How Lisbon and Valletta 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.
$1,490 to $2,520£1,120 to £1,890 a month
$1,090 to $2,000£822 to £1,500 a month
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.
Nomad Residence Permit
The catch. Every renewal needs Maltese bank transactions proving five months there in the last 12, on top of a registered 12-month lease and a year of prepaid health cover.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lisbon | 15° | 16° | 19° | 20° | 23° | 26° | 28° | 29° | 27° | 23° | 18° | 15° |
| Valletta | 15° | 16° | 17° | 19° | 23° | 28° | 31° | 31° | 28° | 24° | 20° | 17° |
Level 1: normal precautions
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.
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.
Non-EU remote employees, freelancers and company owners earning comfortably over EUR 42,000 gross a year, who want EU time zones, English everywhere and a 10 per cent flat tax after a tax-free first year. It suits someone who can do without a car, ride most buses and some ferries free on a EUR 25 tallinja card and work from a Sliema or St Julian's coworking desk. It is a strong one-to-four-year base for someone who likes the sea and does not need a big city.
Anyone wanting a cheap base: a two-bed in St Julian's has a registered median of EUR 1,500 a month. Anyone who wants to settle, because the permit stops at four years and leads nowhere, and since 2025 citizenship cannot be bought either. Anyone who hates noise, building work, traffic and crowds: Malta is one of the most densely populated places in the EU, and took 539,655 tourists in August 2026. July and August average over 31 degrees with almost no rain. And if you want nature, anonymity or culture beyond the Baroque, the island will feel small within months.
Most visas want health cover for the whole stay. Compare nomad health insurance · Build your trip checklist