Nomadico

Euros in Croatia/On-time Airlines/Happier Remote Workers

Nomadico issue #35

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

Bring Your Euros to Croatia

If you’re coming to Croatia from somewhere else in the EU, hang on to your euros because as of January 15, the former currency, the kuna, joins the French franc and Greek drachma in the history books. As noted in an earlier newsletter, Croatia is in the Schengen zone now too. So it’s no longer a place to escape to for non-EU passport holders running into their 3-month limit. (Try one of the other Balkan countries instead.)

Most On-time Airlines

Which airlines will get you to where you’re going on time? According to this recent study using 2022 data, the top ones with at least 100K flights were Azul of Brazil; ANA and JAL of Japan; Copa Air of Panama; and LATAM of Chile. Many smaller Asian airlines had higher numbers though, such as Thai AirAsia, Solaseed Air, and StarFlyer. Sky Airline of Chile and Oman Air also had high scores. The top American carrier was Delta and the European one arriving on time the most was Iberia.

Mexico City Expats, Take 2

We keep reading negative articles about foreigners driving up rents or otherwise “ruining” neighborhoods around the world, thanks to click-bait articles that rely on a few anecdotes but don’t contain much real data. For a welcome historic perspective, check out this thoughtful piece in Mexico News Daily about that country’s capital city. It points out that the same neighborhoods where big-media writers have decried foreigners for “pushing out the locals” were established by resident elites trying to…get away from the downtown locals.

Remote Workers are Happier and Vacationing More

A recent OnePoll survey of 2,000 remote workers found that 73% are taking more vacation days since going remote and 69% are feeling happier than they used to. A longer trip with work was preferable to a short one with no work by 46% to 26%. I’m not linking to the news story in protest of the silly “laptop on the beach” photo at the top. In reality though, most remote workers don’t even use co-working spaces. The top choices where they log on to earn on a “workation” were hotel rooms (25%), hotel lobbies (23%), and vacation rentals (23%).

01/19/23

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