Deciding where to go on your location independent journey can be one of the most exciting but frustrating aspects of this lifestyle. If you’re running your business whilst on the road, the criteria for choosing suitable destinations are probably somewhat different than if you’re looking to simply backpack, sight-see or take a holiday.
Researching suitable destinations can take hours – we have already lost count of the number of hours we’ve spent researching the destinations we’ve considered – but there are some basic things to look for first, to save some time before researching more extensively whether a place really is a viable location.
The key to this is identifying your core criteria. Ours include the following:
Accommodation
The availability, abundance, cost & quality of fully furnished, short term rentals is crucial for us – we’re past the hostel & backpacking stage and, because we run our business from wherever we are, we want and need to be able to do this in relative comfort. A key criteria for us is whether the apartments already have high speed broadband available.
Where to start: A basic search on google is usually where we start to get a feel for the quantity of suitable apartments available – and advertised on the internet. This is usually followed by a browse around the forums that often come up.
Language
We started our journey in a country where we don’t speak the language (Panama). Despite speaking German, French and a bit of Italian, for some reason we plumped to go for a place where we had absolutely no knowledge (besides “gracias, por favor, hola” and little more) of the language.
Not the smartest move but we were fooled by the “English is widely spoken” promise of all the guidebooks & blurb about Panama. It’s not the overriding factor which would prevent us from going to a place but it is important, particularly if it’s a completely new culture and destination to you.
Where to start: Usually the most basic travel guide website on each place will tell you what language is used. Then, again they can sometimes be a little misleading and inaccurate so a browse around travel forums will typically give you a more realistic idea of how proficient you need to be in a local language, plus any dialects which may complicate matters.
Stability & safety
The political and economic stability and safety of a country is obviously an important factor to consider but don’t let that completely put you off. Countries like Argentina, South Africa and Thailand (all places we’ve been to) may suffer from political instability and be subject to uprisings and incidents, but that doesn’t mean they’re totally unsuitable to visit.
Where to start: A useful resource to start with is the UK’s foreign travel website found here http://www.fco.gov.uk/ for the latest travel advisory warnings about countries around the world. The http://travel.state.gov/ is the US equivalent.
Cost of living
Cost of living and your budget is obviously a main factor when deciding where to go. One thing you may also want to consider is the exchange rate and any fluctuations of rates that go with it.
It can be hard to get accurate and up-to-date costs for places, so take all figures with a pinch of salt and don’t forget that the most important part is how the costs relate to your income/projected income.
Where to start: A search for “cost of living in [country]” on google again, then travel comments on forums. Another useful resource is International Living’s website (including their Quality of Life indices) here: http://www.internationalliving.com/.
UPDATED: You might also like to check out our lifestyle cost comparison posts for 2007 and 2008.
In 2006, the 10 most expensive cities in the world were:
1. Moscow
2. Seoul
3. Tokyo
4. Hong Kong
5. London
6. Osaka
7. Geneva
8. Copenhagen
9. Zurich
10. Oslo, New York (tied)
And the 10 cheapest cities in the world were:
1. Asuncion, Paraguay
2. Harare, Zimbabwe
3. Buenos Aires, Argentina
4. Manila, Philippines
5. Karachi, Pakistan
6. Bangalore, India
7. Montevideo, Uruguay
8. Chennai (Madras), India
9. Caracas, Venezuela
10. Quito, Ecuador
Source: Mercer Consulting
Weather & Climate
One of the reasons we left the UK was, you guessed it, the weather! So of course, we like to check the climate, seasons and weather of places before we go. We do like changing seasons but we don’t like never-ending winters, rain or cold.
And remember, in the southern hemisphere the seasons are back-to-front so when it’s winter it’s summer and vice versa, if you know what I mean!
Where to start: Again, usually a basic search first or you can also try the weather on the BBC website for a current 5 day forecast for anywhere in the world.
For our own range of destination guides, with information specifically relevant to location independent professionals, written by locals/other LIPs who’ve spent an extensive amount of time in each destination, check out our range of guides:
The Little LIP Destination Guides To…
A range of guides giving you the vital information you need about a location independent destination. Each guide is written by someone with insider knowledge – and includes information tailored specifically to location independent professionals that you won’t typically find in any other kind of guidebook.
