Remote-Working Americans Don’t Even Need Passport For World’s Best Work And Play City

There has always been a clear division between work and play. Yet there’s a new travel trend dubbed “workcations,” where white-collar workers can remotely work from mountain cabins in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to a beach resort in Tulum, Mexico, to the jungles of Costa Rica and even large metro areas like Paris, Tokyo, and Miami. Once they’re finished work for the day, they explore the outdoors, local food markets, and whatever the nightlife has to offer. 

Booking a workcation could be challenging because there are so many factors about a metro area that workers need to be aware of for a productive and fun time. 

Icelandair, the top airline carrier in Iceland, commissioned a study examining 150 cities around the world for various factors related to a wellness workcation. They did the heavy lifting and uncovered the best 25 cities globally for remote work while also focusing on the importance of personal wellbeing and acts of self-care. 

Icelandair used several factors to determine the top metro areas for a workcation, including quality of life, internet speed, air pollution, cost of living, health care, and safety. 

They found that the best city in the world for remote work is one where Americans don’t even need a passport, and it’s not the beaches of San Diego or the vast forests of Yellowstone National Park, but Kansas City, Missouri. 

For those unfamiliar with Kansas City, it’s a metro area on Missouri’s western edge, straddling the border with the state of Kansas — known for barbecue, jazz heritage, and fountains. It ranks the highest on Icelandair’s factors than any of the 150 cities worldwide that the airline examined. 

Vienna, Austria, and Wellington, New Zealand round out the list of the top three metro areas for remote work worldwide.