Quick travel guides for nomads
Johnny Both of these countries and lifestyles/cultures are similar in some ways, different in others.
Both are highly developed Asian countries with high standard of living. Also very Westernized or at least western-friendly and western-relatable cultures. Japanese culture has been known about for much longer in western countries but with the explosion of K-POP and korean food some decades ago, it seems more westerners have familiarity with Korea as well.
Let’s go over some comparisons…
Massive hilly main city of China with spicy food, lots of nature (near Chengdu/pandas), and very hot weather.
Chongqing, nearby the more popular Chengdu (panda tourist destination), is the biggest city you never heard of. 32 million people (officially China’s largest metropolitan area) when I went in summer 2024. For a foreigner, this city is known for its super hot weather, lots of nature (in the municipality), extremely spicy food (origin of Chinese hot pot), origin of Chinese foot massage, and lots of west China’s history and culture. Locals refer to it as the mountain city, or “hilly city with many layers”.
Most tourists and foreigners much prefer Chengdu over Chongqing. For being more tourist friendly, more unique things to see, also panda stuff, and that it’s far less crowded. There’s a sentiment that whatever tourist value Chongqing has, you could find it elsewhere in China already. And I agree with that. You should only pick Chongqing over Chengdu if you have a specific reason.
3 days is enough to feel the vibe, try spicy food, take mountain photos, and walk main busy tourist areas. 4-6 days if you actually want to visit the nearby nature destinations.
China’s most international city. Most westerners and expats, English-friendly. Big, clean, quiet (seems all vehicles are electric), cleaner air, modern commercial hub, many business people here.
Despite recent complaints during covid lockdowns (2020-2021) about the government being too restrictive and killing the fun and business liberty, Shanghai is still a very nice place to live. Lifestyle here is very modern and trendy, in contrast to a more traditional or old-school lifestyle elsewhere in China. Whether that fits your taste is another matter altogether.
4-5 days would allow you to explore different areas and enjoy the metropolitan lifestyle.
Huge territory of various terrain, food, and intact culture thousands of years old.
China is a really great place to travel because:
Bottomline, China is such an underrated place to travel. There’s so much to see and do, much of it relatively untainted by western tourism and culture. You actually feel like you’re seeing a totally new place. And the price is quite cheap for such a developed country. It’s loads of fun and feels like a whole new continent rather than just one country. Many of the unique things you’d find in Japan or Korea would be eclipsed by far more variety in China.
You could get A LICK (not even a taste) of China within a week. Like at least 4 days per major city. I honestly feel you could be here a month and feel like you barely saw 2% of the highlights. You would almost have to be here at least 3 months or a year to feel like you comprehended it.
As a reference, I feel America could be comprehensively sampled within a month. Western Europe within 2-3 months. But China?? Again…that civilization has been around thousands of years and their country is so big…I really don’t know, 6-12 months?
Recent popular “cheaper” European tourist destination, known for beaches and mountains.
Most foreigners know Montenegro for its beaches. Nearby Balkans know Montenegro for its mountains as well. I much prefer it for the mountains. Perhaps Montenegro was a cheap alternative 10-20 years ago but its certainly caught up now. If you want cheap, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Nonetheless, it’s still worth visiting if even just to see something new. The vibe is somewhat similar to Croatia and Serbia depending on where you go.
A week to see main sights. But 2 weeks is you really want to understand the beauty of its nature.
Fast-growing tiny mountain town famous for summer nature and winter ski getaways.
One of Montenegro’s best kept secrets. Small, cozy, friendly but vibrant and with many nature things to do. Highly recommended to have a car or else you’ll use expensive to get anywhere. Having locals to hangout would also be helpful since they’ll know many things well.
A weekend is a enough time but I stayed here 2 weeks and loved every second of it.
My favorite sites, and personal review of why I do or don’t like them!
This mobile data & VPN list is updated and absolutely working as of AUGUST 2024.
Like everyone else, I had to start thinking about a mobile data plan & VPN app on my first visit to China. As you know, China’s great firewall blocks many western apps and websites like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp/Telegram, Google, Yahoo, etc. (They just won’t work, won’t connect, nothing loads.) So you’ll need to learn how to use a VPN to access them.
