piovella's travels on Nomad List

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1 Jun '18

4mo

30 Sep '18

30 Sep '18
1 Jun '18

Valencia

25°C

Spain

5 Apr '18

2mo

25 May '18

25 May '18
5 Apr '18

Puerto Vallarta

28°C

Mexico

15 Mar '18

21d

5 Apr '18

5 Apr '18
15 Mar '18

Mexico City

24°C

Mexico

3 Mar '18

5mo

31 Jul '18

31 Jul '18
3 Mar '18

Ko Pha Ngan

27°C

Thailand

3 Feb '18

28d

3 Mar '18

3 Mar '18
3 Feb '18

Canggu, Bali

30°C

Indonesia

14 Jan '18

2mo

15 Mar '18

15 Mar '18
14 Jan '18

Playa del Carmen

26°C

Mexico

2017

16 Dec '17

2mo

3 Feb '18

3 Feb '18
16 Dec '17

Ko Pha Ngan

25°C

Thailand

14 Nov '17

Hamilton

24°C

Bermuda

1 Jun '17

6mo

13 Nov '17

13 Nov '17
1 Jun '17

London

19°C

United Kingdom

20 Apr '17

1mo

31 May '17

31 May '17
20 Apr '17

Tel Aviv

21°C

Israel

5 Jan '17

1mo

6 Feb '17

6 Feb '17
5 Jan '17

Playa del Carmen

26°C

Mexico

2016

29 Dec '16

4 Jan '17

4 Jan '17
29 Dec '16

Miami Beach

United States

22 Dec '16

28 Dec '16

28 Dec '16
22 Dec '16

Key West, FL

25°C

United States

29 Nov '16

11d

10 Dec '16

10 Dec '16
29 Nov '16

Santiago

26°C

Chile

15 Nov '16

14d

29 Nov '16

29 Nov '16
15 Nov '16

La Paz Department

Bolivia

🗯 Forum topics

👍

726

👎

USD bank account

by @piovella | 3yr 2 years ago | 9 comments

Hey guys,

I’m in the beginning of my nomadic life. I currently have a UK account in GBP currency but most my clients pay me in USD either via Upwork or Transferwise. I was wondering if you know if there is a better way to deal with the fees?
I was looking at opening a USD account but the fees are ridiculous (I looked at HSBC).
Not sure if this is useful information but at the moment I’m still working as an independent freelancer. I haven’t set up a company yet as am looking for the best option for that.

Thanks

👍

726

👎

✨ Recommended destinations

This is an algorithmic recommendation based on @piovella'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

Great city with a really welcoming atmosphere. Its really a tech hub. There is an app which allows you to go to a different co working space once per week for free. Im staying at a co working hostel here and everyone is super friendly and welcoming. Bars and nightlife is not bad considering the pandemic, if you want to drink after midnight, you can join the masses of people on the top of the hill, and the police dont mind.

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun great

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 18° 64° 18° 65°AQI 6

$2,084 / 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 32° 90° 27° 80°🥵AQI 18

$1,097 / 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 19° 66° 19° 65°AQI 47

$2,970 / mo

30Mbps

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 37° 99° 30° 86°🥵AQI 71

$1,421 / mo

25Mbps

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 17° 63° 16° 61°AQI 67

$1,971 / mo

31Mbps

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 36° 97° 29° 85°🥵AQI 67

$2,777 / mo

88Mbps

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° 21° 71°AQI 52

$2,868 / mo

40Mbps

Ubud, Bali

Indonesia

Honestly, this is an awesome place to be if you're actually trying to get work done. It's a bit of an older vibe than Canggu, and there's certainly a big chunk of yogi's kicking around — but I liked it much better than Canggu and found it less pretentious. Plus, you can drive down there in 45mins whenever you want some beach or party vibes. As others mentioned, there's some great coworking spaces, cheap warungs, some really nice spots to stay cheaply if you go just outside of the mad tourist

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun okay

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 37° 99° 29° 85°🥵AQI 41

$1,323 / mo

12Mbps

🚩 Flags collected (10 of 276)

