10 Best (Global) Work-From-Home Friendly Cities
It goes to show that remote work, whether hybrid or fully remote, has displayed its value to employers and employees alike. In fact, 91% of U.S. workers are hoping that remote work, or at least hybrid work, is here to stay.
Remote work may not be for everyone, but it provides unique benefits for many. And perhaps one of the most exciting things is that it offers the opportunity to choose where “home” is.
We've curated a list of cities around the world that offer some of the best environments for remote work. When selecting these cities, we focused on entertainment, nature and parks, language spoken, cost of living and safety, and, of course, internet speed.
So here are the 10 best work from home friendly cities to inspire you for your next adventure!
Madrid, Spain
Madrid was listed the top global capital city for remote work by the ETIAS blog this year.
Filled with beautiful architecture and rich in history, Madrid has just about everything a city lover could ask for. From museums and art galleries to hopping nightlife and bars, it’s no surprise that this romantic and bustling metropolis is a favorite for remote workers.
Average Internet Speed: 120 Mbps
Safety: High
Cost of Living (one person): $1,870/mo
Language(s) spoken: Spanish, some English
Tbilisi, Georgia
Although Tbilisi isn’t the most popular tourist destination, it is culturally rich and bursting with gorgeous architecture. This eye-catching city is perfect for remote workers who want to travel and explore new areas. This affordable location has a lot to offer between its many parks, delicious food, excellent shopping centers, hopping bars, and lovely views. For hiking and outdoor enthusiasts, the mountains are a short drive from the city, offering a moment of reprieve from this bustling metropolis.
Average Internet Speed: 27 Mbps
Safety: High
Cost of Living (one person): $1,002/mo
Language(s) spoken: Georgian, some English
Willemstad, Curaçao
Located on the Caribbean Sea, Willemstad is rich in history, diverse in culture, and filled with beautiful, historic architecture. It features an excellent art museum with works by Picasso, one of the largest UNESCO World Heritage Sites, gorgeous beaches, great nightlife, and plenty else to entertain.
Average Internet Speed: 10 Mbps
Safety: Moderate
Cost of Living (one person): $1,412/mo
Language(s) spoken: Papiamentu, Dutch, and English
Washington D.C., United States
Bursting with history and art, the sprawling city of Washington D.C. has it all in the form of entertainment, shopping, and culture. With a diverse population, multiple historical sites, museums, river rides, local shops, and breweries, there is always something to do in this hopping city.
Average Internet Speed: 121 Mbps
Safety: Moderate
Cost of Living (one person): $3,350/mo
Language(s) spoken: English
Prague, Czech Republic
From cafes and taverns to castles and cathedrals, this magical city drips with fairytale charm. And it’s this atmosphere that makes Prague a favorite destination for remote workers. Whether it’s the architecture, breweries, museums, art, music, or food, it’s hard not to feel enchanted with Prague.
Average Internet Speed: 104 Mbps
Safety: Very high
Cost of Living (one person): $1,521/mo
Language(s) spoken: Czech, German, Russian, and English
Bangkok, Thailand
A city of life, opportunity, adventure, and culture, Bangkok is a popular destination for remote workers from all around the globe. Constantly buzzing with energy, every turn in this city provides delicious street food, exciting nightlife, friendly locals, business opportunities, and shopping centers. In 2021, Bangkok ranked number one on the Nomad’s List top remote cities, and still remains a popular city for professionals with flexible work.
Average Internet Speed: 188 Mbps
Safety: ModerateCost of Living (one person): $1,194/mo
Language(s) spoken: Thai, some English
Lisbon, Portugal
The charming city of Lisbon has a little bit of something for everyone. This artistic, culturally rich city brimming with life, color, and beauty is the perfect destination for someone looking for a welcoming and vibrant work from home atmosphere. With friendly locals, lively markets, hopping nightlife, gorgeous beaches, and excellent museums, it’s no surprise that Lisbon made our list of best work from home cities.
Average Internet Speed: 109 Mbps
Safety: Very high
Cost of Living (one person): $1,498/mo
Language(s) spoken: Portuguese, some English
Budapest, Hungary
There is no finer city to enjoy a day off than the “Queen of the Danube” itself. Known for its springs, there are spas and baths located all over the city. From the Gellert Baths to Szechenyi Spa, there are countless means for relaxation once you’ve closed your laptop. Budapest has excellent nightlife, an international environment, a wide variety of cuisine, and plenty to see and do, making it an excellent environment for remote workers.
