Southeast Asia gets all the attention in digital nomad circles, but for a UK-based business owner, Europe has one enormous advantage that nobody talks about enough: you're basically in the same timezone. And that changes everything.
I've spent a lot of time in Southeast Asia over the years, and I love it. But there are periods — usually when a project is in full swing or I'm running a training programme with a lot of moving parts — when being six or seven hours ahead of my clients creates friction. Calls at awkward times. Decisions that wait overnight. The occasional feeling that the business is happening somewhere else while I'm watching sunsets.
That's when I come back to Europe.
Lisbon: the one I keep recommending
If I had to pick one European city for working whilst travelling, it would be Lisbon. No hesitation.
The reasons are practical as much as aesthetic. It's one hour behind the UK (or the same time, depending on the time of year), which means UK client calls fit neatly into a normal working day. The cost of living, while higher than Southeast Asia, is substantially lower than London, Dublin, or Paris. The internet infrastructure is excellent. And the city itself — the hills, the trams, the tiles, the pastel de nata from the bakery on the corner — is one of the most liveable I've encountered anywhere.
I've worked from Lisbon several times now. I always end up staying longer than planned.
Barcelona
Barcelona is an hour ahead of the UK, which is about as close to a home timezone as you'll find outside of Portugal. It's also — and I say this as someone who's worked in a lot of places — genuinely one of the most beautiful cities in Europe to sit outside with a laptop and think.
The cost of living is higher than Lisbon, and the tourist pressure in certain areas can be intense. But go in shoulder season — October, March — and you'll find a city that belongs to the people who live and work there. The co-working scene is sophisticated, the food is extraordinary, and the light in the late afternoon is something special.
The Canaries: Tenerife and Gran Canaria
I'd be doing you a disservice if I didn't mention the Canary Islands. They're technically Spain but they sit off the coast of West Africa, and the climate is different — warm year-round, reliably dry, without the brutal heat of a Mediterranean summer.
Tenerife in particular has developed a real infrastructure for remote workers. The south of the island is resort territory; the north — Las Canteras, Puerto de la Cruz — is where the real life is. And because the Canaries are in the same timezone as the UK for most of the year, the working day slots in perfectly.
What Europe gives you that Asia can't
It's not better, it's different. Europe is for when I need to feel connected — to the UK, to clients, to the pace of a project. Asia is for when I need space to think. The best version of this way of working, I've found, is not choosing between them. It's using both, for what each does best.
I'm writing this from Lisbon, as it happens. It's 8am. My first call isn't until 11. The coffee here is very good.