⭐️ Total score | 3.18/5 (Rank #561) |
👍 Quality of life score | Okay |
👶 Family score | Bad |
💵 Cost | 😙 Affordable: $1,110 / mo |
📡 Internet | 🏎 Fast: 11Mbps (avg) |
😝 Fun | Okay |
⛅️ Temperature (now) | 🌞 Perfect: 29°C84°F (feels 34°C93°F) |
💦 Humidity (now) | 🥵 Sweaty: 76% |
💨 Air quality (now) | 🌱 Good: 57 US AQI |
💨 Air quality (annual) | 🌱 Good: 60 US AQI |
👌 Safety | Good |
👮♀️ Lack of crime* | Good |
🤝 Lack of racism* | Bad |
🎓 Education level* | Mediocre |
💰 Income level* | Very low: $792 / mo |
🙊 English speaking* | Okay |
🚶 Walkability | Great |
✌️ Peace (no pol. conflict) | Good |
🚦 Traffic safety* | Bad |
🏥 Hospitals | Okay |
😄 Happiness* | Good |
🍸 Nightlife | Bad |
📶 Free WiFi in city | Bad |
🖥 Places to work from | Great |
❄️ A/C or heating | Bad |
😁 Friendly to foreigners | Okay |
🗯 Freedom of speech* | Bad |
👩 Female friendly | Okay |
🌈 LGBTQ+ friendly | Bad |
🎅 Startup Score | Bad |
🌍 Continent | Asia |
🚩 Country | Malaysia |
⏱ Average trip length | 3 days |
📡 Internet speed (avg) | 11 Mbps |
⛅️ Weather (now) | 🌧 29°C 84°F + 🥵 Sweaty (76%) = feels 34°C 93°F |
💨 Air quality (now) | 👍 57 US AQI 🍃 OK |
💨 Air quality (annual avg) | 👎😷 60.5 US AQI |
🔌 Power | 230V50Hz |
🚕 Best taxi app* | |
🚑 Travel medical insurance | ![]() |
📱 Best wireless carrier | Hotlink |
💸 10 MYR in USD | USD 2.24 |
🏧 Suggested ATM take out: | MYR 1,000 = USD 224 |
💸 Tipping | No |
💳 Cashless | 💵 No, cash only (esp. for foreigners) |
☕️ Best coffee place | San Francisco Coffee |
🏪 Best 24/7 coffee place | Incubator4U |
🚰 Tap water | 🚫 No, not drinkable |
👨👩👧👦 Population | 660,000 people |
👨👩👧👦 GDP per capita* | $9,508 / year |
🏞 Foreign land ownership allowed | Yes |
⛪️ Religious government | Religious |
💻 Online electronics shop | Lazada |
🏠 Apartment listings | AirBnb |
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier | Air Asia |
✈️ Best int'l air carrier | Air Asia |
🏥 Best hospital | KMC MEDICAL CENTRE |
💵 Cost of living for nomad | $1,110 / month |
💵 Cost of living for expat | $723 / month |
💵 Cost of living for family | $1,570 / month |
💵 Cost of living for local | $448 / month |
🏠 1br studio rent in center | $224 / month |
🏢 Coworking | $109 / month |
🏨 Hotel (median price) | $464 / month |
🏨 Hotel (median price) | $22 / night |
🏡 Airbnb (median from 160 listings) | $1,063 / month |
🏠 Airbnb (median price) | $35 / night |
🍛 Dinner | $3 |
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L) | $1 |
🍺 Beer (0.5L) | $3 |
☕️ Coffee | $2 |
✅ Affordable to live
✅ Pretty safe
✅ Fast internet
✅ Warm now
✅ Warm all year round
✅ Good air quality on average
✅ Spacious and not crowded
✅ Very easy to make friends
✅ Very easy to do business
✅ High quality of education
✅ Democratic
✅ Safe for women
✅ Not many people smoke tobacco
❌ No freedom of speech
❌ Not much to do
❌ Very sweaty and humid now
❌ Roads are very dangerous
❌ People don't speak English well
❌ Not family friendly
❌ Hostile towards LGBTQ+
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
Feels | 9334° hot | 10038° hot | 10038° hot | 10239° hot | 10239° hot | 10038° hot | 9937° hot | 9937° hot | 9937° hot | 10038° hot | 9334° hot | 9535° hot |
Real | 8228° very warm | 8630° very warm | 8530° very warm | 8530° very warm | 8530° very warm | 8530° very warm | 8530° very warm | 8429° very warm | 8429° very warm | 8530° very warm | 8228° very warm | 8329° very warm |
Humidity | sweaty 92% | sweaty 83% | sweaty 91% | sweaty 92% | sweaty 94% | sweaty 88% | sweaty 87% | sweaty 92% | sweaty 90% | sweaty 90% | sweaty 95% | sweaty 90% |
Rain | rainy 199mm | rainy 96mm | rainy 323mm | rainy 350mm | rainy 348mm | rainy 249mm | rainy 190mm | rainy 404mm | rainy 352mm | rainy 347mm | rainy 564mm | rainy 304mm |
