*article courtesy of AZ Big Media
More than 40,000 of consultancy giant PwC’s employees can now work remotely, joining millions of others already living the “working from anywhere” lifestyle, many at companies such as Facebook, Dropbox and Quora. Aside from the fun and the sun, these new snowbirds seek a good internet connection, a peaceful environment that lets them work, and some nature to relax in. These attributes have earned them the name ‘snowmads’ — or ‘zoombirds,’ as they still need to join their colleagues in online meetings.
What are the best destinations for snowbirds this year, when aside from the regular amenities, there are other boxes that locations need to check to appeal to both the old and the new snowbirds? To find the best cold-season hideaways, we looked at almost 1,000 places around the U.S. to determine the best cities for snowbirds and evaluated 11 factors, including:
- Temperatures from October to March (obtained from Weather Source)
- Housing for snowbirds: Availability for seasonal use, and median cost to rent and to purchase as a second home
- The incidence of crime per capita in each destination
- The length of beach found beginning no more than 10 miles from a destination
- The amount of park space per capita and the number of golf courses nearby
- Local internet speeds, as many snowbirds will be zoombirds or may simply want to blog a lot — the average over all the places we considered is 336 MBps
- The number of health care and social assistance establishments per 1,000 of the local population — the average over all the places we considered is 3.2
- The cost of renting a self storage unit — snowbirds visiting the same destination every year, and even second-home owners, can ease their luggage burden by keeping golf clubs, surfboards or seasonal clothes in a unit
State-wise, California and South Carolina join Florida, Arizona and Texas in providing the US’s top snowbird destinations, with some amazing places that appeal to a wide range of visitors from across the US. Moreover, after pausing travel plans for a year, Canadian snowbirds are keen on reaching their favorite winter spots, even flying down to the US if they cannot drive through the border for now.
Narrowing down the ranking to the city level, we found that while cities such as Phoenix and Tampa are still good for snowbirds, smaller communities nearby may offer better options this year, with good facilities and internet infrastructure, recreational opportunities, and plenty of fresh air. And the cost of living there may be reasonable.
