Travel programs aren’t for everyone. If you’re:
- Well-traveled and comfortable traveling on your own
- Have enough time and interest to dedicate towards booking travel, accommodations, activities
- Are extroverted enough to meet locals and integrate on your own
- And basically don’t need the “gateway drug” to get you to the point where you can go nomadic on your own
Then you likely don’t need (and won’t like) being part of a program like Remote Year.
For everyone else, this type of program is a great way to “wade into digital nomadicism” slowly and remove a lot of the unknowns and the scary parts. I liken it to having this aircraft carrier that you can orbit around and rely upon as you travel the globe.
One of the most unexpected values of Remote Year for me was the community aspect. Going into it I saw the program more as a glorified travel service solving all the logistical issues associated with this type of remote work. That was the perceived value of the program but the more we got into it, the value prop shifted to being squarely around the community and the event programming & unique opportunities to connect with locals and experience activities we couldn’t have done on our own.
I’d say the litmus test for this question is this: if you value freedom, independence, don’t need assistance wading into remote working and are fully-comfortable doing solo travel, go for it. If you have doubts though I would explore one of the options for managed remote work experience travel. In my own situation Remote Year was the tipping factor that compelled me to take the leap – I likely would not have ventured out and attempted this on my own. At this point having gone through the year-long program and having continued extended travel now for 6mos beyond that, I’m fully confident in my ability to solo travel. In this way RY served as a successful “gateway drug” to digital nomadicism in my situation so mission accomplished.
