Remote work with a view of the sea and mountains: personal experience in Montenegro

Thailand has traditionally been considered to be a paradise for freelancers and remote workers, for me Montenegro has become such a place. The second spring in a row I travel with my family to Budva, a small town on the Adriatic Sea, for three months, and work from there remotely. About why Montenegro and what should be ready in this country, I want to tell.

Who am I and what I do

My name is Cyril Klyushkin, I am a COO of Alconost and, concurrently, a co-founder of the Alconost Video service. I observe the work of project managers, recruit and coach employees, work with strategic and short-term marketing tasks together with marketers, sometimes write scripts and manage video creation processes. In addition, I am engaged in the development of the company and the optimization of business processes. And on me customer support in our live online translation service Nitro . On top of that, we make several of our products, and I have part of the project management, the development of the concept of products.

I did all this at home in Minsk, I continued to do all this when I arrived in Montenegro.
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It is worth saying that the work in our team is designed so that all our employees work remotely . Without this, it would be difficult for me to decide on such a long departure.

Why Montenegro?

Montenegro is close to us in location and has a minimal difference in time zones with Moscow or Kiev (an hour or two of difference, which cannot be said about the same Thailand). It is important to work in the same rhythm with colleagues.

You can get to Montenegro both by plane (~ $ 300-600 in both directions when flying from the European part of Russia) and by car (1-2 nights), which will allow you to save a great deal on renting a car to travel around the country. By the way, Montenegro is very compact in size, you can drive around the whole country literally in a day. At the same time in its small territory there are hundreds of various attractions.

And they love us here. Montenegrins are very loyal to the Russian-speaking tourists. Moreover, they do not share the Belarusians, the Ukrainians and the Russians: we are all brothers Slavs equally. Also here they are very sincere and friendly towards children. On the street, in the store, in a taxi, local residents always smile at us with their daughter, touch their daughter by the handles, everyone considers it their duty to treat a child or donate a small toy.

In Montenegro, it is safe and almost no crime, since the country and the cities in it are small, everyone knows each other by sight. Here you can leave the pram with valuable things on the beach, you can walk at night with the phone in hand.

Here is a very beautiful nature. Mountains, mountain rivers and lakes, small villages ... I have the feeling that I am either somewhere in Tolkien Middle-earth, or among the mountains and fjords of Norway, where for some reason palm trees have grown. The sea is warm, clear and clean. And very tasty air. The aromas of flowers, pines, sea, mountains, Montenegrin pastries and grilled meat are constantly mixed into a delicious cocktail, each time is different.

About formalities

Upon arrival in Montenegro, you need to get a “white cardboard” for the day. To do this, contact the owner of the apartment or hotel, who will do everything himself - you will only have to pay a fee of 0.6-0.8 euros for each day of your stay in the country.

White cardboard can be asked when leaving the country, and in case of its absence - slapped a fine of 200 euros. I am more than sure that if you are “caught” at the airport, then while you run around to pay the fine, your plane will already fly away.

Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians can stay in Montenegro without a visa for no more than 90 days within six months, and for Russians and Belarusians the period of continuous stay should not exceed 30 days. This means that once in 30 days you need to leave the country for at least a couple of hours.

When and where to go

The best time to travel to Montenegro for remote work is April-June or September-October. At this time there is already / still warm, there are no crowds of tourists, reasonable prices. In July and August in Montenegro it is very hot, very expensive, very crowded.

Out of season, life on the coast is only in large cities: Bar and Budva. The bar is more adapted for life (more offers of apartments, more shops, more people), but in Budva and the surrounding area there are better beaches. We chose Budva just because of the beaches: where else will my wife and daughter spend their time while I work at home.

For the first few days it is better to book a hotel via the Internet, and upon arrival you should start looking for accommodation in the ways that you prefer:

• walk around the city, call the ads on the pillars and entrances, go to your favorite house and ask about the rent. It sounds strange, but believe me, it works in Montenegro;
• asking people on the street, taxi drivers, shop assistants. Montenegrin towns are very small, everyone knows each other, your interlocutor will surely have an acquaintance who just rents an apartment. We found our first apartment: we asked a taxi driver who had brought us in and within half an hour we looked at two excellent low-cost apartments, which we rented;
• search for Internet ads and write in English to the owners of the apartments you like (by the way, you can use our online translator Nitro, there are both English and Serbian):

