I left a troubled San Francisco for Croatia and regret it. My hometown's problems keep getting worse, but Dubrovnik has its downsides too.

• Gigi Chow spent years as a digital nomad before deciding to settle down in 2021.
• She and her partner didn't want to move home to San Francisco long term because of rising crime.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Gigi Chow, a digital nomad and former government-agency manager. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

In 2016, I quit my job as a manager at a government agency in San Francisco to go traveling. My friends and family were shocked that I was leaving a stable job and paycheck.

My partner and I planned to travel for 18 months — as long as we could afford — and then settle back into life in San Francisco.

Once we started traveling, we fell in love with the nomadic lifestyle

From 2016 to 2021, we lived as nomads, visiting cities in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

To sustain our travel, I became a consultant and contractor doing freelance work such as content marketing, copywriting, and ghostwriting. I also did freelance recruiting.

My husband, who had been a financial manager, transferred his skills and experience into remote private-portfolio management.

When everything shut down because of the pandemic in 2020, we were in Barcelona, Spain, and stayed there until things opened up. We returned to the US in 2021 to get married but didn't plan to stay long term.

Rent in San Francisco had fallen slightly because of the pandemic. We started paying $2,200 for a one-bedroom apartment. Even though we'd found a great deal, we were itching to leave again.

San Francisco is not what it used to be

I grew up in San Francisco, and that's where my family lives. You can't avoid homelessness anywhere, but the homelessness problem in San Francisco has become overwhelming. I struggle to take my dog out for a walk. There are tents everywhere.

There's also a lot of crime. When we returned in 2021, cars were getting broken into so frequently that people were leaving notes on their windshields saying: "Please don't break into this car. There's nothing valuable here."

After we got married, we traveled to South America for eight months before I returned to San Francisco to visit my parents.

I debated moving back to be closer to them, but the situation in the city hadn't improved. We were exhausted from traveling constantly and wanted to put roots down somewhere.

We floated ideas of where to move and decided on Dubrovnik, Croatia

We'd visited Dubrovnik twice before, in 2016 and 2019. Many Croatians we met spoke English, which was a big plus.

We knew there was a digital-nomad visa available in Croatia. Expats I'd spoken with said as long as you earned at least 2,300 euros a month, you could get residency for 12 months relatively easily.

Dubrovnik is a beautiful castle town of 41,000 people with views of the Adriatic Sea. It's a million-dollar view without the million-dollar price tag.

We wanted to test the waters to see whether we would like living there long term

We came over March 2023 on a three-month tourist visa. Being in Dubrovnik that long has been very different from staying as a tourist.

We found a furnished short-term rental for $1,300 a month. It's more expensive than a long-term furnished apartment, but it was a great size, included utilities, and came with weekly housekeeping. In San Francisco, our total housing and utilities cost was about $2,760.

Food in Croatia costs us around $1,500 a month. In San Francisco, our budget was at least $2,200.

Croatia is affordable and relaxing, but there are downsides

I love the slower pace of Dubrovnik. It's clean and we don't need a car to get around. It's a small place, so after the first few weeks, people started to recognize me. I found this creepy.

San Francisco is so populated that everyone goes about their business freely. People move around, and you'll never know unless they're a new neighbor.

Dubrovnik is a tourist town. The local population is small, and families who live there have done so for generations. Everyone knows each other, so I really stick out.

I'm new, but I'm also Asian. I've experienced what I call "unintended racism." I don't think it's done with ill intent, but I have gotten comments and gestures.

People will ask me: "Where are you from?" After responding, "I'm born and raised in California," the most common response is, "Oh, you don't look American." Then they'll mimic my stereotypically Asian eye shape. I'll have to explain that my parents are Chinese.

I'm not offended, but I took for granted always feeling accepted in San Francisco because it's such a multicultural city, while Dubrovnik is not.

Sometimes when I'm walking my dog, locals will start talking to me in Chinese or Japanese. I think it's because they are more accustomed to Asian tourists than Asian American tourists.

It seems like a lack of awareness that America is a very diverse country. I'm as American as a person who is of European descent.

The amenities for residents are limited

I don't really cook, so restaurants are important to me. As a tourist, I didn't think about it, but as a resident, I was surprised that the food was so expensive. That's because many of the restaurants cater to tourists.

It's not like going to Thailand, where the food, whether it's catering to tourists or not, is good and cheap. A lot of the food I've had in Dubrovnik is made for a one-time visitor. Locals eat at home, as it's too expensive to eat out.

I travel with my dog, Roger. This city is so small that there are only two care options for him. The veterinarian or the animal hospital.

I'm used to Googling "vets near me" and finding 10 within a 2-mile radius. Then I can be picky and check reviews. But here, it's take what you can get and hope for the best.

Reach out to expats before you consider moving

If you're considering moving to Dubrovnik, I highly recommend connecting with the expat community first.

There are a lot of Facebook and Instagram pages. Try to connect with the people in a similar situation to you. They can give you a better feel of what to expect of the city. It's more realistic than Googling it yourself.

I didn't do that because I'd been here, but it's different when you stay here longer. We'll probably move to East Asia at the end of our three-month stay and won't apply for the nomad visa.