside the town).

Also, lots of the replies so far in this thread mention big cities. I'm wondering what the appeal of cities would be in a 100% remote world without restaurants as, presumably, restaurant workers would be moving to jobs that are remote, no? Or are they just the new serf class?

If I had to choose one, it'd be Stockholm (or perhaps any Swedish city with water access).

A couple years back I did take a two-week trip there consisting of one week sightseeing, one week remotely working for a West Coast agency. My work hours were around 4pm to 1am-2am Stockholm time, which was just on the edge of comfortable. My reasoning is as follows:

1) Fast internet everywhere I went, even the countryside

2) Great tea and coffee -- excellent cafe culture, too

3) Had a chance to meet some of the most kind, intelligent engineers I've ever known while there (and some now working here in the States, too); would love to collaborate and be motivated by working with them again

4) It felt very safe at all times of day (compared to where I live now, at least)

5) Active sailing culture, as I've recently become interested in that sport/hobby

6) Really fun bike culture, especially groups like at Bagarmossens cykelkök

7) Didn't seem like owning a car is necessary, even to travel outside the city/intercity

8) Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I enjoy how vices like alcohol and rich foods are more expensive there, so I went easy on them and felt healthier

Finally, nothing to back this up on, just a "feeling": the vibe is simply more chill, less dysfunctional than here in the States. Felt like many sectors of the citizenry, government, and business community had agreed upon a framework for a basic and decent standard of lifestyle. Certainly Swedes could chime in and tell me some hard truths that I missed while there (I've only stayed in Sweden for a month, cumulatively).

Things that would be hard are, definitely, finding housing that doesn't break the bank (Stockholm is majorly backed up, with rentals expensive). Also, my wife and I mastering a new language now, in our forties could be a challenge. I did start taking classes for it, for fun, before the pandemic.

If Sweden were off the table, my other remote choice would be Kagoshima, Japan. Nothing like living next to a volcano!

If I can work from anywhere in the world, why in all flying hells would I work from a city?

Same place where I am - Bangalore.

Weather is the best - warm but not hot, cool but not cold. No extremes.

People from every state of India. So great food. Culturally very diverse and really a melting pot. Good sports/fitness scene and culture. Safe.

Locals are mostly fine with outsiders. In fact that’s the economy here other than IT. English (more) and Hindi (less) are the connecting tongues. Local language is not forced other than some isolated incidents.

Decent amount of open space. Very easy and quick access to the hills. And in a way to the sea too, but drive is longer. Easy connectivity to everywhere by train, road, and air.

Decently open and alive dating scene, though it gets way too hard in 30s.

I had played with the idea of moving to a small town or a rural area or a quaint hill station but due to overall poor infrastructure in India those places easily get ruled out as candidates of a sustained working place.

You don’t want to have total lack of social life, patchy Internet, and very absence of even half decent medical facilities where you live for long. So you got to stick to major cities in India.

Other cities in India simply don’t have most of what Bangalore offers (except traffic is really bad here; and metro is designed to be useless; and political atmosphere is rapidly sliding to the extreme right but that’s the entire country). I tried living abroad, didn’t work for me. So Bangalore it is.

I’ll put on in for NYC.

Just love it here.

Big beautiful sky line

Fair amount of greenspace including parks, rivers, forests, and beaches

Even more greenspace easily accessible with a bike or car or by train

Bus trips to Vermont for snowboarding all winter (not as great as West coast, but still decent)

Antenna gets me TV for free!

Tons and tons and tons of cultures and restaurants and plays and movies and clubs and music

Close to family (for me!)

Lots of great people watching

Getting more and more bike friendly by the day

24 hour subways, restaurants, supermarkets

## Cons

Expensive

Crowded

Loud

It ain’t for everyone, but I love it here, no reason to leave.

A village in nature less than an hour travel from a city with an airport. Done that for 2 decades in different countries (pt,es,hk,nl) and it is perfect (also: cheap). I like cities for a day or 2 and then I cannot imagine why anyone wants to be in one; I had that since I was a kid (my parents say I asked when I was 7 why people would want to live in NYC when we went on holiday there).

In almost every respect (with the weather being the only thing I might wish to see improved), Dublin, Ohio (and Columbus in General) has exceeded my wildest dreams since we moved here in June.

https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-small-cities-to-live-in...

Valencia, Spain. Amazing weather all year long, great biking, great beach, and beautiful old city along with beach city all in one place. Oh and they Turia is a giant park that runs through the middle of the entire city and is sunk into the ground.

I think about this a lot as I have been fully remote since 2019, but have yet to execute on a family move.

If I didn't have a dog, I would definitely spend a few years in places like Portugal, Thailand, Vietnam, and other countries in which I could have a nice experience relatively cheaply. The time zone is a bit of a challenge though, as work starting at midnight makes it hard to enjoy.

For settling down, though, I would have a hard time living too far from a big city. I've tried to live the quieter life, but I just need the energy that comes with those large communities. Boston, NYC, London, Toronto, Chicago. Preferably a small town house near public transportation.

