I am getting tired of city life and want to try spending some time in rural area with mountains, lakes, forests, etc. What are some places you can recommend? It could be anywhere, doesn't need to be in the U.S.<p>The only other requirement is fast internet.
The High coast of Sweden, I'm biased since I live here, but the place have for 42 years never ceased to amaze me with its nature and people. The name comes from the fact that the land rises about 10 mm out of the sea each year, this is because of the pressure of the ice during the last ice age<p><a href="http://www.visitsweden.com/sweden/Regions--Cities/Northern-Sweden/The-High-Coast/" rel="nofollow">http://www.visitsweden.com/sweden/Regions--Cities/Northern-S...</a><p><a href="https://vimeo.com/79557856" rel="nofollow">https://vimeo.com/79557856</a><p>PS. The internet connection is very good, I have currently 100/100 fiber connection and live in a very small village DS.<p>PSS. I live here, but I work (remote) for a Boston based software company DSS.
Trivandrum, India is a good place. It is a seaside city and has it's share of jungles and small hillocks. Besides monthly libing comes to about $30. It has a 'technopark' which is essentially offices cut into a jungle. I study here. For reference <a href="http://technopark.org/" rel="nofollow">http://technopark.org/</a>
Western Pennsylvania has pretty much everything you're asking for. I live near Pittsburgh, but I'm honestly less than an hour drive away from all of this.<p>The only caveat (to living directly in the mountains) is that in any place where you're engulfed in nature, your Internet connection is going to be slower. It's too costly for the ISP to install or upgrade infrastructure to an area with less than say 400 homes per square mile. Past a certain number, it's just not a viable investment.<p>Satellite ISPs have been getting better though and DSL technology has shown at least a theoretical 800Mbps (in labs). Maybe someday it'll be possible to get great broadband in the mountains.
Lots of foreign tourists have been coming here to Portugal - we have plenty of cheap rural homes in the middle of forests, large and small rivers with good walkable trails and bathing areas, and during these summer vacations, I had a nice 30mbps connection in a village so small it didn't even any shops.<p>A small example: <a href="http://www.vortexmag.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Dornes1.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://www.vortexmag.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Dornes1....</a>
No love for India so far!!! if you can tolerate the spicy food here are two places I wud recommend -<p>1) Kerela (called gods own country) - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala</a><p>2) Arunachal Pradesh - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachal_Pradesh" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachal_Pradesh</a>
Swansea, Wales, UK<p>I moved back (in from there originally) and we have<p>- the UK's first area of outstanding natural beauty
- mountains, loads of mountains
- world class beaches
- low cost of living
- a TechHub with easy access to TechHub Shoredich in London
- pretty good internet, with 300mb consumer connections being rolled out
- great surfing<p>And soon to be built, a £1.5bn tidal lagoon and £0.5bn to be spent on regenerating the city centre.<p>Desk space in Techhub is currently £150p/m<p>Average monthly rent is £500 p/m for a studio/1den in a pretty new shoreside development SA1<p>We have a few London based businesses looking to relocate because of the low cost of living and great lifesytle.<p>Two Google engineers were here last week and were massive impressed, needless to say they are coming back here on holiday.
Pacific Northwest is nice. I like the Olympic Peninsula. I don't know the state of internet there; when I was last there, "Are you on email" was still a common question. Probably drops off as you get farther from the various towns. You could probably base yourself in Port Angeles, they have a ferry terminal to Canada and close access to the Olympic Mountains and the coastal rainforest.<p><a href="https://www.bing.com/mapspreview?q=Olympic%20Peninsula&obox=1&signedup=1#" rel="nofollow">https://www.bing.com/mapspreview?q=Olympic%20Peninsula&obox=...</a><p>Lots of good daytrips, weekend and week trips available from there.
You can always buy a (very) cheap old house in a village in Transylvania / Romania, and maybe spend some time to restore it, if you're into that. I don't know about the internet connection far from the city, though. See, for example:<p><a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/827b9c84-69d5-11e1-8996-00144feabdc0.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/827b9c84-69d5-11e1-8996-00144...</a><p><a href="http://www.transylvania-guide.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.transylvania-guide.com/</a>
Trentino in Italy: beautiful scenery, lakes, alpine mountains (unesco), forests. It is near some other beautiful countries like Austria and Slovenian (which is another beautiful place for nature and mountains and even cheaper than Trentino).<p>And you are near to the city i live in (bergamo) which is small, with a medieval buildings and in the Orobie area which is full of mountains where you can do trekking or climbing!<p>I suggested Trentino because even if it is in Italy, it doesn't suffer from common italy "problems" (burocracy, criminality, etc...)
