Many city dwellers spend time thinking about moving to a less crowded place, but once you’ve lived in a city it’s hard to give up the culture, job opportunities, and social life that they provide. The good news is that more and more employers are offering the ability to work remotely, which means you can live pretty much anywhere you want and still be able to make a living, and small cities are catching up with their giant cousins when it comes to social and cultural life.
Here are three great small cities for big-city dwellers, according to Monocle Magazine.
1. Lausanne, Switzerland
This city of 140,000 boasts a lot of amenities that make it a good small city for big-city dwellers. It has great schools, top universities, lots of great career opportunities, and a slower pace of life for those times when you just don’t want the endless go-go-go of a major metropolis.
The city is built on a slope on the north bank of Lake Geneva and offers lots of old-European charm. It’s filled with small shops selling everything you can think of, not to mention lots of lovely viennoiseries where you can get a croissant and a delicious coffee drink to start your day.
You’ll get plenty of diversity in Lausanne, too; it’s an international city and you’ll hear an array of languages spoken—primarily French, German, and Italian—but you’ll also hear lots of English spoken in a variety of accents, too. The city has a reputation for academic excellence, being the home of the École Polytechnique Fédérale, specializing in engineering and science, and the École Hôtelière, the top school in the world for learning about hotel management. And yes, there’s plenty of night life, too, and it goes on well beyond midnight.
2. Savannah, Georgia, USA
This city of 146,000 people may be small, but it’s big on culture and history. Home of the internationally renowned Savannah College of Art and Design, it also boasts a booming music and theater scene: it has nine theatres that host shows ranging from improv to fully professional music revues with live singing and dancing, as well as numerous city orchestras for adults and children, and lots of bookstores as well.
Savannah’s architecture is like nothing else in the country: its more than 100 neighborhoods boast architecture ranging from Victorian homes to sprawling Italianate and gothic revival manors. You can find old plantation houses and shiny new buildings, sometimes even face to face on the same street.
If you feel the urge to get away, Tybee Island is about 20 minutes from downtown Savannah, and you can get all the nature, surf, and sandy beaches you want there. Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport is easy to fly into and out of, so you can get to those meetings or conferences with ease. All this makes it one of the great small cities for big-city dwellers.
3. Hobart, Australia
Capital of the Australian island state Tasmania, the city of Hobart is home to about 232,000 people. It’s a gateway to the Antarctic, being quite close to East Antarctica and the Southern Ocean; thus, it’s home to the French and Australian Antarctic programs and no fewer than 10 research organizations that study the Antarctic.
The city has an old-world feel thanks to a large census of historic architecture dating back to the Georgian and Victorian eras. Most of these can be found in the city center. Salamanca Place, fore example, contains many of the city’s heritage-listed buildings. Hobart also boasts a great art and music scene, and its night life revolves around Salamanca Place and the waterfront area, where you can find pubs, bars, or nightclubs to fit almost any taste.
Tasmania has the second-best performing state economy in Australia, so you won’t have trouble finding career opportunities or the infrastructure you’d need to work at a remote job. It’s also remarkably affordable for a state capital.
Have you escaped the big city for a smaller one? What are your favorite small cities for big-city dwellers? Let us know in the comments!
Photo: The city of Lausanne during the twilight “blue hour.” Credit: Shutterstock