Average Internet Speed: 78 Mbps
Safety: High
Cost of Living (one person): $1,036/mo
Language(s) spoken: Hungarian, English
Gdansk, Poland
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Gdansk is a city filled with history as old as the Middle Ages and as recent as World War II. It has magnificent and varied architecture from Gothic to Art Deco, gorgeous parks, excellent breweries, river tours, and exciting nightlife. This culturally rich and exciting city is the perfect work from home atmosphere.
Average Internet Speed: 90 Mbps
Safety: Moderate
Cost of Living (one person): $1,111/mo
Language(s) spoken: Polish, German, and English
Groningen, Netherlands
Groningen is a city of unique energy. Its modern, youthful nightlife, international crowds, cafes, stores, and abstract architecture blend seamlessly with its historical architecture and monuments, museums, and parks. For the outdoor enthusiast, it’s also located 15 minutes from the silence of nature and farmland. Groningen has a little bit to offer everyone, making it a wonderful city to work from home from.
Average Internet Speed: 103 Mbps
Safety: Very high
Cost of Living (one person): $1,885/mo
Language(s) spoken: Dutch, Nedersaksisch, and English
Interested in working from anywhere in the world? Check out the open roles on our remote job board!
Buffer: The Joys and Benefits of Working as a Distributed Team
It's a decision I made at the end of 2012, when Buffer was in its infancy, and it's interesting to reflect on that decision now. I am happy to report that I am in love with the choice we made to be distributed all across the world.
When I say that we're a remote, distributed team, I mean that we're literally spread across the whole world. Buffer is a team of 79 right now, and we have teammates on almost every continent and across timezones worldwide.
The sun never sets on Buffer!
The worldwide, remote Buffer team and the timezones we cover. (Visual courtesy of timezone.io.)
6 reasons why being a remote, distributed team is so exciting
I think the distributed team discussion is often focused around the challenges. I wanted to share from our experience the fun side of being distributed, which I think far outweighs the challenges:
1. Our team is super productive
The thing about hiring people for a distributed team is that they need to be self-motivated and productive working at home, coffee shops, or a co-working space.
During the hiring process, we look especially for people who have worked as freelancers or on startups. Everyone on board is incredibly smart, and it's humbling to work with them.
2. Team members have incredible amounts of freedom
Have a family event coming up and need to travel on Friday? No problem.
Want to take off to Bali or Gran Canaria for a few weeks and work from there? Awesome – please share photos :)
These things have all happened and are regular occurrences within our distributed team.
It's the little things too, like being able to avoid a commute and spend more time with family. We don't have working hours, and we don't measure hours at all. We're all excited about our vision, and we focus on results, balance, and sustained productivity.
3. It feels like the future
Even being able to share the locations of all my co-workers when I meet others and chat about Buffer is so fun and exciting. I think it provides a great story, rather than all of us being in the same office each day.
People ask how we manage it and I share our workflows and remote work tools. We call Slack our office, and Zoom is our conference room. Here's a look at some of the team in a recent Zoom call:
A team call on Zoom, the tool we use for video calls. You can check out our full list of remote work tools here.
I genuinely believe that how we're set up will be very normal in a few years. There are certainly challenges and we're still figuring a lot of it out. It's fun and a huge privilege to be able to be part of this innovation and experiment and share our learnings.
4. I'm learning so much about the world
People within the team speak lots of different languages, and talking with each other we learn about what it's like to grow up elsewhere in the world. We think carefully about shaping our culture further and how our choices might affect the various cultures within the team.
5. We travel the world to work together multiple times a year
Part of the DNA of Buffer is that we traveled all over the world for much of the first two years. This is something that has been sustained and is part of our values (and many in the team have lived up to this value by traveling as part of the team).
In order to have deliberate face-to-face time together to bond and have fun, we have regular teamwide Buffer retreats each year where we gather the full team, and we hold mini-retreats throughout the year for smaller teams and areas of the company.
A team work session from our 2017 retreat in Madrid, Spain.
On our all-company retreats, we spend a week working together and also do activities like sightseeing, boating and safaris. Most recently we gathered in Singapore!
6. Timezones make you awesome
Finally, you can look at timezones as an inconvenience, or you can embrace them and discover the magic of the time difference.
A key part of our vision is to set the bar for customer support. We obsessively track the happiness of our customers and our speed to respond to them. We have more than a million users and we reply to 80% of emails within 1 hour. We couldn't achieve this level of service without being spread across multiple timezones.
Timezones are a huge help for our development cycle too – with engineers in the US, UK, Asia and Africa, we literally never stop coding.
Beyond the positives of having a fully distributed team, you can also learn about our list of perks and team benefits that all employees receive at Buffer.
