Frontpage
🌗 Dark mode
❤️ Your favorites
🚑 Nomad insurance
| ⭐️ Total score | 28 reviews |
| 👍 Quality of life score | |
| 👶 Family score | |
| 💵 Cost | |
| 📡 Internet | |
| 😝 Fun | |
| ⛅️ Temperature (now) | |
| 💦 Humidity (now) | |
| 💨 Air quality (now) | |
| 👌 Safety | |
| 👮♀️ Lack of crime* | |
| 🤝 Lack of racism* | |
| 🎓 Education level* | |
| 💰 Income level* | |
| 🙊 English speaking* | |
| 🚶 Walkability | |
| ✌️ Peace (no pol. conflict) | |
| 🚦 Traffic safety* | |
| 🏥 Healthcare* | |
| 😄 Happiness* | |
| 🍸 Nightlife | |
| 📶 Free WiFi in city | |
| 🖥 Places to work from | |
| ❄️ A/C or heating | |
| 😁 Friendly to foreigners | |
| 🗯 Freedom of speech* | |
| 👩 Female friendly | |
| 🌈 LGBTQ+ friendly | |
| 🎅 Startup Score |
| 🌍 Continent | Asia |
| 🚩 Country | Sri Lanka |
| ⏱ Average trip length | 16 days |
| 📡 Internet speed (avg) | 8 Mbps |
| ⛅️ Weather (now) | 🌥 29°C 85°F + 🥵 Sweaty (83%) = feels 35°C 95°F |
| 💨 Air quality (now) | 👍 50 US AQI 🍃 OK |
| 🔌 Power | 230V50Hz |
| 🚕 Best taxi app* | |
| 🚑 Travel medical insurance |  Safetywing |
| 📱 Best wireless carrier | Dialog |
| 💸 1,000 LKR in USD | USD 2.75 |
| 🏧 Suggested ATM take out: | LKR 100,000 = USD 275 |
| 💳 Cashless | 💵 No, cash only (esp. for foreigners) |
| ☕️ Best coffee place | Barista |
| ☕️ Best alt. coffee place | Solis Hotel |
| 🏪 Best 24/7 coffee place | Nomad Trails Thalpe Station |
| 🚰 Tap water | 🚫 No, not drinkable |
| 👨👩👧👦 Population | 810,000 people |
| 👨👩👧👦 GDP per capita* | $3,910 / year |
| ⛪️ Religious government | Non-religious |
| 🏠 Apartment listings | Airbnb |
| ✈️ Best short-haul air carrier | Sri Lankan Airlines |
| ✈️ Best int'l air carrier | Sri Lankan Airlines |
| 🏥 Best hospital | Sahana Medical Center |
| 💵 Cost of living for nomad | $1,413 / month |
| 💵 Cost of living for expat | $348 / month |
| 💵 Cost of living for family | $198 / month |
| 💵 Cost of living for local | $56 / month |
| 🏠 1br studio rent in center | $41 / month |
| 🏢 Coworking | $10 / month |
| 🏨 Hotel (median price) | $2,920 / month |
| 🏨 Hotel (median price) | $137 / night |
| 🏡 Airbnb (median from 1,001 listings) | $1,128 / month |
| 🏠 Airbnb (median price) | $37 / night |
| 🍛 Dinner | $1 |
| 🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L) | $0 |
| 🍺 Beer (0.5L) | $0 |
| ☕️ Coffee | $0 |
✅ Affordable to live
✅ Pretty safe
✅ Lots of fun stuff to do
✅ Warm now
✅ Warm all year round
✅ Good air quality on average
✅ Spacious and not crowded
✅ High quality of education
✅ Roads are pretty safe
✅ Democratic
✅ Not many people smoke tobacco
❌ Freedom of speech is weak
❌ Pretty slow internet
❌ Very sweaty and humid now
❌ Difficult to do business
❌ Hospitals are bad
❌ People don't speak English well
❌ Not safe for women
❌ Not family friendly
❌ Hostile towards LGBTQ+
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
| Feels | 9736° hot | 10038° hot | 10038° hot | 10239° hot | 10239° hot | 10239° hot | 9736° hot | 9736° hot | 9736° hot | 10239° hot | 9736° hot | 9736° hot |
| Real | 8429° very warm | 8630° very warm | 8630° very warm | 8731° hot | 8630° very warm | 8630° very warm | 8429° very warm | 8429° very warm | 8429° very warm | 8630° very warm | 8429° very warm | 8429° very warm |
| Humidity | sweaty 87% | sweaty 83% | sweaty 83% | sweaty 82% | sweaty 86% | sweaty 86% | sweaty 86% | sweaty 88% | sweaty 88% | sweaty 87% | sweaty 88% | sweaty 86% |
| Rain | rainy 228mm | rainy 69mm | rainy 182mm | rainy 145mm | rainy 371mm | rainy 198mm | rainy 293mm | rainy 225mm | rainy 245mm | rainy 310mm | rainy 311mm | rainy 213mm |
| Cloud | cloudy 83% | cloudy 55% | cloudy 75% | cloudy 67% | cloudy 89% | cloudy 83% | overcast 91% | overcast 93% | cloudy 88% | cloudy 88% | overcast 91% | cloudy 70% |
