Digital Nomads

Renting a car in the US as a foreigner is not at all complicated, where do you get that from? It's one of the cheapest and best countries to do so.

I just spent 2 months in the US (California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Hawaii), had a rental car the whole time, drove around 4000 miles and it cost me about 6000 USD per month. While I'm not exactly living frugal the only way I see to do such a trip for less than 100 USD a day is camping on your own all the time. So yeah, most people just can't or don't want to afford that.

Short term rentals are set at luxury prices, car rentals are expensive, food is expensive. It’s just hard to move around affordably with ease. Public transport is fairly limited. These are countries for primary residents or wealthy tourists.

For Canada price can be a factor, my city Vancouver is really expensive and can be a little difficult for finding short term rentals. Wether can be a factor too, typically summers are beautiful across Canada, but winters can be harsh depending on the region. Also the culture across Canada is pretty much homogenous more or less, kid of the same thing all over with the exception of Montreal and the French influence. I love it here but for travel and adventure there are just way more interesting places across the globe with cheaper cost of living and better weather/ more established culture

The US is ghetto and filled with synthetic culture lacking opulence, great to roadtrip for nature though. Some cities have great music scenes if you’re there for that but aside from that it sucks.

Too expensive plus lack of culture due to too expensive

DNs that are American that stay in America.... don't call themselves digital nomads. They just call themselves remote workers and move somewhere.

Or vandwellers. Or tiny house livers. Or homesteaders. Or whatever other term.

Like I'm in the US living extremely cheap in a camper I built that I park on some land I own in Maine. Super low cost of living and I mostly just work and grind my business.

But moving to Puerto Rico soon (also America) because it makes more sense for the business.

When I'm ready to travel more, I'd love to get out of America more. The culture of America is pretty ugly. And most places think mayonaise is the height of flavor / seasoning..... lol

In general you pay more for everything in America....while getting less. I've paid 20 dollars to get sad overcooked and bland chicken on rice..... that type of money could have gotten me a feast with flavor elsewhere. But in America the slogan is "fuck you, come again".

I mean high cost of living is very true if you only consider overpriced metropolitan areas.

You can live in beautiful rural areas in the Dakota’s, much of Appalachia, Alaska, Nebraska, etc. for extremely cheap. May not be as cushy an option as a luxury resort in Bali, but plenty of cheap, beautiful, generally safe areas in both the US and Canada if you’re okay living in wilderness.

A large majority of the land in US, and especially in Canada, is secluded wilderness.

Renting a car is fine.... being allowed to stay in the country for a decent amount of time is hard, and you are absolutely not allowed to work in the US without a work visa, no matter who you work for or where that work is based.

It’s expensive, not as exciting, public transportation is shit everywhere.

Also the Internet in the western countries sucks and it's ridiculously expensive while most of Asian countries offer cheap high speed internet.

I'm really not sure what you're so confused about. You've answered your own question multiple times both within the post itself and in the comments lol.

Probably the cost of living

Because the vast majority of digital nomads are younger people on a tighter budget. The US & CA are high cost of living countries for all basic needs - shelter, food, transportation - comparatively to other countries.

It's not that hard to figure out. Even you can see the obstacles for it

I know renting a car as a foreigner is really complicated in the USA

Most of US cities are not walkable, on top of being prohibitively expensive.

I liked Montreal as a more affordable city. It’s also one of those rare North American metropolises that is actually walkable to some degree, with decent public transportation.

If you own a car, car camping around the state lands and national parks would totally be doable.

I did a 2 month road trip. Fuel is cheaper in US than muxh of the world. Groceries too. Restaurant food has gone way up with inflation.

Problem is you can't really buy a car as a foreigner. And renting one for 3 months is going to be insane.

Van, campers rentals were expensive when I looked in 2019. Cheaper to stay in a hotel. I can only imagine now after the COVID hype how expensive they are.

Hostels aren't really a thing in the US, so finding a place to sleep for under $50 a night is a challenge

Um, the cost, that's why

Renting a car is not complicated in the US at all.

It's a thing in outdoorsy areas away from people. Think Newfoundland, Alaska/Yukon, Montana, Utah, Arizona & Vancouver Island.

Also ski resorts: Canmore, Revelstoke, Colorado.

As far as cities go, the only appealing place is Montreal, but it's not quite as expansive as what you'd find elsewhere in the world.

You can't do 99% of that cool stuff without a car and spending $500-1000/weekend just on those little side trips.

Because digital nomads aren’t real ballers. Most of them just make something similar to a full time job in western world. Because they don’t have to go to a office they’ll live like ballers in developing countries where prices are cheap. You can’t afford to live like that in USA, Canada, etc..

The draw of DN is not to see the same five chains in every American city but to experience the entire world at a much more affordable price. I've been to almost every big American city and a ton of medium-sized ones. They are largely all the same with the same generic bars, restaurants, shops, and generic downtown attractions. American culture is boring. I've lived here my whole life. I'm trying to eat street food every day and live in a walkable community in a country I've never been to.

People usually go to places that:

1. offer good value for money
2. offer an exciting, culturally-rich lifestyle.

The US and Canada offer neither. They’re expensive and the only culture they offer is capitalism.

No idea how your brain works but yes, to rent a basic studio as a foreigner in LA, you need $2500 minimum, anywhere in SEA or South America, you’re living like a king/queen on that budget - likely a small villa, eating out daily, doing whatever activities you want.

Visas are also more tricky in the US, at least for me as a European.

Well, I have lived in a subaru outback for a few years in the California area. Main reason was cause I loved hiking the Sierra region. The main obstacle I would think is internet connectivity- which can be resolved by starlink (not available at that time) - but I had hotspots and yagi antennas to pull signal. Then i drove into Mexico and lived a couple of years hoppping cities and volcanoes. Then South america. The point is that its doable.

The US is pretty damn expensive.

Most of us want to be DN’s specifically to travel abroad and have more affordable living.

Americans see a lot of it growing up here visiting friends and family. The only stuff worth seeing is public lands and ghost towns since every town is the same series of strip malls and box stores. There are a few worthwhile cities as well, mostly the priciest.

So either you’re a devoted outdoors person when here or you don’t see much of the good stuff

From California. It costs me more to fly from hometown to SF, than it does to fly from SF to Asia. I’ve eaten plenty of solo meals at home for what I’ve paid to fly to whole ass other countries. Living in the US is a scam at every turn. We have absolutely horrid public transport and getting from one destination to another via car can take multiple days which most visitors don’t wrap their heads around until after they arrive thinking they can drive from NYC to the Grand Canyon in a day or something. Probably the biggest reason against the US for most though is that we have by far the most expensive healthcare in the world. If you have to seek medical attention for any reason at all, you better pray you have really great insurance or be prepared to drain your life savings and be in debt until the day you die paying it off.