Cities like These Are Made for Living a Simpler, Easier Life
The best places I've found for living a life well lived
I worry that many city dwellers don’t think they can live a simple life.
Basic simple living rhetoric (i.e. Instagram) tells them it’s only possible to live simply if you own a bunch of floaty dresses and churn your daily butter after tending to your chickens on your middle-of-nowhere homestead.
And whilst there can be some truth that rural living — with its bigger spaces and fewer distractions — can help you to live more intentionally, believing it’s the only way would mean simple living is out of the question for the 83% of US citizens who live in urban areas.
The truth is, city living can absolutely lend itself to living more intentionally. Especially if you choose the right city.
For a bit of fun today, I want to highlight some of the best cities I’ve traveled to that make simple living… simpler. And exactly what is it about that city that works for people looking for an easier, more interesting life.
They’re all Europe-focused because that’s what I know the best, but I’d love to hear your thoughts about cities you love to live the good life in America and beyond.
Logroño, Spain
In Logroño, there is a bar for every 150 residents. 1000 of them cram into this tiny, almost unknown (unless you’re on the Camino de Santiago) city in Northern Spain.
And these bars are full. The Logroñese love to go out, meet friends, and eat their way around the tiny pincho bars that line the city’s streets. My friends who live here tell me this could be as many times as 5 or 6 times a week.
For the 6 months I lived there, I had the best time. One of the main reasons for that was this joie de vivre of the people who call this city home.
Logroño is a place where you find thousands of people already living a simple, focused life. They’re not especially interested in fancy cars, I only saw one for the whole 6 months I lived there. Most people live in apartments. The work in the area largely focuses on wine (this is Rioja after all), food, and some other trades.
It’s not a fancy place. The people aren’t fancy. But they know what’s important when it comes to life.
People. Experiences.
Food.
It’s a philosophy I can totally get on board with.
Zagreb, Croatia
Most people overlook Zagreb for other more flashy cities further down the Croatian coast like Split and Dubrovnik. Then again, most people don’t know what’s good for them.
This is a compact city where living a simple life wouldn’t be difficult at all:
It has good value accommodation (certainly compared to much of the more touristy parts of Croatia).
It has a bevvy of local markets where local produce can be picked up for very little.
It sits in the shadow of Sljeme mountain (try saying that after a few Rakijas) where you can hike and ski less than 30 minutes from the city center.
It’s got plenty of great bars, restaurants, and cafes which are only getting better.
Whenever I land in Zagreb, it’s like my body exhales because everything here feels, well, simple. Nothing central takes more than 30 minutes to walk which means there’s more time to spend on the more important things in life. There is plentiful good produce. I can run and hike to my heart’s content.
In other words, Zagreb is somewhere a life can be well lived.
Porto, Portugal
I can’t write this list without writing about Porto. It is soon going to be my new home (so long as higher powers approve my residency application).
On the surface, Porto could seem like a tourist-heavy, busy city — qualities of which are not traditionally thought of as conducive to simple living.
I disagree.
Once you dig below the surface covered with custard tarts, Port houses, and pretty vistas (as lovely as they all are) you discover that Porto is an extremely community-driven city.
And when it comes to living simply, community is everything
It’s what combats loneliness, what makes you feel safe. It’s what makes a thriving sharing economy. It’s what connects you to other people.
Many of the communities you can find in Porto aren’t interested in status and stuff. Instead, they’re connected by more interesting qualities. I for one have found a wine community there. There are also communities of artists, writers, creators, foodies, surfers, and just about anything else you can think of.
Once you find a community that fits your way of life, living simply is so much easier because suddenly, you want for so much less.
And that exists in Porto.
Nantes, France
Within just a few hours of spending time in Nantes, I realized it’s the sort of place that I want to live in because it satisfies all five of my simple living pillars.
Simple living pillars are my slightly woo-woo term for areas of your life that mean the most to you and thus where you focus your time, efforts, and money.
Mine are:
Food, wine, and coffee
Spending time with friends and family
Exercise
Traveling
Writing
The food and wine scene in Nantes is out of this world, especially if like me you’re a Loire Valley wine lover. It’s super friendly thus it wouldn’t take long to make friends. It’s cool and flat enough to run, thus fulfilling my exercise requirement.
Not only that but Nantes fits in all the best things about France without the hecticness of many of its other cities. Like sausages and cheese.
This is a city for living, not for show.
Jerez, Spain
Much like Logroño, Jerez in Spain’s southern AndalucÃa region isn’t fancy but still focuses on all the right things in life (in my experience, this is the case in many Spanish cities).
The reason Jerez especially suits a simple life is because it’s slow-paced. There isn’t any rush here, you can take your time over your coffee, your sherry (this is the home of that vastly underrated wine), your beer. The most you might do in a weekend is take a tapas crawl with some friends around the town and if you’re lucky, see some spontaneous Flamenco.
Too many cities in the likes of the UK or America are too fast. Everything happens at a rushed pace and you can get swept up in the race for…whatever it is people are racing for.
Not so much in Jerez. Here, you can enjoy living your easier, simpler life without worrying you’re not keeping up with your neighbor.
Because your neighbor is too busy enjoying their 2-hour breakfast to care what you’re up to.
City living is often vilified by those who don’t understand it. They say you can’t live a simple life in urbanity. That life is too hectic, busy and expensive there.
It’s not true.
Whilst I believe that a simple life can be lived in most cities — even the likes of New York, London, or Paris — I do think some places are better for it than others.
Places that are compact so you don’t have to spend your life commuting. Places that offer a good life-for-cost ratio. Places where people care less about status and more about living a good life.
Places like the five above, and countless more besides.
When done well, city living can facilitate a simple life better than almost anywhere else.
I’d love to know your own cities best for living simply and living well. Let me know if you have any to share.
I haven't spent enough time here to be sure, but Vitoria-Gasteis in Northern Spain felt wonderfully different from the moment we stepped off the train here. It was one of the first European Green Capitals, and has blocks and blocks of beautiful no-car boulevards. I noticed more people with disabilities out and about than I'd seen elsewhere in Europe -- perhaps because the wide paved pedestrian streets made the city more accessible. We'll be going back, with bicycles, to take a closer look.
Pontevedra (also on the Caminho) caught my attention when it made news for banning cars from the historic center -- and thousands moved in to enjoy it. We'll be visiting this summer, and seeing what it's like.
People seem to want to complicate life as soon as they have the means no matter where they live. Or they want to live in the inner city and own a car and work 30 km away from that city. Or the other way around. Those cities you list above seem lovely when you live simple like you do. Not a city person myself but I love your positive outlook on simplicity and minimalism and all good things in life 💚thank you.