Remote YearReviews of remoteyear.com

I have traveled a lot and had heard good things about Remote Year. I decided during a year of travel while working remote on my own I would sign up for a month of RY. I’m going to be honest about my experience because I don’t really feel like most of these reviews are reflective of the true experience (RY encourages city and trip leaders to have people fill out reviews and most people end up reviewing the leaders rather than the company and experience itself) I had high expectations - usually when I’m traveling I meet people with similar values of learning different cultures. I’ve always made lasting friendships through experiences like studying abroad or solo travel. However, the vibes on this trip were off. Sadly I haven’t really kept in touch with anyone I met through RY. For context, RY offers both year-long trips and month-long trips. On my month-long trip, they had us combined with a year-long group in the same city at the same time. I would have thought this would be a good thing because there wouldn’t have been many participants without both groups. However, I learned quickly that this makes for an awkward dynamic. The year-long group had already been traveling and meeting new people from the month-long trips for about 9 months. Some of them admitted that they really didn’t want to meet new people or put in any effort at that point. This led to the year-long participants creating an “inner crew” because they had already gotten to know each other and solidified friendships. I understand that perspective but honestly the value as a month-long participant drops significantly if they don’t feel others are truly open to making friendships. Other people I met on the trip were there more to party than to learn about a new culture. There wasn’t really much that the leaders did to teach us about the new culture other than a short culture intro (30 min) at the beginning of the month. I had talked to some of the year-long participants about past trips they had taken, like in Cape Town, and was shocked to learn they hadn’t really learned anything about apartheid or visited the ample history museums in the city. I learned that the RY culture skews more towards partying than it does soaking up and learning a new culture. I’m sure some people are looking for that in their experience but I was not. Lastly, I agree with the reviews that talk about all the add-on pricing. Although I do think the base price is fair and I like the new flexible options, the add-on experience pricing was a bit ridiculous (ie $50 for a hike with the RY group that you could do on your own for free). However if you don’t pay up for the add-on activities, there won’t be many opportunities to get to know everyone in the RY group. In conclusion, there are a lot of cities (like Mexico City), I would encourage people to travel on their own and meet other travelers through coliving rather than the RY program.

The organization of events is well done, I got good experiences at the cities visited. The community is amazing, and the most valuable out of these programs; one gets to meet truly exceptional people. The security the program provides is very poor. I got a large amount of money stolen from what was supposed to be a safe and secure accommodation, chosen and booked by Remote Year. RY did not provide clear solutions, stating that "this isn’t something that Remote Year can just repay (in cash or credit) since they do not know exactly what happened". RY did not try to investigate my case any further, I'm still at loss of money that directly impacts my ability to keep traveling.

RY has a great mission and it is a great vehicle to meet other solo travelers! But beware, this company doesn’t treat their customers properly. It is tolerable for a one month long program but if you want to sign up for a 12 month journey you’ll quickly find that they ignore critical feedback and treat you like children at camp rather than adults who are paying thousands of dollars for a service. And the feedback is fair and basic things around flights, accommodations, transparency on excursions, navigating the ry community, etc. They seem to forget that we’re not on vacation, we live here now… All I can say is that I’m so disappointed.

I am giving this program two stars for the two lovely people I met and the overall concept of the program. I want to preface this review by saying I am a 37-year-old female who is not interested in the "party" lifestyle. If you are younger and looking for study abroad 2.0 this will be a BLAST and I highly recommend it! The program promised a safety team, multiple excursions, assistance when needed and optional extra tasks. On top of the $3200 I spent ( I got a private apartment), I had to pay extra for activities. I found the exact same activities on trip advisor and other sites for a lot cheaper. My apartment was far away from the rest of the group so the whole "community" thing I paid for required a lot of extra effort. I had issues in my apartment that took over a week to resolve. I had to BEG to get it fixed. To compensate they tried their best by giving me more money for remote year activities. The staff members were beyond lovely, except for the one that was supposed to be our city guide. She put in 0% effort. The rest of the staff were incredible and sweet but I could sense that they were overworked and undertrained. They were switching systems during my time and that was confusing too. It is not their fault. They have a lot of smoothing out to do. The age gap difference left some people wanting to party and others wanting to chill. I got roped into forced activities through some roulette thing and it was reminiscent of my terrible sorority days. Overall, the stars are for the lovely people (people who attended and the staff members) & the amazing concept of getting together a community to travel. I am not saying don't go because for some who need that community and are too scared to go alone it may be worth a try. I would recommend the 1 month to see if it is a good fit for you and then make your own decision from there. Happy Travels Everyone!

