
Ask HN: What are some cheap idyllic places with lots of nature? - dennybritz
I am getting tired of city life and want to try spending some time in rural area with mountains, lakes, forests, etc. What are  some places you can recommend? It could be anywhere, doesn&#x27;t need to be in the U.S.<p>The only other requirement is fast internet.
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walkingolof
The High coast of Sweden, I'm biased since I live here, but the place have for
42 years never ceased to amaze me with its nature and people. The name comes
from the fact that the land rises about 10 mm out of the sea each year, this
is because of the pressure of the ice during the last ice age

[http://www.visitsweden.com/sweden/Regions--
Cities/Northern-S...](http://www.visitsweden.com/sweden/Regions--
Cities/Northern-Sweden/The-High-Coast/)

[https://vimeo.com/79557856](https://vimeo.com/79557856)

PS. The internet connection is very good, I have currently 100/100 fiber
connection and live in a very small village DS.

PSS. I live here, but I work (remote) for a Boston based software company DSS.

~~~
hliyan
Can an English speaking tourist manage in these parts of Sweden?

~~~
sampo
> _Can an English speaking tourist manage in these parts of Sweden?_

Absolutely.

According to Wikipedia, 86% of people in Sweden know English. The percentage
will of course be smaller in countryside and among older people, but I don't
think you can find a small town where at least 50% of people wouldn't know
English.

------
theSage
Trivandrum, India is a good place. It is a seaside city and has it's share of
jungles and small hillocks. Besides monthly libing comes to about $30. It has
a 'technopark' which is essentially offices cut into a jungle. I study here.
For reference [http://technopark.org/](http://technopark.org/)

~~~
zok3102
Stoked to see Trivandrum on the list, but you are way off the mark (by~10-15x)
re: cost of living, arent you? Technopark has decent infrastructure but
attracts mostly BPO/IT Services. Kazhakkoottam/Sreekaryam are rapidly getting
gentrified too :(

(Source: Born in Tvm, studied there till undergrad, friends and family there)

~~~
theSage
My current rent is 1100 and food is 1120. ~$30 I think. Cost is ok I guess,
coming from north India.

------
DaemonKrog
Western Pennsylvania has pretty much everything you're asking for. I live near
Pittsburgh, but I'm honestly less than an hour drive away from all of this.

The only caveat (to living directly in the mountains) is that in any place
where you're engulfed in nature, your Internet connection is going to be
slower. It's too costly for the ISP to install or upgrade infrastructure to an
area with less than say 400 homes per square mile. Past a certain number, it's
just not a viable investment.

Satellite ISPs have been getting better though and DSL technology has shown at
least a theoretical 800Mbps (in labs). Maybe someday it'll be possible to get
great broadband in the mountains.

~~~
dangrossman
I just vacationed in Park Rapids, Minnesota. A couple thousand people live
there, with much fewer than 400 homes per square mile. Mostly just farms,
lakes and undeveloped land. The local ISP, "Paul Bunyan Communications",
offers gigabit fiber. My lakeside cabin in the woods for the week had better
internet than I have at home outside Philadelphia, and for less money.

Turns out most of the fiber-to-the-door deployed in the US is in the middle of
the country, where population densities are low. These assumptions about rural
availability and cost don't hold as often as some would think

[http://www.broadbandmap.gov/technology](http://www.broadbandmap.gov/technology)

------
icebraining
Lots of foreign tourists have been coming here to Portugal - we have plenty of
cheap rural homes in the middle of forests, large and small rivers with good
walkable trails and bathing areas, and during these summer vacations, I had a
nice 30mbps connection in a village so small it didn't even any shops.

A small example: [http://www.vortexmag.net/wp-
content/uploads/2015/03/Dornes1....](http://www.vortexmag.net/wp-
content/uploads/2015/03/Dornes1.jpg)

------
bozoUser
No love for India so far!!! if you can tolerate the spicy food here are two
places I wud recommend -

1) Kerela (called gods own country) -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala)

2) Arunachal Pradesh -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachal_Pradesh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachal_Pradesh)

------
harwoodleon
Swansea, Wales, UK

I moved back (in from there originally) and we have

\- the UK's first area of outstanding natural beauty \- mountains, loads of
mountains \- world class beaches \- low cost of living \- a TechHub with easy
access to TechHub Shoredich in London \- pretty good internet, with 300mb
consumer connections being rolled out \- great surfing

And soon to be built, a £1.5bn tidal lagoon and £0.5bn to be spent on
regenerating the city centre.

Desk space in Techhub is currently £150p/m

Average monthly rent is £500 p/m for a studio/1den in a pretty new shoreside
development SA1

We have a few London based businesses looking to relocate because of the low
cost of living and great lifesytle.

Two Google engineers were here last week and were massive impressed, needless
to say they are coming back here on holiday.

~~~
danschuller
I have quite fond memories of Swansea, I use to walk down to the beach on
mornings in the summer and read there for a few hours before starting my day.

I think everyone would win if it became a tech-hub.

The city center is a bit ugly (probably due to rapid post-war reconstruction
after being bombed, combined with the general horrors of UK 1960s
architecture) :D but cost of living is definitely cheap.

