220. Remote Work Roulette: the best (and worst) places we’ve ever worked - Summer Sessions, Episode 2

5 Aug 2025 · 55 min · 34 chapters

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In short

The hosts (Leanne and Al) do “Remote Work Roulette,” sharing what they’ve found to be the best and worst places to work remotely, based on their own digital-nomad travel since 2017. They also argue that customer/workplace data should be centralized (they mention HubSpot) so teams can collaborate with one shared view.

Guests

No guests appear in the transcript. Only the two hosts are present.

Guest backgrounds (if applicable)

Not applicable—no guest interviews.

Key claims

  • Remote work success depends on practical factors like internet cost/speed, accommodation quality, and local stability.
  • Some countries are welcoming and “easy” for nomads (e.g., Cambodia, Croatia, Slovenia), while others are harder (e.g., Albania outside the capital; India mainly worked from hotels).
  • Digital-nomad visas and long-stay rules matter (Croatia, Italy, Greece, Spain mentioned).

Notable examples

  • New Zealand: expensive mobile data; “Wi‑Fi hopping.”
  • Croatia: digital nomad visa; co-working/meetups; fast internet; Dalmatian islands.
  • Cambodia (Siem Reap): cheap, fast prepaid data; power sockets in cafés.
  • India: major culture/digestive shock; antibiotics on arrival; worked from hotels.
  • Slovenia: underrated; fast internet; wine festival in Maribor (Nov 11).
  • Albania: power/internet issues outside Tirana; “crazy drivers”; better as a holiday than a nomad base.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Exploring Remote Work Roulette

0:45 to 1:37

Discussing the concept of remote work roulette and its implications.

“But it's supposed to be like you're on holiday.”

Digital Nomad Lifestyle

1:46 to 2:55

Sharing experiences as digital nomads and thoughts on LinkedIn trends.

“May well know that Al and I are what kids call digital nomads.”

Experiencing New Zealand

2:55 to 4:28

Discussion about working remotely in New Zealand and practicalities.

“And we got to the airport and Vodafone shop were trying to sell me something stupid like one gigabyte for$50, which is about 30 US dollars, 50.”

Living and Working in Croatia

4:28 to 8:02

Insights on living in Croatia as digital nomads and visa details.

“And we didn't see much of it because we're on there a week.”

Adventures in Cambodia

8:02 to 10:26

Experiences of working in Cambodia, co-working spaces, and local culture.

A Brief Stop in Austria

10:26 to 11:26

Discussion about experiences in Austria, mostly tourist-focused.

“Do you know what we can say about Austria?”

Mixed Experiences in India

11:26 to 14:00

Sharing both positive and negative experiences from working in India.

“We hopped back and we took about five days to get back.”

Exploring Affordable Accommodations in India

14:00 to 14:44

Learn about affordable working accommodations and experiences in India.

“Again, you can afford quite nice accommodation because it is very affordable.”

Traveling in Slovenia: A Hidden Gem

14:45 to 17:56

Discover why Slovenia is considered an underrated destination for nomads.

“So let's get my pot of dreams and pull out the next one, which is Slovenia.”

Luxembourg: A Brief Visit

17:57 to 19:15

Insights into a short stay in Luxembourg, including its public transport system.

“So instead of going to Ljubljana in Slovenia, we went to Maribor, the second city.”
Show all 34 chapters

Winter Travels in Poland

19:16 to 21:00

Discussing the charm and affordability of winter travels in Poland.

“So if you do enjoy Christmas and you're in the UK or somewhere where they take everything down on the 6th, then go to Poland because they love it.”

Winter Travels in Poland

21:01 to 21:28

Discussing the charm and affordability of winter travels in Poland.

“Did you know that the UK's number one management podcast, that's us by the way, and the UK's number one marketing podcast are both on the same podcast network?”

Winter Travels in Poland

21:31 to 22:24

Discussing the charm and affordability of winter travels in Poland.

“Tell us about your latest episode, Phil.”

Experiences in Slovakia and France

22:25 to 25:28

Reflections on travels in Slovakia and France, including tips for visiting.

“okay malab i think it's your turn slovakia how long were you there for it felt like we were there a month weren't we Yeah, a month, yeah.”

Adventures in Albania

25:29 to 28:00

A look at the experiences and challenges of working in Albania.

“Although don't pay for flex, which is the way they say you can upgrade and you can, it says you give your priority and all this kind of thing.”

Working Remotely in Albania: Pros and Cons

28:00 to 29:20

Learn about the challenges and beauty of working in Albania.

“I'm sure in Tirana, in the capital, it's different.”

Quickfire Insights on Romania

29:20 to 29:50

Discover quick thoughts on the experience of working in Romania.

“So, we're going to do a quickfire round.”

Gibraltar: A Beautiful Yet Expensive Stop

29:50 to 30:20

Hear about the beauty and expense of living near Gibraltar.

“In terms of working, we used the Wi-Fi and it was okay.”

Exploring North Macedonia: A Unique Experience

30:20 to 32:05

Learn about the quirks and charm of North Macedonia.

“Morrison's never lived there, never worked there.”

The Heartbreak of Myanmar: Past and Present

32:05 to 32:55

Understand the beauty of Myanmar and the situation it faces today.

“terms of working don't don't remember much about it either way which probably meant it was fine Yeah, exactly.”

Italy: A Nomadic Dream Destination

32:55 to 34:25

Explore the allure and challenges of working in Italy.

“because one of the most, probably the most incredible place I've ever been.”

Greece and Spain: Short Visits and Nomadic Opportunities

34:25 to 35:48

Discuss the brief visits to Greece and Spain and their potential for nomads.

“So if you're looking to extend your nomadic venture into years, then Italy is a really good option for that to do.”

Speed Round: A Global Perspective

35:48 to 37:50

A rapid-fire discussion of various countries and their remote work viability.

“and don't tell anyone they're working in Spain.”

Lithuania: A Lockdown Experience

37:50 to 39:24

Relive a unique lockdown experience in Lithuania and its benefits.

Laos: A Mix of Cultures

39:24 to 41:28

Discover the blend of French and Asian influences in Laos.

“I actually couldn't because the borders were literally closed.”

Thailand: A Digital Nomad's Paradise

41:28 to 42:03

Gain insights on Thailand as a top destination for digital nomads.

“And we just sat there for hours, didn't we?”

Exploring Southeast Asia's Digital Nomad Scene

42:03 to 43:05

Discover why Thailand is a popular start for digital nomads and hear experiences from other locations.

“If you've never been to Southeast Asia before and you are a digital nomad, Thailand is a place to start.”

European Destinations for Remote Work

43:05 to 44:30

Learn about various European countries ideal for digital nomads and their unique attributes.

“If we didn't live in Bosnia, we'd live in Montenegro.”

Cultural Insights from Budapest and Portugal

44:30 to 45:57

Explore the cultural highlights of Budapest and the nomadic vibe of Lisbon, Portugal.

“I think we'd just caught the back of several Eastern European countries.”

