If you could work from pretty much anywhere where would you go?

Here is the situation: we have a 75 - 80% travel job with the remaining percent as telecommuting. We don't necessarily want to go home during the telecommute time.. and are looking for interesting options. Our current criteria is that it must be within about 12 hrs travel time to most of the US, have good internet access and cellphone availability and be fairly moderate price to fly to and stay at ($400 RT or so for the flight and $100 or less per night for the accommodations or less even). So far we've spent a week in Camden ME with a cousin, a week in VT in a B&B, 3 weeks in San Miguel de Allende Mexico and 2 weeks on the beach in MA in an RV. Future plans include Curacao, Cayman Islands, Hunting Island SC, and San Carlos Mexico.

Any of you FTers done some unusual telecommuting? Where would you go?

I telecommute 50% of the time or more. I do it occasionally from Vegas.

I can't see telecommuting from outside the US because it wouldn't be as easy for people to reach me.

By the way what do you do?

In my job (the only one I've had since 1999 which is when I started working) I have always telecommuted (short of a year and a half when my boss decided to move to my country and then I had to go to an office)

In my list of 'unusual' places (although they dont fit your requirements), London, Vancouver Canada, Michigan (LOL my wife is from there), Las Vegas, Antigua, Saint Marteen, Panama City and Cottonwood, Idaho

Australia is in my 'to do list'

btw, if you have a reasonably fast internet access all you end up doing is setting up vonage (or similar VOIP) and you are all set

the only funny incident was when my boss decided to give me a visit, he already had his plans ready and I was on my way out of the country two days before he got here, had to cancel my plans LOL

My husband does primarily Business Process Modeling consulting and also teaches BPMN. I'm a photographer and I also write - and am actually thinking about doing an article about this topic after we've got a few more trips under our belt. I go with my husband to the on-site jobs also so we travel together the whole time. Anyone else travel (either on site or telecommuting) with your SO?

We've had a couple of funny things happen in this little experiment. When we were in Mexico we thought there was going to be a 4th week but on Friday at 4PM he got a call to be in NYC on Monday morning. That took a bit of scrambling but we made it in plenty of time. Another was when we were in Massachusetts where cell phone coverage/connectivity were kind of spotty he climbed up on the roof of the RV where he could get a more consistant signal to send a big file via crackberry modem. Great photo op! Have to look into a VOIP also as a good backup if we have good internet connectivity but poor cellphone coverage.

I'd like to know ALL of the places people do this unusual telecommuting from because we end up all over the US and will soon be going to Canada (Vancouver in 3 weeks) and eventually Asia and parts of Europe. I particularly like going to places in the off season (or on the edges) because it's less crowded and you see more of the real location.

The prices I listed on our criteria are guidelines because some places are fairly inexpensive so we can spend a little more in others. When we went to San Miguel de Allende (which I HIGHLY recommend) it was much cheaper for us to fly there and back than it was to go home. We rented a great little house for 2 of those weeks and it was really reasonable (about $60/day) because it was the off season.

I telecommute 100% of the time when I am not on the road for business. My travel schedule used to be about 80%, and now it is only down to about 20. :'(

Having said that, I telecommute from a number of different places when the situation fits! It really helps save on vacation days when I am running low, or really only need nights free...

On the list: Kauai, Toronto, Chicago, Davenport, Tampa, Vegas, San Diego... This month I'll add Daytona and Key West.

What's really nice is that I have a company provided VOIP phone which connects to our firm phone system. If I know there is a wired internet connection, I'll bring my router and that device, and wham! it's just like I am at home.

No one is the wiser. (Nor do they care I would assume.)

I telecommute about 75% from San Juan right now... usually on an EV-DO card while at the beach or at the local pub

Here is a photo of my husband "on the job" in San Miguel de Allende. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rainvalley/528015922/ So far it has been our favorite place to work from.

One thing that we have found is that working while staying with or near relatives is difficult. They don't understand that David actually has to work. Of course that is the same thing happens when we are at home too - most of our friends are retired and want us to go play - especially when we've been gone for a while. But we're getting better at saying "sure! after 5"

Wirelessly posted (My IV to the Net: BlackBerry7250/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I telecommute 40% of the time but from home which is only 30 min from the office. I could telecommute 100% of the time (out of state) but since family is nearby we have decided to stick around for the time being.

I have co-workers that do the same job as I who are 100% in the office and others who are 100% out of office and out of state.

As long as I have a hi-speed connection and semi-good cell coverage I can do my job. I also need to be relatively close to an airport.

My preference... On at least a 42' ft yacht either in New England or the Virgin Islands.

Sonoma or Napa.

I'm east coast, so I can easily put in a half day before 10 am local time out there, even a full day finishes off at 2, so it's still good. I can just check in once or twice in the afternoon from some wireless connection and make sure there isn't anything pressing.

I love it out there.

Allow me to be the Fascist in this thread. In general I do not support the concept of telecommuting (TC). It breeds indolence. In fact those who advocate TC, I believe, are already indolent and are scamming for more goof-off time. So now some want the TC to be done from exotic locations like San Miguel de Allende. Give me a break! I believe TC lowers productivity, and that there is a lot of watching of Jerry Springer while these TC'ers are supposedly working.

I am also against the concept of 9/80. It is a scourge on America. Pretty soon we will start trying to eat into Thursday. I am happy to see Sarkozy elected in France where he is trying to reverse these slacker trends.

Cheers,

M8

Isn't the most important thing that an employee meet his/her project milestones (if you wish, establish standards for office facetime among them)? If someone telecommuting were actually just watching TV, his/her performance would clearly suffer, same as if the employee were in the office but chatting on the phone all day.

Goa, India. Telecommute by painfully slow GPRS. Its great. Works from the beach

Well you can have your opinions of course and maybe your experience has been different but my husband generally works 5 days a week and travels 1 - 2 (and often works from the AC or on the plane while flying). He's also very strict about keeping regular hours while TCing no matter where we are. One of the reasons we prefer not TCing from home (or near relatives) is because they assume just because we are home we are available. They tend to get a little upset when we decline because my husband is indeed working. I'm a little more flexible in this regard but he is a nose to the grindstone kind of guy.

In my experience the Fascist bosses who hate telecommuting are also the ones who want you to relocate to Bloomington, Birmingham, or Boise.

In my experience telecommuting has improved productivity.

Employees who are not productive at home are less productive at work - because they socialize at work, go out to lunch, and waste time commuting to work.

Old style bosses who can't trust people like yourself are becoming the dinosaurs of the world. You're just like the 19th century factory owner who did not believe in empowering people.