This kind of “what city is the best?” question isn’t very useful. There is a kind of efficient market phenomenon which causes all cities within a country to be nearly equivalent to the median person once you take into account cost of living, crowds, traffic, etc - if one place is clearly better than others, people will move there until it’s not. The key is to estimate your particular comparative advantage with respect to each city - do you want music, walkability, safety, climate, ambitious people, etc? Figure out what you value more and less than other people value, and then move to the place that aligns with those preferences.

Anyone else afraid to say exactly where, for fear it might become too popular? :)

London is great.

So are many other large and diverse multinational cities. Many of them also happen to be great for in-office tech job opportunities.

New York

* most diverse and cosmopolitan English-speaking and relatively-free city in the world, by far

* compact with good public transit, creating an incredibly high points of interest per commute hour ratio - the best metric for measuring urban qol

* not the BEST tech/entrepreneurial communities, but still has very good ones, and is better rounded than the very top tier tech hubs: high quality art, design, games, music, publishing, fashion, etc scenes

Hon. mentions: Tokyo, LA

After visiting many countries, and living in 10 US states this past year...

Mexico City. I lived there a month, I enjoyed the food even more than Japan, Vietnam, LA. People are friendly, lot of action and culture, felt extremely safe, cheap.

I've been thinking about this a lot. My criteria:

- Warm winters

- Sunny (>200 avg. sunny days)

- Good music scene

- Good tech scene (for meeting other founders)

- Beautiful nature nearby

- Reasonable cost of living

- In the US

Based on these criteria, I think I've landed on Austin, Texas as the best option. Here are other places I considered, though:

- California: L.A. or San Francisco would honestly be my top choices, but the high income tax rates push the cost too high.

- Phoenix: A cool city, but my perception is that its music and tech scenes are not as vibrant as Austin's. Also, I don't think the desert is very beautiful.

- Nashville: In a lot of ways it's like Austin, but smaller. It's still one of my top picks right now because it's closer to my family, but I'm leaning toward Austin because winters in Nashville are still relatively cold.

- Miami: This city excels in all of my criteria except for the music scene, which appears to be severely lacking. So, that takes it out of the running.

- Denver: Meets a lot of my criteria and seems beautiful, but I think its winters are too cold.

Montpellier, France. Moved here from Chicago, and can't believe I missed doing so many, many years ago. Amazing weather, extremely friendly people, fantastic public transportation (local, regional, country-wide (e.g. TGV), and all across Europe), *and* unparalleled delicious food and inexpensive great wine.

If starlink/rural fiber is more broadly available, I’d see many people forgo cities altogether. Why live in 500sqft when you can have 500 acres all to yourself.

Somewhere in Croatia. Good weather, good food, good internet.

Toluca, Mexico. It's extremely cheap, cool/temperate all year, and some of the suburbs (e.g. Metepec) are quite safe. Reasonable proximity to the US (geographically, temporally, and to some extent culturally) would make it a practical option for Americans. It's a profoundly "not hip" city, but as someone who just wants to be left alone in my apartment all day, I consider that a plus. The main downsides are extremely high elevation and sub-par internet speeds (likely requiring some careful apartment hunting).

Where I am now, nearish to central Vancouver. I'd love to live in other places for some time for other reasons, but they're all cities in Europe with different ages and cultures. Smaller places are great to visit, but are boring and lack breadth of novelty. It takes me 4 mins to walk to the gym where I bump into people I'm gradually getting to know, then 2 mins to the next cafe where I might get to know someone, then 2 mins to groceries, 30 mins to the mountains, 2 hrs to whistler if I can get a car or bus.

Berlin, a bit cold and gray in winter, but possibly in the top one for greatest city on Earth.

Lisbon is pretty great. Beautiful, cheap, great weather, good public transit, artsy, increasingly international and the language is fairly accessible.

I'm happy where I live now. Bangi, Malaysia. Great food, and it's cheap enough to eat at a restaurant every day. Everything from the humble fried rice to wagyu steak.

It's next to Putrajaya which has some amazing parks, whether it's skate parks or just picnic spots. Weather is great. Lots of beautiful people. About half an hour's drive from a cinema or major mall, but that's not too bad.

It would be not a city. It would be somewhere rural. In fact, it is somewhere rural.

It's quiet, and there's just enough infrastructure to head down the road on bike or foot for some lunchtime exercise.

But, if you like the big city, or working from the woods, that's fine, too.

A Town in Kenyan coast called Malindi. It literally has the beat beach in the world, at Watamu

I've always thought Vancouver, BC would be a nice spot but, it's quite expensive.

I'd really like to go check out Slovenia. Everything I've read / heard indicates that it is a more affordable Switzerland. Be at the beach and skiing in the same day, high quality of life, etc.

Thinking about my ideal place to live sends me into a spiral of conflicting requirements that ends up with the conclusion that any environment my simple human brain could think up will inevitably fail to satisfy somehow or feel like a static, boring utopia. I love nature and space but there is something about the change and pace of cities that is stimulating as well. The closest to how I’d want to live is probably like Mr. Miyagi with cool old architecture and space to tinker with old cars but nearby a city.