Traveling Through Eastern Europe

45:57 to 47:35

Insights on traveling through Eastern European countries and their appeal to digital nomads.

Belgrade: A Gem for Digital Nomads

47:35 to 48:56

Discover why Belgrade stands out as a favorite among digital nomads with its vibrant culture.

“It's dirty, it's big, it's gritty, it's noisy, it's everything you want a capital city to be.”

Living in Bosnia and Herzegovina

48:56 to 50:48

Hear insights about living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a hidden gem for digital nomads.

“No, and also it's really, really big on tech.”

Top Recommendations for New Nomads

50:48 to 54:00

Get top recommendations for new digital nomads looking for the best places to work remotely.

“A growing number of backpackers there, I'd say, rather than necessarily nomads.”

Final Thoughts on Nomadic Living

54:00 to 55:22

Wrap up discussions on nomadic living, including essential tips and places to avoid.

“And you could probably spend easily six weeks in Italy and have a fabulous time.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:02Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work. What is it we say? The award winning podcast where behavioural science meets workplace culture. We are brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, which is and will always be the audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a charge occupational psychologist, but as is August, I'm more just... A jelly. A jelly, yeah. My name's Al. I'm a business owner, but in August, I'm doing nothing. We are having most of August off. So this is our summer edition. If you listened last week, you'll know that we are A, recording it outside. B, it is accompanied by an adult beverage.

0:39and see as it's not quite as edited as normal. We tend to just record these and post them. But it's supposed to be like you're on holiday. So come on, guys, let us be on holiday. Yeah, and come with us on holiday. Yeah, come with us on holiday. These are the types of chats we have when we're on holiday. Yeah, let's find out if they're interesting or not. So the idea for today was that we were going to do what we called, what do you call it, remote work roulette? Remote work roulette. The dirty little secret is that most businesses think they know their customers. They have the data, the records, the history, but it's scattered across three teams and four systems.

1:13And in our case, it's about 216 ,000 spreadsheets, which means nobody can actually use it. What you should be doing is using HubSpot because why? HubSpot connects it all. Every interaction, every support ticket, every conversation into one platform every team can work from. So when sales talk to a customer, marketing already narrows the full story. And when you know more, you grow more. Nice. Check out Hopspot.com, the agentic customer platform for growing businesses.

1:45So regular listeners may well know, I've only had two sips. Goodness. It's going well. May well know that Al and I are what kids call digital nomads. What I'm enjoying at the moment, side note, is there's a lot of chat on LinkedIn from Gen Zs and it's like they've just invented it. Right. And it's like, that's cute. Have they got a name for it? No, they call it digital nomads or just nomading. But it's like it's a groundbreaking thing. And of course, it is in their world. So I'm happy to see it and I celebrate it. But yeah, it is fun to look at people kind of bobbing around. But anyway, Alan and I have been nomads since 2017.

2:23And we've traveled to almost 50 countries in that time. Stayed in over 200 Airbnbs and hotels across Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand. so we thought we know quite a lot about remote working we actually have another entire podcast about remote working if you want to listen to that it's called a sideways life very different vibe um no not as many ethical considerations from either of us really so that's what when that's where you get cancelled yeah we'd absolutely get cancelled when people actually find that and connect the two things so we thought we're going to pick out sorry mouth click there how unprofessional me we thought we would we made a little bowl you can hear the bowl with um some little bits of paper in with some places on and we're just going to pick them out and have a little chat about them some will have a lot to say some will have almost nothing to say yeah see how it goes so should we start with number one do you want to pick one out okay oh it's like a raffle what have i got new zealand we spent about a week in new zealand visiting our sister she lives in auckland um beautiful yeah beautiful part of the world i was working quite a lot there i don't think you were as much but when my main client was an australian client and it was cool because it's the first time that has actually a time zone in front of them it's never happened to me before um but really it was just kind of kitchen table vibes we were only there a few days practical considerations for new zealand first of all it is quite an expensive country even compared to like the us and the uk um i think we went out we had like four beers and something to eat and it was about 150 quid for four of us or five of us um and secondly data i saw my backside at the airport because I just come from Southeast Asia where you can go and buy 40 gigabyte for five pounds.

4:03And we got to the airport and Vodafone shop were trying to sell me something stupid like one gigabyte for$50, which is about 30 US dollars, 50. And I was really angry about that. So if you do go to New Zealand, then you'll probably be more Wi-Fi hopping than you will be on 4G because it is expensive, man. Yes, it is. And also, do you know what? I'm not sure New Zealand is a type of place where you want to be working remotely. It's so cool. There's so much to see. And we didn't see much of it because we're on there a week. So, yeah, expensive approach with caution. Great. Okay. So, next one I'm pulling out is Croatia.

4:39We know a lot about Croatia. So, we were in Croatia for probably on and off about three years. Was it only two? Yeah, maybe two. Two. Two and a bit. We did the digital nomad visa. Did we do it twice? We applied for it a second time and left before it came through. Oh, yes, yes. So we did a digital nomad visa, which is essentially, if you don't know, you get a year to live in Croatia. And I think it's good tax breaks as well. 0 % tax. 0 % tax. You get taxed, obviously, if you are in, like, you have to be careful if you're American, because I believe there's something called W-2 or something in America, where basically wherever you are, the American tax jurisdiction will find you and make you pay tax.

5:17But if you're in the UK and you're out of the UK for a year, then in theory, you don't pay any tax at all. This is not financial advice. no it's not um Croatia loved it honestly Croatia is one of those places where if there was a route to permanent residency for third country nationals which is Brits Americans Canadians basically anyone who's not um born in the European Union um because it's fabulous place to be we spent a year in Istria near Pula we spent then probably about six eight months around split we did a lot of whilst we were there um it's wonderful absolutely wonderful it is a little bit more expensive than it used to be when we first went it was really quite cost effective and then they went into schengen adopted the euro things got very expensive overnight but equally it's where you are if you're going to dalmatia so split dubrovnik very expensive islands very expensive if you're heading more towards istria or northern croatia much more affordable yeah there's uh some famous waterfalls in Croatia which are cool we went in the winter when it was all frozen and that was kind of cool we also stayed in an amazing um sort of like homestay sort of like barn thing where um there was where we went down to the kitchen and he was cooking pork and on on the open fire and yeah it was really cool so yeah definitely also our covid summer was in Croatia we spent three almost three months on Brach one of the islands which was just heaven on earth the Dalmatian coast it only the The only rival for me to the Dalmatian coast is potentially Southeast Asia.

6:50Yes. But I'm talking the best bits like Lombok, the gillies. It's the most stunning coastline. You know, in terms of island hopping, it's perfect. The water, I don't know how it's so clean and crystal clear. It's so much fun. I would absolutely recommend Croatia to digital nomads. I would absolutely recommend Croatia in terms of holidays. Just bear in mind that depending where you go, it might be a bit spinny. Yeah, good point. So yes, I think overall in terms of the internet, that was relatively cheap and pretty fast. Even on the islands, it's pretty fast. And yeah, if you are going there for a year, then you probably get yourself a decent apartment there.

