Hong Kong has shitty weather in winter. I'm trying to find a place that I like first, taxes can always be optimized...
Best tropical place to live?
- Thread starter JustAnotherNomad
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I know many people that would say tropical weather is shitty all year round - not sure how experienced you are but better take couple of vacations first to find out whether it suits you.... must be longer trips as acclimatization does the trick
17°C at 3 am, no rain. This is some really warm, dry s**t. I agree that houses suck without heating, but if you stay at Four Seasons, I am pretty shure they have cozy warm rooms.
I agree and don't see any reason why people live in central Florida. I spent most of my time in the north Palm Beach county area, so the east coast, and had an unofficial rule that anything west of I95 was not worth visiting unless a quick visit over to the Gulf Coast. It's by the beach or nothing for me.
Definitely visit Florida before committing to anything there. The Keys, Miami, Palm Beach, Jacksonville, Tampa, St Pete and everything in between can be very different. Florida Man is a real thing too and the people vary from place to place.
Sounds like we are looking for similar places in terms of temperature, reasonable infrastructure, availability of flights and general safety.
I am fine with Dubai weather. Main issues with Dubai: Poor air quality, high rents for good quality. Otherwise it's really good.
sadly this is the case everywhere, I don't remember the last time I had a feeling that I got good value for my money
many big cities have poor air quality sadly.
Those which dont are really outliers. Even tropical garden singapore has issues coming from their neighbours.
In the UAE, it's probably also the sand?
Australia has great air quality, it's just far away. The Bahamas seems to have good air quality as well, for example.
I understand that, in the end, it will be a compromise. I'm just trying to see what's out there.
Italy and Southern France are very nice, they're just too cold in winter. I guess in the end, I'll just stay in Dubai. The standard of living is very high and if you want a nice beach, you can always go and stay at nice hotel in another emirate or Oman over the weekend (beaches in Dubai itself aren't that great).
Or maybe Thailand, but I'm getting the feeling that only Bangkok would be developed enough for me... Would have to see if I can find somewhere quiet in Bangkok, maybe on a very high floor with an outdoor terrace. If you're on a lower floor, there is always so much street noise... Or maybe somewhere by the river.
yeah the sand amplifies it.
oz being one of the few outliers and with bahamas not having a big city.
the whole region there has also pretty bad air year around, and bangkok is a megacity. Its better during rainy season tho.
Air quality is actually quite fine Nov-April.
Rents depends on where you live, but even in Marina/Palm you can get a decent 1-bedroom for like $30k annually with all the papers for your residency proof.
I copy pasted your posts to AI and after arguing back and forth and some curses, it spew out this (was curious having similar requirements), would like some comments from people really living there to see if AI can be trusted:
notes:
Last edited: Jan 18, 2025
| Country/Region | Quality of Life | Real Estate Quality | Safety | Healthcare | Connectivity | Tax Benefits | Air Quality | Beach Quality | Water Temp | Cost of Living | Global Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cayman Islands | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 85 |
| Singapore | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 82 |
| St. Barts | 10 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 3 | 80 |
| Bahamas | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 79 |
| Malaysia (KL, Penang) | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 79 |
| Thailand (BKK, Phuket) | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 78 |
| UAE (Saadiyat, RAK) | 8 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 77 |
| Mauritius | 7 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 76 |
| Florida (Miami) | 8 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 75 |
| Dominican Republic | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 65 |
- water temps are considered in the european winter months, roughly December to February
- Global Score reflects a sum of all categories, with tax benefits being particularly weighted due to your entrepreneurial context (global online business)
- Quality of Life includes lifestyle, entertainment, and cultural aspects.
- Real Estate Quality considers the availability and quality of luxury living options.
- Safety reflects crime rates and personal security.
- Healthcare evaluates local healthcare quality and access to international services.
- Connectivity is based on flight connections to major international hubs.
- Tax Benefits are scored based on how favorable the tax environment is for international entrepreneurs.
Last edited: Jan 18, 2025
Ok, now we reduced the choices a little. So, I'd suggest following places in Asia:
Langkawi: Malaysia but duty free, cheap booze and shopping, flights to anywhere, easy ferry to Thailand,
Secret tip: Ishigaki Island, Japan (but actually closer to Taiwan than mainland Japan), tropical, far from anything and tropical, but still just a $60 domestic flight from first class healthcare away.
Hundreds of miles away from the rapy US military in Okinawa and the resulting locals who dislike military age white people, as they have trouble seeing the difference. Here the world is standing still, it's still Japan, but as you can see, it's furthest away.
