Remote YearReviews of remoteyear.com

Hanoi is a lovely bustling city. Trang is highly professional, quick to respond and incredible efficient in all of her efforts; She alone is the reason I am not giving this month a one star. Unfortunately, The co-working space did not lend itself to a positive or productive working environment. This space was used for social events and blurred the boundaries for those who needed a quiet and focused workspace. This space was also poorly maintained and serviced resulting in overflowing trash and molded dishes on several occasions. I would not recommend this place as a productive or enjoyable month as I was stuck in my room a lot due to lack of quiet or clean working space.

Toxic mold in the Bulnes block of apartments in Argentina. Please stop using them. Most of us felt ill & have photos of the mold. Aside that, the tours, the workshops, the experience and company was amazing. The people put in the Joy Bulnes apartments would have been better off booking their own accommodation (cheaper with more amenities and closer to co-working space). Please stop using Bulnes. 2 people had visible black mold with photos. One was very ill. Another 2 had the strong smell of mold, one person had a filthy apartment and the last person hated their apartment (could not cook or wash clothes). It was a 20 minute walk to the cowork space. Not everyone had washing machines in their apartment. Others had apartments closer to the workspace with swimming pools and none of these issues.

I loved my time in Osaka, but the the Remote Year Osaka Program does need a bit of rehab. I joined the 1-Month Osaka Remote Journey. The accommodations were comfy and suitable for 1 person. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of room I had. The City Team was knowledgeable and very chill. They set a great atmosphere for the group to gel together. That being said there are parts of the program that need work. I was incorrectly invoiced for the trip, this was corrected after 48 hours. Prior to joining the program onboarding was also disjoined and not very seamless. The Add-Ons that we needed to purchase for the trip should have been accessible 30 days prior to the arrival date. But in this instance I received them about a week in advance of the arrival date which made planning for the month long trip rather stressful. My time in Osaka was fun, and I am grateful for the group that I was with. The group can definitely make or break the experience. Overall it was enjoyable. My group consisted of 1-month and 4-month remotes which did not mingle together as often as my previous Remote Year Lima group of only 1-Month Remotes, but when we were together the group was relatively cohesive. The events were nice, but not always fully thought out. No snacks will be provided on your day trips, so plan ahead. Ground transportation during the one month stay is not included, though this is listed as part of what your fee covers. The only transportation which is covered is transport from the airport to the Remote Year accommodation (If you choose your own accommodation for the month you will need to cover that cost). You will need to cover the cost of transportation back to the airport at the end of your 1 Month Journey. I would recommend this journey for experienced travelers interested in visiting Osaka, but be aware it does have some procedural flaws making the experience a bit uncomfortable at times.

Upsides: Traveling with a group of likeminded individuals to a new city/ country. Having the opportunity to learn about a new culture over a longer period of time vs. a week vacation where you must cram everything in and don’t have the chance to understand how life really is at your destination. Community leaders are passionate about travel and making sure you have the best experience possible. The excursions exposed me to some really cool parts and places in Medellin that may have taken me longer on my own to discover. General comfort of not having to worry about getting your infrastructure set up on the ground in a new place. Downsides: Housing, I had a private apartment (+$700 on top of the program fee). My housing experience was marked with having to switch apartments because of mold in my unit (likely isolated, but also a big deal since it impacts my health) and the apartments overall not being very clean or comfortable. Housing is the number one thing RY needs to get right. If someone can’t get adequate rest or retreat from the challenges of living in a new environment from time to time, it makes it hard to really open up and immerse in a new experience. The issues I experienced damaged my trust in RY to deliver an experience that would help me grow as a person. I’ve given detailed feedback and recommendations to RY that I hope they consider implementing. If you’re planning to book with RY, I’d have a reserve budget to give yourself flexibility to get out of a bad housing situation if it arises.

The absolute best part was meeting the other remoters. I want to prefice that the entire staff was warm and welcoming, however this is my opinion of month one besides that… The first week, the team seemed a bit unorganized (not to dock Maggie by losing her phone). I think I expected more from the host team, felt there was not ample notice on where our living quarters are or the check in process….And maybe a compelling space with natural light. The first day we asked for supplies- which weren’t given to us. This was basic things like dish soap, extra set of sheets (the last week we asked the housekeepers for extra towels just by chance). It seemed like either the hub has a delayed response or the host team just never got back to us unless it went through Maggie herself. The living quarters location was phenomenal. Absolutely loved the roof top and the actual units themselves.

