Thomas(41)

I'm a freelance journalist and writer, and after ten years in Tilburg I was ready for something radical. No partner, no children, no mortgage — just a laptop and a longing for silence. Gotland had been on my list for years: an island in the Baltic Sea with a medieval town, rock formations and sheep. In 2023 I booked a trial month and never left.

Visby is a UNESCO World Heritage city with an intact thirteenth-century city wall. In summer tourists flood in, but from September to May it's quiet. Then the city belongs to the residents: about 25,000 people who all know each other. There's a surprisingly good cultural offering — theater, galleries, restaurants — and the internet is fiber optic.

As a freelancer with clients in the Netherlands, registration was different. I registered as an enskild firma (sole proprietorship) at Skatteverket. The F-skatt (tax registration for self-employed) was arranged within two weeks. My personnummer took slightly longer — five weeks — because I didn't have an employer to speed up the process.

Life on Gotland revolves around the season. In summer the island is a festival: Almedalsveckan (politics week), Medieval Week in August, and endless beach days at Tofta. In winter it's quiet and dark, but the raukar — the limestone sea stacks — are at their most beautiful then. I write in the morning, walk along the coast in the afternoon, and in the evening there's always someone for a drink in the gamla stan.

The cost of living on Gotland is lower than the mainland. My rent for an apartment in Visby's inner city is 7,800 SEK. The ferries from Destination Gotland to the mainland are frequent but not cheap — a return trip to Nynäshamn costs around 700 SEK. Many islanders fly via Visby Airport to Stockholm, which takes only thirty-five minutes.

My tip for other remote workers and creatives: Gotland is ideal if you structure your days. The silence can be overwhelming if you're not used to being alone. But if you embrace the quiet, you'll be more productive than you've ever been. I write more and better than in Tilburg. Island life has taught me that fewer stimuli produce more creativity.