“Beautiful city is not enough – Holidu has compiled a city ranking of the top ten workstation destinations in Europe with a view to various criteria.”
Some have been able to include the option of remote work and perhaps also workation in their employment contracts. Self-employed people have a free choice anyway. Holidu cites a representative study by the digital association Bitkom, according to which more than one in three will be able to flexibly choose their place of work for mobile working in the future. Inspired by this, the search engine provider for holiday homes has now published a city ranking for workation destinations in Europe. They can also be understood as pure remote work destinations.
The cities were compiled from over 150 countries and supported by the “100 best cities in the world” from bestcities.org. The second step was an analysis based on a wide range of factors – from housing and food costs and internet speed to the number of co-working spaces, the number of well-rated activities in the city and the average sunshine duration.
And the Workation Capital is …
… Lisbon. Although the Portuguese capital is not ranked first in any of the individual categories, overall it is at the top of the Europe-wide ranking. In addition to the attractiveness of the city centre, the authors of the study emphasise the many free options, e.g. being able to relax on beaches outside the city limits, while a taxi ride costs only 0.47 euros per kilometre.
Barcelona follows in second place, mainly also due to the variety of activities as well as the co-working spaces – only in London and Paris can you find more across Europe. “The internet speed is impressive at 37 Mbit/s, especially considering that Barcelona is home to more than 5 million people,” the study says.
In third place is Budapest (photo below). Although Hungary’s capital offers fewer co-working spaces, sunshine hours and sights than Lisbon and Barcelona, Budapest scores well in terms of sightseeing and cost of living. The cost of a one-bedroom apartment, for example, averages only 428 euros per month.
Turkey and Spain follow
Istanbul and Madrid complete the top 5. Istanbul, located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, scores with good weather conditions, countless tourist attractions and a low cost of living. The average price for a apartment is just under 270 euros per month.
In Madrid, the cost of living is significantly higher, but at the same time there are 125 co-working spaces, over 2,700 hours of sunshine and an extensive selection of sights and activities.
Many Eastern European destinations
The second half of the top 10 is occupied by insider tips or cities in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe that some people might not have thought of. These include Bucharest, Sofia, Krakow and Belgrade, as well as Porto in Portugal. The arguments sound similar for all of them: many attractions and a good infrastructure with a low cost of living. Bucharest, for example, boasts one of the world’s fastest WIFI speeds at 54 Mbit/s, cheap taxi fares averaging 0.41 euros per kilometre and a low cost of living.
That leaves topical questions that everyone needs to ask themselves on their next trip: What is the covid situation like at the workation destination? Is there good medical care? And: Which local social security and tax regulations do I have to keep in mind when I stay outside my own country? This is particularly important in the case of Workation, when a compulsory holiday component is part of the concept.
Photo: © Konzack
