How We Choose Our Next Destination as a Digital Nomad Family
Last Updated on October 29, 2026
As a family who changes countries every few years, picking our next homebase is an important decision. Here’s the exact process we use, and why we ended up in Georgia.
“So, where next?” It’s the question friends ask us almost as soon as we’ve unpacked. After nine years as a digital nomad family, we’ve moved countries several times: from Spain to the Netherlands, then Mexico, South Africa, and most recently, to Tbilisi, Georgia.
Picking where to travel is easy. Picking a place to live is a different story. Our next homebase decides where our daughter Kaleya goes to school, who her friends will be, how far our income stretches and how happy we’ll all be for the next year or more. Even our dog Brownie gets a vote (sort of).
Over the years, we’ve built a pretty reliable process for making this decision. We haven’t always got it right, but we’ve learned a lot along the way. In this post, I’ll share our full decision checklist, how we research and shortlist countries, how Kaleya gets involved, and the reasons behind every homebase we’ve chosen so far.
Choosing Our Next Destination as a Digital Nomad Family
What We Look For in a New Homebase
When we start thinking about our next move, we go through the same list of questions every time. Some are deal-breakers; others are nice-to-haves. Here’s everything we consider, roughly in order of importance.
1. Cost of living
Our income comes from remote work, so where we live directly affects how much we save and how much we can travel. We don’t necessarily look for the cheapest place to live. We’d rather pay a little more for a great school and a safe neighborhood than save money and be unhappy.
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We compare:
- Rent for a family apartment (two to three bedrooms) in a safe, walkable neighborhood
- School fees
- Groceries, eating out and transport
- Healthcare and insurance
- Flights to the places we want to explore (Compare cheap flights ✈️)
The biggest monthly expense for us is our rent, so we always start by researching on how much it costs to rent a 2 or 3-bedroom apartment/house in the destination. We also check on Airbnb how much a standard apartment costs to rent for a month. That is usually 10-20% higher than the usual rent, but it’s a quick and easy way to find out the general cost.
2. Visas, residency and taxes
This is the boring part, but it can make or break a move. Questions we ask:
- How long can we stay on our passports? Is there a digital nomad visa or residency option?
- Can we legally work remotely from here?
- How easy is it to open a bank account and rent an apartment as foreigners?
- What’s the tax situation for freelancers and small businesses?
Always speak to an immigration lawyer or tax advisor before you commit. Rules change often, and they depend on your nationality.
3. Schools and education
For us, this is always the starting point. If there’s no good school option for Kaleya, the country is off the list, no matter how beautiful it is.
We look at:
- International schools: What curriculum do they follow (IB, British, American)? How diverse is the student body? Are there spaces available mid-year?
- Fees: International school fees vary hugely from country to country, and they can easily become your biggest expense.
- Alternatives: Is there a good local, bilingual or alternative school (like the green school Kaleya loved in Mexico)? Would online school work as a backup?
- Class size and community: We want a school where she’ll make real friends, not just sit in a classroom.
4. Safety and healthcare
With a child, safety is non-negotiable. We read up on crime in specific neighborhoods (not just the country as a whole), ask other expat families how safe they feel and check the quality of hospitals and pediatric care nearby.
5. Nature and outdoor lifestyle
We’re an outdoorsy family. We want parks and playgrounds nearby, hiking within easy reach, and ideally beaches or mountains for weekend escapes. A green, walkable city where Kaleya can be outside after school is high on our list. This is what we loved most about the Netherlands, Mexico and Cape Town.
6. Culture and “something different”
Worldschooling is about learning from the world, so we look for places that feel genuinely different from where we’ve been before: a new language, a different history, unfamiliar food and traditions. Each move should teach us something new.
7. Community
Moving is lonely without a community. We look for cities with a growing international or nomad community, expat parent groups, co-working spaces and kids’ activities. It makes settling in so much easier.
8. Flight connections
A homebase is also a launchpad. We check which direct flights leave from the nearest airport, how easy it is to get back to family in Spain and Singapore, and which new regions we could explore on weekends and school holidays. Search for flights here ✈️
9. Our dog
Brownie has lived in six countries with us, and every move involves research on pet import rules, vaccinations, quarantine and airline policies. Some countries are much easier than others. Some airlines won’t fly pets in the hold during hot months, which can affect your travel dates and routes.