Cloud | overcast 90% | cloudy 61% | cloudy 74% | overcast 91% | cloudy 86% | cloudy 85% | overcast 90% | overcast 90% | overcast 91% | overcast 90% | overcast 94% | cloudy 87% |
Air quality | okay 50 US AQI | okay 61* US AQI | okay 61* US AQI | okay 61* US AQI | okay 61* US AQI | okay 61 US AQI | okay 60 US AQI | okay 67 US AQI | okay 80 US AQI | okay 54 US AQI | okay 51 US AQI | okay 50 US AQI |
Sun | avoid sun 7 UVI | seek shade 5 UVI | avoid sun 9 UVI | seek shade 4 UVI | avoid sun 7 UVI | seek shade 4 UVI | avoid sun 6 UVI | avoid sun 7 UVI | seek shade 3 UVI | avoid sun 7 UVI | seek shade 3 UVI | avoid sun 7 UVI |
Remote workers | 200 people | 200 people | 200 people | 0 people | 300 people | 300 people | 200 people | 0 people | 200 people | 0 people | 200 people | 267 people |
If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomad List's Climate Finder
Based on Ipoh's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:
The noise pollution here is insane. The prayer calls from the mosques seem to reverberate throughout Penang. Seems like they are competing for who can be the loudest. This really ruined Penang for me and I cut my time short.
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 41° 106° 31° 88°🥵AQI 56🚕4h$1,012 / mo13Mbps×Putrajaya is the only place I would recommend due to its close proximity to the airport. The Shaftsbury Hotel is modern with two convenience stores, pharmacy, restaurants, dental, and more in the actual building. There is a rain fountain in "mall" of the building that would be Putrajaya's attempt at Singapore's airport one. The location is also literally right across from the bigger mall that has restaurants, international grocery store, movie theater, bowling, electronics, etc. It's a safe a
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 39° 102° 31° 87°🥵AQI 58✈️14min$1,309 / mo11Mbps×One of the most beautiful islands I've ever been to (been to a lot) But, for vacation. For living there, there is just not so much to do.
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun bad👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌥 Feels 33° 91° 29° 85°AQI 55✈️23min$1,512 / mo17Mbps×Ahhh Medan. This little jewel in the rough is a place to get away from it all. No foreigners, just you. Maybe 10% speak English. Still, prices are good. I walked into a 5 star hotel, stayed 3 days at the regular rate, then negotiated a rate for 30 days... 5 star perks for $29USD a night. I've been here 2 months now. If you're a fan of Art Deco or Art Moderne, this place is great. The city is beginning a modernization process... slowly... just slowly enough. There are 4-5 huge shopping malls (
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😝 Cheap📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌥 Feels 42° 108° 32° 89°🥵AQI 73✈️24min$720 / mo8Mbps×Arrived yesterday, at Dreambase coworking now. A fascinating city in the sense that is seems strange, eerie, and sullen. It feels like the city was abandoned for 30 years and what remains is the population that decided to stay. Many random empty, lonely buildings. Patches of busyness dispersed in between patches of nullness. Everything feels just a little bit too far to walk. Grab works fine here for getting around. Extremely affordable. But so far it definitely doesn't feel like the place to be
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 38° 100° 30° 86°🥵AQI 60✈️24min$1,006 / mo13Mbps×It's basically a party island -- getting work done will require discipline. One who can accomplish that will be rewarded with a paradisiac cheerful enviroment where everyone wants to be happy and enjoy life. In long term, be careful with your emotional life, as new flows of people everyday going in and out might unbalance your way to see the world.
