The Best Places to Work Remotely in Latin America

In the last two years I’ve been working remotely from over 20 countries but no part of the world compares to Latin America: countries and cultures spreading over two continents with climates and landscapes so diverse that a simple vacation is just not enough if you want to get to know them all. But it’s different if you can stay longer in each country and work remotely in Latin America: you get to know how the locals live, travel in your free time and yes, you will still have enough time left for work as well. 

My favorite places for a longer workation are either close to the seaside or the mountains, but they always have to have the kind of landscape that you will remember fondly for the rest of your life.

🇲🇽 Mexico

A fabulous country, I liked it so much that I visited it twice in a year: you get some of the best beaches in the world, phenomenal food, Mayan pyramids, colonial towns, cenote and mariachi – it’s difficult to find another place that has it all.

Mexico is one of the countries with a rather long tradition when it comes to working remotely – because it’s so close to the USA, a lot of Americans spend the winter in Mexico working remotely from coworking spaces or from the hotels. You can choose Tulum or Cabo san Lucas if you want to stay close to the beach or you can relocate to Mexico City for a couple of weeks – the capital offers a huge array of coworking spaces in premium locations (and soon you will be able to work with Pluria from there too). 

What can you do in your free time in a country as vast as Mexico? You can start by exploring one by one the most beautiful cenotes from the Yucatan peninsula (a cenote is a natural pool that has formed in the limestone rock). For example, cenote Ik Kil is splendid, but every small town has its own cenote where you can take a swim.

The colonial towns are a marvel: San Miguel de Allende is a UNESCO heritage site where the local mariachi sing every evening in the park. Valladolid and Merida are colorful cities where you can try a marquesita, a crispy pancake filled with whatever you can imagine (my favorite is Nutella and strawberries). Or, you can visit the Mayan pyramids: Uxmal, Teotihuacan, Chichen Itza or the smaller ones in Coba or Tulum. The fun part is to discover the towns with less foreign tourists but which are famous for the local food, such as Guadalajara. Yam! 😃

Tips for the remote worker: Mexico has a lot of coworking spaces, especially in the big cities, and now they are available in the Pluria network as well. Touristic cities that host many visitors who work remotely (such as Tulum, Cabo, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Vallarta) boast at least 2-3 coworking spaces that you can choose from. Alternatively, you can rent an Airbnb with a workspace or choose a hostel with a generous communal area and an excellent internet connection.

🇨🇷 Costa Rica

Costa Rica is the best country in the world for working remotely and with a reason: here it’s not about the crowded commercial beaches, with beach chairs and restaurants in the sand, but about nature and a sustainable lifestyle. In Costa Rica you will find a lot of national parks and small towns, no huge resorts, only small hotels and locally owned guest houses, life there has a calmer pace, one that allows you to enjoy every moment.

You can work from an Airbnb with a garden and for breakfast you can hand pick the avocados that have dropped to the ground because of the rain and if you feel like taking a break you have several options: in places such as Uvita they have their own local falls, elsewhere you can take a walk on the beach and listen to the howling monkeys swinging from one tree to another while in Manuel Antonio, and if you are lucky enough, you can catch a glimpse of a sloth hanging from a tree.

If you go to the Caribbean Sea the atmosphere gets even more relaxed (if such a thing is even possible in Costa Rica!): Puerto Viejo, Manzanillo, Cahuita and Puerto Limon are all very close to one another and they all have decent internet connection available regardless of how isolated the place might appear. You can end your stay there with a trip to Arenal to see one of the most beautiful volcanoes in Latin America. 

Tips for the remote worker: in Costa Rica some hostels have their own coworking space.

🇨🇴 Colombia

I love this country! It has fantastic food, impeccably preserved small colonial towns, volcanic lakes at more than 3000 m altitude, large exquisite cities such as Bogota and Medellin, and on top of everything, one of the most beautiful cities of all Latin America – Cartagena de Indias and the most ”bonito pueblo”- Barichara. No wonder Colombia has been in the Pluria network for more than one year now! 😃

I’ve been to Bogota twice and it’s the perfect place from where to work remotely for a longer period of time: the climate is pleasant year round, the prices are lower than in other Latin American countries and the old town center is filled with cafes, museums and restaurants.

