What Do Austin, Vegas and New Orleans Have in Common? Places I’d Much Rather Visit Than Live

If you have a long weekend, a group of friends, and a temporary disregard for your liver and digestive system, you can’t go wrong with a trip to Austin, Las Vegas, or New Orleans.

But as much fun as those places are to visit, would you really want to live there?

4 fun things that draw visitors to these three cities:

• Food. All 3 of these cities are known as top destinations for foodies. New Orleans for Cajun and Creole Cuisine, Austin for BBQ and perhaps surprisingly, vegan food, and Vegas for a staggering array of top chefs and innovative restaurants.
• Opportunities to imbibe. There is no shortage of opportunities to drink hurricanes, beers, and blended alcoholic concoctions in three foot tall plastic to-go cups in these party cities. In Vegas, you can also take advantage of one of their many legal cannabis shops!
• Music and entertainment. New Orleans is well known for its Jazz, Austin has the South by Southwest music festival and live local music year round, and Vegas features international celebrities and shows you won’t see anywhere else.
• Mild winter weather. Depending on where you live, a visit to one of these places in the winter may offer a respite from cold, grey, and rainy conditions back home.

I’ve had amazing times in all three of these cities and would go back for a visit in a heartbeat. However, after testing them out as a digital nomad, I don’t see myself moving to any of them.

Why You Might Not Enjoy Living There As Much as Visiting:

• Expensive. The housing market and inflation are crazy everywhere right now, but these places seem especially bad.
• Infrastructure. High homelessness, heavy traffic, and rolling blackouts are examples of problems these ares still need to solve.
• Tourists. While it is fun to BE a tourist, living in a popular tourist destination is not always so fun to live in a place where you have to constantly dodge people on vacation.
• Mild winter weather. Depending on where you live, a visit to one of these places in the winter may offer a respite from cold, grey, and rainy conditions back home.

There are obviously many people who love living in these three cities, so for them, the positives must outweigh the negatives. I’m still searching for my next perfect-for-me place to live, and looking forward to visiting Austin, Vegas, and New Orleans again sometime soon — Party on!

Where would you rather visit than live?

I’d love to hear your favorites to add to my list. Let me know in the comments!

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