10. Internet and daily practicalities
We both rely on fast, reliable internet for work, so this is a must. We also look at how easy daily life is for foreigners: digital payments, delivery apps, apartment rentals and how widely English is spoken.
Our checklist at a glance
Factor | Deal-breaker? | What we check |
Schools | Yes | Curriculum, fees, diversity, space available |
Safety | Yes | Neighborhood crime, healthcare, pediatric care |
Visas and work rights | Yes | Length of stay, nomad visas, legal remote work |
Internet | Yes | Speed and reliability at home and in co-working spaces |
Cost of living | Important | Rent, school fees, daily costs |
Nature and lifestyle | Important | Parks, hiking, beaches, walkability |
Pet travel | Important | Import rules, quarantine, airline policies |
Community | Nice to have | Expat families, nomad groups, kids' activities |
Culture | Nice to have | Language, food, history, something new |
Flights | Nice to have | Direct routes to family and new regions |
How We Research and Shortlist Destinations
Once we know what we’re looking for, the fun (and slightly overwhelming) part begins. Here’s our step-by-step process.
- Start early. We usually start talking about our next move six months to a year before we leave. School applications, visas and pet paperwork all take time.
- Brainstorm a long list. Everyone throws ideas in: places we’ve loved visiting, countries friends rave about, somewhere completely new. At this stage, nothing is off the table.
- Cut it down with our deal-breakers. We check each country against our must-haves: schools, safety, visas and internet. For visas, we compare income requirements, length of stay and costs, which we’ve broken down country by country in our guide to countries with digital nomad visas. This usually narrows a long list down to three to five options.
- Do the deep research. For each shortlisted city, we research neighborhoods, rental prices, school fees and visa rules. We email schools, read expat forums, join local Facebook groups and watch videos from families living there.
- Talk to people who live there. This is the most valuable step. We reach out to other expat and nomad families on Instagram and in online groups and ask them honest questions: What’s hard about living here? What do you wish you’d known?
- Visit if you can. If we’ve never been somewhere, a short scouting trip helps a lot. It’s amazing what you learn walking around a neighborhood or visiting a school in person. We had visited Tbilisi once about ten years before we moved, which helped us picture life there.
- Make a decision and commit. At some point, you have to stop researching and choose. No place is perfect, and you’ll never have all the answers.
Giving Kaleya a say
As Kaleya gets older, she has more and more input into where we live. Her feelings matter a lot, and involving her makes each move much easier.
Here’s how we include her:
- We talk openly about the move well in advance, so it’s never a surprise.
- We show her photos and videos of the places we’re considering, including the schools, parks and neighborhoods.
- We ask what matters to her. Usually it’s friends, a good school, being able to play outside and, of course, the food.
- We let her research too. Looking up facts about a new country is a great worldschooling exercise in itself.
- We acknowledge the hard parts. Saying goodbye to friends is tough, and we never pretend it isn’t.
Now that she’s 11, her questions are getting sharper. She wants to know what the school is like, whether kids will speak English and what she’ll be able to do on weekends. Honestly, she asks better questions than some adults!
Why We Chose Tbilisi, Georgia
After a year in Cape Town (our best year yet), we were ready to move on and head out again. Here’s how Tbilisi ticked our boxes:
- Something new: Georgia has its own language, its own alphabet, an ancient culture and traditions we knew very little about. It felt like a real adventure.
- Schools: Tbilisi has several international schools. Kaleya is now at one with classmates from all over the world, and we’re really happy with it.
- Cost of living: Life here costs noticeably less than in Western Europe, which means our income stretches further.
- Visas and tax: Georgia has a generous visa policy for many nationalities, and an Individual Entrepreneur status with a 1% tax rate on turnover for eligible small businesses.
- Nature: Tbilisi is a surprisingly green city, surrounded by hills, with a cable car and a funicular, and the Caucasus mountains are right on our doorstep.
- Community: There’s a growing international and digital nomad community, and lots of people speak English.
- Digital life: Georgia is very digitally advanced. Apple Pay is accepted almost everywhere, there are apps for groceries, cleaners and utilities, and it was easy for us to open a bank account.
- Food: Khachapuri, khinkali and ojakhuri. Need I say more?
- Flights: Good connections to Spain, Singapore, Central Asia and the Middle East, which opens up a whole new region for us to explore. Search and compare flights ✈️
Was there anything that worried us? Of course. We didn’t speak a word of Georgian, and it’s a tricky language. So we signed up for Georgian classes as a family. It’s become a fun shared project, and another great worldschooling lesson.