| Sun | avoid sun 7 UVI | avoid sun 9 UVI | avoid sun 9 UVI | avoid sun 8 UVI | avoid sun 6 UVI | avoid sun 7 UVI | avoid sun 6 UVI | avoid sun 6 UVI | avoid sun 6 UVI | avoid sun 7 UVI | avoid sun 6 UVI | avoid sun 8 UVI |
| Remote workers | 450 people | 400 people | 400 people | 200 people | 200 people | 0 people | 0 people | 0 people | 0 people | 300 people | 200 people | 200 people |
If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomad List's Climate Finder
Based on Matara's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 35° 95° 29° 84°🥵AQI 50🚕1h$1,026 / mo8MbpsSri Lanka is a great country to visit and explore on vacation, but it is not good for nomading. The internet is the worst I've experienced in 3 years of travelling around SE Asia. Usually I would supplement terrible wifi with mobile data but I found this also terrible. I visited several places in Sri Lanka, including supposedly up-and-coming nomad destination Welligama. There are very few cafes that are fit for working (almost none with AC/power), Western food is expensive (and so is Sri Lankan
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 35° 95° 29° 84°🥵AQI 50✈️10min$789 / mo8MbpsReally quite hectic and not a very nice city. I wouldn't spend more than a day or two here, not much to see, and there aren't many places to work/eat/see. You're better off heading down to the beaches for some sunshine and beach as well as much faster WIFI.
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 30° 86° 26° 79°🥵AQI 50✈️12min$984 / mo9Mbps⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 43° 109° 32° 89°🥵AQI 50✈️14min$583 / mo9Mbps⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌤 Feels 37° 99° 30° 85°🥵AQI 24✈️39min$805 / mo10Mbps⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌤 Feels 38° 100° 33° 92°🥵AQI 101😷✈️41min$876 / mo12Mbps⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌤 Feels 38° 100° 30° 85°🥵AQI 85😷✈️41min$871 / mo12Mbps⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌤 Feels 35° 95° 29° 84°🥵AQI 85😷✈️43min$860 / mo12MbpsStayed a whole month in Fort Kochi area, eventually going to Ernakulam (downtown area). It is unarguably very different than rest of India, much more cleaner and with friendlier people. Beaches aren`t nice for bathing but are a great choice to catch sunsets everyday. Cost of living is dirty cheap and public transport is good. They even have a subway crossing the city with reminds me the BTS in Bangkok. Actually, Kochi to me is like a small and boring version of Bangkok, which is good if you need
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌤 Feels 35° 95° 29° 85°🥵AQI 47✈️51min$519 / mo13Mbps⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌤 Feels 38° 100° 31° 87°🥵AQI 133😷✈️54min$638 / mo16Mbps⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌤 Feels 34° 93° 29° 84°AQI 52✈️55min$1,072 / mo13Mbps⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌤 Feels 35° 95° 29° 84°🥵AQI 101😷✈️55min$1,041 / mo11MbpsHonestly, 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
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 34° 93° 28° 83°🥵AQI 90😷✈️6h$1,383 / mo6MbpsWe have been living here for 12 months and love it. Airport is very central for the region and all major hubs. Supermarkets and local markets are plentiful and generally fairly priced especially makro and local. No power outages. Some minor internet fibre outages but mobile generally great. Air quality is excellent except for rare neighbours burning leaves :-) Lots of great beaches, we like the north and west as it is more quiet/family/couples but south and east have more excitement and are argu
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 32° 90° 28° 82°🥵AQI 30✈️3h$1,718 / mo16MbpsThe 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.