Not sure if tropical enough for you though, personally I am starting to like non-sweaty weather:
October 29° / 23°s
November 26° / 21°
December 23° / 18°
Last but not least, Madeira in Portugal is a gem as well, with some tax benefits and better weather than the Azores.
Langkawi: Malaysia but duty free, cheap booze and shopping, flights to anywhere, easy ferry to Thailand,
Secret tip: Ishigaki Island, Japan (but actually closer to Taiwan than mainland Japan), tropical, far from anything and tropical, but still just a $60 domestic flight from first class healthcare away.
Hundreds of miles away from the rapy US military in Okinawa and the resulting locals who dislike military age white people, as they have trouble seeing the difference. Here the world is standing still, it's still Japan, but as you can see, it's furthest away.
Not sure if tropical enough for you though, personally I am starting to like non-sweaty weather:
October 29° / 23°s
November 26° / 21°
December 23° / 18°
Last but not least, Madeira in Portugal is a gem as well, with some tax benefits and better weather than the Azores.
KY is not only Grand Cayman.
Likewise, Bahamas is not only Nassau/NP, the DR is not only Santo Domingo etc.
So these scores are pretty meaningless.
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not sure if it was you who mentioned this island here before.... I'm tempted since but these temperatures during European winter are the biggest minus for me :|cryptofriendly said:
Secret tip: Ishigaki Island, Japan (but actually closer to Taiwan than mainland Japan), tropical, far from anything and tropical, but still just a $60 domestic flight from first class healthcare away.
Hundreds of miles away from the rapy US military in Okinawa and the resulting locals who dislike military age white people, as they have trouble seeing the difference. Here the world is standing still, it's still Japan, but as you can see, it's furthest away.
Not sure if tropical enough for you though, personally I am starting to like non-sweaty weather:
October 29° / 23°s
November 26° / 21°
December 23° / 18°
Click to expand...
can one at least expect more or less the same as main Japan islands? like clean environment, high quality services, everything on time, great quality and wide choice of food? clean sea?
It's actually the cleanest and most amazing sea of all of Japan there, not at all like the shitty beaches in Enoshima or Chiba. If you wanna do some diving (with hammersharks) there isn't anything better around there. And yeah, it's still Japan with all that's good about it, you can even find a 100 yen shop at Maxvalu there. Ishigaki is a favorite for wealthy Japanese for honeymoons, or just taking a gig there for a romantic getaway, but it's very affordable with the today's exchange rate.
It wouldn't hurt if you;d bring a gf with you, it's always better if you can share paradise with someone.
But even alone, there seem to be options (might be out of date):
https://www.reddit.com/r/okinawa/comments/ctvb9z/any_bars_that_you_guys_recommend_in_ishigaki
If you want to go even more remote, Irimote island is just an hour away, with very few people and trekking options.
https://wikitravel.org/en/Ishigaki
man, you're selling it 😀
we are quite passionate about diving, snorkeling, surfing, ...
oh, I have the whole family to bring with... complicated story
is the weather in Okinawa very different/colder these days?
any regular typhoon season to avoid?
how much time did you personally spend there?
lol @JustAnotherNomad said that Bangkok was the only city developed enough in whole thai, that wants to have entrepreneurs hustling around, that wants 5* hotel services and quality, and you post small islands (albeit beautiful) in the middle of nowhere, the thread derailed a little rof/%
It looks like the perfect holiday spot for you and your family then. Typhoon season in Ishigaki is from July to about September/latest early October - no issue in European winter time.
I have been mostly living in Kanto, but I much prefer west Japan (the minimum wage in Kyushu is $6.07/h, so that most people are leaving for Tokyo. Okinawa is different though, the only place where people still make babies and population increases). Both Ishigaki and Okinawa have tropical climates, but Ishigaki has warmer weather with less rain. And to be said, the winter is cooler, but still much warmer than Gran Canaria for example. I haven't done surfing there myself, but in the summer months the best breaks are supposed to be in and around Maezato, and in the winter months, Uganzaki.
I think it's really the best place to go NOW; the budget hordes have discovered the mainland of Japan and are flooding in now (36 million visitors last year!), but they haven't ventured outside of it - yet. And it's still relatively cheap, as it's targeting Japanese, not foreigners. (Sounds funny, just 5 years ago it would have the opposite meaning - as Japanese have been having more money to spend then - the exchange rate changed everything.)
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