Want the full picture, including what we spend each month, how the 1% tax setup really works, our school choice and the honest downsides? I’ve put it all in my guide: What Is It Like Living in Tbilisi, Georgia as a Digital Nomad Family.
Why We Chose Each of Our Previous Homebases
Looking back, every move happened for a slightly different reason, depending on where we were in life and what Kaleya needed at the time.
Homebase | Why we chose it | What we learned |
Tbilisi, Georgia | Something completely different, international schools, low cost of living, easy visas, nature and food | Too early to say, but so far so good! |
Cape Town, South Africa | My favorite city in the world, incredible nature, safaris on our doorstep | Our best year yet: a city can be worth the long flights |
Mexico | A change of scene, sunshine and a more digital nomad lifestyle | A great school can make all the difference to a child's happiness |
The Netherlands | A safe, green, kid-friendly place to raise a toddler, with biking and playgrounds everywhere | A strong outdoor childhood builds confidence and independence |
The common thread? Every time, we chose a place that fit the stage of life Kaleya was in. A toddler needs safe playgrounds and a calm routine; a pre-teen needs good schools, friends and new challenges. As she grows, our priorities shift too.
The Logistics of Moving Countries With a Family
Once we’ve chosen our next homebase, the real work begins. Here’s our rough moving timeline:
- 6 to 12 months before: Research visas, apply to schools, start pet import paperwork (some countries need months of preparation).
- 3 to 6 months before: Secure a school place, book flights, sort out health insurance and start looking at neighborhoods.
- 1 to 3 months before: Book temporary accommodation for the first few weeks, sell or store what we’re not taking, finalize the dog’s vet checks and airline booking.
- First month: Find a long-term rental, open a bank account, set up a local SIM and internet, register with a doctor and figure out the supermarkets and playgrounds.
A tip: don’t sign a long lease before you arrive. We always book a short-term rental for the first few weeks so we can explore neighborhoods in person and choose one close to Kaleya’s school. For a broader look at different lodging property types, this guide to hospitality real estate covers hotels, motels, hostels, and other hospitality properties.
And a word about pets: moving with a dog adds a whole extra layer of planning. On our flight from Spain to Georgia, Brownie couldn’t fly in the hold because of summer heat restrictions. Thankfully, the airline made an exception and let him fly in the cabin with us. Always check airline pet policies early and have a backup plan.
Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing Your Next Homebase
- Choosing based on a holiday. A place you loved for a week might feel very different when you’re dealing with school runs, bureaucracy and daily life.
- Ignoring the school situation. For families, a great city with no good school option rarely works out.
- Underestimating costs. Budget for deposits, school fees, furniture, flights and the inevitable surprise expenses of setting up a new life.
- Forgetting about the seasons. Visit or research what the weather is like year-round, not just in the best month.
- Moving too often. It’s tempting to keep chasing the next adventure, but kids need time to settle. For us, one year is the minimum.
- Not involving your kids. The more they feel part of the decision, the easier the transition.
Final Thoughts
There’s no perfect formula for choosing your next destination as a digital nomad family. Every family’s priorities are different, and yours will change as your kids grow. For us, it always comes down to three questions: Will Kaleya thrive here? Can we work and live comfortably here? And will it teach us something new?
If the answer to all three is yes, we start packing.
Right now, we’re settling into life in Tbilisi and loving it. Where will we go next? Honestly, we have no idea yet. But I know that when the time comes, we’ll sit down together as a family, pull out our checklist and start dreaming again.
Are you a digital nomad family, or thinking about moving abroad? How do you choose where to live? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
If you’re considering a move abroad or a digital nomad life with your kids, I have more resources to share. Here are my guides to the places we’ve called home, along with the practical tips, tools, and family logistics that helped us make it work:
- How We Keep Our Child Safe While Traveling
- Living in Tbilisi
- Moving to Mexico
- Moving to Amsterdam
- Living in Spain
- Living in Cape Town
- How We Find the Right eSIM for Travel
- 20 Best Travel Apps
- Best Travel Insurance
- My Ultimate List of Resources for Digital Nomad Families
- How We Navigate the World as a Digital Nomad Family
- 30 Countries with Digital Nomad Visas
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links i.e. if you book a stay through one of my links, I get a small commission at NO EXTRA COST to you. Thank you for your support!
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