Lima. Hanoi. Cusco. Bogota. For years, these cities have sat near the top of every digital nomad hit list, celebrated for cheap rent, buzzing co-working scenes and the kind of Instagram backdrop that makes a laptop-in-a-cafe photo look like a logical lifestyle choice. New research suggests the postcard might be telling only half the story.
Holafly’s Wellbeing Index 2026, a wellbeing analysis of 25 established nomad hubs, drawing on data from the World Health Organization, Mercer and Google Maps, has ranked cities – not on Wi-Fi speed or flat white prices, but on the things that actually shape a life. Daylight, green space, noise, community, exercise access and health care. It’s a deliberately different lens to the one most “best cities for digital nomads” lists apply. And the results flip the usual rankings on their head.
Lima comes out as the toughest city to live well in, weighed down by the lowest daylight levels of any destination studied and limited green space, both factors with well-documented links to mood, sleep quality and long-term mental health. Hanoi follows close behind, held back by noise and patchy exercise access, the kind of low-grade, constant stressors that rarely show up in a listicle but quietly erode wellbeing over months rather than days. Cusco rounds out the top three, largely due to a thin social and community network for newcomers trying to build a life there. And all offer a reminder that a stunning location can still feel isolating without the infrastructure to actually meet people.
It tracks with what plenty of long-term travellers already sense but rarely say out loud. Holafly’s research found that burnout among frequent and long-stay travellers now sits above 30% (32.2%). And a similar share (32.3%) report feeling cut off from the support networks they’d usually lean on back home. Unpredictable schedules, shifting time zones and simply not knowing what’s around the corner all chip away at the basics. Think: sleep, movement, a decent meal that isn’t reheated.
Digital nomads surveyed by Holafly pointed to unpredictable schedules and changing time zones (33.7%) as their biggest challenge. This is followed by the cost of gyms, classes or healthy food (18.8%) and simply not knowing what’s available around them (20.7%). Layer in the pressure many remote workers feel to still perform, deliver and show up “on” for calls regardless of time zone, and the toll starts to look less like an occasional rough patch and more like a structural feature of the lifestyle itself.
None of this means the dream is dead. It just means the dream might live somewhere a little less obvious. The research points to a genuine trade-off hiding inside the classic nomad checklist: a city can be cheap and easy to land in without being easy to actually live in. Holafly notes that six of the eight worst-performing cities in its index – Lima, Hanoi, Cusco, Bogota, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City – are classic budget-friendly nomad destinations, reinforcing just how rarely this trade-off gets captured in traditional rankings.
For anyone plotting the next chapter of a location-independent life, that’s worth factoring in alongside rent and rooftop bars, particularly for women travelling solo or working remotely long-term, where questions of safety, community and access to health care tend to carry extra weight in the decision. The best remote work destination isn’t always the one with the best feed. Sometimes it’s the one with the best sleep.
The top 10 most challenging cities for digital nomad wellbeing in 2026.
- Lima, Peru
- Hanoi, Vietnam
- Cusco, Peru
- Bogota, Colombia
- Da Nang, Vietnam
- Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Cancún, Mexico
- Medellín, Colombia
- Tbilisi, Georgia
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