7:28We're looking around about sort of 700 or 800 euro for a one bed, two bed, somewhere in split, probably a bit less if you're going to somewhere like Pula. Generally, Istria, which is the bit which is right next to Slovenia, is probably one of the cheapest parts with you've also got the coastline, which is beautiful. so there you go also a good thing about doing the dn visa in croatia is it's quite a good digital in my community yes there's lots of meetups co-working spaces that type of thing so so yeah especially if you're maybe new to traveling around central eastern europe croatia is probably a really nice place to start yeah definitely definitely okay so i'm gonna choose one now so i've pulled out cambodia lee what do you know about cambodia love cambodia we spent about a month in cambodia we did mainly around cm reap awesome place for co-working so many great co-working dedicated co-working space and also just cafes are really well equipped so like every table will have like two power sockets um it's really cost effective as you'd imagine the food is incredible the people are so kind and i think there's a theme that we've noticed traveling is that the countries that have experienced recent hardship um if you don't know i'm sure you do cambodia had awful um awful time and and genocide and and yeah horrible war not so long ago in our experience those places that people are very welcoming very hopeful just excited to see people coming in um i love cambodia i think that's actually one place we're meant to stay two weeks end up staying a month yeah and in terms of internet like we said southeast asia um dead easy what you need to do is when you land just go to any kind of kiosk first of all go up go and research because there's a great thing i can't remember i'll try and put the link in the show notes but there's a great website which essentially takes all of the data options and puts them out it's a wiki um for for uh for prepay so you just go into any kiosk i don't believe you need a passport for that um you do weirdly montenegro but not not in most southeast southeast asian countries buy yourself 20 gigabyte uh that's probably going to be i don't know somewhere around about 10 us dollars and that you know it's fast and fast we're on in the middle of like cm reap was was wasn't remote but still you're getting like 80 gigabyte 80 megabyte down and up so it's really good and it's lovely because it's just so affordable so in terms of kind of your activities you can really really jump into that whether it be the tours or the trips but also just kind of self-care moments so i was getting my nails done for like five dollars or going for a massage for like seven dollars um it's a lovely place to kind of have a bit of a working hybrid holiday i think yeah absolutely check the months you go in because like most of southeast asia there are rainy months and there's also smoky months in some parts of thailand but we'll come on to that but yeah i I think it's definitely somewhere where I would love to go back and work.

10:26Me too. Next one. Austria. We can't say much about Austria. We've not spent much time here. Do you know what we can say about Austria? What? It is the one country in the world that we have driven across in every possible direction. East to west, west to east, up and down, side to side, diagonal. We've spent more time driving across Austria than anywhere else, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And Austria is a cool place. I mean, the Austrians will hate me for saying this, but it's fairly similar to Germany in a lot of ways. I know. A sense of humour different, as Christopher Waltz pointed out. So, yeah, definitely a good place to go.

11:03We can't really tell you much about it because we haven't spent too much time there working, but it's a cool place. Actually, I don't think we spent any time working there. No. I think we spent a long weekend in Vienna, which was cool. And then for Christmas markets. Oh, Vienna. and we did a Christmas market a couple of times there but yeah, not really work there but as you'd imagine Austria to be fairly expensive, good internet great accommodation options Yeah, absolutely Oh and if you are a digital nomad with a car and you're in southern or south east Europe and you're going across perhaps you're going back to the UK it's a really good place Austria's a really good place to stop over because there's some beautiful Christmas markets like Deanne said We went back about two or three years ago.

11:47We hopped back and we took about five days to get back. And we just did the Christmas market tour. So we stopped in some of the most famous Christmas markets in Europe. Vangen? Is that what it's called? Yeah, Vangen. W-A-N-G-E-N. Oh, that was one of the best Christmas markets we've been to. Incredible. Like, they have a special name for it, but it's essentially mac and cheese. Yeah. So good. But yeah, loved it. What else are you saying, Leigh? India. Oh, God. Right. just can preface this because i'm not going to speak highly of it of my experience in india and i'm going to preface this by saying i was so excited to go so excited to go and i got there and it was the biggest culture shock ever and it was also the biggest um what what can i say which is polite digestive shock as well i was extremely ill in india so a little little hack for you i wasn't looking forward to going to india at all in fact the only reason we went is we were in southeast asia and our friends were going to goa for a holiday well they toured around didn't they but we were meeting them in goa um so i wasn't so keen but i absolutely loved it i absolutely loved it and people often ask me like as an introvert why do you like such busy places i think it's because as an introvert busy places you can be completely anonymous and detached and you're one of many nobody's really that doing focused on on you um but i loved it But then I also wonder if, and I'm not saying this is an official hack, I'm not a medical professional, but when we landed, I was full of cold, chest infection type thing.

13:17So I went to a pharmacy just to ask if there's anything they could give me. He ended up giving me an entire course of antibiotics, some really powerful anti-inflammatories and who knows what else. He gave me like four different pills and I was fine. I was fine. So yeah, might be worth looking at. We went to New Delhi, very busy, loved it. Some of the best food I've had in my life. Goa. I'm not sure I'd recommend Goa necessarily, but I'm glad we went. Glad we went, wouldn't go back. Coralla. And Coralla, which was incredible in the south with all the waters and stuff, which we got boats on, which was cool.

13:55In terms to work, it was fine. Internet, I don't remember being too much of a problem. Again, you can afford quite nice accommodation because it is very affordable. So then typically they'll come with little working spaces and things like that. We did stay in a box hotel that caught fire, which was fun. Middle of the night. But yes, so India, yeah, maybe, maybe. I think obviously food aside is a cool place and it's huge. Obviously, we've only been to three places. So our experience was that, yeah, it probably is pretty good for nomading. or working remotely, but you probably don't want to be going to a cafe, I would have thought.

14:38I would have thought you want to be working somewhere at home. Yeah, it's very, very busy, as you'd imagine. So yeah, we tended to work out the hotels that we were staying in. Okay. So let's get my pot of dreams and pull out the next one, which is Slovenia. Slovenia. We spent a lot of time in Slovenia. That was another place we got a lockdown in COVID. We got a lockdown in Lithuania first, and then we went to Slovenia because the rates were low. And then within two weeks, that was shut down. And we were there for six months, I think, in Slovenia. But Slovenia is a very, very cool place. It's kind of like a cross between Croatia and Austria.

15:13Because it does border Austria. So you'll find particularly in the north, well, we were in Maribor, which is very close to the Austrian border. And instead of saying da, which they say yes is in Croatian and a lot of the other Slavic languages, they say ja. There's also a lot of German words there. And it's just a really cool place. if you like wine, oh my goodness, Slovenia is for you. And also go to Maribor, then go to Ljubljana because that's the capital. Cute little city, well, I say little city, it's probably massive, but it's just really compact and lovely to wander around. What were your thoughts?

