How Much Does Remote Year Cost? [The TRUTH!]
Ok! Chances are, if you’re on this article than the Remote Year phenomenon has caught your interest.
You’ve familiarized yourself with the revolutionary structure of this program, what it’ll do for you both personally and professionally, it’s pros and cons, the services provided and everything else in between.
Now, you’re seriously considering embarking on the Remote Year. But! You’re still not sure just how much this is going to cost you…
In our previous article “What is Remote Year”, we covered the basic costs of each program, but this article goes super in-depth about the cost of Remote Year, showing you EXACTLY what you need to know to decide if this is worth it for you.
Not sure what Remote Year is? Check out our EPIC guide – What is Remote Year? – to have all of your questions answered! Or check out our Honest Remote Year Reviews from 7 people who’ve actually done it!
Why does Remote Year Cost need its own Entire Article?
You see, the money you pay for Remote Year covers five things…
1. Travel between countries
2. Accommodation
3. 24/7 WiFi
4. Professional & Cultural Experiences
5. Exclusive offers.
The thing is, that’s still holding you accountable to pay for food, additional events and daily travel within each country.
When you consider that Remote Year encompasses 12 countries across 4 continents, it makes it even harder to estimate how much this’ll come to.
The only thing that Remote Year doesn’t hold your hand through is working out these additional costs.
That’s where Nomads Nation comes in.
In this insider-guide, we’ll cover everything from the actual cost of each Remote Year program, the additional things you’ll be able to spend money on with low, medium and high end budgets, how much it’d cost do embark on the remote year itinerary solo and all other points worthy of noting. $$!
Let’s get into the truth about the cost of Remote Year.
Remote Year Costs -
The Itineraries
Despite being known as Remote Year, over the course of its last two years, this organization has improve in terms of flexibility, by offering several different itineraries – not just for an entire year!
You can now choose to travel on Remote Year for 4, 6 and 12 months. Within the 4 month option, you are also able to choose which continent you wish to visit.
Technically, the lowest monthly cost is with the 12 month itinerary, which is only $2000 compared to the $2,250 monthly cost of the 4 and 6 month itineraries.
However, in the long run, it’s obviously more expensive to embark on the longer itinerary due to accumulative price. Before we go into more detail, here’s the price of each itinerary…
12 Months - (Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific)
- Down payment: $5,000
- Monthly payment: $2,000
- Total: $27,000
6 Months - (Europe, Africa & Latin America)
- Down payment: $4,000
- Monthly payment: $2,250
- Total: $15,250
4 Months - (Europe & Asia)
- Down payment: $3,500
- Monthly payment: $2,250
- Total: $10,750
How Does Remote Year Payment Work?
So, after being accepted for and confirming your place on a remote year you make a down payment, that also covers the first month. From this point onwards, it’s a monthly fee for each recurring month.
But! Those total prices given for each itinerary, are only the total price that you’ll be paying Remote Year. You have other costs to consider as well.
Let’s consider them below:
Additional Costs During Remote Year & Budgets
Now. *Clasps hands together and twiddles thumbs sincerely*. Whilst this next section is set out to provide you with the most accurate information possible regarding how much extra cash you’ll be forking out on Remote Year, we will be honest with you…
It’s impossible to give anything but a slightly vague answer for how much traveling the world costs. That’s because there can be enormous variation between the spending habits of one person and those of another, and the prices of each location you will visit.
But even the approximate numbers will help you get a better idea if the Remote Year cost is worth it.
Essentials
In theory, the absolute bare essentials that you are going to have to spend money on during your remote year are:
- Food – The price of this could vary immensely. Obviously a skewered piece of meat claiming to be “chicken” won’t cost as much as a 5 star restaurant. This is on you and your budget.
But really, that’s it. Remote Year includes toiletries such as shampoo, toothpaste and body wash in each apartment. You may or may not need antibiotics & medicine depending on your luck and how many mosquitos you befriend.
If you don’t drink, you’ll save a ton of money.
In theory, the clothes you take could last you all year, although boy do we hope you take care of them.
You may be too busy to schedule in additional sightseeing and activities, or be content with the kind that don’t involve any money at all, simply wandering around your immediate surroundings and soaking them all in.
Extras
But now, let’s now consider the other numerous things on which you can spend your money when in any big city:
- City Living – Whether it’s massages, movies, barbers, manicures, clothes, gifts, fancy restaurants or tattoos, it should come as no surprise that in every city there are money sinks. The only one who knows how susceptible to these you are, is you.
- Additional Experiences – You may decided to venture out of the city for several days for a spot of trekking, sightseeing or some other activity. Whilst paying the accommodation, guide and any permit costs of these, you’ll also be paying your monthly fee to still be included on the Remote Year.
- Nights Out – Chug, chug, chug! Wait…that bottle of champagne was how much?
And there you have it. As with food, there’s considerable scope within each of these categories for how much you spend on them, depending on quality, frequency and company.
So, just how the hell do we work out some actual numbers, dammit!?
Budget Options
1. Cheap (“Please sir….is there any more”):
If it’s the case that you only ever spend money on food and that of the cheap backpacker-esque diet at that, you could potentially get away on spending around $600 a month!
