Have you ever dreamed about working from the sun, in beautiful Cape Town South Africa. We spent the last 3 months working remotely from the region and here are 8 things that we wish we knew before visiting. Number one, load shedding. So in South Africa they have this thing called load shedding which essentially means that they turn off the electricity completely in certain region or districts at specific periods of time. And for people from Europe and maybe from the States this could be quite strange and uncommon and takes you know some time to get used to. So before booking your Airbnb or your hotel. Ask them about if they experience load shedding. And if they do, do they have a generator or do they have a USP. Which is an uninterrupted power supply to back up internet and so on. Make sure also to to download the ESP
app. Put in the region where you're staying in to see what times during the day that this region will have load shedding. Number two, Wi-Fi, probably the most important piece when you're working remotely. And we did experience, I don't know if we were unlucky, but some quite shaky Wi-Fi where we were staying throughout our travels. And what we realized was that in
order to prevent you know emergencies when you have client meetings or customer calls. Buy a
SIM card to have backup with roaming in case the Wi-Fi doesn't work. And don't just go for any SIM card like your MTNs or something similar that is cheaper. Go with Vodacom because they have
the quickest speeds throughout the country. You can buy this card directly when you land at the airport or you can go to one other stores at Waterfront or something similar. So make sure for your own calm and sense to buy a SIM card to have backup for your internet. Number three safety, so this is something that we were thinking a lot about before visiting the country and we got a lot of questions about.
But in general after visiting such a long time we felt very safe in Cape Town so much so that we decided to come back the year after. But of course we
practice and we use our common sense when moving around so in the evening if it gets dark make
sure to not walk around and wander around. Book an Uber or a Bolt, it's very convenient. It's very
cheap to take in Cape Town. And it's rather to be safe than sorry, right even if it's just a couple hundred meters. Also, if you are going on hikes. Don't go off the beaten path. Stay on the path. Don't hike alone. And if you're wandering out make sure you notify someone before where you're going. Just to be on the safe side. Then on to number four, so where to stay in Cape Town.
Well when you're on Cape Town and you're at the Atlantic coast. Of course you want to be staying by the sea. Our favorite place to say is an area called Sea Point. But there's another area next to
it called Green Point, which is also very nice. But if you also have a little bit higher budget and you want to stay in a in a nice house or so. You can also look at areas like Clifton or Camps Bay. What's nice with these neighborhoods that they're very safe firstly. And you can go out for your morning run and enjoy the sun and the breeze and even catch dolphin or sea lion in the morning before going back to work. Getting those 10,000 steps a day in is very very easy when living in these areas. Staying downtown there might be some cool places to stay there. Just in general when it gets dark doesn't feel as safe this area. You also miss out on a big part of the Cape Town experience which is the nice nature. So if you want to stay somewhere, stay close to the sea. Number five, a great thing with South Africa in general is that they have summer when we have winter in Europe. And one thing that people tend to forget about, is that advantage of the time zones. So in South Africa, the time zone is very convenient for people working from Europe. They're actually on Finnish time, which means that you get one hour extra in the morning compared to CET. And if you're working towards the UK you get additional two hours which means that you know it's a little bit easier, because you can sleep in in the morning and still not work super late like you were working remotely from Asia for instance. So great place to go, especially in the winter time in Europe. No jet lag, you enjoy the summer, without working different time zones. Probably the biggest advantage to work remotely from South Africa are all the activities you can do in the evenings and on the weekends. From going on amazing hikes in the astonishing nature.
To seeing wild animals you know in their natural habitat, to go on outdoor Cinemas, to snorkeling with seals. There's so much to do, in the region to explore. So make sure you check out our other videos, when we when we're for instance doing the seal snorkeling or doing the wine tram experience. Number seven movement and exercise. We have never experienced a city anywhere else in the world, where people are as active and as fit as people are in Cape Town. Wherever you're looking you see all these people that it looks like the only thing they do, is basically exercise. And I don't know if it's the sun or if it's something in the water. But it's clear and it motivates you, to also stay active and to eat healthy. So when you're in Cape Town make sure you you know make use of this lifestyle. Go to the outdoor gym, have a run by the sea and see the animals out in the ocean. Or go to one of the many studios or classes, like Malin was doing, with the pilates classes and the yoga. So movement and exercise, is easy to do when you're in Cape Town. Point number eight and the final point is prices. So we have been quite pleasantly surprised about the cheap prices. For instance, we mentioned before Uber and logistics is very cheap in Cape Town. But also food and drinks in general is something that we would say is a bargain in the region. So don't be afraid if your hotel or your Airbnb is a little bit on the pricer side. Because you will make that money again, from our experience, from the food and the drinks. There you have it! Those are 8 tips that we wish we knew before we decided to work remotely from Cape Town. If you enjoyed this video make sure you go and check our other videos. From our experience in wonderful Cape Town, South Africa. Hit that subscribe button and like and we'll see you on the next one!
