james_elkins1's travels on Nomad List

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18 Apr '16

25 Apr '16

25 Apr '16
18 Apr '16

New York City, NY

15°C

United States

15 Apr '16

18 Apr '16

18 Apr '16
15 Apr '16

Tokyo

18°C

Japan

18 Mar '16

28d

15 Apr '16

15 Apr '16
18 Mar '16

Ho Chi Minh City

33°C

Vietnam

3 Mar '16

7 Mar '16

7 Mar '16
3 Mar '16

Mexico City

24°C

Mexico

5 Feb '16

27d

3 Mar '16

3 Mar '16
5 Feb '16

San Francisco, CA

11°C

United States

🗯 Forum replies

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24k

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How to get SMS verifications for banks while traveling?

by @jackgopack | 4mo 3 months ago | 39 comments

Any suggestions for seamlessly receiving SMS Verifications from US financial institutions and other sites while traveling internationally continuously? Won’t keep my US Verizon account due to cost and currently plan to use local sims at each destination (T-Mobile and Project Fi are NOT an option as they terminate for continuous roaming). In summation, I won’t have a US mobile account.

Unless I’m missing something, which is very possible, this appears to be the single most complex issue I’ve encountered in my preparations, and one that no one addresses. I would greatly appreciate any possible solution that works 100% of the time. Can’t afford surprises in this regard. Many Thanks! Jack.

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24k

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✨ Recommended destinations

This is an algorithmic recommendation based on @james_elkins1's trips history to find places they haven't been to yet that other people with similar travels as them also went and liked.

Lisbon

Portugal

Please stop going to Lisbon, stop telling people to go Lisbon. It is a beautiful city, yes. The Portuguese people are some of the nicest, warmest I've ever had the privilege to meet, yes. But the housing crisis in Portugal is real and terrible. Airbnb and temporary accommodation for tourists / nomads, combined with rich foreigners who can afford exorbitant rents, are pushing locals out of their homes: literally. Search about the housing crisis, the police-enforced evictions of families and the e

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun great

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 20° 68° 19° 66°AQI 1

$2,063 / mo

29Mbps

Chiang Mai

Thailand

Chiang Mai used to be N.1 for the digital nomad life. It is still great and you can find really cheap apartments (300-400$) and restaurants (2-3$ for a main). Wouldn't recommend staying there during the burning season. The best area is Nimman, but it's also the most expensive. You can stay in the old city that's very nice but that gets noisy during the weekend for the night markets. Last but not least, very safe city. All in all would go back in a heartbeat.

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun good

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 34° 93° 28° 82°🥵AQI 31

$1,101 / mo

24Mbps

Berlin

Germany

Berlin is overall a great city to be. Food is cheap and everywhere, easy to go out and have fun/meet for business. Rent has crept up but still far better value than where I came from. Internet: 36 EUR/month get me 450/40 mbps (cable -> DOCSIS 3.0) Public transport is 2.70 EUR/ticket. No woman I know has said they felt unsafe. Some really odd, xenophobic sounding comments on here. Biggest downsides IMO: service quality at restaurants - not that people are rude, but they don't seem to particular

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 🙂 Okay

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun great

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 10° 50° 11° 52°AQI 25

$2,941 / mo

30Mbps

Prague

Czechia

My husband and I spent about 6 weeks testing Prague in Nov-Dec 2018 as we were considering it as a semi-permanent base of operations for the next year or two. Honestly it was great and we plan on leaving Malta where we have been for the past year. Pluses - transportation is very good and quite cheap, tons of restaurants, lots to do. People are more reserved, perhaps even a bit suspicious, so I would not say it was an OVERLY welcoming vibe, however there are a lot of expats from the US, CA, UK

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun great

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 10° 50° 11° 52°AQI 26

$1,939 / mo

31Mbps

Bangkok

Thailand

Don't believe the prices on here for an apartment. 686 usd/month refers to an apartment in a high class condo, right in the city centre and seconds away from the BTS(train station). Just remember this, people working at supermarkets make 2 usd/per hour. If you want to live like a local, then you can save a lot of money. If you don't mind a 5-10 minute walk from the BTS, then you can easily get a one bedroom apartment for 300 USD per month, in a high class condo, plus with free golf cart ser

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun good

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 33° 91° 27° 81°🥵AQI 83😷

$1,426 / mo

25Mbps

Singapore

They say you get what you pay for. After having traveled the previous 4 months in India, Cambodia, VietNam, Myanmar and Thailand, Singapore was so easy! The subway system is a marvel, streets signs were easy to read, everyone speaks English (that just makes it easy for me as an English speaker) it is safe, clean, and parks are gorgeous. I was there as COVID 19 was breaking out fairly fast and that put a damper on my time but I was so happy to be there anyway and plan to go back. For digital

