Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?
Depending on your ability to work remotely, I would make the &quot;case&quot; that you should consider <i>Portugal</i>.<p>Lisbon and Porto are super popular with [&quot;digital nomad&quot;] remote workers who work for international companies so earn in USD but spend [much less] in Euros for a superb lifestyle.<p>There&#x27;s a <i>reason</i> @paddycosgrave moved Web Summit to Lisbon. 
It&#x27;s one of the cheapest cities in Europe and [unlike Barcelona] <i>everyone</i> speaks English. There is a good &quot;tech scene&quot; and a <i>fantastic</i> work-life-balance; surf, great food &amp; warm&#x2F;welcoming people.<p>A few things to consider that <i>many</i> people over-look:
+ Socio-Economic and Political stability.
+ General safety&#x2F;security and crime levels.
+ Sanitation and healthcare availability&#x2F;cost.
+ Availability&#x2F;cost of healthy [organic&#x2F;unprocessed] food.
+ Lifestyle to actually <i>live</i> in the place: is it &quot;cheap&quot; but a nightmare to live there?
+ Contract-law for short-term apartment&#x2F;room rentals.<p>Portugal will <i>exceed</i> your expectations on all of these.<p>Portugal is <i>very</i> welcoming to US citizens, you won&#x27;t have any &quot;visa issues&quot; the way you will in many of the [superficially] &quot;cheaper&quot; Asian countries.<p>If you want your budget to stretch <i>much</i> further, consider Braga. The cost of living is less than a third of SF, internet is fast and you get <i>most</i> of the benefits of Porto &amp; Lisbon (or can reach those cities with a short train journey).<p><i>Note</i>: I am [slightly] &quot;biased&quot;, my Wife and I have recently &quot;escaped&quot; from London [after working there in tech for 10 years] and we are busy setting up a Co-living&#x2F;Co-working House in Braga: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;dwyl&#x2F;home" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;dwyl&#x2F;home</a>
We will be opening at the end of this month and our target cost per month [1Gbps Internet, all bills, cleaning &amp; gym included] is $300 (USD).<p>We <i>chose</i> Braga because it has <i>all</i> the &quot;ingredients&quot; for an <i>awesome</i> place for tech&#x2F;creative people to escape the <i>bigger</i> cities and focus on their work while still having access to <i>all</i> the amenities great healthcare, superb organic&#x2F;vegan food and good libraries&#x2F;meetups&#x2F;etc.