Perhaps Ithaca, New York? It's a smallish college town (Cornell, Ithaca College), but with lots of great scenery nearby, including forest, lakes, and gorges.
Krabi, Thailand. Avoid Phuket or Ao Nang, Krabi town is a bit off to the side but extremely peaceful and rural and tons of nature and unguided exploration to be had nearby.<p>Also outer Taiwan, Jeju Island (S.Korea), Okinawa, Fukuoka (Japan).<p>Parts of south India might be tempting, but the quality of internet can be very frustrating and can offset the quality of the nature.<p>source: all places I've passed through or by as a nomad in the last 2 years.
Try the heart of Switzerland, you might even get a job that pays like crazy. If you prefer to pay less for rent, move to south Bavaria in Germany's beautiful south. Munich might provide enough work, if you are willing to drive an hour every day. Working from home gets more common here, so you might not have to do the trip 5 days a week.
Idaho has a few places that fit the bill. Sandpoint in the North and McCall in the south are both small towns with immediate lake and mountain access. Ketchum (Sun Valley) is another option, but has probably the highest cost of living in the state. Boise is situated in a valley, but the mountains are only an hour away.
Thailand, if you can handle the heat. Some great national parks, amazing hills in the north, huge amounts of greenery, and of course, the beaches. Coming up to the cool season too, and it's all wonderfully cheap.
Pakistan's Northern areas:<p><a href="https://www.google.com.pk/search?q=pakistan+northern+areas+tour&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=637&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI4sndk6XQxwIVw7kUCh2hlQe8" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com.pk/search?q=pakistan+northern+areas+t...</a><p>This might help you to plan tour:<p><a href="http://pakistantourntravel.com/northern-pakistan-tour/" rel="nofollow">http://pakistantourntravel.com/northern-pakistan-tour/</a>
There's Lake Placid or the 1000 islands. Once upon a time (1870's to WWI-ish), presidents and influential people used to come to the 1000 islands for the summer. If you like fall leaves, October here is like no other. Do not stay past halloween; it gets cold fast. You don't want to be here in the winter, unless you like snowmobiling. There's better skiing in places with less extreme weather (or so I'm told).
Chattanooga, TN checks the boxes. Fiber internet, affordable, tons of outdoor activities. Outside magazine rated it best place to live in the US 2015 [0]. You can live just outside the city and be surrounded by nature, and the tech scene is growing.<p>[0] <a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/2006426/americas-best-towns-2015" rel="nofollow">http://www.outsideonline.com/2006426/americas-best-towns-201...</a>
Alps, France.
Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Koh Phanghan, Thailand.
Bergen, Norway.
Lofoten islands, Norway.
Pyrenees, France.
Jura, France.
Lago maggiore, Italy.
North of North California, USA.
Oregon, USA.
All Pacific northwest, USA.
Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Blue ridge, Georgia (?), USA.
Area between Czech and Slovakia.
Parks West of Zagreb, Croatia.
Mountains, coast and parks in Serbia.
I have a relative who lived in Montana for several years. I'm told its a world-class hiking state and is much cheaper than Colorado. I went once to go fly fishing and it was gorgeous. Only the winters are supposed to be terrible, so you'll want to time your stay well.<p>If you're more inclined towards Europe then I'd recommend Hungary, a very cost-effective place to live.<p>Good luck!
Ithaca, you know Ulysses island. I am not sure about thr fast Internet. I assume you could get some lousy ADSL.<p>The sea and nature are marvelous though. The people are very good too. There at least another 50 places in Greece that fit the description, but Ithaca is my favorite. You can check out Nomads list, for cities that are better fit for tech nomads.
I live in Cancun, Mexico right now. There are some areas where it's nice and not so expensive. Other places are around here because of tourism. However, Chiapas has mountains and rivers and is the cheapest state in Mexico from what I've heard.
Lots of places in Sweden with great internet, great nature and ok prices. If super cheap is your focus, maybe not, but it is quite affordable outside cities. The North for mountains, the west or north for forests and lakes.
Ozarks. Northwest Arkansas. Eureka Springs if you are super blue. Fayetteville area for college life.<p>Very cheap and infinite nature. Not as backwards as you'd expect.<p>Source: I grew up in Carroll County Arkansas.
Croatia, both coast including islands (there is 1k of them, many uninhabitted) and in land. I recommend Velebit, Papuk, Brac and of course Dubrovnik archipelag.