Because of general UK drinking culture and Swansea being a University town the
town center is pretty raucous most nights and especially at the weekend. At
least that was the case when I was there about 10 years ago!

There's a lot of beautiful scenery - like the Gower
[http://www.visitswanseabay.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/01/Rh...](http://www.visitswanseabay.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/01/Rhossili-bay_gower-peninsula.jpg)

And away from the city center it's much quiter and rural. People are super
friendly and warm in my experience, definitely more so than average for the
UK!

------
washt
Asheville, North Carolina, or -- "The Paris of the South."

------
a3n
Pacific Northwest is nice. I like the Olympic Peninsula. I don't know the
state of internet there; when I was last there, "Are you on email" was still a
common question. Probably drops off as you get farther from the various towns.
You could probably base yourself in Port Angeles, they have a ferry terminal
to Canada and close access to the Olympic Mountains and the coastal
rainforest.

[https://www.bing.com/mapspreview?q=Olympic%20Peninsula&obox=...](https://www.bing.com/mapspreview?q=Olympic%20Peninsula&obox=1&signedup=1#)

Lots of good daytrips, weekend and week trips available from there.

------
molteanu
You can always buy a (very) cheap old house in a village in Transylvania /
Romania, and maybe spend some time to restore it, if you're into that. I don't
know about the internet connection far from the city, though. See, for
example:

[http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/827b9c84-69d5-11e1-8996-00144...](http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/827b9c84-69d5-11e1-8996-00144feabdc0.html)

[http://www.transylvania-guide.com/](http://www.transylvania-guide.com/)

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andretti1977
Trentino in Italy: beautiful scenery, lakes, alpine mountains (unesco),
forests. It is near some other beautiful countries like Austria and Slovenian
(which is another beautiful place for nature and mountains and even cheaper
than Trentino).

And you are near to the city i live in (bergamo) which is small, with a
medieval buildings and in the Orobie area which is full of mountains where you
can do trekking or climbing!

I suggested Trentino because even if it is in Italy, it doesn't suffer from
common italy "problems" (burocracy, criminality, etc...)

------
leakybucket
Perhaps Ithaca, New York? It's a smallish college town (Cornell, Ithaca
College), but with lots of great scenery nearby, including forest, lakes, and
gorges.

------
keerthiko
Krabi, Thailand. Avoid Phuket or Ao Nang, Krabi town is a bit off to the side
but extremely peaceful and rural and tons of nature and unguided exploration
to be had nearby.

Also outer Taiwan, Jeju Island (S.Korea), Okinawa, Fukuoka (Japan).

Parts of south India might be tempting, but the quality of internet can be
very frustrating and can offset the quality of the nature.

source: all places I've passed through or by as a nomad in the last 2 years.

~~~
montecruiseto
Sounds interesting! I was considering Taiwan recently. How is the
infrastructure/livability/internet in those regions you mention? Any places
you can be specific about?

~~~
keerthiko
Internet was my prime consideration as well, and all of those places have
excellent internet. 20+mbps 3G/4G mobile internet at reasonable prices on top
of solid connections at most hostels and airbnbs you could stay at there.

Rural Taiwan is especially nice because you're just a high speed rail ride
away from Taipei, most likely. The others would probably involve a cheap and
very short flight to the nearest metropolis, in case you miss the city life.

Okinawa can feel a bit touristy, but you can get away from it if you do some
groundwork.

I spent a month out of an airbnb in Krabi town. Lived for about $200/mo,
spending weekends doing touristy things and eating out most of the time. I got
familiar with just about every shopkeep and restaurant owner in the hood.
Random streams and gardens to hang around in and pass time and ponder the
universe. I enjoyed it, and miss it sometimes, but the place helped me
discover that personally I am a city-junkie and needed to get out of there.

------
geff82
Try the heart of Switzerland, you might even get a job that pays like crazy.
If you prefer to pay less for rent, move to south Bavaria in Germany's
beautiful south. Munich might provide enough work, if you are willing to drive
an hour every day. Working from home gets more common here, so you might not
have to do the trip 5 days a week.

------
dadalus
Idaho has a few places that fit the bill. Sandpoint in the North and McCall in
the south are both small towns with immediate lake and mountain access.
Ketchum (Sun Valley) is another option, but has probably the highest cost of
living in the state. Boise is situated in a valley, but the mountains are only
an hour away.

------
chm
Are you a US citizen?

At $0.76 per CAD the whole of Canada is pretty much the definition of "cheap".

~~~
Everlag
If you're considering Canada on the exchange rate, try out Banff or Jasper in
Alberta; they're national parks and wonderfully maintained.

Enough beautiful hikes to keep me entertained for the last decade. I've found
going over a mountain and back quite a boom for productivity if only because I
don't want to walk afterwards.

The internet is fairly not terrible.

~~~
tamersalama
Banff, Canmore, Lake Loiuse, Jasper. Just spent the day at Lake Louise (from
Calgary). The most beautiful place on earth. Hiked to lake Agnes (7000ft
elevation) with family. We were soaked but enjoyed it immensely.

There are reasonably priced accommodation with the current CAD/USD rate.