It all sounds like a complicated and overly-technical task but I promise it’s not. By using a VPN service, your device automatically connects to another server (aka “proxy” or “proxy server”) in order to connect to the internet service you want. It all happens behind the scenes and will appear to you on your device as if everything is working.
I’ll go over several options ranging from simple to complex, free to paid, quick to slow, and working to non-working!
My review of Tello’s awesome $5/month service for a US phone number.
Origin of one of the most common languages, rich culture, architecture, known for nightlife and latin beach vibes.
In pop culture, we think of Spain for beaches, nightlife, tapas, and siesta. Most people don’t know it also has many big squares (like Italy’s piazzas), rich unique architecture (castles & moorish & Gaudi), and many inland destinations (not only beach stuff).
You could see Barcelona and Madrid in a week. Put 2 weeks and you can add in some popular spots in the picturesque southern Andalusia region. Or spend a month and you can comprehensively jump around all the main spots of north, center, and south…exploring both beachside and inland destinations, perhaps even one of the islands. Spain is rich in tourist destinations.
Popular sunny coastal country in Western Europe. Amazing food, architecture, culture, panoramic hilly views, and English-speaking latin country.
For decades, Portugal was one of Europe’s best kept secrets. A less-expensive country in Western Europe that had beaches and English speaking. You couldn’t have catered any better to travelers, expats, and nomads.
But then it blew up and got popular seemingly overnight. Everybody was buying property in Portugal that prices are totally jacked up now. Its capital, Lisbon, became one of if not THE top favorite expat/nomad locations in the world since about 2010. And I think in 2021 was the year that its popularity reached the brink. Housing became expensive and yet people still love Portugal.
If you’re going there today, it’s to enjoy the beauty and the hilly views and the beaches. (And for English-speakers, you can enjoy that the Portuguese speak amazing English compared to Spain or France.) Forget about the low-price thing.
1 week would be enough to see Lisbon, Porto, and mayyyybe a day trip to a nearby beach town. But Portugal truly deserves 2 weeks.
American big city in nature. Proud of its art, culture, and beautiful pacific northwest nature landscapes across the water.
Seattle is among the best “big nature cities” in the USA. It won’t compare to Honolulu (most people’s favorite), but it’s up there. Most of the all, the community is quite used to nature and doing outdoor activities. And I love that it’s REAL NATURE. Not like the casual nature, where it’s just beaches and sun. The pacific northwest has a whole range of weather and landscapes and not just one boring shade for the whole year. I love the mix.
You can see the important inner city things and perhaps even some surrounding areas within 3 days. But having an extra day or so would really give you time to relax and enjoy.
Western Japan’s biggest city. Smaller, lower-cost, more laidback, and friendlier than Tokyo.
Osaka was Japan’s former historic business center conveniently near Kyoto (Japan’s former political center), before both were consolidated and moved to Tokyo in the east of Japan. Today, Osaka is a cheaper (compared to Tokyo) but still very vibrant city. Lots of fun and nice place to live. It’s in the vincinity of many tourist-worthy sites but they’re kinda spread out so you can do some tourist things here, but not all unless you commit lots of time. Mainly, you’re here for a less-touristy vibrant city life.
2 days is enough to walk through the main sites. 3 would feel more comprehensive. 5 if you want to really lay back, and perhaps visit other nearby areas (such as Nara).
Beautiful foggy hilly American city surrounded by water, combining West coast sunny California hippie-artsy vibes with East coast charmy old Victorian architecture and vibrant street life.
You could easily call San Francisco “the New York of California”, or “west coast version of New York”. Because it really feels like a balanced mix of both. I also highly recommend San Francisco for European tourists because I know they’ll love it. Tighter, more compact, denser, good public transportation, and lots of action on the streets. Buildings are built right next to each other which feels more familiar to Europe. Everything is much more walkable, similar to New York. It’s definitely the most European-vibe big city on the West Coast.
You can see the main highlights in 3 days, and feel like you really immersed yourself in the vibe. 5-7 days would give you time to check out more areas, and yes they’re worth seeing!
Popular tourist destination for out of town Americans and foreigners to come gamble, party, get wild, and enjoy a weekend of “omg, can’t believe I did that” style of debauchery. But Vegas is more than just that.
The world-famous “sin city” Las Vegas is well known for inspiring famous phrases like “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” A pseudo-luxurious lifestyle of opulence, dressing up, eating out, and living an (affordable) fancy life for the weekend.
