HN Explorer

Ask HN: Cheap living and fast internet and cold climate?

13 points by Kepler-125c ↗ HN
I'm looking for somewhere in the world to live to work on a web project for an extended time. Fast/reliable internet + cheap living + cold climate preferably :)

Reason for cold in case anyone's wondering: it's hard to concentrate in the heat.

36 comments

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atmosx
Slovakia, Czech republic, etc.
meric
Alternate between north and south hemispheres.
miraj
in Canada: Victoria, BC. Halifax, NS. Montreal, QC. Waterloo. ON.
spoonie
Waterloo is cheaper than TO, Ottawa, Kingston, etc. But even cheaper (and just as close to Toronto) would be a smaller town without a university. I hear that Mt Forest, ON has fibre.
auxym
Sherbrooke, QC, is a mid-size college town about 1h45 drive from Montreal and has some of the cheapest rents in the province. I was paying 500/month for a large 2BR 10 minutes walk from the "downtown" area and an indoor climbing gym.

It also has a bit of startup activity, from incubators related to the university and research spinoffs.

Not sure about fast internet, depending on how fast at what price. You might be able to get FTTN through resellers like teksavvy and ebox. It won't be cheap.

Like most of southern canada, it gets pretty hot during 3 months or so, mid-june through mid-september.

gregoreous
Northern Quebec: say Rouyn-Noranda. Cold, remote and inexpensive and not a long bus ride to Montreal for adventures.
spoonie
I've got a cottage about an hour away from Rouyn. (Roo-on, as the English folk call it.) It's definitely inexpensive, with good beer. Not sure about the internet though. And while the summer is short it'll be hot!
lscharen
Central Minnesota -- cheap house rentals (very few apartments at all) and Fiber optic internet in my city. I've got the low speed plan and I get 5ms ping and 20 up/20 down for speeds.
FullMtlAlcoholc
Akademgorodok, a city in Siberia that Russia that Russia is trying to turn into a startup incubator.
lfx
Tallinn, Estonia. Fits all, if you even want colder Nordic countries are there, though the cost of living increases a lot.
joeclark77
Maine is nice and the cost of living is low. Fast internet is available in the towns. If you're looking for a remote cabin by a lake, you might have to go with satellite internet.
tomh
Kharkiv, Ukraine: university town, lots of IT companies and meetups, cold but not as cold as Moscow or Estonia, very cheap prices, US/EU passports get 90 days entry, visa-free.

There is this whole Russia thing (we're 50km from the border), so if that's a problem, try Kyiv or Lviv or Odesa.

Kepler-125c
Can you do thailand-style re-entry runs every 90 days?
tomh
It used to be that way, but Ukr border control has instituted a '90 out of every 180 days' rule. You can get around that with a proper business visa (usually granted for 1 year), or by using two passports, or by paying a fine upon leaving the country if you overstay.
Kepler-125c
How much is the fine roughly? Sorry for the persistent questions but this is the most interesting one so far.
tomh
No worries at all - sooooo, I've never been fined myself but the stories I hear vary from expat to expat. One refused to pay and got a 'black stamp' in their passport barring them from reentry for 6+ months.

Not wanting to speculate, I've looked up one source and it looks like the fine is between 850-1700 Ukrainian Grivna, which is currently trading at around 25 to the dollar: http://www.frishberg.com/index.php/en/newsletters/196-ukrain...

poushkar
You should really consider Lviv, Ukraine. It's cheap yet safe, beautiful and with a lot of IT companies (many meetups and coworking spaces as a result). It's also close to mountains which make a perfect weekend trip. And it's cold enough to let you work but not crazy cold like Baltics.
dorfuss
I'd second that. Ukraine in general is just ridiculously cheap. Lviv is a beautiful city with great history, but has a rather continental climate, cold in the winter, humid and hot in the summer. Lviv is quite remote, as well, but has a university with great traditions (maths and logic, Ulam, Banach![1]) and an opera. With even a basic eastern EU income it's really cheap. If you can work remotely for a German company or have an income in dollars from your side projects, you can have a really nice life there.

Someone mentioned Estonia here - well, when I think of differences, quality of transportation (roads, trains) and the rule of law (if you have to do anything with the administration, complaints, registrations etc.) in Ukraine are much worse for sure.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lw%C3%B3w_School_of_Mathematic...

tluyben2
Why is it hard to concentrate in heat? Maybe you have issues concentrating in general?

Depending on your idea of cold Netherlands or Scandinavia?

tobylane
You're used to the climate you grew up in and changing from that can be a waste of time. There's plenty of interesting places all over the world north of any line you choose, say 48 degrees north (adjusting for Gulf Stream, etc).
tluyben2
I moved from coldish (20 deg summers, -10 winters) where I was born and lived 30 years to hot (40+ deg, 15 deg); I work best in well over 40. For me when it drops below 10 it gets annoying but then again people have trouble getting me out of workmode in any circumstance.
cdvonstinkpot
Syracuse, NY has Verizon FiOS (100/100 Mbps @ ~$75/mo) in many parts of the city. And while 60%+ of the area is ghetto, rents in nicer parts are relatively cheap (~600/mo). Long winters with lots of snow, & the city's always prepared to get pounded, so stuff rarely closes from it. There's a city-wide bus service that goes into the suburbs regularly, & to surrounding towns outside the metro area a few times/day. So you don't really need a car, which saves lots of money. No Uber yet, though. New York City's <5 hour drive, or there's Amtrak train service to Penn Station.
tyingq
Going solely on cheap + fast internet + cold ... Detroit area.
RUG3Y
Anywhere in rural America that has broadband. I have reasonably fast/ cheap cable and was able to buy a decent house for ~$80k. That puts my mortgage at around $475 per month. Rent can be very cheap too, especially if you just need a room or you have roommates. I'm not in the cheapest area either.
Sandel
How about Brașov, România?
bbcbasic
Northern UK cities. E.g. Liverpool?
wprapido
bariloche, argentina also a kind of fits the bill