South East Asia vs Central America for Digital Nomads: Which Is Best?

Digital nomads tend to look for certain things when they are travelling and working remotely. And because digital nomads look for the same things, certain nomad hot spots pop up where it seems that every nomad in the world wants to go.

Although digital nomads can work from all over the world, and I often have, many head to the well trodden path of either South East Asia or Central America.

As a generalisation, many Americans and people who have to work in that timezone work in Central America, whereas more Europeans and Australians work from South East Asia.

But for someone like me who has the ultimate flexibility of where to work, which one should you choose when it comes to South East Asia vs Central America for digital nomads?

After spending a long time in Asia and now having been to most of the countries in Central America, I’ll give the run down of what wins out when it comes to what digital nomads are looking for and which one I think is better to work from as a digital nomad

South East Asia vs Central America for Digital Nomads

Best for food

In my opinion, SE Asia wins this hands down.

I may be bias as I much prefer a bowl of noodles over almost anything else, but the flavours, spices and variety wins it for me. From Thai green curries, Vietnamese pho, Malaysian laksa or Indonesia mee goreng, SE Asia has a much wider variety of foods in each country that you may visit.

And that isn’t to also mention the satay, street stalls and hawker centres which sell cheap but quality food on every corner.

After travelling in Central America, all of the food seems to be variations on rice, beans and fried plantain. Occasionally there is spice or hot sauce thrown in. And unless you go to foreign restaurants, getting a salad or vegetables with traditional food is a lot harder.

In my opinion, there is better food on the island of Penang than there is in the entire Central American region.

Best for internet

I’ve found Asia to have cheaper and better internet. Mobile data is cheaper. 4G is everywhere. Fibre is also superfast in many more places.

In many places in Central America, I found the internet to be good but not great. I could get on websites, but if I wanted to jump on a Zoom call, sometimes the speed wasn’t there. I also found data to be more expensive.

That isn’t to say that the internet in Central America was bad, I could still work and have meetings. But I didn’t find it to be as good as in Asia.

Best for Coworking Spaces

South East Asia has an abundance of coworking spaces in almost every city and plenty of them as well.

As I love to work from coworking spaces, this makes it easy for me to find the right one that suits me.

I found that Central America has a lot of coworking spaces as well, but the options are more limited. In truth, the options are Selina, the big multinational corporation, and then maybe one other coworking space in each town. The other place often being full of locals and the Selina having digital nomads from around the world.

There are some places like Panama City that has plenty of Coworking spaces but in the smaller towns, the spaces are lacking, unless you end up in a Selina.

Best for nomad community

I think this depends on who you already know.

I have many friends and colleagues in both places.

For me, I prefer Asia (in case you haven’t guessed it already) but that is only because I know a lot of people there already and it is one of the reasons I settled in Chiang Mai.

But I know others that love the communities in Tulum, Oaxaca, Antigua, Puerto Escandido and other places where they feel at home.

This depends on where you go and where you make the effort.

Best for language learners

I’ll put this in here as an English speaker, but being a digital nomad in Central America is easy if you speak Spanish. It’s also easy to learn for most European speakers and is a useful language as it’s spoken in so many countries all over the world.

With their tonal system, Thai, Lao and Vietnamese are tricky for westerners to learn and aren’t widely used around the world as international languages. Indonesian and Malay are easier to grasp the basics of.

Finding English speakers is probably easier in South East Asia when outside of major tourist centres, but there are still plenty of locals that speak enough English in Central America due to the influence of the US.

Best for social life

This is a purely personal experience but I met more people in Asia than in Central America.

Is that because of the seasons I travelled? The time of year? The places I went? My own mental headspace?

Maybe?

But I also found the people I met in Central America to be less outgoing and less likely to ask you to do things.

In Asia, I have met people and asked me for a meal and then become friends.

However, there is an amazing social scene in Central America with plenty of places to party, hostels and coworkings to meet people and opportunities to get yourself out there (especially if you speak Spanish).

This is one that is a lot closer than others and maybe more my personal feeling than anything else.

Best for other activities

I personally find that this is pretty even. Each country in Central America has a mix of activities as long as you are fine to travel around the country. There are hikes in cities, beautiful nature, stunning coastlines (like when I visited Bocas del Toro) and some great things to see.

South East Asia has the same with some amazing nature around digital nomad hotspots, beaches all over the place and cosmopolitan cities to visit on the weekends.

The one thing that may swing me towards Asia in this respect is the ease of getting between countries. If you realise that you’re missing out on a festival in Thailand, it is easy and cheap to jump on a flight last minute to get there.

But in Central America, travel between the countries is cumbersome and expensive. South East Asia wins this, but only just this time.

Best for low cost of living

For me South East Asia is the best for this hands down.

I know that some people get rentals in Mexico City for a very cheap price, but when looking at accommodation for a short amount of time such as a week or month, you don’t get as much for your money.

Many AirBnB’s I looked at in Central America were a lot more expensive didn’t offer the quality compared to other parts of the world.

In South East Asia, accommodation with AirBnB is still affordable and weekly and monthly stays aren’t too bad.

As mentioned above, Selina is a big player in this and offers dorm rooms for USD$30 per night which is 3-5x more expensive than what you’ll find dorms rooms to be in Asia.

Best for safety

This one is a hands down win for South East Asia.

For the record, I never felt unsafe in Central America. I travelled it extensively and was fine everywhere I went.

But there was also that underlying feeling that you can’t quite touch on.

I didn’t go out after dark much. When I did go out often in somewhere like Granada, (where I stayed for over a month) I would walk to the gym or supermarket and then head home. It just wasn’t a desirable place to be out after dark.

Compared to South East Asia where I will happily leave my phone on the table whilst in a restaurant and you see families cooking at eating until late into the night and it is a totally different ball game.

In Central America, I held my phone with both hands. The streets weren’t as well lit. I made all those precautions that you are meant to take. But in Asia, a lot of that is out the window.

I walk around at night, I talk to strangers, I leave things lying around knowing that it won’t get stolen.

I didn’t have a bad experience in Central America, but the feeling I got made me more nervous. I’d be interested to hear your views on it.

Which is better, Central America v South East Asia for Digital Nomads?

In my opinion there can only be one winner.

South East Asia is better for digital nomads compared to Central America.

But it is a personal choice. And other may disagree with this list and what they think of it. For me, the only metric that Central America wins with is the language learning. For everything else, I feel that South East Asia is better for digital nomads.

But if you’re used to travelling Latin America and can speak Spanish and need to work within US work hours, then Central America will be a great option for you to choose and one that you’ll enjoy.

In the meantime, I’ll be heading back to Asia…

Dan

Dan is an avid traveller from London. His first big adventure was in 2010 living in Malaysia for 3 months. He has been on the road almost constantly since 2015 travelling to destinations that aren’t on the mainstream tourist trail and working full time and travelling since 2021.