15:43I think Slovenia is the most underrated country in Europe, and I'm still not entirely sure why it hasn't caught on. I'm not mad about it because I wouldn't want it to be overrun with tourists but it is one of the most beautiful places we've ever been to the people are lovely the food is great because it is this melting pot of like italian croatian german food the wine is incredible marabour has the oldest grapevine in the world which is on the outdoors of their wine museum and on the 11th of november every year they have a wine festival this day is bigger than new year's eve essentially what happens at 11 o 'clock on the 11th of november the wine matures from muscat into wine and they celebrate it as if um i guess yeah like it's it's it's it's new year but like 1999 new year the whole city basically just has an aldea on all the different wines it's like market stores will have all the wineries representing then their new wines and and the most incredible food it's such a party and it's it's it's an absolute bucket list experience that people don't know about yeah 100 in terms of working there there's loads of co-working space it's very very modern um and internet's fast uh accommodation we found was relatively decent very very decent uh very decent and well priced um they've got little they've got aldi they've got spar they've got interspar we don't know the difference still don't know the difference between those two uh and uh yeah it's you just you could be you could be in the us you could be in the uk you could be in australia um it's it's very good so yeah highly recommend it's such a diverse country as well that you can literally like we were we were sat in marabour city center on a cold but sunny day in february and then we drove up to the mountains where there's a ski resort maybe 20 minutes yeah and it was three foot scenario so the diversity of experience you can have in such a small place is incredible and as a nomad i think the beauty of nomading is when you go to places you wouldn't typically go otherwise yeah and slovenia is top of top of the list for me in terms of nomad destinations yeah we're just going before we go into the next one what we did on our first leg of our um of our nomad tour was we call it the second city tour so if we were going to croatia we wouldn't go to zagreb we went to we actually went to Rijka, but we should have gone to Split.

18:10So instead of going to Ljubljana in Slovenia, we went to Maribor, the second city. And that is a really great hack if you are travelling around, because the second cities are often quite a bit more exciting. No. That's not true. I don't mean they're more exciting. The second cities... They're more real. They're more real is the word I'm looking at. You get to live like a local rather than just a tourist in the capital. Yes, absolutely. Is it your turn or mine? My turn. Come on, Lennie. Just excited? You're like a kid at Christmas? Oh, Luxembourg. Luxembourg. We only left three days, were we? We left three nights.

18:42We didn't work. Beautiful. Public transport is free. Fun fact. Completely free. Tram, train, bus, all totally free. Other fun fact is that I think the majority of people who live there are Brazilian or something or Italian. Portuguese. Very big melting pot. Pricey, man. Really, really expensive, but beautiful. definitely stay over for one night don't go there for a month yeah pass pass through enjoy poland is my next is our next choice i'm sorry i chose that before i should have done my little asmr hang on there you go poland right well we spent a bit of time in poland we were in a place called rotslav which we called raw claw before we got there um because it's spelled w-r-o-c-l-a-w Rotslav and it is a cool place loved it loved it we were there in the winter it was like minus 12 at night snow on the ground uh Christmas markets fabulous accommodation really cool little city I'd say it's sort of a city a bit like I'm gonna go with Bristol or not quite as big as Manchester nowhere near as big as London um but that was very cool very cool we also spent a month in gedangst on the north coast one thing i think is a nomad and maybe i'm sure everyone's different but al and i are very much summer people we enjoy being warm but if you're traveling europe in winter january february march there's not many places to be warm so we went the opposite when we did this trip and we're like well let's go cold as cold as we can snuggly fires snow beautiful um so we did rotslav in december and gdansk in february i think fabulous absolutely fabulous the atmosphere the history the tours again the food is wonderful the people are so kind very cost-effective we stayed in a beautiful apartment in gdansk for i think maybe 150 200 pounds a week yeah yeah it was it was really really inexpensive i mean for obviously for short term that's quite that's that's really reasonable um and also fun fact christmas they They tend to not take anything down or the decorations down for Christmas until sort of the end of January.

20:52So if you do enjoy Christmas and you're in the UK or somewhere where they take everything down on the 6th, then go to Poland because they love it. Did you know that the UK's number one management podcast, that's us by the way, and the UK's number one marketing podcast are both on the same podcast network? We actually have a lot in common. We both use behavioural science to help people do better at work. And we both had to wrangle Rory Sutherland on an episode. And two out of three of us are devilishly good looking. And you're not going to say which. Phil, host of Nudge, UK's number one marketing podcast.

21:28It's brought to you, we need to do this in threes. The HubSpot Podcast Network. The audio destination. Or business professional. Seamless, seamless. Tell us about your latest episode, Phil. We've just done an episode on fake fandom and how New York indie bands are paying agencies to create fake TikTok videos about how much they like their work. And we talk about the behavioral science behind fandom and how that encourages people to enjoy the music and all of that good stuff and do some big things about how this affects the world of politics, business and brands as well. It is. It's such a good show.

22:00Of course, you'll hear all the stuff you want to hear about how to grow your business by using behavioral science in your marketing. But there's also just some really interesting episodes that will be right up your street. Personally, I enjoyed Can Balsamic Vinegar Make Beer Taste Better? It can. and are we all just status seeking monkeys i am go and listen to nudge wherever you get your podcast but come back yeah come back definitely come because nudge isn't as good as this so come back i'll cut that out keep that in

22:31okay malab i think it's your turn

22:36slovakia how long were you there for it felt like we were there a month weren't we Yeah, a month, yeah. This was on our first, our ever first nomading trip. Yeah. We went to Slovakia. We did actually go to the CAFTA, went to Bratislava, on the recommendation of somebody we know from Bratislava. And we stayed in a small place called Devon, because we also travel with dogs when we travel Europe. So if you are traveling with dogs, there's lots we can tell you about that as well. But particularly in some places you want to be in a city centre because actually there's more stuff for dogs in the city centre of some cities than there is on the outskirts.

23:09Slovakia we were told not so much we stayed on the outskirts in a place called Devon which is right on the Danube stunning oh my gosh um completely just ignored Slovakia isn't it I think in in favor of of kind of check its former other half I think Bratislava does rival Prague yeah i agree and i think again as a non-obvious place to go if you're if you're trying to decide between frog or brasilva i would say go to brasilva 100 again in terms of the prices i would have said half the price of um of of prague and if i remember uh slovakia's euro and prague's krona yes yeah um and fun fact slovakia if you uh it's if you want to say yes you say ano ano like you know like the irish ano okay also what's great about bratoslava it's about an hour train ride to vienna so if you did want to include a trip to austria but not with a price tag stay in bratoslava train over to vienna easily a day trip bratoslava is like an hour to vienna an hour to somewhere else i can't remember exactly where it is but um a lot of people live in bratislava and work in vienna working this other place that i can't think where it is not budapest i can't remember it is maybe it's budapest you can go check on the map yeah okay so the next one france france we've not spent a lot of time in france and in fact to be really brutally honest with you we weren't massive fans of france for a long time were we until until this year yeah Al and I's line was we've never voluntarily been to France because we've been for people's birthdays or or weddings or that type of thing um until this year yeah and so this year we came back from the UK for Christmas uh we came across the channel tunnel um and by the way if you do do that trip and you've got a car just just do the train don't do the boats we tried to save money on the boats it is about twice expensive on the on the tunnel but you just turn up and then you just stay in your car, watch your stories on Netflix, and then you're in France.

