How London and Lisbon compare on cost, visas, working hours, weather, internet and safety. Every figure comes from our city guides and tools, checked and dated there.
Dollars and pounds at today's exchange rate. Download speeds are the typical figure from each guide, which says where it comes from: some are for the city, some for the whole country, so treat a small gap as no gap.
Rent, a coworking desk, a cheap lunch on each of 22 working days, and getting around: the same four costs our budget calculator uses. The rent figures aren't always the same kind of figure (some are furnished one-beds, some are averages across every size of flat), so read the note under each.
$2,590 to $3,400£1,950 to £2,560 a month
$1,490 to $2,520£1,120 to £1,890 a month
No remote work visa
The catch. There is no digital nomad visa. Visitors may work remotely for their employment overseas only if it is not the main purpose of the visit (Immigration Rules, Appendix Visitor, PA 4(h)), and work for UK customers must be done outside the UK. Whether freelancers and owners of a foreign company are covered is unclear. British passport holders need nothing: it's home. Visa-free visitors need a GBP 20 ETA, and since 25 February 2026 airlines can refuse to board you without one. Remote work must not be the reason for the trip, so back-to-back long stays that look like living here can get you refused at the border.
D8 digital nomad visa
The catch. The bar is four times the minimum wage, so it rises every January. And a partner can now join you only once you have held the permit for two years.
See where your own income stands in every country. Check your income
A 9am to 5pm day in the employer's city, shown in local time, for today's date, so it allows for the clocks changing.
Different hours or another employer city? Use the time-zone planner
The average high in °C each month, coloured by the rule on our best-time page: green is a high of 20 to 32°C with under 150mm of rain; red is a high of 38°C or more or under 12°C, 250mm of rain or more, or 33°C or more with 150mm of rain or more. Hover over a month for its rain.
| City | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 8° | 9° | 12° | 15° | 18° | 22° | 24° | 23° | 20° | 16° | 12° | 9° |
| Lisbon | 15° | 16° | 19° | 20° | 23° | 26° | 28° | 29° | 27° | 23° | 18° | 15° |
Level 2: increased caution
Level 1: normal precautions
The US level is for the whole country, as the State Department sets it, and some countries have stricter advice for particular regions.
From each city guide, word for word.
English-speaking employees of overseas companies who want a few months in a world city with no language barrier. A GBP 20 ETA is a one-off formality, and the rules say outright that you may work remotely for your employer abroad. It suits anyone paid in a currency that holds its own against the pound who values culture, transport, and working hours that overlap with both Europe and the US East Coast. And it suits British passport holders, who simply live here.
Anyone who wants a digital nomad visa, a residence permit or a path to settling. There is no such route, visitor time counts for nothing, and the government has said settlement will move from five to ten years even on real work visas. Anyone on a budget: an average one-bed in the areas people want runs GBP 1,882 to 2,001 a month before bills, plus GBP 171.70 for a Zones 1-2 Travelcard and GBP 289 or more for a coworking desk. Anyone who needs sun: October to January bring 11 or so rain days a month. And freelancers who serve UK clients, who cannot do that work here as visitors.
You want a European base that works for a London or New York working day, you would rather eat in a tasca than a restaurant, and you are coming for at least a season rather than a fortnight. It rewards staying: the third month is better than the first, because by then you have a market, a cafe and a couple of people, and you are no longer paying tourist prices for anything.
You are on a tight budget, or you want to work from cafes all day. Lisbon is no longer cheap — rents have gone up faster than almost anywhere in Europe and you are competing with people earning in dollars. And it is not a laptop city: the cafes tolerate you, they do not want you. If you cannot afford a desk somewhere, you will have a worse time here than the internet suggests. Come for the winter and the flat will be colder than you think.
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