For grown-ups…Vegas offers many hotels, gambling, fine-dining, nightlife, shows, shopping, beautiful European-inspired architecture, water fountains and light shows, and decorative installations to fill your camera. It’s beautiful and caters well to adult entertainment.
For families and non-party animals…there are family-friendly activities, shows, mini-amusement parks, games, and also nearby national parks featuring beautiful desert landscapes.
You could certainly catch the general vibe of Las Vegas within a day, but spending the whole weekend would be nice to give you time to enjoy the hotels, walk the strip, gamble, drink, see a show, and eat at nice places. 3 days is good to do city and tourist things. With another day for hangover-recovery or enjoying nearby desert landscapes.
One of America’s favorite small towns…cute, charmy, artsy, nature, peaceful.
Ashland is a common midway stop between San Francisco and Portland. If you’re not staying Mount Shasta, Ashland makes a great pitstop if even for only a couple hours. That’s the limit of how I’ve ever known it.
Couple hours is enough. Couple days if you absolutely love it.
Which MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) offers the better plan for your cell phone in America?
If you’re here, I assume you want a cheap plan. Maybe you’re trying to save money or are visiting the US for a short time. I didn’t personally try both but here’s what I found from my research:
Big friendly city in inland Brazil, known for good food from Minas Gerais region, modern architecture and art.
Belo Horizonte, aka “BH” and pronounced by locals as “Beaga” [bay-ah-gah], is the capital of Minas Gerais (historically known as a place of mines…gold, etc). Although considered an important tourist destination for its historical significance and natural beauty, foreigners don’t usually come to Minas Gerais.
And generally, nobody goes here because it feels like BH doesn’t have any of Brazil’s typical nature highlights…beaches, rivers, waterfalls, jungle, etc. And the town itself doesn’t have much to offer tourists. I’d say the best tourist highlight in BH is #1 Inhotim (outdoor contemporary museum), and #2 the best carnaval in Brazil. Other than that, it’s a chill city and mostly safe city.
You could easily pop in and out of this city in 2 days and felt you saw all the highlights. But if you stayed longer, there’d be plenty of everyday niceties and nearby towns and attractions to make it worthwhile.
A smaller Sao Paulo. Modern, techie, safe, hip, arts, parks, eco-friendly, LGBT-friendly, and has capybaras.
Curitiba is probably Brazil’s hippest city…although labelled as the “world’s smartest city” (IMO nowhere near that but I appreciate the effort). Take the cool parts of Sao Paulo and compact it down to a smaller, more manageable version, making it overall cleaner and more modern, and you have Curitiba. It’s very green. Even things that are not a park, will have lots of trees and water and will look like a park. The weather here is among the nicest in Brazil, not too hot or too cold. Curitiba is also a good size for a city…not too big, not too small.
Curitiba is famous for parks and museums, and events…music, arts, theater, film. From what I see, it looks like your typical non-destination city (because it doesn’t have beaches or touristy things) that got gentrified and reinvested for tourism and quality of life. Many people say it’s boring in terms of tourism, and it’s a fair point. It seems tourists stop in Curitiba mainly for the capybaras, and as a stop between Florianopolis and Foz do Iguazu.
Curitiba’s strongest point is that it’s a nice place to live. Good quality of life due to the aforementioned qualities above. But from a tourist standpoint, it will definitely pale in comparison to a more majestic beach destination like Rio, big city metropolis of Sao Paulo, or a small charmy colonial town. Even within the southern states, Curitiba would probably rank lower to Florianopolis…a more picturesque beach city with lots of beautiful people and seemingly “fun vacation vibes” everywhere.
3 days is enough to see tourist highlights.
Interior posh city, nice to live but not much in terms of tourism. Good food and bar scene, friendly sexy locals.
Goiania was historically known as Brazil’s city with the highest socioeconomic disparity, having the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. Today, it seems like a very safe and well-off city. Everybody dressed up well and nice restaurants and bars everywhere. Very lively, very posh. Tons of nice apartment buildings to live in, trendy gyms, shops, etc. It’s known as a popular city for bachelor parties to mingle.
Stay for a couple days, a week, forever. Again…it’s not a touristy city. It’s always good weather.