25:24Whereas the number of times we've had problems with ferries, so top tip, do pay the extra bit. Although don't pay for flex, which is the way they say you can upgrade and you can, it says you give your priority and all this kind of thing. It's a bit like Ryanair priority, and it doesn't really give you much because if you turn up early on a normal ticket, then you should be on a ticket. Yeah, yeah, exactly. the other great thing about the the shuttle rather than the the euro star the euro star is for passengers like foot passengers it's a normal train the shuttle is you drive onto the train perfect if you travel with dogs because you stay in the car it's 30 minutes and you're straight through whereas with the ferries you're yeah you're looking at at least kind of two to five hours depending on where you're ferrying to and from so if you have an anxious dog like we do it's a much better option absolutely in terms of france we don't we don't know about um internet because we just used our UK sim there.

26:17So everything else seems a little more expensive than, say, neighbouring Germany. So I don't know. Not sure we're the best people to ask about France, to be honest. Well, let's move on. Yeah, the best place that we found was actually kind of the northeast of France. Again, Christmas time. Oh, and Colmar, which is in the southeast on the border of Germany. If you like wine, Colmar is the place you want to go. Okay. Albania. Albania. Well, we were there for about two weeks, were we? Yeah. Maybe three weeks or four weeks because we went to Samil. We drove through from Greece and we came up to Samil first, which is spelled K-S-A-M-I-L.

26:57The first time I ever saw a 500 euro note. Pretty sure the guy was into, I'm sure we say import, export, but a 500 euro note. Allegedly. Allegedly. Yes. I can say it because I haven't said who it is. yeah anyway um samil was interesting um probably a bit more developed than he was when we were there but then we went to stay in near the capital didn't we were there for about two weeks three weeks yes we did duras yeah duras yeah that was really nice the thing i'd say about the south because i i i see the south of albania talked about a lot as being like the new riviera or kind of the place to go and i and i was talking to a friend about this who'd also been to albania I don't really get it because there's such, there's so much development.

27:46You can't really look in any direction without seeing cranes and building sites. And the sea is beautiful, but you just look behind you and you're looking at a construction site. I didn't really get the hype. No. I think there's a few people on Twitter or on Instagram, whatever, who will say, yes you're looking at beautiful pictures of um of albania but it's if you just flip the camera around it would look like you were in i don't know spain in the 1950s when they're still building stuff one thing about about working in albania was he found that back then i'm not sure it's different now but back then an awful lot of power cuts and power surges he was an awful place to work remotely he really was the internet wasn't great like you say the power wasn't great no so So don't take our word for it and say, don't go to Albania.

28:34But do your research first. Find the place. I'm sure in Tirana, in the capital, it's different. But if you're anywhere outside the capital, expect slight issues. The other thing is, talking of issues, if you're driving through Albania, it is the craziest drivers in Europe. Good luck to you. Yes, we've driven through Montenegro and all the Balkan countries. They're craziest drivers ever. You'll literally come around a corner and there'll be a car overtaking a car and then another car overtaking that car. And they'll all be on your side of the road. and one of them will probably be the police. So, yeah, just be a bit careful.

29:04But it is stunning if you were to drive down towards the Greek border. That last bit there, the last 100k, is just stunning. Beautiful. I would say if you're going to Albania, do it as a holiday. Great. I don't think it's a nomad destination. I agree. Okay. So, we're going to do a quickfire round. Because we are currently on 27 minutes. Romania. Always recommend it would never go back. Had the best time there. Really great. Wouldn't go back. A couple of things about Romania. Number one, if you are able to hire a car and fly into, say, Budapest, Bubu Cares, sorry, and hire a car, do that. Top gear.

29:45Transfegarian Highway. Do that. It is stunning. You also then go up to Brasov and Sigishwera. Transylvania. Transylvania. Those are the most amazing places. In terms of working, we used the Wi-Fi and it was okay. It was okay. Okay. But, and it's, yeah, it's challenging. Everything seems to be a bit of a challenge. You've got to go out to the supermarket, it's a bit of a challenge. But if you do know any kind of Italian or Spanish, then it's another romantic language, which is strange for Eastern Europe. So, it'll be a few words you recognise. Yeah, go on holiday there. Gibraltar. Never lived there.

30:18Got married there. Visited a lot. Morrison's never lived there, never worked there. No comment. Well, to be fair, we lived maybe about a half an hour from Gibraltar in southern Spain for about five years. And so we used to drive down to Gibraltar into a supermarket called Morrison's because they had the tiger bread. They had all the stuff we were missing from home and then drive back. So yeah, it's definitely worth a go. But we've not worked there and it's expensive accommodation. At the time we were there, very dated accommodation. And yeah, it's not someone we necessarily recommend. Talking of someone we'd not necessarily recommend, Now, this place is another beautiful place for holidays.

31:00It is known by a number of different names. It is now known as North Macedonia or North Macedonia. But back in the day, it was called the former Yugoslavic Republic of North Macedonia. Catchy. We went to now, let me see, Skopje, the capital. Very cool. Very crazy. Very strange. Honestly, the statues are still wrapped in plastic because they've just come out. the just come off the back of the van it's made to look like it's like 100 years old and it's about eight years old um also there's a big bridge that takes you across into the um the old town the turkish quarter that is it's just weird because you go from the new town to the old town and it is almost completely dry if you like kebabs as in dry as in no alcohol if you like kebabs oh my god you're gonna love it but don't expect a beer there good place for dogs actually we found a really good like doggy daycare in scopia um that peanut went to that was really good we also spent some time in lake ocarid gorgeous yeah highly recommend lake ocarid recommend macedonia to be honest i really enjoyed it i thought it was a cool quirky little place don't remember having any issues in terms of working don't don't remember much about it either way which probably meant it was fine Yeah, exactly.

32:15Okay, so I'm going to pull out Myanmar. Oh, Myanmar. This was, if you're a bit older, you might know it was Burma, Myanmar. One of the most incredible experiences of our life there. And now you can't go. Well, you can, but it's a bit tasty. I don't think you can actually. It's under kind of military rule at the moment. It isn't after a coup. Yeah, I almost don't want to talk about it because there's really little point because it's so sad that we can't go anymore. But genuinely, one of the most stunning, beautiful places and it's heartbreaking what's happening there. So yeah, hopefully that'll get figured out because one of the most, probably the most incredible place I've ever been.

