After digital nomading since 2019 and living in ~20 states/countries, I’ve come up with a system that makes it much easier to get settled into a new location. It saves me a few days when I first arrive (and am most likely tired and stressed from the flight and TSA/customs abuse).
Here is the methodology.
Decide what matters most to you when you move somewhere
Come up with a set of questions that are relevant to you when you move somewhere. Here’s my current set:
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What is the best area for me in that place? Here, describe what you’re looking for. Some examples:
- “authentic” vs. “cosmopolitan” feel — in most “authentic” areas you won’t meet many other DNs or expats, but costs tend to be lower
- walkability vs. quietness. For example in Medellin there was a very quiet, safe and upscale area (Loma Verde), but it wasn’t as close to shops, gyms and restaurants as El Poblado. On the other hand, El Poblado can be very noisy at night.
- nightlife vs. access to good gyms — in Cancun if you want cosmopolitan nightlife, the only option is the Hotel Zone, but it has no good gyms; those are found in downtown, 15–25 minutes drive. A car drive or messing with the public transit can be serious hindrances to going to the gym daily if that’s a goal you have.
- do you need a coworking space within walking distance?
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What are the transportation options? If public transit is inefficient, Uber works in many, but not all places, and there are often cheaper or faster local alternatives (e.g. Bolt in Europe, Lyft in the US). In some places (Silicon Valley, for example), Uber is so ridiculously expensive that you’re better off renting a car. For longer term, Look at Turo, Rentamile, or local rental car options, including through Uber/Lyft/Careem/other local rideshare providers, but have parking cost and difficulty in mind.
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What are the e-commerce options? What’s the local Amazon equivalent? Do they take international credit/debit cards? (Most do, Shopee and Lazada in the Philippines/Malaysia haven’t gotten the memo yet)
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What are the restrictions on shipping (e.g. need the local equivalent of a Social Security Number in Brazil) and how can you bypass them? (e.g. deliver to an office/coworking space/hotel/fellow nomad/acquaintance) How long does it take for items to arrive if they’re held at customs?
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What’s the groceries situation? Local grocery stores, vs. deliveries. What can be delivered? Some cities have delivery services (e.g. Postmates, Deliveroo, Rappi, Grab, GoJek) that can bring you anything from a given store, which makes your location a bit more flexible.
- What are the local equivalent brands for the groceries you favor? E.g. high-protein yogurt like YoPro.
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If you’re on any diet, or just pay attention to what you eat, what is the organic/healthy/upscale/vegan grocery store chain (think Whole Foods or Trade Joe’s vs. 7–11 or Walmart in the US)?
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Or — are there meal prep services that can deliver meals with the macros you want? Here’s an example for Bangkok and one for Bali.
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Where can you find specialty products you need? Random examples:
- kale (very hard to find in Bucharest or Rio de Janeiro)
- protein powder and other gym supplements (surprisingly hard to find in Medellin)
- string cheese (again, surprisingly hard to find in Medellin)
- turkey jerky
- ready-prep healthy meals, e.g. minimally processed meat without nitrites and nitrates (uncommon in Bucharest, vs. anywhere in the US)
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In that general area, what are the top 1 or 2 hospitals that aren’t tourist traps? You hopefully won’t need this information, but better be prepared than scramble finding a good hospital in an emergency.
Then, get answers
Many of these questions can be answered with the help of free online resources like Google Maps, and nomad sites:
- NomadList — overview, demographics, cost of living
- Digital Nomad World — has city guides
- HoodMap — neighborhood maps, often tongue-in-cheek or obscene, but useful to figure out the good/bad areas. Example: Medellin
- Agoda —start booking an accommodation in a city, and it will suggest popular neighborhoods and what makes them so (e.g. “foodie heaven” or “nightlife”
- Kayak has a neighborhood heat map.
- Google Maps colors light orange areas with high foot traffic.
You can also find locals who can answer these questions. Where?
- the local Facebook groups, but if you have a lot of questions, that might be too much to ask all at once
- pay a virtual assistant in your target location via Upwork, Fiverr, or a similar freelance site, to answer all your questions at once
- ask an AI assistant like Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT:
I’m moving to [X City]. Recommend areas to live in that are clean, safe, lush with greenery and have modern high-rise buildings with on-premises gyms and apartments available on Airbnb. Then make a report answering the following questions with specific examples, citing sources:
Compare the local delivery services equivalent to Instacart, Grab, Rappi. Which take international cards and offer the most hassle-free experience?
Compare the local ride-share services like above.
Where can I find the following specialty items: blueberries, kale, ISOPure protein powder, creatine monohydrate
List the top 3 meal prep services, ideally that allow macronutrient customization.
How does receiving shipments from abroad work? Any issues with customs?
Relatively close to each recommended area (but favoring quality of care over distance), what are the top 1 or 2 hospitals that aren’t tourist traps?
AI answers may be more or less helpful, and that’s primarily because a LOT of nomad discussion happens in silo’ed Facebook and WhatsApp groups, which search engines and LLMs can’t index. If only those folks would post on forums like NomadGate…
Other tips for settling in
If you can get a local SIM, do so, especially if no KYC is required. Make sure to get one with a local phone number with SMS and call minutes included (Mobifone in Vietname can’t receive SMS by default, Viettel is data-only etc.) Having a local phone number will make a lot of things easier, or even possible. One of these is signing up for the local e-commerce site, and being able to receive calls from delivery couriers.
E-commerce
To order specialty products (e.g. Isopure protein powder, arguably the cleanest protein powder, but good luck finding it outside the US), it helps to be able to use the local e-commerce platform, i.e. the Amazon equivalent for the country you’re in:
- Shopee for Malaysia, Vietnam and other SEA countries
- Tokopedia for Indonesia
- AliExpress etc.
While Tokopedia is more visitor-friendly, Shopee and Lazada as of late 2024 are not: they refuse any US credit cards, and on Android, Shopee is geo-restricted to Android devices with the Google Play region set to SEA. If blocking an entire customer segment weren’t idiotic enough, Google Play also bans you from changing your country more often than once a year. So it helps to have several Google accounts registered on your phone, then alternate among them to change the Google Play country when you move and it’s been less than a year. Note that changing your country may require entering a local payment method; fortunately US Capital One virtual cards worked in Vietnam, but for other countries you may need to get more creative, e.g by registering with local payment methods like Touch’n’Go in Malaysia.