Winter is another story but has its charm (& winter sports).

~~~
Everlag
Perhaps off topic, but I have to ask: did you make it to the teahouse on Lake
Agnes? It's absolutely fantastic to take the hike then relax at the top with a
nice cup of tea!

~~~
tamersalama
Definitely. And absolutely beautiful place, atmosphere & history. Wished it
wasn't raining as bad but enjoyed it nonetheless.

------
peteretep
Thailand, if you can handle the heat. Some great national parks, amazing hills
in the north, huge amounts of greenery, and of course, the beaches. Coming up
to the cool season too, and it's all wonderfully cheap.

~~~
saryant
Concur. I spent some time working from Koh Lanta earlier this year. Beautiful
island with good infrastructure but it's not been overrun by giant resorts.
There's a nice coworking space on Long Beach called Kohub.

------
vicarious82
Dilijan, Armenia
[http://www.renco.it/media/immagini/477_z_img_4753_rid.jpg](http://www.renco.it/media/immagini/477_z_img_4753_rid.jpg)

------
pknerd
Pakistan's Northern areas:

[https://www.google.com.pk/search?q=pakistan+northern+areas+t...](https://www.google.com.pk/search?q=pakistan+northern+areas+tour&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=637&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI4sndk6XQxwIVw7kUCh2hlQe8)

This might help you to plan tour:

[http://pakistantourntravel.com/northern-pakistan-
tour/](http://pakistantourntravel.com/northern-pakistan-tour/)

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PopeOfNope
There's Lake Placid or the 1000 islands. Once upon a time (1870's to WWI-ish),
presidents and influential people used to come to the 1000 islands for the
summer. If you like fall leaves, October here is like no other. Do not stay
past halloween; it gets cold fast. You don't want to be here in the winter,
unless you like snowmobiling. There's better skiing in places with less
extreme weather (or so I'm told).

------
jordanf
Chattanooga, TN checks the boxes. Fiber internet, affordable, tons of outdoor
activities. Outside magazine rated it best place to live in the US 2015 [0].
You can live just outside the city and be surrounded by nature, and the tech
scene is growing.

[0] [http://www.outsideonline.com/2006426/americas-best-
towns-201...](http://www.outsideonline.com/2006426/americas-best-towns-2015)

------
philprx
Alps, France. Chiang Mai, Thailand. Koh Phanghan, Thailand. Bergen, Norway.
Lofoten islands, Norway. Pyrenees, France. Jura, France. Lago maggiore, Italy.
North of North California, USA. Oregon, USA. All Pacific northwest, USA.
Boulder, Colorado, USA. Blue ridge, Georgia (?), USA. Area between Czech and
Slovakia. Parks West of Zagreb, Croatia. Mountains, coast and parks in Serbia.

------
sciguy77
I have a relative who lived in Montana for several years. I'm told its a
world-class hiking state and is much cheaper than Colorado. I went once to go
fly fishing and it was gorgeous. Only the winters are supposed to be terrible,
so you'll want to time your stay well.

If you're more inclined towards Europe then I'd recommend Hungary, a very
cost-effective place to live.

Good luck!

------
atmosx
Ithaca, you know Ulysses island. I am not sure about thr fast Internet. I
assume you could get some lousy ADSL.

The sea and nature are marvelous though. The people are very good too. There
at least another 50 places in Greece that fit the description, but Ithaca is
my favorite. You can check out Nomads list, for cities that are better fit for
tech nomads.

------
cskakun
I live in Cancun, Mexico right now. There are some areas where it's nice and
not so expensive. Other places are around here because of tourism. However,
Chiapas has mountains and rivers and is the cheapest state in Mexico from what
I've heard.

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jib
Lots of places in Sweden with great internet, great nature and ok prices. If
super cheap is your focus, maybe not, but it is quite affordable outside
cities. The North for mountains, the west or north for forests and lakes.

------
NDizzle
Ozarks. Northwest Arkansas. Eureka Springs if you are super blue. Fayetteville
area for college life.

Very cheap and infinite nature. Not as backwards as you'd expect.

Source: I grew up in Carroll County Arkansas.

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iharhajster
Croatia, both coast including islands (there is 1k of them, many uninhabitted)
and in land. I recommend Velebit, Papuk, Brac and of course Dubrovnik
archipelag.

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arsalanb
Go to McLeodganj in Himachal Pradesh, India.

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jwatte
If the cost of living is cheap enough, you can run your own fiber with the
saved money (and share with the neighbors.)

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fleitz
Have been in Cambodia the past 2 weeks and loving it. Very cheap even in
touristy areas, dirt cheap otherwise

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stevewilhelm
Boulder Creek, California. Less than an hour to the heart of the Silicon
Valley, but worlds away.

~~~
presty
heh, cheap?

------
presty
Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

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eloycoto
Galicia, north west spanish and camino de santiago it's awesome ;-)

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davidjnelson
Paradise, CA is fantastic and meets your requirements.

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mapster
Durango, Co

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mscharrer
I know quite a few idyllic places with lots of nature. None of them have fast
internet.

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nolite
Bali, Thailand, Greece

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mdekkers
Cyprus, in Europe