32:58And if you go to, if it does open up again, try and get to Napoli. It's not spelt the same way as the Italian way, but try to get to Napoli because it is a beautiful beach resort and it's just incredible. Anyway, moving on. Italy. Talking Napoli. Italy. We've done a fair bit in the north. Yeah. Fabulous. There's a place about an hour from Venice that is now going to be our regular stop every year. We were there for a week or 10 days this year. Stunning. Gorgeous. You know Italy. The food's great. There's loads to do. There's loads to see. we've done Luca, we did Pisa, don't go to Sicily in August is the only advice I'd give you about Italy.

33:40Wouldn't that enjoy? Yeah, quick thing about Sicily is you go, oh, well, what? Because it's hot. Well, yes, but if you get a place with air conditioning, which our very first place wasn't, we hired a place for a month, lasted four days, then went and rented somewhere else because the landlord was weird for a start. But also there was no insulation on it and no air conditioning. Genuinely, we used the meat thermometer in our kitchen and it was 37 degrees in the kitchen. um so no absolutely can't work there but also the other thing is there's so many festivals on that the church bells go continuously and continuously so uh for august so going in august is beautiful if you're sitting there out there with your lovely your lovely aperol and you're looking at the church bells listening to church bells if you're trying to be on a zoom call with someone no don't go to sicily italy is a good place for nomads to consider because it's one of the few places that you can get long-term residency as a third country national without too much hard work and taxes to do it.

34:34So if you're looking to extend your nomadic venture into years, then Italy is a really good option for that to do. Take a look. Just a quick point on that. You have to apply when you're outside of Italy, as opposed to most of the other digital nomads where you can arrive and then apply for nomadacy. But you can't do that. Okay, so the next one I pulled out is Greece. Can't really talk too much about Greece. You've only spent a few days in Greece, but stunning. Yeah, passing through and holiday. We weren't working. Yeah. So Greece, I really don't think we should talk about it because we've not worked there.

35:04We've only just relaxed there. Yeah. But it is another place that does do additional nomad visa of sorts. So again, if you're going to extend, Greece is another one to look at. Absolutely. So my replacement there is Spain. Spain, you beautiful, beautiful, beautiful bitch. We would live in Spain if we could. Heartbeat. Let's go now. Yeah. The only reason we don't is that they currently tax worldwide wealth, which means that it's not feasible for us right now. Perhaps that will change. But yeah, and income tax is like in Andalus here, it's 50%. Then also, if you want to be a self-employed, you have to pay€250 a month each before you even make any money, which is why most people go to Spain and don't tell anyone they're working in Spain.

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35:50Just be careful because they're getting onto that. But there is a Nomad Visa. In terms of internet, when we were there, it was relatively pricey. 4G was a bit pricey, but I think it's come down quite a bit since then. Yeah, and when we went back, actually went to the north of Spain a couple of years. Because remember Viadalee, they had lightning fast internet in our Airbnb. So yeah, I think internet's got loads, loads better now. It's fabulous. Go get the DMVs. Have a wonderful time. Don't fall in love too hard, because I promise you, you can't afford it. Yes, absolutely. Honestly, we could do an entire, while Leanne's choosing, we could do an entire episode on Spain.

36:23Should we do a quick, yeah, we have done entire episodes in Spain. Yes. So we're going to do a quick fire. Do you like a one-word fire round? Yes. Okay. Indonesia, Lombok, paradise. Lombok. Right. Don't go to Bali, go to Lombok. That's all we need to say. It is the most amazing place. Belgium. Never actually worked there. It's always been us stopping over, I think. We've been a holiday there and we've stopped over there, but I don't think we've ever worked there, have we? No. Great chips. Great chips. Yeah, fries if you're not from the UK. yes great fries and great waffles if you're into that kind of thing and great mussels oh my goodness i want pinot gris and go to go go to belgium for the for the seafood and for the wine and for the fries and good beaches if you've got a dog to run on oh peanut loved it sweden we did a couple of days there didn't work there really enjoyed it we went to um malmo yeah yeah and that was it was cool it was really cool really cool really really cool uh again quite expensive as you'd expect for the Baltic countries, or the Balkan, the Baltic.

37:28It's going to be a speed round, Al. Sorry. Indonesia, Gili Islands. Yes, that's all. Go. Great for working. Yes, internet's pretty quick. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful place. Gili Trawangan, go there. Go to a tiki bar. We did an interview on our last podcast from the tiki bar from the guy. They're really cool. Ex-actor on IMDb as well. Ireland. love Ireland it's it's honestly I'm one of those like annoying Americans that like I have Irish heritage therefore I feel at home in Ireland went to Galway Dublin of course and County Mayo yeah the west coast of Ireland is just an absolute must go spend a lifetime there don't yeah don't go to Dublin go somewhere else go to Kerry go and go to the local bar and get a proper Guinness and it and we were there and there was a Guinness there was fiddlers like violinists um it was brilliant okay oh sorry you got one more no go uh next one i pull out is lichenstein it's a cheat us keeping this because i think we're only in there for either one night or even just one day um cool little place um there's not a lot to do there's not a lot to do i think you could probably walk it from from from uh end to end in about three hours uh the actual old town itself is tiny but uh cool definitely go next one i've got here is lithuania now we know a lot about lithuania because we spent four five months locked down our first lockdown lockdown for what i remember internet was very fast we stayed just outside vilnius um in the city but uh in a beautiful uh like townhouse the neighbors were amazing neighbors kept bringing us food in fact when we left they sent us a whatsapp well actually it's viva up there but sent us a whatsapp message message uh with what they'd made which was like um time to say goodbye and it got like tears and stuff and they were like we miss you and it's like no lithuania definitely definitely go a bit more expensive than some of the neighboring baltic countries but still worth it yeah it's just it's really cool we couldn't we got so lucky with our lockdown it was in the best place i remember people at times saying are you going to come back to the uk and it's like why a beautiful townhouse in a country with a really low covid rate we were right back on onto a lake so we could walk the dogs we We were a 10-minute drive into the city centre, which was only locked down for six weeks.

39:40Where am I going? I actually couldn't because the borders were literally closed. Loved it. Also, there's a, what's it called? A spit? Oh, yes. That's like a really thin bit of land that we went to that's kind of separated by the sea and then a lagoon. And it's actually connected with Russia. Yes. Incredible. The best smoked fish ever had in my life. Sand dunes like I've never seen before. It was like out of a movie. Huge fan of Lithuania. Love it. Definitely go to Lithuania. Okay, speed around. Ireland. You just said Ireland, or do I write it down twice? Laos, L-A-O-S. I'm never quite sure how to say it.

40:23Beautiful place. Very French. Yes, it was colonized by the French. Really good place. We were only there for maybe three or four days. I don't think we worked there, did we? We did. We were there a week. We went to a co-working space. Oh, that was, yeah, that was loud. Brilliant food. We went to. Luang Prabang, brilliant food. And we went up a mountain to watch the sunrise, sunset at the top of a monastery. Temple, yeah. Temple, yes. Stone. Food, great. They have a, if you imagine Asian food, but with like French influence, they have like these sort of like roast sausage things that are just incredible.

