Let's Work Wherever We Are Traveling

February 10, 2013 12:05 PM

Where can I find other people like myself who can work wherever they happen to be? (Not talking about the oldest profession here!!!) I can do my regular work wherever I happen to be since I deal with computer programming. I am trying to find other people who might want go to a place, say, for a month, and live there and split costs. Anybody know of any online communities of people that do this?
posted by thorny to work & money (8 answers total)

I might fall into this category, but it would help if there were more info about you available, say, in your profile. (Not saying I could go on an adventure like this at the moment, just that I might fall into your target demographic, but others in the demographic might also like more info -- and Metafilter is a good place to find us.)
posted by amtho at 12:54 PM on February 10

Ditto for me - but my interest in doing this kind of thing with someone other than my partner (who is the person I do this with currently, when I can) would be highly dependent on what kind of traveler you are, what your interests and needs are, etc. There's plenty of Mefites that I like and admire but imagine I probably wouldn't like traveling/living with them, etc.
posted by arnicae at 1:08 PM on February 10

If you are interested in and have time for manual labor, you will find these sorts of people living among the hippies etc on WWOOF farms.
posted by justjess at 1:36 PM on February 10

I know a few people who belong to the (paid) Tropical MBA program, which seems to attract people looking to work while they travel.
posted by third word on a random page at 1:40 PM on February 10

I think the main goal would be simply to share living space and related expenses, not necessarily be doing all the traveling, sight seeing, eating, etc, together. For example, "Who wants to live in London for a month?" Find a shared space -- multiple bedrooms or rooms. Split up internet expense, or whatever other utilities, etc. But everyone does their own thing.
posted by thorny at 7:04 PM on February 10

I've run into lots of these people at Co-Work places abroad. Here's one in Lisbon for example and one in Berlin that I've used. Both places were crawling with people who were on their way through town and just needed to do actual work (hard to do in a coffeehouse, really) for a few days.

So I suggest you start by visiting these places and being friendly. There are sites such as ShareDesk and others which list a lot more. In any case, the search term to use here is "co-working".
posted by vacapinta at 2:03 AM on February 11 [1 favorite]

Translators are good at this. My mother and her husband are both translators and they take off for a couple months every year and just lug their laptops with them. Try any translator forum you can find (sorry, don't know any off the top of my head.)
posted by fso at 5:14 AM on February 12

Look and ask around on CouchSurfing.
posted by knile at 6:03 AM on March 11