working remotely from coast to coast

As I’m writing this, we are currently in New York, the halfway mark of our journey of living and working remotely month to month in different cities across the US, a unique opportunity and silver lining of the pandemic. Below I’ll outline the major cities we hit/are planning to visit and also include some tips on packing, living, and working remotely on the road. If you are thinking of embarking on a similar trip, I hope some tips here help with your planning.

where we started

When our Bay Area lease ended in July 2020 after a few months of pandemic quarantining and working from home, we moved our furniture into a 10x10 storage unit, packed up my car and drove back home to Texas to spend some time with family before returning for work. This 5 month plan soon transformed into the first leg of our extended year-long journey.

I originally only had until the end of the year to work from anywhere, but within the first week back home, my company extended remote work through September 2021. We decided to spend 3 months in Austin and the holidays in Houston before making plans to continue travelling.

The goal was to live and work month to month in various cities across the US before making our way back to the Bay Area. It was also a test to see if we could imagine ourselves living in these different cities. We only booked places 2 months in advance, so overall there was quite little planning.

our itinerary

This is the current timeline where we eventually make our way back to Cali sometime in July. We’ve completed a little more than half of the cities already and a few destinations might change in the upcoming months, but this is the overall plan. In most places we budget to stay a month, but we do stay for shorter time in some.

on the road

the car

Juan bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee in TX which provided us much more space and comfort than my small Audi Q3 that we drove back from CA (yes, I’ll need to ship it back). With the back seats down, our stuff filled up the entire cargo space. We also installed a hitch rack at the back of the car to strap down 4 of the medium storage boxes pictured below. With locks, straps, and wires, they were pretty secure for the entire trip and having boxes helps a lot with unloading. Adaptive cruise control also is a game changer for long distance driving.

packing

Our packing situation isn’t the most ideal for a multi-month road trip as we load/unload almost everything we own. We purchased 6 heavy duty storage boxes from Home Depot (2 large and 4 medium) to store loose items (and also for the Gobi roof rack once it arrives).

One large box stores shoes (I don’t know why we brought back 30 pairs - not recommended), the second large box stores kitchen items (my Instant Pot that my mom gifted me for Christmas, a few cookbooks, teas, cooking utensils, and spices. The 4 smaller boxes each contain: Espresso machine, Liqueur + Wine, Miscellaneous office items, and more coffee gadgets.

All of our Clothes are packed in vacuum seal bags that saves us so much space. Work stuff include monitors, work laptops, personal laptops, backpacks, etc. Miscellaneous items that take up quite some space include air purifier + filters, Juan’s electric skateboard, a 30lb dumbel (lol), and snacks for the trip.

TIP [parking]: If its extremely difficult finding parking near you (like in NY, Chicago, etc.), try looking for car storage units like at ExtraSpace Storage. They often have promotions where the first month is free and you only have to pay the $25 signing fee! This is how we avoided paying $400 for downtown parking in Manhattan.

Living situation

hotel? airbnb? sublease?

As I mentioned, we try to stay at for at least 28 days in most cities to get the monthly discount from select Airbnb listings. Sometimes the discount is up to 25% off if you stay just a few days longer. For in-between destinations where we aren’t interested in an extended stay, we still book through Airbnb. Other options that we have considered: Vrbo (they have weird rules and additional hidden fees), Leasebreak (a NY only option), and Facebook sublet groups (more hassle).

Our top must-have’s when choosing a listing:

Other non-deal-breakers include washer/dryer, proximity to city center, and space (we try to avoid studios). The other non-obvious consideration we have is a listing without more than 1 flight of stairs as we really did not want the extra exercise added when unpacking.

TIP [negotiating]: When booking, you can negotiate with your host directly. If you can’t negotiate the price down, try asking for things like: an additional desk, a parking spot, or something else that will make your stay more comfortable. Hosts are actually quite accommodating!

Cooking at ‘home’

As major foodies, we love cooking and we cook a lot. Bringing our own spices and a few key kitchen items really helped us feel at home in each new place. Things that are worth packing:

Instant Pot pressure cooker - Yes it’s bulky but I’ve learned a variety of delicious and easy recipes that make cooking on weekdays so much easier.
Spices - Inside the Instant Pot, we store: salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, oregano, thyme, old bay (for easy Instant Pot gumbo), parsley, rosemary, cinnamon. We also carry with us some good olive oil and vegetable oil.
Coffee - There is absolutely no need to bring with you as much coffee/espresso equipment as we have on this trip. If you are a coffee drinker, please read the below tip.
Alcohol - We carry our full bar with us (an assortment of liqueurs, bitters, shakers, strainers, and aged wines) and it saves a lot of $ by not having to re-purchase everywhere.

TIP [Coffee]: Buy an Aeropress and the espresso Prismo attachment by Fellow ($25). With just these two small things, you can pull a very decent espresso shot AND an good pressed brew while saving SO much space. If you want to froth milk, get a handheld frother (also tiny).

budgeting

Budget wise, this trip for us only makes sense if we can maintain our monthly rent budget lower than what we were paying in the Bay Area. Since most cities in the US have a lower cost of living, we actually are able to save on rent. Besides rent, other major costs include: gas, food (we are spending a little more dining out since we’re exploring new restaurants).

Work situation

Both Juan and I work remotely and take calls throughout the day, so table and desk space is really important for us. Fast, reliable internet is also a requirement. Invest in a good pair of noise and background noise cancelling headset if you do need to take calls.

TIP [co-working]: Look into co-working spaces like WeWork where you can reserve on-demand for $30/day or get the global access for $300/month which lets you work from any WeWork office. If you can save more than that by renting a smaller living space, it could be worth it.

Some people have asked how we balance work with constant travel. We basically pretend that we normally live in each place, so during the week we work during the day and maybe try a restaurant or order takeout for dinner occasionally. On weeknights we cook at “home”, go to the gym, and watch Netflix before bed (Juan is also pursuing his Master’s degree while working full-time so we really can’t do much on weeknights). When Friday afternoon arrives, that’s when we transform into tourists and go all out exploring the city, trying new restaurants, meeting up with friends (we’re now both vaxxed!), and really taking advantage of all each city offers. We also try to time our travelling with long weekends and vacations to also give us more time and flexibility on the days that we make the long drives.

TIP [gym membership]: Planet Fitness Black Card membership is $25/month, always allows a guest, and gets you access to any Planet Fitness location (there are hundreds). All gyms require face masks, block off machines for ‘social fitnessing’ and have multiple disinfecting stations. Most of our Airbnb’s did not have a gym and this

reflecting

This trip is definitely not for everyone, and we are beyond grateful to have this unique opportunity to travel and live/work remotely for an entire year, a situation that emerged from a global pandemic. Moving month to month has it’s benefits but it also gets quite tiring and stressful especially with the packing and unpacking and not really knowing where I’ll be sleeping the next month. At this point I really do miss: family and friends (even though we’ve been able to see lots of old friends this trip), having my own space to call ‘home’, taking care of plants, my other stuff (literally everything else that is kept in storage).

If you’re thinking of embarking on a similar trip, I’d love to hear about your plans! Ask my any additional questions below and I’ll try my best answering given our experiences so far.

Cheers!

Our Year Long Road Trip Across the USA