40:56It's like two of the best cuisines in the world mixed together and it does not disappoint. Incredible night markets as well. Yes. We actually went to, there's a little island in the middle of the Mekong River that runs through Luang Prabang that is only there during the summer periods. It gets flooded in the winter and every year the locals rebuild it and it's a little cucumber farm. So you have to go and get a boat over and they have beers and cucumber salad and that's it. But it'll be the best, coldest beer you've ever had, the best cucumber salad you've ever had. And we just sat there for hours, didn't we?

41:30Just watching the sunset. So yeah. Fabulous. Beautiful. Anyway, Thailand. We haven't got time. We haven't got time. Yes. Yeah. Great. Everywhere we went to Thailand was just incredible. The islands, the only thing is that some of the islands, when we went back in 17, 18, the internet wasn't brilliant. I'm sure that's changed now. I'm thinking of that one where we literally had our place on the sand and that wasn't brilliant. But if you go to Koh Lanta, that's kind of like the digital nomad island. and then from there you'll find people and travel with them. Yes, absolutely brilliant. If you've never been to Southeast Asia before and you are a digital nomad, Thailand is a place to start.

42:08Yeah, maybe avoid Chiang Mai just because Chiang Mai is in the north and it's very expat-y. The kids love it though. I don't know why because you just walk, you see old men walk coming around the corner with like two young girls on their hand and it's just weird. Chiang Mai is one of the places where people will stay as nomads for months. Like they'll do the visa hop where you can get like a three-month visa and then I'll leave for a week and then come back and get another three months. Yeah, meh. To Chiang Mai, the rest of Thailand, amazing. Okay, I've got Netherlands. Unfortunately, we don't think we can tell you much about that.

42:40We've stayed a few times. Very nice, beautiful, lots of bikes. We didn't partake in any of the activities. Well, I didn't when I went to any of the activities that are there. You know the one I'm talking about. But otherwise, really lovely place. Very similar to Belgium, I would thought. Great Christmas market. yes fabulous Christmas market best Christmas market in Europe yes Australia loved it we did Sydney we did Melbourne slightly different experience from me because I was there with my client from Australia so I very much loved it and they helped us around seeing things and getting the most out of it yeah I think every no one has to go to Australia don't they yeah of course you do of course you do next one Malta now we only went on holiday so unfortunately can't tell you about that but our internet was pretty decent there it's a really cool place it's kind of kind of got a weird sort of like italian stroke spanish vibe um and it's definitely worth going really good just don't go and get the rabbit which is the local delicacy i mean we like rabbit but it was just a bit disappointing if you're not keen on nomading but want to look at expattery but don't have any language malta and gibraltar that we've both talked about are really good options for that so do take a look particularly if you're in the gaming industry if you're in the gaming industry you'll already know about Malta and Gibraltar.

43:57Anyway, Montenegro. Love it. If we didn't live in Bosnia, we'd live in Montenegro. Yep. Great internet. Although you do need, as I said before, you do need a passport to go and get your SIM card in Montenegro for some very strange reason. Crazy, crazy drivers. Kotor is beautiful, but you probably don't want to go to Kotor and stay there because it'll be expensive unless it's off season. But yes, Montenegro, absolutely stunning. Just be careful of the drivers. We've got talking of rabbit, Hungary. There's my joke. We've only ever done Budapest. Yeah, yeah. I really liked it. You weren't so keen, were you?

44:30I thought it was okay. I thought it was okay. I think we'd just caught the back of several Eastern European countries. And so it was getting, I hate to say it, getting a little samey. But it's a very cool place. And if you like the likes of Prague and Bratislava, I would imagine you'd love Bucharest. Budapest, sorry. Don't get it wrong. Yeah, I really liked it. And again, I mean, I'm a big fan of Christmas and Christmas markets. so you might not be surprised that we've been to a lot of them. If you're looking at like an alternative Christmas market tour and you don't want to do too much of Germany or the obvious ones, Budapest Christmas market is incredible.

45:03It was great. The entire city is basically one big Christmas market and because it's cold and crisp and yeah, it's very, very cool. I believe you get blackcurrant wine there, I think is the predominant wine. And goulash. And goulash. So next one I pulled out is Portugal. We only spent a little bit of time, we spent maybe about a month in Portugal perhaps. Week. Was it only a week? Yeah, week in Lisbon. Lisbon's a cool place. It's where all the nomads hang out. Yeah, I don't think we need to say anything about that because if you're ever thinking of working remotely, then you'll have already thought of Portugal.

45:33Czechia. Do you know what? There are many digital nomad hotspots that are hugely overrated, overhyped. I would never recommend them. Bali. There are others, like Prague, that are totally worth the hype. Prague is awesome. Very cool. go uh they they split up the the location into like prague one two three four five six seven eight etc prague four was very cool we stayed there for a month and we went to prague six for a month as well so basically the tip is to go slightly outside because the uh the um trains or the trams taking the center out so quick and so cheap so definitely look at prague and if you do travel with a dog prague is probably the most dog friendly place you've ever been to so all public transport dogs can go on there's no need for muzzles or any of that nonsense restaurants will let them in we went to a really nice restaurant for my birthday and took the dog with us pubs and cafes are absolutely fine so yeah if you if you travel with a dog prague is a must and of course there is a hundred million co-working spaces in prague yes there are next one comes up is bulgaria now we have to talk quietly here because we're in bulgaria right now bulgaria is a cool place um it's definitely one i would rather be on holiday in than necessarily working in but then we are in rural bulgaria right now south of if you've heard of a place called haskovo probably about an hour from the greek border um so yeah i mean it's cool definitely come and have a look at bulgaria it's like we said the other week they nod their head when they say when they mean uh no as they go what do i mean yeah so you'd go yes and nod your head and they actually mean no and nod their head and there's also lots of stalks yes cool things doing bulgaria go to the black sea very very different coastline go to a place called plovdiv huge amounts of history beautiful beautiful place we haven't been to sofia but heard good things sorry i was distracted yes absolutely so i'm just looking now and what we're going to do is cheat i think leanne we're going to take out the rest of them and just pick out the ones we want to talk about because we've still got about four in there five in there six okay um so i'm going to start off we got samarino here we were there for a couple of days it was beautiful place really cool latvia went on holiday uh back in the day to latvia yeah it didn't work for me didn't work for me those places but both lovely places uh switzerland we stayed with our friends in switzerland which is a little bit of a cheat uh because we didn't actually pay for anything because uh andrew and fanny is um his missus wouldn't let us pay for anything but it was it's a beautiful beautiful place but it's not somewhere you go if you're budget conscious what have you got lee uh i've got denmark we only went on holiday there but absolutely loved it um indonesia bali i think we've said that's a hard no no malaysia we stayed in kl for a couple of days again i don't think we were working there but obviously we're in kl so the internet is incredible there's loads of places to work it's all good um serbia we spent a month in belgrade i love belgrade yes belgrade is one of my most favorite cities in Europe.

