Author:
Brittany Yaxley travel writer @sheruntheworld_ and vlogger She Run The World on You Tube
Over the past 5 years I’ve lived in China, Vietnam, the Czech Republic, and am now working remotely as I travel South America. It’s truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but it can also seem overwhelming when you’re trying to figure out where you should actually move to. Do you want to experience something new, grow as a person, and travel this beautiful planet? Moving abroad and living in another country might be the answer! It’s an incredible experience that I can’t recommend enough.
Here are 5 things to consider when choosing where to move abroad:
1. Cost of living
This is hopefully a no brainer, but you want your cost of living to be quite low. You never want to have to worry about money- especially when you’re living abroad and just trying to travel and enjoy yourself. Make sure you look up housing, food, and transportation costs of the cities you’re looking into, so you can see which option will be the least stressful in regards to money.
2. Salary
Of course you want a high salary- but it’s all relative. Don’t compare salaries to the current one you have back home- you’ll be very disappointed! And make sure to not just look at the number, but also compare it to the cost of living. For example, you might have been offered a higher salary to work in Japan, but just know your cost of living is going to be crazy high too- so you probably won’t be able to save or travel as much. Whereas the cheaper salary in Vietnam comes with crazy low living expenses so you’ll be able to save and travel a lot more- even though it’s a lower salary. Just do the math and compare everything to make the most informed decision!
3. Safety
This is a big one, especially for women. You want to do extensive research on your location and the culture overall- do they welcome foreigners? How do they treat/respect women? Are there high levels of crime? And make sure to get your information from people who have ACTUALLY lived there. Sometimes you can research “the safest cities in (country)” and see these lists that make absolutely no sense (I read one the other day that listed Chicago as one of the top 10 safest cities in the world…what!?). So read a blog or watch a YouTube video from someone who actually lived there and get their take on it.
4. Expat community
This might not be as important to you when you’re researching at home, but I promise this can really affect your time living in a city. If there aren’t many expats there, you might feel isolated and alone- unless you can speak the native language and make local friends. It’s really nice to have lots of expat friends and feel like you are a part of a bigger community of people doing exactly the same thing as you! Before you go, look up some expat groups on Facebook just to see how big they are and you can even join them to start to see the types of questions asked and things posted in your future home city.
5. Travel opportunities
You’ll want to consider two main things here: 1) How much there is to see within the country itself and 1) Based on the country’s location, how easy is it to travel to other countries? And you also want to think about the cost in doing so.
For example, one of my concerns with moving up to South Korea was that it’s so isolated.
The only close trips I could do would be Japan or China (after I go through the expensive visa process), otherwise the rest of Asia is at least a 7+ hour flight away. Whereas living somewhere in southeast Asia can provide you with more travel options since Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia are so close to one another.
And same thing within Europe. Honestly, all of Europe is relatively close, but if your goal is to travel as much of Europe as possible it might make more sense to choose a large travel-hub city, that’s also pretty central on the continent like Paris or Munich. That way you can easily hop on a train, bus or flight and travel in any direction. If you choose a location like the coast of Portugal or Southern Italy, I’m sure it will be absolutely gorgeous and amazing- but you’ll have to take a plane any time you want to travel somewhere, so it limits you.
Overall, everyone will have a different goal in mind when they’re choosing a location to move abroad, but these 5 things give you a general outline of what to look for and will hopefully help you narrow down your options and make your living abroad experience a fantastic one!
Brittany:
I’m a California girl who decided to chase my dreams of traveling this beautiful planet. I’ve traveled to over 45 countries, and lived and taught English in 3 of those. I’m here to give you tips for living abroad, budget traveling and overall helping you make your travel dreams a reality too!
Make sure to subscribe to my She Run the World’s YouTube channel for more travel hacks, tips and itineraries and check out my TikTok and Instagram @sheruntheworld for travel inspiration.
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