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 41° 106° 31° 87°🥵AQI 65✈️3h$1,027 / mo13MbpsSuper expensive, and nothing to do in winter (a ghost town); I prefer Albuferia or Praia da Rocha (Portimao)
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety ☀️ Feels 24° 75° 24° 75°AQI 25✈️13h$2,112 / mo42MbpsSiem 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
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 44° 111° 32° 89°🥵AQI 34✈️4h$1,332 / mo5MbpsOverpriced and overhyped. Back in 2017 when Canggu got the lead on a site like this, landprices went 10x. Then came the covid situation and now the Balinese like to earn their loses over the last 2 years back in 1 day, which was yesterday. Rape tourism was mentioned not once. In a review below the diversity of restaurants is mentioned and how good the food is, maybe this person was on a holiday for a few weeks and didn't have to cook and didn't eat for months, but the fact remains - Bali is an
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 36° 97° 29° 84°🥵AQI 90😷✈️6h$1,532 / mo25MbpsVery culturally enriching. The architecture, the history, the food, the customs of the people. It's also very cheap. Nightlife is good but it ends up very early. Also, public transportation is chaotic.
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 43° 109° 32° 89°🥵AQI 68✈️3h$923 / mo11MbpsThe architecture is the most stunning thing of this place, it feels like the 22nd century. It's as cosmopolitan as a place like New York but more with people from the other side of the world. Great alternatives for getting coffee and food. Nightlife is expensive but it's good.
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 52° 126° 38° 101°🥵AQI 10✈️5h$3,367 / mo8MbpsReviewing from permanent resident perspective. Excellent place to be if you have young kids; tons of parks, playgrounds, activities, and family-oriented. I can see how it wouldn't appeal much to single long-stay visitors. I call it "Singaportland" when trying to describe the vibe to remote colleagues. Clean, safe, orderly, but a bit constructed. You pay a serious CoL tax for the perks. Zero appeal for Chiang-Mai-nomad types, based on pricing and culture.
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 22° 72° 22° 71°AQI 14✈️18h$4,535 / mo16Mbps⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 35° 95° 29° 84°🥵AQI 50🚕1h$1,026 / mo8MbpsGreat city, but if you are a digital nomad and can afford higher rates, please don't drop insane amounts and pay what the locals do. I have heard of "nomads" coming here for a month and dropping 2k on a T1, while at most it shouldn't exceed 800 euros in the centre of Lisbon, which even like others have noted is an insane amount for locals. Also, the government should really start constructing social housing and do something about subletting/vacation rentals.
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety ☀️ Feels 28° 82° 26° 78°AQI 29✈️13h$2,423 / mo33MbpsSri Lanka is a great country to visit and explore on vacation, but it is not good for nomading. The internet is the worst I've experienced in 3 years of travelling around SE Asia. Usually I would supplement terrible wifi with mobile data but I found this also terrible. I visited several places in Sri Lanka, including supposedly up-and-coming nomad destination Welligama. There are very few cafes that are fit for working (almost none with AC/power), Western food is expensive (and so is Sri Lankan
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 35° 95° 29° 84°🥵AQI 50✈️10min$789 / mo8MbpsSri Lanka is a great country to visit and explore on vacation, but it is not good for nomading. The internet is the worst I've experienced in 3 years of travelling around SE Asia. Usually I would supplement terrible wifi with mobile data but I found this also terrible. I visited several places in Sri Lanka, including supposedly up-and-coming nomad destination Welligama. There are very few cafes that are fit for working (almost none with AC/power), Western food is expensive (and so is Sri Lankan
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 35° 95° 29° 84°🥵AQI 50✈️10min$789 / mo🌇 Also went here10 peopleReally quite hectic and not a very nice city. I wouldn't spend more than a day or two here, not much to see, and there aren't many places to work/eat/see. You're better off heading down to the beaches for some sunshine and beach as well as much faster WIFI.
