Europe’s most laidback city + haven for freelancers due to low cost of living.

in #travel7 years ago

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In this modern world of remote work, and now even more so emphasized with cryptosphere, living location is more of a choice than a must. Cost of living plays a key role to balance your income. Because standards of living are getting universal these days: Uber, McD, coffeeshops, etc.

Probably the best town in the continental Europe with price/utility ratio is Lviv, Ukraine – 60km away from the border with Poland. The best way to get here is 2hour comfy, modern train ride from Polish border town Przemysl, for the price of about $7. Wizzair flights from Berlin and Wroclaw are also good options to get in.

As Ukraine’s currency suffered severe inflation couple years ago, its ratio to USD dropped from 8:1 to 28:1, so everything is relatively cheap compared to Western Europe. Like lunch in a middle class restaurant can be as low as $3-4.

If googled, you can find ton of information regarding it’s unique architecture, being part of UNESCO heritage, etc… But it also has a bit of a unique selling point: it’s urban culture is quite laidback and armed with 100+ of coffeeshops makes it a perfect spot to find inspiration for your next project or just to enjoy the view in the window and do nothing :)

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Lviv has lots of parks thanks to it’s hilly geography, and it has markets full of organic homegrown produce, priced for pennies.

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Pubs and nightclubs that’s another story, also, tons of info online.

On the negative side is Eastern European climate with cold winters (often gets below 0C), and some remnants of a developing nation, like public transportation is cheap but often over-packed and lacks air conditioning (luckily Uber can fix this problem).

Citizens of EU, USA, Canada, Japan and many other countries can travel visa free to Ukraine for a stay of up to 90 days.

So, wish you a nice journey, and please leave a comment if you have any questions.

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Interesting post. Be good to know more about Lviv.

beautiful pic of Lviv

There's no place like my beloved L'viv.