First-Week Checklist: How to Tell If a City Works for Remote Work

Treat the first week as a trial, not a holiday. Book a refundable or short first stay, run these seven checks on seven different days, and write down a score out of 5 for each. We have not run this in any particular city, and we are not claiming results from one. It is a protocol for you to run, using what a normal workweek asks of a place.

1. Day one: test the internet where you will actually sit

Run a speed test and a video call at the desk or table where you will work, at the time of day your meetings happen. Test upload as well as download, because calls and file transfers depend on upload. Repeat in the evening, when a building’s shared connection is under more load. If you work from a flat, ask the host for the provider name and the plan speed before you book.

2. Day two: walk the commute you would really make

Pick the café, coworking space or library you would use and walk or ride to it from your door. Time it. A 10-minute walk survives bad weather and tiredness; a 40-minute transfer does not. Note shade, hills, crossings and whether the route feels fine at 8 a.m. and after dark.

3. Day three: price a normal day

Track every purchase for one day: coffee, lunch, groceries, transport, water. Multiply by 30 and compare with your budget. The aim is not a precise forecast. It is a sanity check on whether the city’s everyday cost matches the figures you read before you arrived. Rent is the largest line, so compare it against the listing prices you saw.

4. Day four: work through a bad-connection plan

Assume the main connection fails during a call. What is your fallback? A local SIM with a data plan, a second café, a coworking day pass. Test the fallback now, while nothing depends on it. If the backup is slow or costs more than you can stomach, that is a real mark against the city.

5. Day five: check the time zone fit

Write out your team’s working hours in local time. A base where your calls land at 2 a.m. will wear you down in a fortnight. Check the offset on the days clocks change, because countries switch on different dates. A city that fits your clients’ hours is worth more than a cheaper one that does not.

6. Day six: look at the weekend and recovery options

Work depends on rest. Find a place to exercise, somewhere green, a market or a route out of town. A city that is easy to leave for a day trip, or has a running route, makes a long stay more sustainable. If everything you need to unwind is a taxi ride away, expect the month to feel longer.

7. Day seven: score the admin friction

List what you needed in the week: a SIM, cash, a laundry, a bank card that worked, a pharmacy. Count how many took more than one attempt. Friction adds up. A place where small errands are easy leaves more energy for work, and that is often what separates a good month from a tiring one.

Use one row per city on your shortlist and fill it after your trial week. Weight the rows that matter most to your job, for instance double the internet score if you do live video work.

A city scoring 28 or more out of 35 is a reasonable base for a month. Anything of 20 or below deserves a second look before you extend, and a result of 21 to 27 means you should fix the weak rows, perhaps by changing neighbourhood, before you commit to 30 days. Those cut-offs are ours, not a standard, so adjust them to your own tolerance.

Once you know how to choose a base city for remote work, test the method on candidates. We write these as one-month base guides, grouped by what the place suits. For a mid-sized Czech city with a calm routine, see Brno as a remote-work base. For a Baltic option, there is Kaunas. A Portuguese choice outside the big two is Braga, and on the Black Sea there is Batumi.

Farther afield, we cover Cuenca for altitude and a slower pace, plus guides to Valladolid in Yucatan, George Town in Penang, Yogyakarta, Taghazout, Kigali and Jeju. Read each one with this test in mind, because a base guide can tell you what to expect but not what your own week will feel like.

A city can pass every check above and still be closed to you for a month. Before you book, confirm the rules that sit outside your control. None of these are things we can state for your passport, so treat this as a to-do list rather than an answer.

• Entry and stay length. Check the official immigration page for your passport. Allowed stays differ by nationality and change; verify with the official source before you commit to a month.
• Whether remote work is allowed on your entry type. Some countries have a dedicated route, others are silent or restrictive. Ask the embassy and keep the reply.
• Health cover. Some visas require insurance of a specific kind. Check the wording on the application page.
• Tax residency. A long stay can create obligations. A qualified adviser can tell you the threshold for your situation.
• Local safety and health advice. Your government’s travel advice page is the place to confirm current conditions.

If a page has no date, note the day you read it. Rules age quickly, and as of 2026 many of them are still being revised.

• Choosing from social media. A photo says nothing about upload speed or the time zone of your clients.
• Booking a month before testing a week. A first stay of 7 days costs more per night, but a wrong choice for 30 days costs far more.
• Trusting the listing’s Wi-Fi claim. “Fast internet” in an advert is not a measured result. Test it, or ask for a recent speed test result from the host.
• Ignoring the season. Heat, rain and short winter days change how pleasant a commute is. Check the climate for the months you will actually be there.
• Optimising for cost alone. A cheap city with a bad time zone or a long commute is not cheap once you count the energy it takes.
• Skipping the backup. Every base needs a second internet source and a second place to work.
• Moving too often. Each move costs a few days of lost routine. Slow travel usually means one base per month, not one per week.

Copy this into your notes app and tick each line only when you have an actual answer.

1. I have tested upload and download speed at my desk, in the day and in the evening.
2. I have timed the real commute to my backup workspace.
3. I have tracked one ordinary day of spending and multiplied by 30.
4. I have a working fallback: a local SIM or a second venue.
5. My meeting hours fit the local time zone for the whole stay.
6. I have found a place to exercise and somewhere to rest.
7. I counted errands that took a second attempt.
8. I have checked the official entry rules for my passport.
9. I know the cancellation terms on my accommodation.
10. I wrote down the score and the date for each test.

How long should I stay in a city before deciding?

In short, a week is enough to run the seven checks and judge whether the basics work. Many remote workers then extend to a month if the scores are good. Book the first stay with a flexible cancellation policy so a poor result does not cost you a full month.

Is a bigger city better for remote work?

Not automatically. Larger cities tend to offer more coworking spaces and flights, but they also cost more and can be tiring. Mid-sized cities of 200,000 to 500,000 people are often easier to live in. Pick by your scores for internet, commute and cost, not by population.

How much should I budget for a month in a base city?

It depends on the city and your style, so build your own band. Track a normal day, multiply by 30, then add rent and a buffer for surprises. Compare it with the figures in each base guide, and treat every number as a rough range.

Should the visa or the city decide how to choose a base city for remote work?

Both matter, and the visa comes first because it can rule a place out. Check the official entry rules for your passport, then run the city test. A city that fits you badly is a poor choice even when the paperwork is simple.

What if the internet fails in my chosen base?

Have a plan before it happens. Carry a local SIM with a data plan, know a second café or coworking space and keep important files offline. Test that fallback in the first week. If neither backup works, treat it as a strong reason to move base.