Singapore, but the hourly rate would have to be in truckloads of gold.

I've been remote for a while and so I stayed in Orange County. It's very nice, strikes a good balance of the other big cities in CA but lower CoL compared to Bay Area and Los Angeles.

I've traveled all over europe and my favorite city for living would be Budapest. It seems like it had a low CoL but a very vibrant community in addition to being walkable and beautiful.

Haven't met any Hungarian engineers so I don't know how the developer/startup community is, so if anyone knows chime in.

Serious consideration : Much of the discussion is conditional on remote being the norm in the future, no? What if very few companies support remote 3-5 years from now?

My criteria... good luck--many conflict with each other, and I don't really think this unicorn town exists.

English speaking

Very low population density (rural-er is better)

Inexpensive, reliable high speed internet for work

Low tax burden (state income tax + sales tax + property tax)

Affordable land + housing

Unpolluted air and water

Good schools and universities

Politically stable

Culturally moderate: not overly liberal or conservative

Legal gambling: nice to have :)

Things I don't care about:

Access to cities, music scene, art scene, any scene really

Sunshine/warm weather

Walkability

Neighborhood culture (I'd prefer to live far enough from my neighbors that I never see them)

Vienna, Valencia, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Lisbon and 1 year in non-Tokyo Japan and Istanbul.

If very high salary net-worth include London, Paris and Tokyo for another year.

I been working remote for the last 8 years, and thank you covid for even more work!

I moved far out the country side and picked up farming, animal keeping and all that.

When I need some think time, I have a 1-2 hour walk in the woods listening to the birds and experiencing nature. This is where I want to die. I left the big city and am never looking back.

OP, why do you consider living in a city for remote work???

My city Toronto, Summer is awesome everyone parties, Winter except snowy days is great, I do ice skating , which is one of the best activities I learnt, Taxes are high in Toronto, but good healthcare for all and free schools and visa free life is a blessing. Real estate is another bad thing but o already got a house, so I stopped worrying

I’m already living in one of my top choices: Cambridge, MA. (Four real seasons, high educational attainment generally, good public schools [some of them anyway].)

I’d love to buy a place on a TVA lake in TN and spend most of the summers there.

Younger and without kids, I’d have given serious consideration to moving to Costa Rica during/after COVID.

Check out https://nomadlist.com/

Personally I think the ideal would be to have a big property in the countryside like 1 hour outside a big city.

Tech scene in the balkans is great for a couple weeks. Athens, Belgrade, Zagreb, Sofia were great remote weeks for me, in nice coworking spaces, cheap accommodation and food and lively night life and friendly people to hang out.

Having worked from almost everywhere around Europe, my next plan would be Seoul though.

In an ideal world, these are in no order:

* Safe

* Affordable

* Great weather with no extremes (snow, storms, heatwaves)

* Close to the sea with beaches and piers for walking

* Not overcrowded

* Great public transport

* Close to mountains for hikes

* Good pubs and restaurants with lots of variety

* Good looking women

* Good internet

If anyone has any suggestions please say! I don't think a place like this exists.

Some totally rural fjord town in north east Iceland. I like being left alone.

I want a place with narrow streets (fifteen feet wide at most). There should also be a lot of restaurants and tiny parks and cafes and the like. I want to live in an old flat a few stories above all that.

I don't have a particular city in mind, but here are the criteria I'd like it to fulfill:

by the ocean, with good weather year round

good public transport

an airport nearby with good and affordable airport connections

at least 2+ million people

reasonable costs of rent

lively cultural scene

Budapest, with a side spot in Spain, and my ski pass in the Alps

I'd like to be on the road traveling permanently if I was able to work 100% remote. Spend a few weeks or months in a place then move on.

Chicago.

Friendly people , cheap housing, great public transportation. Tons of things to do.

No visa issues, it's much easier to move cities they countries.

Probably Dallas/Austin... or Zurich.

Something like a city in the Netherlands where I can not have a car and have less a chance of being run over.

Has anyone heard Chattanooga TN is cool?

Small, dense, walkable. Does it exist in America? I don't think so.

I'd work from a village on the sea in Sicily (Italy)

Buenos Aires

Why does NOBODY mention Italy?

Does anyone like Seattle?

Lisbon

Bangalore, India

It has great weather, a nice mix of people since there are a lot of transplants both from other parts of India and international, good food/restaurants, good nightlife, relatively clean compared to other large Indian cities and it’s safe.

Lagos, Nigeria.

That's where young people are.

Looking at history exciting stuff (both positive and negative) happen where there is a huge concentration of young people interacting with each other.

English proficiency is quite good as well.

I will still want to live in a big city, and I will still likely rent a place in a coworking fitted as I wish.

San Francisco before all the tech bro's showed up.

Antarctica, Amundsen/South Pole station, as a life test on mobility of productivity. Otherwise, back to Taiwan in the mountains.

"Have you noticed their stuff is sh-t and your sh-t is stuff?" -- George Carlin on Stuff