🌍 Top countries

Thailand

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun okay

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 33° 91° 28° 83°🥵AQI 39

7mo

$1,198 / mo

23Mbps

United Kingdom

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun okay

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 11° 52° 12° 53°AQI 22

6mo

$3,646 / mo

24Mbps

Mexico

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun okay

👮 Safety bad

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 28° 83° 28° 81°AQI 40

5mo

$1,290 / mo

13Mbps

Spain

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 🙂 Okay

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun good

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 22° 72° 22° 71°AQI 19

4mo

$2,622 / mo

33Mbps

Israel

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 🧐 Too expensive

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun okay

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 31° 87° 28° 82°AQI 68

1mo

$4,252 / mo

16Mbps

Indonesia

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😝 Cheap

📡 Internet 🙂 Good

😀 Fun okay

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 39° 102° 30° 86°🥵AQI 27

28d

$840 / mo

9Mbps

Bolivia

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 😡 Slow

😀 Fun okay

👮 Safety bad

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 16° 61° 16° 61°AQI 48

14d

$1,560 / mo

4Mbps

United States

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun okay

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 24° 75° 24° 74°AQI 34

12d

$3,228 / mo

42Mbps

🛬 Most visits

Playa del Carmen

Mexico

I very strongly don't recommend going to Playa. I lived in Playa del Carmen for multiple months in 2019 and LOVED my time there until multiple people got murdered next to my apartment in the same day. I never felt unsafe until that happened. People who live there or who visit there often will tell you there's some violence but it's no more dangerous than most U.S. cities. The murder stats will tell you that this city has one of the highest murder rates of any non-warzone cities in the world. A

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun great

👮 Safety bad

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 37° 99° 29° 85°🥵AQI 7

$1,386 / mo

12Mbps

Ko Pha Ngan

Thailand

This island is a total gem. It has everything one desires in a paradise island! There is a huge higher consciousness/yoga/meditation/vegetarian/vegan community plus epic full moon and half moon parties, omg totally worth checking out! And the internet connectivity and speed on the island is good too. I've had no problem doing work from my laptop as a Digital Marketing Specialist either.

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun good

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 30° 86° 26° 79°🥵AQI 53

$1,090 / mo

18Mbps

Santiago

Chile

Maybe I’m a bit unfair here, but Santiago is so... boring. People don’t look so happy and aren’t welcoming, city has nothing special, currency with so many zeros is hard to get used... didn’t have a bad time, but it wasn’t great either. Just dull. Maybe I’m wrong and in a long term it worth it, but it lacks authenticity and don’t even compare to other cities in Latin America such as Mexico City or even Buenos Aires, both cheaper and funnier.

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun bad

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 24° 75° 24° 75°AQI 62

$1,464 / mo

12Mbps

Key West, FL

United States

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😳 Way too expensive

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun great

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 38° 100° 30° 86°🥵AQI 27

$7,403 / mo

36Mbps

Tel Aviv

Israel

One of my favourite places to visit. Best vegetarian food in the world.

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😳 Way too expensive

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun good

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 32° 90° 28° 82°AQI 67

$5,039 / mo

16Mbps

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 15° 59° 15° 60°AQI 33

$3,922 / mo

20Mbps

Canggu, Bali

Indonesia

Bali is amazing, but Canggu isn't really that great -- actually there are SO MANY better places, like Uluwatu, Gili Islands or even Ubud that I can't understand the hype. As almost everyone said below, beaches are crappy, roads are terrible, sidewalks are non-existent and having a motorbike is a must. On the other side, food is great and cafes are pretty reasonable with all those incredible bowls. Anyway I wouldn't recommend it for more than a week.

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun good

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 39° 102° 30° 85°🥵AQI 27

$1,271 / mo

19Mbps

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 53

$1,458 / mo

19Mbps

🛌 Most time spent

Ko Pha Ngan

Thailand

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun good

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 30° 86° 26° 79°🥵AQI 53

7mo

$1,090 / mo

18Mbps

London

United Kingdom

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun great

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 15° 59° 15° 60°AQI 33

6mo

$3,922 / mo

20Mbps

Valencia

Spain

I spent 8 days in Valencia with my boyfriend for new years. We really enjoyed it honestly. We found the city quite walkable, even though it's relatively big, very bike-friendly, felt super safe riding around. Didn't find the public transport to be bad at all, but then again we come from a capital with much shittier public transport. Food is affordable, there's tons of cafes and restaurants everywhere (they were constantly full though). My biggest issue was that barely anyone speaks any English,

⭐️ Overall Score

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 Internet 🏎 Fast

😀 Fun good

👮 Safety okay

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 22° 72° 22° 72°AQI 61

4mo

$2,391 / mo

38Mbps