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 🙂 Okay

📡 Internet 🚀 Super fast

😀 Fun good

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 38° 100° 30° 87°🥵AQI 60

$2,762 / mo

88Mbps

London

United Kingdom

London is the best city in the world - you just can't do it on a budget. It's got an amazing tech scene but ALSO world class media, fashion, finance, art industries and many others. If you don't want to live in a tech / expat mono-culture then it's for you. It is a genuine melting pot with a huge range of nationalities and cultures living together (the US has a large number of nationalities but there seems to be hard segregations between them geographically, economically, culturally - so they

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun great

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 13° 55° 14° 58°AQI 21

$3,879 / mo

20Mbps

Barcelona

Spain

During winter is quite safe plus much cheaper. Some nightclubs are free and yet there is still a lot of people. Great por lgbtq+ community.

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 🙂 Okay

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun great

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 21° 70° 20° 67°AQI 35

$2,840 / mo

40Mbps

🚩 Flags collected (4 of 276)

🌍 Top countries

United States

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun okay

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 14° 57° 15° 58°AQI 26

1mo

$3,228 / mo

42Mbps

Vietnam

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😝 Cheap

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun okay

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 36° 97° 29° 84°🥵AQI 78😷

28d

$908 / mo

11Mbps

Mexico

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun okay

👮 Safety bad

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 24° 74° 24° 73°AQI 32

$1,268 / mo

13Mbps

Japan

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 🙂 Okay

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun good

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 20° 68° 20° 67°AQI 30

$2,738 / mo

26Mbps

🛬 Most visits

San Francisco, CA

United States

I've been living in SF since 2014 and I have to say Cost of Living is misrepresented. It's a lot more expensive now (2020) than posted. 1-bdr in center is $3,500-$4,000 + $200-$300 for parking + $100-$200 for utilities. Almost impossible to find month-to-month rent, so this is for 1-year lease. Coffee for two + a pastry is easily $20. Dinner for two never less than $50, unless it's fast food (+20% tips are expected) and if you want actually something good it's at least $100 for two. Airbnb is $1

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😳 Way too expensive

📡 Internet 🚀 Super fast

😀 Fun bad

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 20° 68° 20° 68°AQI 41

$5,440 / mo

67Mbps

Mexico City

Mexico

I do love Mexico City, it's incredibly vibrant with friendly people. That said, I will warn against following advice from people who go for a few months and say, "it's safe because I never had an issue". This is Latin America and it is known to be dangerous for a reason, statistically, even Mexico City is very unsafe. The chance of something dangerous happening goes up the longer you stay, only you can decide if that's worth it.

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun good

👮 Safety bad

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 22° 72° 22° 71°AQI 25

$1,433 / mo

19Mbps

Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam

It used to have a lot of character and charm but all the construction is making the city lose its culture. Apartments and accommodation are ridiculously expensive. 300 to 500 a month for tiny rooms in a shared house. For single guys go elsewhere. Women here are rude, ultra conservative and have flat personalities with nothing going for them. Food is okay but plenty of MSG and food safety is atrocious. In addition motorists are aggressive and plenty of accidents take place. Don't live here i

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun good

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 38° 100° 29° 84°🥵AQI 83😷

$1,037 / mo

17Mbps

Tokyo

Japan

Tokyo has so much to offer and so much to do. It is easily overwhelming. Whereas I usually take my first week to explore a place Tokyo’s sights just kept on going. I remember ending up in a hidden cocktail bar, a mexican rooftop party with 1 meter margaritas, spending a whole day going only to French places(?), visiting a store that only imported 2nd hand hiphop apparel, and throughout it all the best michelin star ramen. It just seemed endless, completely unrelated and incredibly fun. Six wee

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun great

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 21° 70° 20° 69°AQI 10

$3,201 / mo

29Mbps

New York City, NY

United States

Having spent a total of two weeks in London on two separate occasions and having lived in NYC for two years, both are among my favorite cities in the world. Londoners are quite internationally and ethnically diverse, and seemingly better educated and more intellectual than New Yorkers in aggregate. The city very clean with a stunning mix of modern and historic architecture, and arguably has Europe's best public transit in terms of signage, availability, cleanliness and general efficiency. Meanw

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 🧐 Too expensive

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun great

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 11° 52° 12° 53°AQI 3

$4,761 / mo

32Mbps