Overall, Remote Year was incredibly disappointing. It is way over priced compared to alternatives and, for the premimum that you pay, RY fails to deliver with regard to planning, logistics, and communications. The issues are numerous: 1. Planning. You will wind up planning most of your trip because RY fails to do it. It blows my mind that things aren't planned in advance with a schedule posted months earlier. We learn about the schedule of things in the next city only a couple weeks before we get to that city. I gave up on doing most of the RY marketplace experiences, particularly the side trips, since I need to plan out my weekends and work schedule much farther in advance. My planning also turned out to be cheaper in most cases to do the same thing. I had to give up on most of the included free core experiences since I’d either already made alternative plans during that time or they’re planned during work hours. Having friends or family visit, which most people do (and RY is aware most people do), is nearly impossible if you want to participate in RY experiences. You just have to guess which weekend the friend should visit and hope the RY schedule aligns. In the fees we pay, the planning aspect is supposed to be one of the most important and best services provided by RY and it has turned out to be the most ineptly handled part of the entire experience. 2. Accommodations/Roommates. RY abuses the use of roommates and the apartments we're staying in don’t reflect the combined amount paid given the number of occupants. You will have roommates. You could have up to six, yes six, roommates at a time. The concept of having a roommate is only referenced indirectly in RY marketing materials. We are told we can purchase a private apartment in the marketplace, but only through inference does this mean we will have a roommate. Nowhere does it say you could have multiple roommates, nonetheless six of them. Multiple times we've had houses with 6 or 7 people crammed in. One 7-person house had only a mini fridge and no oven in the kitchen. If you're paying $2,500 to $3,000 per month, being stuck in a Real World house with 6 roommates, a potentially shared bathroom, people you may not like, and no privacy is not worth that amount of money. Particularly when you take into account the economies of scale of combining that many people in one place. With a combined $20k+ budget you could get an amazing place and have plenty left over for profit. Instead you get the basic minimum. RY is entitled to recover its costs and build in some profit, but this is ridiculous. A quick search on AirBnB shows much nicer and more spacious accommodations in the same area for significantly cheaper. You're better off finding two friends and booking online. Also, they scatter you all over the city. You're so spread out that you simply don't interact with people in your group. This leads to cliques being formed, people being excluded from events, and you miss out on forming the bonds and connections that you're so excited about when booking this. 3. Remote Working. The number of events that are scheduled during work hours was a source of constant frustration. It seems RY has given up on the remote working aspect of the business model and just assumes everyone is on vacation or doesn't have a real job. Way too many events were cancelled since the minimums weren't hit. Since I couldn’t attend many of the included events, once again, I am not getting the value out of the fees I pay. 4. Logistics/Communication. The logistics were very hit or miss and communication is inconsistent. Your shuttle to the airport may not have enough room for luggage. We have to decide whether to do a transition trip or take a travel credit (you'll hear about this only after you start travelling) a month in advance, but we don't get the schedule for the upcoming city until two weeks later so we can't make an informed decision. Calendars don't match Slack announcements leading to confusion and frustration. Dates on the marketplace have been incorrect numerous times (i.e. the date provided doesn’t exist). On side trips, we aren't told which flights to buy until just a couple weeks before the trip, adding more cost. This last one is just inconsiderate and entirely avoidable. The value just isn't there. The delivery just isn't there. If you're in your early 20s, have the couch surfer mentality, a part time job, and a bunch of extra money lying around, then RY may be the right fit. If you're an adult with a real job, you're much better off using another company or just travelling on your own. RY adds more stress than it alleviates. I love travelling. I love meeting new people. I made good friends. I'll continue to do these things without RY. A lot of people in the group feel ripped off and disappointed.

The trip was mostly gorgeous but the way they handled an interpersonal conflict in our group left an extremely sour taste in my mouth. They treated something as "he said she said" even though there were lots of witnesses and it was a pattern of behavior. They refused to separate people effectively, the woman involved was given the option to stay in a cheap hotel separate from the rest of the group while the man was allowed to stay in the main housing after driving her to tears multiple times. Again, multiple witnesses to each incident of this happening and Remote year did significantly less than what I would call the bare minimum. Remote years reply here is a lie. They only interviewed two of the parties involved and did not interview any of the other witnesses.

Great idea, poorly executed. A few thoughts. In general, I’d avoid it. 1) 2k a month in 2nd or 3rd tier countries should get you a high living standard. I upgraded twice out of the 3 months I was there. And it was not worth it. People who didn’t upgrade got better accommodations, which made me irate. 2) Program leader was great. A mother that watched over people that needed a bit more hand holding. Not to say this is bad. It’s just that some people like that. And pay for it. 3) My 1-year trip was interrupted by covid-19. The way that they handled it was appalling. They had already fired all of their senior people and junior reps were doing the customer support. The rep lacked nuance and didn’t really provide support other than canned responses. This is all a reflection of the upper management. 4) Based on how they treated me and some of the other customers, I’ll make three assumptions. 1) they won’t survive this and 2) even if they did, Companies won’t sponsor their employees due to potential lawsuits, 3) even if they did, people will not want to travel post-covid19. 5) The track days were fun but kind of ridiculous. You’d spend half of the day driving in a semi-passable bus. $2k can go a long way in South America and Southeast Asia. If you’ve never been out of the country or would like to find a group of people to travel with, then it’s something you should look into. If not, avoid it. You can do better.

I joined and left the program very quickly. Pros: -- The staff were very nice and really cared. -- Other members also were very warm and caring. -- Wide diversity of opportunities & new experiences. Cons: -- You pay a flat fee and then they pay for your housing and travel. This puts you at a direct conflict of interest. In general you get what you pay for and so you'll be spending your time in 2nd and 3rd tier cities in countries with poor infrastructure, smog etc.etc. Some people don't mind, I hated not having the ability to improve my living standards, being stuck in the loud, busy centers of poor-quality-of-life Asian cities. -- The group was 60% Americans, and not the cool independent kind that I used to encounter on my solo travels, but the kind that very much likes to operate in groups. I felt like I was back in high-school trying to fit into a clique.