2.31/5
67 reviews
Photo by Ryan De Hamer via Unsplash

Indianapolis, IN

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great

carmel

indy

family

areas

downtown

source

zionsville

fishers

disgusting

rest

beautiful

friendly

fun

stay

Indianapolis offers a solid balance for those looking to raise a family without breaking the bank. The cost of living is low, schools are good, and the food and drink scene is consistently praised. Biking is also a strong point, with infrastructure and access making it a great option for getting around or staying active.

The city is best suited for people who want a stable home base while traveling part of the year, rather than full-time nomads. While the overall city has a lot to offer, the northern suburbs, particularly Carmel, Zionsville, and Fishers, received criticism for being less welcoming. That said, other parts of the metro area are seen as more diverse and open.

In general, Indianapolis isn’t a top pick for digital nomads or remote workers looking for an active nomad community, but it’s an appealing choice for families or those who want a quieter, more affordable home with travel flexibility.

AI-generated summary of reviews

Indianapolis is a great place to visit for a long weekend, and areas like downtown Carmel are great for walkable, neighborhood-centric home base for raising a family.

There aren't many nomads here. You move here if you want to raise a family while keeping up a lifestyle where you travel for a few months a year. There are good schools, the cost of living is cheap, the food and drink scene are great, and biking is fantastic.

Source: Indy native who moved to Carmel, Indiana while getting through the pandemic. I've spent the last 4 years spending 6-8 months in Indy and 4-6 months abroad.

4 years ago

Go anywhere other than the north. Stear clear of the Carmel, zionsville, and fishers areas. Mostly intolerant disgusting people there. The rest of city is great. Source: I’ve lived all over Indy for 30+ years

4 years ago

I live in Indianapolis. Even though I don't want to live here in the future, I do now. And what I can tell you from this is that it is a beautiful family friendly city. Broad Ripple is a place for pets and children to come eat lunch and walk around. There are many shops from Ice Cream to Hiking stores. The inner city of Indianapolis though is the most fun. It may have been called a boring city but I highly disagree. I have a blast everytime I come to the city. Yes, there are problems and my tip is to stay downtown and have fun! I find it so sad that my city is ranked so low. I also don't know why the "Female Friendly" ranking is only at an okay. There are women's marches and other things along those lines here. Overall Indianapolis is a beautiful city! :)

6 years ago

Try to stay in the north in the Carmel, Zionsville, and Fishers cities... The rest of Indy is pretty disgusting. The potholes are the worst between Jan - May.
**Source:** I have lived all over this place for the past 8 years.

6 years ago

✅ Very affordable

✅ Good schools

✅ Great food and drink scene

✅ Bike-friendly

✅ Pretty safe

✅ Fast internet

✅ Warm now

✅ Perfect humidity now

✅ Good air quality on average

✅ Spacious and not crowded

✅ Very easy to do business

✅ High quality of education

✅ Great hospitals

✅ Roads are very safe

✅ Great freedom of speech

✅ Democratic

✅ Everyone speaks English

✅ Family friendly

✅ Very friendly to LGBTQ+

✅ Not many people smoke tobacco

❌ Unwelcoming in certain northern suburbs

❌ Not many digital nomads

❌ Very expensive

❌ Not much to do

❌ Gets cold in the winter

❌ Nomads.com members didn't like going here

❌ Not many Nomads.com members go here

❌ Difficult to make friends

❌ Not safe for women

❌ High alcohol consumption

❌ Marijuana is illegal

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Feels (median)

-1°C / 30°Ffreezing

-5°C / 23°Ffreezing

13°C / 55°Fcool

14°C / 57°Fcool

20°C / 68°Fmild

29°C / 84°Fwarm

30°C / 86°Fwarm

31°C / 88°Fhot

25°C / 77°Fwarm

20°C / 68°Fmild

7°C / 45°Fcold

9°C / 48°Fcold

Real (median)

1°C / 34°F
very cold

-2°C / 28°F
freezing

13°C / 55°F
cool

14°C / 57°F
cool

19°C / 66°F
mild

27°C / 80°F
warm

27°C / 81°F
warm

28°C / 82°F
very warm

25°C / 77°F
warm

20°C / 67°F
mild

8°C / 46°F
cold

9°C / 48°F
cold

Humidity

damp
74%

damp
72%

nice
54%

nice
57%

nice
62%

sweaty
74%

sweaty
78%

sweaty
75%

nice
68%

nice
84%

nice
63%

damp
71%

Most common

☀️ Clear

☔️ Rain

☀️ Clear

☔️ Rain

☀️ Clear

Rain

rainy
60mm

rainy
66mm

rainy
117mm

rainy
74mm

rainy
87mm

rainy
124mm

rainy
94mm

rainy
67mm

rainy
74mm

rainy
85mm

dry
30mm

rainy
92mm

Cloud

pockets
50%

pockets
48%

pockets
34%

pockets
30%

pockets
41%

pockets
35%

pockets
29%

pockets
32%

pockets
21%

pockets
45%

pockets
26%

pockets
40%

Air quality

clean
37 US AQI

clean
33 US AQI

clean
28 US AQI

clean
25 US AQI

clean
32 US AQI

clean
33 US AQI

clean
45 US AQI

clean
44 US AQI

clean
41 US AQI

clean
35 US AQI

clean
42 US AQI

clean
43 US AQI

Sun

safe
2 UVI

seek shade
3 UVI

seek shade
4 UVI

seek shade
5 UVI

avoid sun
6 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

avoid sun
6 UVI

seek shade
4 UVI

safe
2 UVI

Remote workers

309 people

275 people

260 people

240 people

380 people

354 people

350 people

569 people

260 people

240 people

275 people

350 people

Green is good. Red is bad. Values shown are the medians of all daily highs in a month based on past few years, not necessarily current numbers. Remote worker count is estimated based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members.

