From what I read on this sub, the focus seems to be in developing countries or Eastern Europe. Just curious as to why US/Canada isn’t as popular as DN?
I get that it’s more expensive but there are ways around it. I think the beauty and stuff to do in such country tops a lot of places!
Just being curious and would like to know your point of views, not trying to take away anything from other countries :)
It should be possible to get a rental car and hop-around different accommodations, road tripping on a fixed monthly budget of 3600 USD in Canada and maybe US?
Renting a car in the US as a foreigner is not at all complicated, where do you get that from? It’s one of the cheapest and best countries to do so.
I just spent 2 months in the US (California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Hawaii), had a rental car the whole time, drove around 4000 miles and it cost me about 6000 USD per month. While I’m not exactly living frugal the only way I see to do such a trip for less than 100 USD a day is camping on your own all the time. So yeah, most people just can’t or don’t want to afford that.
Short term rentals are set at luxury prices, car rentals are expensive, food is expensive. It’s just hard to move around affordably with ease. Public transport is fairly limited. These are countries for primary residents or wealthy tourists.
For Canada price can be a factor, my city Vancouver is really expensive and can be a little difficult for finding short term rentals. Wether can be a factor too, typically summers are beautiful across Canada, but winters can be harsh depending on the region. Also the culture across Canada is pretty much homogenous more or less, kid of the same thing all over with the exception of Montreal and the French influence. I love it here but for travel and adventure there are just way more interesting places across the globe with cheaper cost of living and better weather/ more established culture
The US is ghetto and filled with synthetic culture lacking opulence, great to roadtrip for nature though. Some cities have great music scenes if you’re there for that but aside from that it sucks.
Too expensive plus lack of culture due to too expensive
DNs that are American that stay in America… don’t call themselves digital nomads. They just call themselves remote workers and move somewhere.
Or vandwellers. Or tiny house livers. Or homesteaders. Or whatever other term.
Like I’m in the US living extremely cheap in a camper I built that I park on some land I own in Maine. Super low cost of living and I mostly just work and grind my business.
But moving to Puerto Rico soon (also America) because it makes more sense for the business.
When I’m ready to travel more, I’d love to get out of America more. The culture of America is pretty ugly. And most places think mayonaise is the height of flavor / seasoning… lol
In general you pay more for everything in America…while getting less. I’ve paid 20 dollars to get sad overcooked and bland chicken on rice… that type of money could have gotten me a feast with flavor elsewhere. But in America the slogan is “fuck you, come again”.
Unrelated, but can I ask why you settled on Maine initially? I was looking for somewhere in New England to build a cabin on a good size parcel of land, but their income tax rates made me cringe even being from Connecticut.
I mean high cost of living is very true if you only consider overpriced metropolitan areas.
You can live in beautiful rural areas in the Dakota’s, much of Appalachia, Alaska, Nebraska, etc. for extremely cheap. May not be as cushy an option as a luxury resort in Bali, but plenty of cheap, beautiful, generally safe areas in both the US and Canada if you’re okay living in wilderness.
A large majority of the land in US, and especially in Canada, is secluded wilderness.
Renting a car is fine… being allowed to stay in the country for a decent amount of time is hard, and you are absolutely not allowed to work in the US without a work visa, no matter who you work for or where that work is based.
It’s expensive, not as exciting, public transportation is shit everywhere.
Also the Internet in the western countries sucks and it’s ridiculously expensive while most of Asian countries offer cheap high speed internet.
I’m really not sure what you’re so confused about. You’ve answered your own question multiple times both within the post itself and in the comments lol.
Probably the cost of living
Because the vast majority of digital nomads are younger people on a tighter budget. The US & CA are high cost of living countries for all basic needs - shelter, food, transportation - comparatively to other countries.
It’s not that hard to figure out. Even you can see the obstacles for it
I know renting a car as a foreigner is really complicated in the USA
Most of US cities are not walkable, on top of being prohibitively expensive.
I liked Montreal as a more affordable city. It’s also one of those rare North American metropolises that is actually walkable to some degree, with decent public transportation.
Most of US cities are not walkable, on top of being prohibitively expensive.
What does that have to do with anything? Renting a car in the US is dirt cheap
Define dirt cheap? Also what happens if you have an accident? Health insurance in the US is twice as expensive with my nomad plan.
Some nomads like me also don’t like car-centric cities. I like being able to walk everywhere (or at least use public transportation), and if there are cars around me, they shouldn’t have priorities over pedestrians. By that I mean that traffic lights turn green more often so you don’t have to wait for several minutes to cross the road, the speed limit is controlled, etc. It’s a personal preference, and many cities in the US don’t really fit those criteria.
I had a great time in the US as a tourist, but I don’t see myself living there.
From where?
Terribly bad take lol it’s so expensive in the US, where the heck do you live
I’m Aussie spending around 8/9 months a year in MTL as my home base and I think it’s an awesome place to live…. Just not in winter
Montreal is quite expensive to rent monthly, like ridiculously expensive… otherwise, love that city!
Oh for sure, I spent 4 months there in summer, but I wouldn’t stay in winter. I came to terms with the fact that there was no perfect place on Earth a long time ago. Montréal came close for me, I made lots of friends very quickly.