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 30° 86° 26° 79°🥵AQI 50✈️12min$984 / mo🌇 Also went here9 peopleAmazing, large and accessible beaches. But the vibe is not there yet. It still feels like an "old" vacation place: tons of families, retirees, couples and sex tourists. The hip, young crowd you can find in Canggu for example is not there yet. There is only one decent coworking spot, not a lot of specialty cofee places. Most DNs stay in Rawai, which is OK - just a long street in a non-swimming beach. If you live there you will have to drive 15mins to go to the beach (Nai Han, Kata, etc). The infr
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 36° 97° 30° 87°🥵AQI 25✈️3h$1,220 / mo🌇 Also went here11 peopleI'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
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 43° 109° 32° 89°🥵AQI 38✈️3h$1,278 / mo🌇 Also went here12 peopleChiang Mai used to be N.1 for the digital nomad life. It is still great and you can find really cheap apartments (300-400$) 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.
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 35° 95° 28° 82°🥵AQI 46✈️3h$935 / mo🌇 Also went here11 peopleLike 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
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 40° 104° 31° 87°🥵AQI 13✈️4h$4,016 / mo🌇 Also went here10 peopleSiem 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
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 44° 111° 32° 89°🥵AQI 34✈️4h$1,332 / mo🌇 Also went here8 peopleBeen 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
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 41° 106° 31° 88°🥵AQI 107😷✈️4h$990 / mo🌇 Also went here9 peopleI 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
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 37° 99° 29° 85°🥵AQI 72✈️4h$916 / mo🌇 Also went here9 peopleSkip this place and go to Bali right away. This city only looks beautiful in tourism videos but ugly in person. It is dusty and smelly.
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 41° 106° 31° 87°🥵AQI 80😷✈️4h$1,253 / mo🌇 Also went here8 peopleOverpriced and overhyped. Back in 2017 when Canggu got the lead on a site like this, landprices went 10x. Then came the covid situation and now the Balinese like to earn their loses over the last 2 years back in 1 day, which was yesterday. Rape tourism was mentioned not once. In a review below the diversity of restaurants is mentioned and how good the food is, maybe this person was on a holiday for a few weeks and didn't have to cook and didn't eat for months, but the fact remains - Bali is an
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 36° 97° 29° 84°🥵AQI 90😷✈️6h$1,532 / mo🌇 Also went here13 peopleHonestly, 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
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 34° 93° 28° 83°🥵AQI 90😷✈️6h$1,383 / mo🌇 Also went here8 peopleBerlin 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
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 33° 91° 30° 85°🥵AQI 46✈️11h$2,922 / mo🌇 Also went here10 peopleBest 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.
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 35° 95° 31° 87°🥵AQI 82😷✈️11h$3,681 / mo🌇 Also went here13 peopleGreat city, but if you are a digital nomad and can afford higher rates, please don't drop insane amounts and pay what the locals do. I have heard of "nomads" coming here for a month and dropping 2k on a T1, while at most it shouldn't exceed 800 euros in the centre of Lisbon, which even like others have noted is an insane amount for locals. Also, the government should really start constructing social housing and do something about subletting/vacation rentals.
⭐️ All 💵 Cost 📡 😀 Fun 👮 Safety ☀️ Feels 28° 82° 26° 78°AQI 29✈️13h$2,423 / mo🌇 Also went here10 peopleNo members are here right now. If you are, add it as a trip and you'll show up here!
