How Lisbon and Dubai 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
$3,150 to $5,580£2,370 to £4,190 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.
Dubai virtual work residence
The catch. The permit assumes your work comes from outside the UAE. Landlords usually want a year's rent in advance, often in one to four cheques.
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° |
| Dubai | 24° | 25° | 30° | 34° | 38° | 40° | 42° | 42° | 40° | 37° | 31° | 26° |
Level 1: normal precautions
Level 3: reconsider travel
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.
A salaried remote employee earning at least USD 3,500 a month from a company outside the UAE who wants a self-sponsored year with no personal income tax. The permit is fast and cheap, you can bring family on it, the metro works, and October to April is some of the best weather anywhere. If you are happy treating the city as somewhere you work in air conditioning and play outdoors for half the year, it is very easy to live in.
Anyone whose income is mostly from UAE clients, or irregular. Anyone who cannot put down a year's rent up front. Anyone who resents being told what they can post online, how to behave in public or which medicines they can carry: a rude message or a trace of cannabis from a trip elsewhere can mean prison. Anyone gay, because same-sex relations are a crime. Anyone who needs to WhatsApp-call home. And anyone who wilts in heat: from June to August the average daily high is over 40 degrees, and the state bans outdoor work at midday for three months.
Most visas want health cover for the whole stay. Compare nomad health insurance · Build your trip checklist