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun bad👮 Safety goodTap to open🌤 Feels 37° 99° 30° 86°🥵AQI 42✈️34min$1,309 / mo16Mbps×Krabi is a nice weekend getaway if you stay in Bangkok and wanna escape the city for a few days. That being said, the best area for staying is Ao Nang beach. From here, you can go to the famous Railay beach with a longtail boat within 15 minutes and also the tours to Phi Phi and Hong Island start from here. There is a club called Upbeat Bar/Loft RNB in the middle of Ao Nang that gets kinda busy, although not super crowded in the rainy season. Maybe main season is different. Stay away from Krabi
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun good👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌤 Feels 41° 106° 31° 88°🥵AQI 42✈️36min$1,013 / mo17Mbps×Ao Nang is a Good Hub for jumping into other beaches and islands. A few services are available for everyday use ( restaurants, bars, laundry, markets, shops, etc ). Still, I consider it quite underdevelop. Internet connectivity was quite intermittent on the two places I stayed. Also, not many places to get work done! I always worked from my villa room. Highly suggest staying by Nopparatthara beach rather than Ao Nang side. No many nomads in here aswell
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌤 Feels 36° 97° 30° 86°🥵AQI 42✈️36min$1,076 / mo17Mbps×Johor is a dirty, ugly city across the causeway from northern Singapore. It's a very busy crossing both ways. I've been here many times to shop with my wife and MIL but have nothing to recommend. It was at least a cheap place to get glasses. Last time I went the 1MDB project had been launched to great fanfare in Johor. It was supposed to the the project that would unseat Singapore. It turned out to be a big scam and lots of people lost money, especially the Malay taxpayers. Other parts of Malay
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😝 Cheap📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun bad👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 35° 95° 29° 85°🥵AQI 84😷✈️37min$825 / mo13Mbps×The noise pollution here is insane. The prayer calls from the mosques seem to reverberate throughout Penang. Seems like they are competing for who can be the loudest. This really ruined Penang for me and I cut my time short.
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 41° 106° 31° 88°🥵AQI 56🚕4h$1,012 / mo13Mbps×Putrajaya is the only place I would recommend due to its close proximity to the airport. The Shaftsbury Hotel is modern with two convenience stores, pharmacy, restaurants, dental, and more in the actual building. There is a rain fountain in "mall" of the building that would be Putrajaya's attempt at Singapore's airport one. The location is also literally right across from the bigger mall that has restaurants, international grocery store, movie theater, bowling, electronics, etc. It's a safe a
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 39° 102° 31° 87°🥵AQI 58✈️14min$1,309 / mo11Mbps×How did SF get scored #98 on Nomad score? I agree with most of the reviews posted here. I generally work from home, but we recently rented a small conference room for a meeting. It was $250 per hour.. (yes Per Hour... no typos here).
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😳 Way too expensive📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun bad👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌥 Feels 18° 64° 18° 64°AQI 18✈️18h$6,352 / mo84Mbps×Ahhh Medan. This little jewel in the rough is a place to get away from it all. No foreigners, just you. Maybe 10% speak English. Still, prices are good. I walked into a 5 star hotel, stayed 3 days at the regular rate, then negotiated a rate for 30 days... 5 star perks for $29USD a night. I've been here 2 months now. If you're a fan of Art Deco or Art Moderne, this place is great. The city is beginning a modernization process... slowly... just slowly enough. There are 4-5 huge shopping malls (
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😝 Cheap📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌥 Feels 42° 108° 32° 89°🥵AQI 73✈️24min$720 / mo8Mbps×Like everywhere, Singapore has pros and cons. // Pros: // Everything works very well, it's clean, you can use the trains and transport system with a bank card, Grab taxis are efficient and safe, the airport is amazing // Everyone speaks English // Population seems well educated and cosmopolitan // There are lots of parks and green spaces. // Cons: // It's very expensive. For what you get it feels overpriced compared to most Western countries for example. // It's hot and very, very humid. Unti
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun good👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 38° 100° 30° 86°🥵AQI 70✈️39min$3,999 / mo102Mbps×The noise pollution here is insane. The prayer calls from the mosques seem to reverberate throughout Penang. Seems like they are competing for who can be the loudest. This really ruined Penang for me and I cut my time short.