RY reminds me of my experience of 1st year at university. I'm glad I did it, I met some really cool people, but I would never volunteer to do it again. I completed a 4-month trip through Latin America last year, and I was paying pre-pandemic prices. So while it was still expensive, it was more reasonable than it is now. I had no issues with the accommodations, some of the workspaces were better than others, and the internet was always strong. Furthermore, most of the weekend trips and activities are overpriced. But they're optional, you're paying for convenience and you can always book them on your own. If you're planning on doing more than a month, hopefully, you can find someone to talk to who has done it before. After 4 months, I was burnt out from trying to work a full-time job, participating in group activities, and constantly changing location. I became very aware that my idea of working and traveling the world at this pace might have been a bit unrealistic and romanticized. Since RY, I've been working remotely for the past year, but staying in each location for 3 months and it's much better suited to my lifestyle. Overall, RY was a great way to dip a toe into working remotely and having a company plan and execute all the logistics. I also have a couple of lifelong friends now that I'm really grateful for. But if you're price-conscious, I would probably look into other options.

Overall, the idea of Remote Year is great, but the execution lacks. I am glad I went on a 4 month LATAM trip, but I would never do one longer than 1 month with RY again, instead I would do four 1 month programs. A lot of the experiences were unforgettable, and some of the people I met were great, but it was hard to get past a lot of the issues RY had and that made the trip less than ideal, especially for the premium you are paying. Small groups don't work for RY. If thinking about signing up for a 4 or 12 month program, check how many people are signed up. Issues due to small groups include: having to cancel a ton of events due to not meeting minimums, cliques forming and the impact being exasperated, plus others. Communication is a huge issue with Remote Year. You don't know if events you paid for on the marketplace are still on until last minute and find out details about what to bring, when to meet, etc. sometimes just 12 hours before the event. Also, you don't find out where you are living and with who until a few days before you arrive in each city which seems quite unreasonable considering RY has known for months we are coming and should have housing secured. Additionally, the accommodations vary greatly and the "lesser" ones are unreasonable. If we are paying $3K a month, per person, there is no reason in the LATAM cities I stayed that RY can't get us a better place - we all looked up airbnbs so we know that it could have been done. Some places are super nice, while others have major issues like mold or sinks that don't turn off. RY prides itself on community but then houses everyone so far from each other does the exact opposite - it creates divides and weakens the community. I joined RY mostly for the community and was sorely disappointed. The cost of marketplace activities is sometimes outrageous - my group started doing things on their own because of this which is frustrating because we choose RY so we wouldn't have to plan on our own. Overall, if the cost was on par with other programs like this, I wouldn't have been so upset. But, paying a premium to get an average service was disappointing. I would recommend doing multiple 1 month programs if you use Remote Year.

The program and experiences were fantastic. Athens was an amazing place full great history, culture and food. We had a great RY team there! Overall I would recommend this program, but here are my complaints about things(keep in mind), which I wish they did differently: Accommodation: The accommodation was terrible. First, the pressure in the sink is too high for the depth of the sink, water splashed everywhere every time, I turned on the water. Shower was missing a closing door, so water was splashing everywhere too. Next to the sink there was no space for toiletries, especially since we were there for entire month and needed space for that. The toilet paper holder was so inconveniently placed all the way behind you, somewhere in the back. The hook for the hand towel next to the sink, was so badly designed that towel kept falling off. The shower towel holder about the toilet, was so high, I could hardly reach it! The entire bathroom needs to be resigned with main goal of making it livable, rather than stylish. The balcony was nice, but the window had no nets I had mosquitos eating me alive every night. Also there was no dresser and hardly any hangers for clothes. The desk was attached to the dresser and could not be moved, which was a problem for zoom work meeting, I was facing away from light and appeared too dark at the zoom meetings. That room is ok for someone staying there few days, but not for someone staying there an entire month. FYI I got the most expensive accommodation(!), which was standard room with private bathroom. Cowork space: Cowork space was great, but the printer was terrible. It was working only half the time! One time I spend 45 minutes with my company's IT person to help me connect to the printer, just to find out that printer was offline altogether! Other time it was not printing all the pages, I had to keep requesting each page manually to be printed, which took such a long time! Kitchen: Never had any clean napkins, and half the time where missing food stickers! Experiences: All the experiences were great, except for booking times. I was upset that Akropolis core experience tour was scheduled during the week and during working hours, so I could not go! Had to schedule with selina's front desk a separate tour, which I also missed, because the location, which front desk told us to meet at, the tour was not there! After desperately walking around for an hour and trying to find the tour we ended up missing it! It was very frustrating! Also goodbye party was scheduled during working hours, so I could not go. When the booking times of the experiences interfered with my working hours, it was stressing me out. Since most people on the program were working US/EST hours, I was not expecting that such important events will be scheduled during those working US/EST hours.