Tips for the remote worker: in Colombia there is a great variety of coworking spaces, from the small ones, such as cafés, to the large international chains with spaces distributed over several floors in modern buildings. You can access them all through a Pluria subscription, even if you are from Romania.

🇵🇪 Peru

I stayed two months in Peru and I still haven’t seen all this country has to offer! Lima is with promenades along the ocean coastline, Paracas with penguin isles and a desert-natural reserve that you can explore by bike, Arequipa has the most beautiful volcanoes and Titicaca will throw you off balance with its 3800 m altitude.

But what you must absolutely do is spend a couple of weeks in Cusco: start your day working from a terrace overlooking the old city center, go out for lunch in town and then hug the beautiful alpacas. During the weekend you can venture on trips on the surrounding mountains, but for a short vacation I recommend the Salkantay trek or the Inca Trail. From Cusco, you can book trips that take you to 4000-5000 m altitude but you need to hire a guide because if you haven’t acclimatized well your body to that high altitude, it can be dangerous. 

Tips for the remote worker: Cusco is a great base camp if you want to visit the region, the prices are lower than in Lima and the town is starting to get popular with remote workers. In the hostel where I stayed there were several Europeans working remotely – the time difference is not a problem: 7 am in Cusco is 3 pm in Romania which means you can have a short meeting with your colleagues before you head out to visit the ruins of the Inca temples.

🇬🇹 Guatemala

Guatemala is one of my favorite countries from Latin America. Antigua, the capital city, is splendid with tens of cafes, lots of active volcanoes and very good food – if you decide to stay longer you can also take Spanish lessons, there are lots of schools that offer such classes. Lanquin, Flores, Tikal are just some of the many places from where you can work remotely, and you shouldn’t miss lake Atitlan: a huge lake surrounded by volcanoes with perfect cones.

You want to start your work day looking at a volcano? Checked! During the afternoon you can have a walk along the lake shore or you can take a swim and during the weekend you have time to visit the towns around the lake.

Tips for the remote worker: Selina is a very popular hostel-cum-coworking-space chain in Latin America; the concept they promote is that of a community of people who travel and who work remotely therefore every hostel comes with its own coworking space. You will find Selina hostels in the most beautiful locations in Latin America (but also in Portugal – Selina from Porto is already in the Pluria network), there are several Selina locations in Guatemala but also in Panama – it’s where they started, as well as in many other countries.

🇩🇴 Dominican Republic

I’ve seen many beautiful beaches in Latin America, and the Dominican Republic has no shortage of that: white sand, turquoise water and the typical Caribbean landscape. From Punta Cana you can visit the Saona and Catalina islands, but the Samana peninsula is a place that is a lot more beautiful. Close to Las Galeras, a small fishing town, you will find splendid beaches such as Fronton and Rincon.

Tips for the remote worker: in Punta Cana you can rent a studio with access to the resort pool and high speed internet connection, while in Las Galeras you will find smaller hotels with good WiFi. The capital, Santo Domingo has lots of coworking spaces if you don’t want to work all the time from your hotel.

🇧🇷 Brazil

I visited Brazil before I had the freedom to work remotely, but it’s on my to-visit-again list: when I go back there I want to stay longer and explore more remote regions, the ones I didn’t get to visit the first time round. OK, and also in order to go back to Rio de Janeiro, which for me is the best city in the world.

Apart from Rio and Sao Paulo, they also have Brasilia – a city-museum with incredible architecture; in Manaus you get to see the Amazon, Paraty is a colonial town, a UNESCO heritage site, and for a bit of relaxation time, you can go to Ilha Grande.

Tips for the remote worker: Brazil has lots of coworking spaces that you can access with a Pluria subscription. Exactly, work from anywhere as it should be. 😊