Where to Work as a Digital Nomad: Home, Hotel, Coworking or Cafe

Working from your rental

For most nomads, the home office is the main office: no commute, your own hours, and calls at any time of day, which matters if you work across time zones. It only works if the place is set up for it. Use the checklist below before you book.

Working from a hotel room

Fine for a few days, hard for weeks. Many hotel rooms have no proper desk, a decorative chair, weak shared Wi-Fi and housekeeping knocking at 10am. Business hotels, aparthotels and serviced apartments are much better. Ask for a room with a desk, check the Wi-Fi speed on arrival, and move to the lobby or a coworking space for long calls.

Coworking spaces

The closest thing to an office: ergonomic chairs, fast internet with a backup line, phone booths, meeting rooms, air-conditioning and other people. They also solve the loneliness that catches many nomads out. A day pass costs about $5 to $15 in much of Asia and Latin America and $25 to $50 in Europe, Australia and the US; monthly memberships are much cheaper per day. Our city guides list named coworking spaces with prices.

Cafes

Good for a change of scene, an hour of email or a creative session, not for a full day or important calls. Cafe Wi-Fi is often slow and shared, tables are low, outlets are rare, and the noise makes calls hard for the people on the other end. Buy something every hour or two, avoid peak lunch times, and don’t take a four-person table alone. In some cities, including parts of Europe, cafes ban laptops at weekends or limit them to a set time.

Before you book a rental for more than a week, check:

• A real desk at a normal height (about 72 to 76 cm), with room for a laptop stand and keyboard. Ask for a photo of it, not just “workspace” in the listing.
• A proper chair with back support. A dining chair is tolerable for a week; for a month, it will hurt. Some nomads buy a cheap office chair locally and resell it.
• Internet speed and type. Ask the host for a speed test screenshot taken that day. You want at least 25 to 50 Mbps down and 5 to 10 Mbps up for video calls, on fibre or cable, not shared building Wi-Fi.
• Where the router is. A router in another room or another flat means weak signal. Ask whether you can plug in with Ethernet.
• Power. A socket near the desk, a stable supply, and a backup in places with regular outages.
• Light. A window near the desk, ideally in front of or beside you, not behind you on video calls. Blackout curtains in the bedroom help with odd sleep hours.
• Noise. Street noise, construction, bars and roosters ruin calls and sleep. Read reviews for noise and look at the street on a map.
• Air-conditioning or heating in the room you will work in, not just the bedroom.
• A separate space. A one-bedroom with a living area is easier to work and sleep in than a studio, especially for couples who both take calls.
• Mobile signal. Check the signal for your network inside the flat, in case you need to use your phone as a backup.

A few light items turn a poor setup into a workable one:

• A laptop stand, keyboard and mouse, so the screen is at eye level.
• A portable monitor if you work with code, design or spreadsheets.
• Noise-cancelling headphones and a microphone, so calls work anywhere.
• A seat cushion or lumbar support for bad chairs.
• A short extension lead to bring power to the desk.
• A USB-C Ethernet adapter and cable for unreliable Wi-Fi.
• A travel router to create a stronger, private network.

See tech and gear for the full kit.

• Keep regular hours, even if you can work any time. Clients and teammates will thank you, and so will your sleep.
• Get up every hour. Walk, stretch and look at something far away.
• Separate work and rest. Work at the desk, not in bed, and close the laptop at the end of the day.
• Plan around time zones. Block your calls into the same hours each day so the rest of the day is free.
• Use coworking to meet people. Even two days a week makes a difference to loneliness, which is one of the main reasons nomads give up.