If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomads.com's Climate Finder

Based on Indianapolis's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:

	Sales Engineer EN @ Tameson
	Lead Data Engineer @ Open Architects
	Product Engineer @ Zen Educate
	Principal DevSecOps Engineer @ Second Front Systems
	Software Engineer II @ Everbridge
	Senior Backend Engineer @ Raya
	Tech Cofounder CTO @ Founders Factory
	Senior Backend Engineer @ HockeyStack
	Frontend Software Engineer @ Bitwise Asset Management
	Senior Full stack Developer @ Lemon.io
	Developer Productivity Engineer @ Narwhal Technologies Inc.

Help pick the best photos for Indianapolis and improve this page's look by tappingclicking on them and the site saves your feedback Vote photos

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🌇 Also went here25 people

Members who will be here soon

Members who have been here

Values shown are estimated visits by traveling remote workers based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members. Visits to a place are only counted once per year per user, even if they visit more in that year. Visits are also normalized by overall trips added per month on the site, so if site usage goes up or down it does not affect trends. Not all digital nomads are on Nomads.com, and not all Nomads.com members log their trips. So the data is only indicative.

The chart below shows visitors by nationality normalized for population size. This means we take all trips logged on Nomads.com, check which country of origin the user is from, then divide that total visit count by the country of origin's population. If we didn't, it'd just show the big countries like US, Brazil and India always on top. Instead, this shows which nationalities worldwide proportionally visit more or less, which is more useful.

⭐️ Total score	2.31/5 (Rank #518) 67 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍3 liked it 👎2 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Okay
👶 Family score	Okay
🎒 Community score	Okay
💵 Cost	🧐 Pricey: $3,629 / mo
📡 Internet	🚀 Super fast: 75Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Okay
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🥵 Hot: 29°C84°F (feels 31°C88°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	😊 Comfy: 58%
💨 Air quality (annual)	🌱 Great: 38 US AQI
👌 Safety	Good
🤮 Food safety*	Great
👮‍♀️ Lack of crime*	Good
🤝 Lack of racism*	Good
🎓 Education level*	High
⚡️ Power grid	Great
🌊 Vulnerability to climate change	Good
💰 Income level*	Very high: $4,817 / mo
🙊 English speaking*	Great
🚶 Walkability	Great
🚦 Traffic safety*	Okay
✈️ Airline scores*	Good
🧳 Lost luggage*	Okay
🏥 Hospitals	Great
😄 Happiness*	Bad
🍸 Nightlife	Bad
📶 Free WiFi in city	Okay
🖥 Places to work from	Great
❄️ A/C or heating	Great
😁 Friendly to foreigners	Good
🗯 Freedom of speech*	Good
👩 Female friendly	Bad
🌈 LGBTQ+ friendly	Great
🎅 Startup Score	Okay

🌍 Continent	North America
🚩 Country	United States
🗓️ Average trip length	17 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	75 Mbps
⛅️ Weather (now)	☀️ 29°C 84°F + 😊 Comfy (58%) = feels 31°C 88°F
💨 Air quality (annual avg)	👍 39 US AQI
🔌 Power	115V 60Hz
🚕 Best taxi app*	Uber
🚑 Travel medical insurance	Safetywing
💸 Tipping	Yes, 15%
💳 Cashless	💳 Yes, cards OK almost everywhere
💻 Best coworking space	The Bureau at the Hinge
💻 Best alt. coworking space	Launch Fishers
🚰 Tap water	👌 Yes, safe to drink
♻️ Return rate	👍11% of visitors return
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Population	860,000 people
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 GDP per capita*	$57,808 / year
👫 Gender ratio (population)	👨 46% 👱‍♀️ 54%
👫 Gender ratio (young adults)	👨 52% 👱‍♀️ 48%
👫 Gender ratio (nomads)	👨 86% 👱‍♀️ 14%
🏞 Foreign land ownership allowed	Yes
⛪️ Religious government	Non-religious
💻 Online electronics shop	Amazon
🏠 Apartment listings	Craigslist
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier	Southwest
✈️ Best int'l air carrier	Delta

💵 Cost of living for nomad	$3,629 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$2,291 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$5,528 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$1,579 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$2,199 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$1,696 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$1,211 / month
🏠 Median home price	$231,000
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$103 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$56 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$218 / month
🍛 Dinner	$17
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$2
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$5
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$4
👩‍🏫 International school	$16,867 / year
📱 Mobile data (~10GB)	$20 / month
🚕 Taxi price (avg trip ~3km/2mi)	$5 / trip
💰 Estimated tax on $50,000	$12,352
💰 Estimated tax on $100,000	$30,278
💰 Estimated tax on $250,000	$71,127