Tourist areas can be a lot of fun, even more so when visiting for the first time.
But can a tourist area be your home?
Would you enjoy living in a tourist area full-time?
I can never understand how many foreigners love to live in Bangkok?
Condo living, traffic jams, air pollution is not for me, sorry.
Sure there is plenty to see and do, but the quality of life with all those people is seriously lacking.
Tourist areas are more expensive across the board.
Even if you live there, as a foreigner, you will always be paying the tourist prices.
Higher costs for everything can be the biggest drawback to living in a tourist area.
Do to the high cost, for most, renting would be the only option.
Renting does not really afford you your own space.
The tourist area population swings wildly from low to high season.
In many places, it just becomes so congested in high season that is hard to get around and costs increase significantly in high season.
I always dreamed a place like Ao Nang would be a happy place to live. But not in high season.
Tons of shops, restaurants, nice beach with sunsets and boat trips to other places.
The thing is, after you have done everything 100 times it becomes mundane and boring.
Being treated like a tourist the entire time is no fun either.
Tourist areas may be exactly what foreigners are looking for?
The chance to inter-mingle with other foreigners, and visit the same specific places.
I am not sure in a tourist area if you can ever feel 100% welcome as some locals will always try to take advantage of foreigners, not knowing if they live there or not?
I think the ideal situation would be if you could rent a place in a tourist area for a month or two each year, but have your main home someone else away from the tourist areas.
Of course that would mean having the money to pay for it.
You have to find a location that works best for you!