2. Mid Range (“Yay for Normality”!?):
Assuming you participate in a moderate number of the extra revenue sinks, whilst also treating yourself to some finer dining now and again, you should be able to get away with spending approximately $1200 a month.
3. Expensive (“I just bought a giraffe”!!):
Now, for those of you who are wildly successful already – or just terrible with money; the sky really is the limit for how much money you can spend in any big city.
Still, with all your accommodation, events and travel logistics planned, as well as the fact you will presumably be spending a considerable portion of your time doing actual remote work, you’ll need to get creative if you want to spend over $2000 a month.
How much would it cost to just do the Remote Year itinerary, alone?
When you finish your Remote Year application and pay, part of what you’re paying for is the experience – travelling with like minded people and participating in events with them, as well as having all of the travel research and logistics arranged for you.
These are undeniably worthy things to spend your money on, but you could technically accomplish them all solo (as in travel with friends and research everything yourself) without having to spend anything besides time. Although, then again time is money.
However, the main services in the remote year, that cost money are flights, accommodation and remote working spaces. Let’s work out how much these would cost if you were on your own:
Cost of Flights Outside of Remote Year:
First, let’s consider flights. Generally, throughout Remote Year you’ll stick to the same continent for four months (excluding the South Africa excursion within the Europe itinerary).
Below, we’ve included the rough (rounded to the nearest $10) prices for traveling between each of the major cities featured on the remote year itinerary.
Latin America
• Mexico City -> Medellin is $500
• Medellin -> Lima – $150
• Lima -> Santiago – $200
Total for Latin America Flights = Approximately $1200 (+ cost of flight from original destination).
Europe & Africa
• Santiago -> Lisbon – $350
• Lisbon -> Split – $350
• Split -> Valencia – $300
• Valencia -> Cape Town – $500
Total for Europe and Africa Flights = Approximately $1700
Asia Pacific
Cape Town -> Kuala Lumpur – $450
Kuala Lumpur -> Chiang Mai – $70
Chiang Mai -> Hanoi – $70
Hanoi – Kyoto -> $130
Total for Asia Pacific Flights: Approx $720.
First off, as you can see although the monthly price for Remote Year stays pretty consistent, there’s considerable variation on how much it costs to fly between countries within different continents, due to distances, flight paths and air rates.
But if we add the totals all together ($720 + $1700 + $1200 = $3620) and divide by 12, then….
The average monthly cost of flights across the 12 Month Remote year Itinerary is $301.
Accomodation
If you were to do the remote year itinerary solo, you could stay as cheaply or expensive as you like in dorms to mansions.
But, assuming you want to stay in exactly the same kind of accommodation as that at remote year, the average monthly cost of accommodation will be around $800.
WiFi and Coworking Space
Finally there’s the co-working spaces to consider. But in the larger picture, this really isn’t much.
The average monthly rate of the co-working spaces used by Remote Year is $50. (Without the perks such as specially designed spaces for remote year workers).
So what’s the total difference in monthly price between being on Remote Year or the same Itinerary on my own?
Alrighty then. If we add the average monthly price for flights ($301) to accomodation ($800) to coworking space ($50), it comes to approximately $1,151.
That’s $849 less than the monthly cost of doing all this with a remote year. Roughly.
And of course – if you do it by yourself you don’t have to make a down payment, which is around two and a half times that of the normal monthly cost, for the first month.
Overall Total Difference
Remote Year: $2000 X 11 = $22,000. + $5000 Down Payment = $27,000.
Same Itinerary on own: $1,151 X 12 = $13,812.
Difference: $27,000 – $13,812 = $13,198
Conclusion: Remote Year is roughly twice as expensive as it would be to do this by yourself. But obviously, doing a trip like this by yourself would require an immense amount of planning, and you wouldn’t have 72 other like-minded cool people to travel with 🙂
Final Considerations on the Cost of Remote Year
Before we wrap up, here’s a few super fast, final considerations re the cost of remote year:
- Whilst on Remote Year, you won’t be paying the rent, gas and electricity bills or for fuel that you would at home. This is something CRUCIAL to take into consideration when weighing the pros and cons of the Remote Year cost.
- If you’re paying people to work on your online project throughout remote year, don’t forget to factor this into the overall cost to.
- These numbers are only rough guides! Prices are constantly changing.
- If you take a whole month out from remote year for some solo travel, the money you have to pay to stay in remote year, is reduced.
- Remote Year does change the order in which people visit the destinations laid out on it’s itinerary, meaning the flight prices we gave are only assuming the most logistical route between the destinations.
- Although you can do your own research and travel with friends, embarking on a years travel with a large group of likeminded Digital Nomads and entrepreneurs, is going to be pretty challenging to organize yourself.
If you or anyone you know is super interested in signing up with Remote Year – follow this link!
Travel on, Nomads.
Looking for more great Digital Nomad content?
- These are the BEST Backpacks for Digital Nomads
- Thailand has some Amazing Places to Live
- These are the 21 best Remote Year Alternatives
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