As a digital nomad, you will generally have a much better experience if you stay in a private apartment or house, rather than a hotel, guesthouse, or hostel.
One of the major benefits of renting a private apartment is that, unlike hotels, apartments tend to be spread throughout the city, not all clustered in one or two main tourist areas.
This gives you a much better opportunity to experience the place you are visiting as a local, instead of as an outsider.
As a bonus, there’s a good chance that your apartment will be hosted/managed by a local who can give you a head start on finding the best places in the neighborhood.
Apartments typically have more space than even high-end hotel suites, and apartments almost always come with kitchens. Even if you are not planning to do any serious cooking, it’s nice to have space to prepare coffee, tea, breakfasts, and simple snacks.
I recommend using Airbnb for booking apartments. There are plenty of alternatives, but I like using Airbnb for the following reasons:
- you can use the same website anywhere in the world
- the cancellation and other policies are clearly spelled out, and
- most important – you can read real reviews from other travelers and communicate with the host before you book.
Here’s the exact process that I have used to book hundreds of nights in Airbnbs all over the world since 2011:
