Ask HN: Nomads, what do you think about fully managed travel programs?
I've always had a desire to travel and just recently got a 100% remote job. Since I don't know much about the topic and want to travel outside my comfort zone (which - as a German citizen - is Europe) I've started to look into these fully managed programs like Remote Year.
Does anyone have experience with them? How did you start your journey?
I hate them 100%. I think they're worthless, and ruin the experience.
You're paying money for a curated experience and put trust into a company that promises high, but can deliver low.
So you can work remote? Great! Why give up so much of your income to a company that curate it's content on social media?
The whole point of travel, is to experience new things. I enjoy booking airbnbs, having co-working spaces, private hotels, etc - I don't really enjoy booking it city to city with the same people, or "same group of foreigners." I value making local friends and connections - and that only happens if you go out cold, venture out, and not stick to a curated experience.
Travel is fun because of the risk, the less risk that's accepted, the more and more it becomes a beige experience.
Remote work and Travel isn't for everyone. I've lost jobs/clients simply because they were uncomfortable with me being out of the office for a while, or exhaustion.
At the same time I've learned and experienced so much that I wouldn't have it any other way, financially and mentally I've prospered so much.
Hey, how can I contact you? Also a German guy and I didn’t know this before. Maybe there’s a chance to talk about it together. I’m a lazy person and probably wouldn’t pull this off alone.
There are a lot of other sites too. WifiTribe offers roughly the same (but w/ a 500$/year fee). Then there a sites like Nomadlist where you can find informations about different countries and cities (cost of living, network speed, safety, racism, ...) but where you have to handle the planning yourself.
I think these programs are attractive but few are real, I only see it because of how complicated it has been to process some visas in my case the easiest was the one for Russia from the website https://www.russia-travel.com/visa-services/ with that I had to get an idea that traveling is expensive and above all that it is not for everyone or you are a person who knows how to move or you are a person who has a lot of money.
You're paying money for a curated experience and put trust into a company that promises high, but can deliver low.
So you can work remote? Great! Why give up so much of your income to a company that curate it's content on social media?
The whole point of travel, is to experience new things. I enjoy booking airbnbs, having co-working spaces, private hotels, etc - I don't really enjoy booking it city to city with the same people, or "same group of foreigners." I value making local friends and connections - and that only happens if you go out cold, venture out, and not stick to a curated experience.
Travel is fun because of the risk, the less risk that's accepted, the more and more it becomes a beige experience.
Remote work and Travel isn't for everyone. I've lost jobs/clients simply because they were uncomfortable with me being out of the office for a while, or exhaustion.
At the same time I've learned and experienced so much that I wouldn't have it any other way, financially and mentally I've prospered so much.