These are some of the best cities in the world for digital nomads in 2025

There are around 40 million digital nomads worldwide today, but the rise of remote work and ongoing investments in technology are paving the way for a future where more than a billion people could be living and working as digital nomads by 2035.

We ranked 70 locations based on connectivity, affordability, weather and more to discover the best places to be one in 2025.  

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What is a digital nomad?

A digital nomad is someone who travels the world while they work. They’re also sometimes called ‘remote workers’, ‘nextpats’ and people on a ‘careercation’, although none of these quite convey the nature of the lifestyle.

For a digital nomad, the destination can be anywhere, as long as there’s an internet connection and somewhere to work, like a coffee shop or coworking space.

There are around 370 thousand Google searches for ‘digital nomads’ every month, with searches increasing by 6% since last year. The trend is being driven by an increase in tech innovation, adoption of remote work policies and the desire for better work-life balance.

More than 50 regions have started offering digital nomad visas, which allow individuals to work remotely outside of their home country. Many take advantage of temporary resident visas, with nearly 30% of digital nomads only staying in a location for one to two months.  

Dubai, Los Angeles and Lisbon are global winners for digital nomads

Areas that rank highest provide the perfect combination of cost-efficient living with beautiful weather, superb connectivity and a good quality of life.

These top cities outpace the rest for their excellent infrastructure, meaning you can easily jump from a café to the beach to the airport lounge without losing your Wi-Fi, and they also offer great perks for nomads, like bespoke visas and hundreds of year-round conferences, events and networking opportunities.

More importantly, these cities combine lifestyle, including sunshine, sea and sand, with endless after-work options to keep burnout at bay.

Dubai is the dream for digital nomads

With year-round sunshine, ultra-fast internet and a renowned work-life balance, Dubai is the number one destination for digital nomads looking for a temporary base in the UAE.

The city only has a four-hour time difference from the UK, making it an easy switch for UK remote workers, while fast global connectivity from Dubai makes it easy to get to virtually any destination in the world once you’re done.

The city is modern and safe. With its shopping, lifestyle and service culture, you’ll find plenty of amenities open 24/7, which means you can grab groceries, a gym session or a midnight shawarma whenever deadlines demand.

Along with zero income tax and a special one-year work visa that enables you to become a resident in Dubai for a year, it’s easy to see why so many people choose this city to turn the remote work grind into a sun-soaked, globally connected adventure.

Spotlight on APAC

The APAC region is the ultimate playground for digital nomads, and aside from Dubai, nowhere proves it better than Bangkok. With ultra-fast Wi-Fi, a wallet-friendly lifestyle and beautiful scenery, the Thai capital is one of the most popular travel hubs in the region.

The city boasts a vibrant street food scene, rooftop bars, night markets and plenty of entertainment, juxtaposed by mountain temples, jungles and pristine beaches.

For people working in Bangkok city (or under a palm frond on the beach), Thailand is only six hours ahead of the UK, which means morning standups or late afternoon catchups can go ahead without a hitch.

Overall, Asia offers a mix of affordability, infrastructure and lifestyle that few other regions can match. In some cities, a Western salary can stretch 30-60% further and across the board, you’ll find unrivalled connectivity, modern living and reliable public transport that gets you just about anywhere.

As a traveller’s playground with practical perks, there are plenty of noteworthy places to travel and work in across the APAC region, including Ho Chi Minh City, Beijing, Delhi and Shanghai, which all rank among the top 20 best places for digital nomads.

Spotlight on the US

Sunshine virtually year-round and excellent connectivity mean you can work from a Venice Beach café, jump onto a Santa Monica surf break at lunch, and then finish the day at a downtown rooftop without missing a beat.

With flights from LAX spanning every continent, travel is easy, and because Pacific Time overlaps Asia’s early mornings and Europe’s late evenings, working remotely in LA is ideal for globally distributed teams.

For a lower-key vibe with a similarly high appeal while staying US-bound, San Antonio, Houston, and Phoenix are all at the top, offering an abundance of sunshine, slick transport links and an excellent quality of life for remote workers.

Spotlight on Europe

Europe is a playground for remote workers and digital nomads who want history on their doorstep and digital infrastructure at their fingertips. There’s an unbeatable mix of culture, connectivity and convenience. World-class internet blankets most cities, while budget airlines and high-speed trains let you travel seamlessly between countries as you live and work.

Centuries-old streets hide laptop-friendly cafés, coworking hubs and tech accelerators, and there are plenty of cost-friendly cities to choose from. Add world-famous art, diverse climates and some of the world’s best tourist hotspots, and Europe turns remote work into a rolling cultural feast. In 2025, Lisbon leads the charge as the best city for digital nomads.

The Portuguese city blends sunshine, affordable living and connectivity into one irresistible package for remote workers, and the city’s flexible D7 and dedicated digital-nomad visas simplify long stays and offer low taxes on foreign income.

Expect walkable neighbourhoods, vibrant coworking spaces and a great work-life balance, while surf breaks, wine country and year-round festivals recharge creativity.

What jobs do digital nomads do?

Anything that can be done behind a screen can and is done by a digital nomad. Some of the most popular fields include software dev, web development, marketing, creative fields and SaaS.

Travel while you work: A trend that’s here to stay

As the role of the office changes and flexibility increases globally, more people will be able to travel and work virtually anywhere. This is being reflected in the office market, which is expected to grow to from $109 billion in 2025 to $424 billion by 2034

Discover a flexible workspace that suits your working style anywhere in the world.  

Data method

We looked at factors like quality of life, broadband and Wi-Fi speeds (plus number of Wi-Fi hotspots), how sunny the place is, the average cost of a meal in a restaurant, the cost of a cup of coffee, how walkable the area is, amount of accommodation available, AI preparedness (which looks at digital infrastructure and tech innovation), and the average cost of coworking space. 

We sourced this data across 10 categories for 70 locations. We then filtered each category by value to assign scores  (e.g. for quality of life higher is better, but for average restaurant prices, lower is better). Once every category had been scored, we combined the final numbers from each location to determine the final ranking.

1. Quality of life
2. Mobile and broadband speed
3. Wi-Fi hotspots
4. Annual sunshine
5. Avg. restaurant price
6. Avg. cappuccino cost
7. Number of Airbnb’s
8. Walkability score
9. AI preparedness
10. Average cost of a coworking space: Instant Offices