Remote YearReviews of remoteyear.com

I completed an around the world trip with Remote Year in August 2022. Doing this has been the single best decision of my life and the most transformative year I've ever experienced. The people I've met and the things I've experienced, plus what I've learned about myself along the way, will mark a major pivot point in my life. Was the experience - in terms of its execution - 5 stars every day, all the time? No. But life isn't 5 stars all the time. What's important to me in writing the review is the sum total of the experience. Will I look back on this with sentiment that I started my review with? Absolutely. There are cheaper way to see the world. There are other ways to make friends. But I don't know anything that has quite the special mix that Remote Year provides in terms of an environment to truly grow as a human being, while giving you so much opportunity to connect and learn (and also, keep your job). I've managed to cram 20+ vacations into a single year, change jobs, grow my team, make dozens of new friends, and see places I never thought I'd visit. I've learned I'm way more adaptable than I ever expected, and the experience has helped me realize that life is what you make it, not a path someone lays out for you. There's valid negative feedback on this site in other reviews, and I think its important that anyone considering RY follow the advice former remotes gave me - you have to know what you want out of the experience, and keep that in mind throughout. I wanted a complete life reset. I got it. Others may want something different, and they should decide for themselves if RY is the right thing for them. I'd use many phrases to describe my experience but "casual decision" is not one of them. "Life changing" absolutely is.

The best investment of my life! My personal and business trajectory are now hyper-focused towards my ultimate life purpose. Paco was the best community leader we could have ever asked for. I made lifelong friends and formed strategic partnerships to accelerate my business.

This year has been nothing short of incredible. Remote Year does a fantastic job of getting people together to experience travel in ways that can only be done this way. Over the year the accommodations, co-working spaces, activities and team support have been top notch. There is still plenty of room for improvement, mainly on the IT backend of their platform and some experiences needing improvement but overall, for such an ambitious task of providing a year long journey, they're doing an excellent job. Eddie Jones has been a fantastic program leader, fostering a family bond between our group that few leaders could have. He's brought a group of complete strangers together and made them a family. Without him, this experience would have been radically different and not for the better. Eddie has been integral in making this the most legendary year of our lives. Great work. Overall, it's been an amazing journey with some room for improvement along the way. I'd recommend anyone thinking of doing RY to just go ahead and do it!

I could give it 4 stars if I wanted to, but I'm choosing 5. Here's why: After completing 11 months of a 12 month program, I am left with a 5 star taste in my mouth. And that's in good part due to our Program Leader Eddie Jones. We couldn't finish our regularly scheduled program bc the last country is still COVID closed to general tourism. However, instead of ending on a sour note, we as a group banded together with Eddie facilitating opportunity after opportunity for us to do so as he usually did all year long. That guy was golden and I feel strongly that we couldn't have had the fantastic experience we had if it weren't for him professionally and personally. 5 stars for Eddie The program itself is polarizing, I know. You really love it or you hate it, as evident of some of the reviews here. But another thing it is, is perspective-enhancing. Especially for a longer program, you find out how you like to travel, the length of time that works for you, if you actually prefer to make your itinerary or not, etc. We've squished like 20 vacations in one year, all while still working, resting and learning about ourselves and others. You gotta be a special kind of nuts to do this. So call me crazy, because I found it absolutely worth it. To have a company take care of the logistics of travel for you and all you have to do is show up. That's all I thought it was and that's what I paid for. I paid monthly and therefore looked at it like a monthly rent. Instead of paying to rent one place in one city, why not switch cities? Yet, what I ended up paying for was so much more. Like everyone else, I researched the reviews before signing up and the people that liked the program all said the same thing about what they liked most about it - the people you meet. I wasn't too impressed by this because I'm an introvert's introvert and prefer my own company for weeks at a time, socially awkward, you name it. So I literally was hoping for just the logistics to be taken care of. Here's what I got - Opportunities to not just live in a new city for a month at a time, but actually experience the culture from locals who have already been curated and meet standards of what my little western mind might be able to handle. Foreign culture is, well, foreign and uncomfortable so it really helped to have someone local who understood this. Learning about the languages. Though not full classes, we got the basics to be able to move about the country not in a complete oblivion. Co working space available in each city, should I needed it. They weren't all winners and I didn't use them in every city. I used the ones that had what I couldn't get from my own apartment, i.e. a better wifi connection, use of a 2nd monitor, printer, better chair, etc. So it was helpful that they were available. Personal growth beyond my imagination. I thought I was a pretty easy going person, but this trip revealed hang-ups and gave me opportunities to practice being more flexible. I no longer freak out at the sight of bugs or sound of bats or geckos/lizards in the night. Stuff that use to ruffle me, kind of rolls off my back more often then not. Opportunities for mini vacations and day trips. These are optional offerings to experience parts of a city one might not have time to on a typical vacation. Having a home base in that city, usually made getting to the mini vacay or day trip way easier. For example, since it was across a smaller sea, I visited the Amalfi Coast while living in Croatia. You know how long it would've taken me to get to the Amalfi Coast from the states!? I don't either because I didn't have to. Last but not least and I surprise myself by saying this, but danggit if the best thing i got out of this isn't the people I met. We, full grown thriving adults who probably haven't lived with anyone since college dorms/apartments, had to have housemates again. But from week 1, we grew together. First, cautiously and now with reckless abandon, we respect, trust and even love our new friends. So whatever RY methods Eddie employed that 1st week, worked. This past year wasn't all peachy all the time. No, this past year was life, just done differently.

4 Weeks in México City was a cool experience. I initially signed up to try out working from out of the county to see if I enjoyed it and could really do it, however decided to take the almost-month just to rest. And rest I did! While I rested there were also plenty of cultural experiences within the city I was grateful to participate in. There were regular weekly Spanish classes to help us get brushed up on our communication skills. The co-working space Co-Madre was beautiful and open. The staff was very friendly and there was tons of space on each floor to work, have a class, or meet with others in. There were way more vegan restaurants than I expected which I was very grateful for. Our hosts Paco & Omar were wonderful souls that were very passionate about making this experience great for us. It was also great to meet and hang out with Josh. Seeing multiple levels of leadership during this experience was really nice and assuring, especially since they all seem very genuine people. While this experience helped me to be clear that I don’t want to work remotely, I really just needed some time off to rest, it was a great location with amazing hosts and tons opportunities for new experiences. If I had actually worked during this trip I’d say this was like an adult study-abroad. Definitely worth trying out, even if just for 1 month.

I just completed one month in Istanbul and it was the most incredible experience with a wonderful group of people! The staff - Ozz, Harrison, and Juls went above and beyond for us with so much patience and positivity the whole way. The experiences were all amazing too, I couldn’t recommend it more.

I recently traveled with remote year for a month long program. It was terrible. They acknowledged that is was an abnormally terrible series of events we experienced (lodging issues, safety issues, health concerns, cancelled activities) but their response to it all had come too little too late. Several people asked for refunds or compensation with little to no response. Myself and my roommates decided to end our trip early and go back home. Realize that this kind of investment is a gamble. It sometimes pays off and sometimes it doesn’t. I would NOT use remote year again. They hardly provided anything special, I could have organized this all myself with greater luck. I would not recommend remote year to anyone.

Such a life changing experience and well worth it!