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 41° 106° 31° 88°🥵AQI 56🚕4h$1,012 / mo🌇 Also went here19 people×Putrajaya is the only place I would recommend due to its close proximity to the airport. The Shaftsbury Hotel is modern with two convenience stores, pharmacy, restaurants, dental, and more in the actual building. There is a rain fountain in "mall" of the building that would be Putrajaya's attempt at Singapore's airport one. The location is also literally right across from the bigger mall that has restaurants, international grocery store, movie theater, bowling, electronics, etc. It's a safe a
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 39° 102° 31° 87°🥵AQI 58✈️14min$1,309 / mo🌇 Also went here21 people×Arrived yesterday, at Dreambase coworking now. A fascinating city in the sense that is seems strange, eerie, and sullen. It feels like the city was abandoned for 30 years and what remains is the population that decided to stay. Many random empty, lonely buildings. Patches of busyness dispersed in between patches of nullness. Everything feels just a little bit too far to walk. Grab works fine here for getting around. Extremely affordable. But so far it definitely doesn't feel like the place to be
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 38° 100° 30° 86°🥵AQI 60✈️24min$1,006 / mo🌇 Also went here9 people×Like everywhere, Singapore has pros and cons. // Pros: // Everything works very well, it's clean, you can use the trains and transport system with a bank card, Grab taxis are efficient and safe, the airport is amazing // Everyone speaks English // Population seems well educated and cosmopolitan // There are lots of parks and green spaces. // Cons: // It's very expensive. For what you get it feels overpriced compared to most Western countries for example. // It's hot and very, very humid. Unti
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun good👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 38° 100° 30° 86°🥵AQI 70✈️39min$3,999 / mo🌇 Also went here15 people×Pretty cool city, BKK1 and BKK3 are nice areas to stay in. Check out Suzy Anti-cafe and Workspace1 in Factory for neat places to work from. It's a busy city, but lots of great places to eat and hang out. Internet was stable and fast enough overall. I got a SIM from SMART for a few bucks that had 44GB of data for the month, $5 to renew it. Used "Ask Kim" visa agent to renew my tourist visa for 30 days, super easy to do and friendly.
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 32° 90° 28° 82°🥵AQI 9✈️1h$1,235 / mo🌇 Also went here11 people×Been living here for more than 3 years. Overall I do not recommend it. Its not terrible but overall theres better options in asia. The city is constantly busy, noisy and polluted (air and landscapes). You can hardly go out for breeze of fresh air or to relax and ease your mind. There is not much nature, beach or mountains for you to escape. Traveling is very restriced because people go crazy due to covid. During the lockdown you couldnt even leave your appartment for a walk outside. They trapp
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😝 Cheap📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun good👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 33° 91° 28° 82°🥵AQI 76😷✈️1h$976 / mo🌇 Also went here10 people×I've been to Bangkok for almost two weeks now and I can't understand comments about the lack of soul or everything being on sale. Sure, there are some sketchy parts like massage parlour touts and an occasional ladyboy here and there, but overall my impression is that it's just a regular big city with some clear advantages. Coming from Central Europe, I find everybody to be very calm and polite. Some may argue it's just a facade and fair enough, but I prefer a calm and kind facade over cold and i
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun good👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 32° 90° 28° 82°🥵AQI 25✈️1h$1,267 / mo🌇 Also went here15 people×Siem Riep has a nice suburb feeling. At first sight it seems there's not much to do besides Angkor Wat and Pub Street, but you can go swimming, do bicycle tours, floating village day trip... I don't have best social skill, but in Siem Reap it was so easy to make new friends. Locals and tourists! I've worked at Garage Society Coworking Space. Pretty nice place. I don't understand the cons of slow internet. I've bought an LTE 4G Sim card for 10 USD with 10 GB. There's also free and mostly fast
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 30° 86° 26° 79°🥵AQI 10✈️1h$1,392 / mo🌇 Also went here13 people×I have been both HCM and Da Nang. Da Nang is obviously a winner. Cooler climate, nicer people, less crowded, less pollution. Love it here
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 39° 102° 30° 85°🥵AQI 13✈️2h$1,034 / mo🌇 Also went here9 people×Chiang Mai used to be N.1 for the digital nomad life. It is still great and you can find really cheap apartments (300-400$) 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.
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😝 Cheap📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun good👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 34° 93° 28° 82°🥵AQI 9✈️2h$926 / mo🌇 Also went here14 people×I do not like Hanoi. I would not recommend it. I would rather go to Mexico city (cleaner and easier to get around). The driving situation is bizarre and scary. Gab app only works with cash, and honestly, most things only work with cash. The streets are dirty and disorganized. People barely speak English here (I found more english speakers in Da Nang, Vietnam). I tried to stay in Truc Bach and it was so dirty and loud that i left to West lake (which is supposed to be one of the nice area). It is
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😝 Cheap📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 39° 102° 30° 86°🥵AQI 70✈️3h$944 / mo🌇 Also went here10 people×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
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun mediocre👮 Safety goodTap to open🌥 Feels 32° 90° 28° 82°AQI 59✈️3h$1,350 / mo🌇 Also went here11 people×Best city in Spain. Weather is great even in December and the clubbing scene is fun. There's lots to do and it's a beautiful city overall. You have to watch out for pickpockets but as long as you aren't leaving things unattended or obviously in your pockets you'll be fine. If you're into hostels, Hostel One Paralelo is BY FAR the best hostel in the area, worth every penny. Will definitely be back, and I never say that.
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast😀 Fun great👮 Safety mediocreTap to open☀️ Feels 36° 97° 31° 88°🥵AQI 31✈️14h$3,653 / mo🌇 Also went here13 people×