48:31It's dirty, it's big, it's gritty, it's noisy, it's everything you want a capital city to be. Great shopping, beautiful parts, grungy parts, dive bars, fancy restaurants, so much diversity. Absolutely loved it. Only place in Europe we did get a little bit of beef with somebody local, a local taxi driver asked us to get out once they realised we were British. But then we did bomb the ever-loving shit out of them as NATO. We did. So if you're British, you're American, there's a small chance you'll experience a little bit of hostility but that was the only bit that we did and the vast, when everyone else was completely lovely to us and if anyone's under 30, it's not even on their mind, I don't think.

49:11No, and also it's really, really big on tech. It's like the Europe Silicon Valley is kind of like in Serbia. Yeah, so lots of nomads actually are not working. I've got Germany written down here, which we've never actually, it's another transit country for us. We've only ever stopped over on the way to somewhere but it's Germany. It's going to be efficient and amazing and everything's going to work and it's also going to be delightfully weird and it's huge yes always takes us like two days to drive across germany it is it's a lot of germany a lot of germany uh my last one is vietnam uh vietnam i've got mixed feelings about um it wasn't our favorite place to go no we stayed in hanoi that was really busy so we went down to we were there of a chinese new year so that was busy um and then we went down to the middle one which is called what begins with H?

49:59I went to Hue Hue that was cool yeah I like that that was my favourite part and then we went to Ho Chi Minh the capital very smart if you it's like Bangkok it's just a really progressive what it doesn't have what we didn't find there was the grittiness of say the Chinatown in Bangkok where you felt like you could have been coming in 1918 it would be the same we found that in Hanoi yes we found that in Hanoi but for the obvious reasons so that's I'm out Leanne have you got any more? I've got one more. B-I-H. Where's that song? Bosnia and Herzegovina. That's our home. That's where we should be right now.

50:32That's our home. I don't think we need to say anything more other than it's the place of all 50 countries we've traveled to where we'd actually want to spend the majority of our time. People are great. It's a very diverse country in terms of its people and its landscapes and its everything, really. Internet is decent, very affordable. A growing number of backpackers there, I'd say, rather than necessarily nomads. I've not come across many nomads. So there's not really a community there as there would be in somewhere like Belgrade. But it's a very beautiful country. And there's a place in terms of if you are nomading, it's a great hideout from Schengen.

51:12If you get close on your Schengen days, because it's non-EU and non-Schengen, very cost effective. You'll be finding easily places to stay for probably like 10 euros a night. You could probably get entire apartments for€20 a night. Yeah. It's heaven. We live in Mostar or just outside. Hertz the Governor is our favorite. Sarajevo is a very cool city, lots of history. There's a film festival there this week. It's getting more and more in terms of events and stuff like that. But it's a great place to include in your hopping because you'll get from Croatia to Montenegro to Bosnia to Macedonia to Serbia probably within a week if you wanted to go that fast.

51:53Yeah. And if you're more on the intrepid side of remote work, digital nomad, traveling, backpacking, then go to Bosnia now before, or actually technically Herzegovina is the one we prefer. But go to Herzegovina, Bosnia Herzegovina now, because give it 10 years, I reckon it'll be part of the EU and it'll just be like, oh yeah, yeah, we've been there. Whereas now it's cool, really cool. There's oil trails, wine trails. Keep mentioning wine. Talking of which, I think I've run out of my wine. So should we wrap things up, my love? We should. So from all of those, for somebody who is maybe new to nomading or on their first nomad experience, we'll look at what are maybe our top three places we would recommend to nomads.

52:38Yep. I'm going to go straight in with Prague. Oh, that was going to be mine. If you're new to this, it's the perfect starting point. It's going to be a very friendly introduction to Central Eastern Europe. There's loads there in terms of community, so you'll meet other nomads. It's a great city. I think it's nice. It's a nice starter. Yeah. Okay. Well, in that case, then I'll come in with, so what did you just say? You just said? Prague. Prague. I was going to say Thailand, because if you, Prague, if you like sort of city vibes and European weather, Thailand, if you just want to sit on a beach somewhere, you just can't go wrong in Thailand.

53:14I don't think, well, you can, you can go to that place. I want to say Payang, Papataya. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There are certain places which are built for people who've got, other touristic intents intentions yes so that's that's ko chang was our favorite ko chang yes it's in our opinion it we like we prefer over other islands which are a bit more developed yes number two i would say i would say italy and it's not necessarily because it's my favorite place i think there's lots to explore i think it's more that if you are nomading and you catch the bug and want to live abroad, it's one of the few places where you can get a long-term visa fairly easily.

53:57So it's probably good to know if that's even an option for you early on. And you could probably spend easily six weeks in Italy and have a fabulous time. Well, weirdly, I couldn't decide between Slovenia and Croatia, which is basically, that's the route from Italy. I would probably say go for Slovenia, even though I don't think they have a nomad visa right now. But I'm seeing them promoted a lot more on Google News and all this kind of stuff. So I suspect they will soon. Out of the two, Croatia or Slovenia, you can't go wrong. I think if you're a bit more, if it's your first time, perhaps go to Croatia.

54:28If you've done nomading before, maybe try Slovenia. Or just go and do a month in Maribor in Slovenia and see if you love it and stay. And if you don't, then go to Istria in Croatia. I would then, staying on kind of the city vibe, I would say Belgrade. I think it's a city that you will, yeah, it's an experience you won't forget. Particularly if you are a bit younger, it's very known for its kind of nightlife and party scene. I think Belgrade will be one of the coolest life experiences you'd have. 100%. And my last one is, quite obviously, Spain. If you can go, go. Just like Leanne said, don't fall too hard because she's not the best place to live full-time.

55:08And if there's only one thing you take away from this entire rant of a conversation, please, the love of RuPaul Charles. Shall we say it together? Do not go to Bali. sorry darling see you next week bye bye

From the publisher

This is Episode 2 of our Summer Sessions — and this week, we’re going global. After visiting nearly 50 countries together, we’re spilling the tea on where to go, where to avoid, and how to actually get work done without melting, buffering, or losing your mind.

From long-stays in Southeast Asia to one-night stands in Northern Europe, we’re unpacking the joy and chaos of remote work around the world. Expect real talk, surprising tips, and at least one mosquito-related meltdown.

🔥 What We Cover

📌 Best countries for remote working
Where Wi-Fi, weather, and work-life balance all hit that sweet spot (hint: not Bali).

📌 Holiday vs. Nomad: don’t get it twisted
Why not every dreamy destination is cut out for your inbox.

📌 Places we’ll never return to (for work)
Loud, cold, lonely or just plain awkward — the countries that didn’t make the cut.

📌 The unexpected winners
Countries we didn’t expect to love as a base… but it totally surprised us.

🧠 Support with Mental Health and Well-being
– Mind UK: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/
– Samaritans (UK): Call 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org

📬 Connect with Al & Leanne
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/truthlieswork
– Al Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisisalelliott
– Leanne Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetleanne
– Email: hello@truthliesandwork.com
– Book a call: https://savvycal.com/meetleanne/chat

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