○ Realitica.com - first select a city, then Stan-apartman (apartments) or kuce (at home) and press trazi (search);
○ Tender Oglasi - select Nekretnine and enter the city you need in the search box ;
○ Montenegro Realty - here the announcements of long-term rentals are mixed with renting “for tourists” at tourist prices. By the way, through this group I found for the second time my spacious apartment in the center of Budva for very little money;

• buy the local newspaper Tender Oglasi and call the ads you like. The key phrase when talking on the phone: “I smite the camp for three months” (I look for an apartment for three months). Most often, renting for three months outside the tourist season looks very attractive to the apartment owner, and he becomes interested in overcoming the language barrier and clearly explaining to you where you will meet;
• contact local real estate agencies, often Russian-speaking. But based on the experience of communicating with 5-6 local agencies, I concluded that this is a waste of time: the prices are unreasonably high, apartments and service do not shine with quality. These agencies are more suitable for buying expensive real estate or tourist rent for a short time.

When inspecting apartments, pay attention to the smell of dampness and mold: it can be a real problem. In addition, consider the location of the apartment: whether the windows overlook the roadway, where noisy mopeds and cars will run around at night; whether there are some places of entertainment nearby, of which drunk tourists will crawl to the accompaniment of loud music until one o'clock in the morning; Is there a stream or marsh nearby (usually recognizable by lush impassable vegetation) with mosquitoes and vociferous frogs.

How much?

When renting for three months, you can get a pretty good price, which differs from the tourist price by three to four times. Both times I searched for an apartment for three months at the end of March and early April. According to my observations, small studio apartments can be rented for 150–350 euros per month, single-room rooms (one bedroom plus one living room combined with a kitchen) - for 250-500 euros per month, two-rooms - for 400-700 euros per month. The difference in this range is due to the different distance from the sea and the degree of steepness of the interior of the apartments themselves. To the cost of renting added bills for water, electricity, sometimes the Internet: 50-100 euros per month.

On our first visit, we rented a pleasant single-room apartment for 400 euros per month, 10 minutes walk from the sea and 20 minutes from the old town. To be honest, walking strained back and forth every day, so on the second visit we rented a spacious two-bedroom apartment with a cozy atmosphere relatively close to the sea, the center and the old town for 530 euros per month. Considering that we are capturing part of the season (July 1-10), this is not at all expensive.

As for the cost of living, in Montenegro it is about the same as in Minsk or Kiev, and exactly lower than in Moscow. Sit together in a restaurant with fish and wine - from 40 euros, pizza with beer - from 15 euros, a hearty hamburger - 2 euros. In general, food is either cheaper or the same as ours. Furniture - much cheaper. Clothing is the same as ours. Locals live on ~ 1000 euros per month per family. I see that if one doesn’t bounce and, perhaps, save a little, then it’s quite possible to keep such an amount.

The language barrier

In coastal Montenegro, it is quite possible to do without knowing the local language. First, Serbian (and in Montenegro speak Serbian) is very close to our language. Untrained Russians usually understand about 25%, Belarusians and Ukrainians - about 50-60% of the information. Secondly, the older generation studied Russian in Yugoslav schools. And thirdly, Montenegro is a tourist country with traditionally a very large number of tourists from Russia, so the locals do not want it, but they teach Russian. And no one has canceled English: in Montenegro they know it quite well, even most TV channels are broadcast in English with Serbian subtitles.

Personally, I managed to find a common language with the owners and view about two dozen apartments with little or no knowledge of Serbian. I can say that the language barrier here is completely overcome. Especially if you are the one who pays the money.

My tips on arranging

Since the purpose of the arrival is not rest, but work, an apartment should be looked for in such a way that it would be possible to equip a secluded workplace: at least to put a table and a chair. If there is no such place in the apartment, you should think about renting a cheap studio apartment nearby for work. By the way, furniture in Montenegro is inexpensive: for ~ 100 euros you can find an acceptable table and chair for work.

It is important to look for an apartment with a Wi-Fi router. If the owner says that he has one router for several apartments, or, even worse, in a cafe next door, expect problems with a connection that you cannot influence and cannot eliminate. If the owner says that we will put “the Internet tomorrow” - do not believe, the Montenegrins are VERY leisurely in business and it’s good if the network is carried out to you at least in a week and a half.

I advise you to choose an apartment with a good location. So it will be easy for you in a few minutes to drive to the sea, swim and continue to work.

I recommend taking with you not only a laptop, but also a large monitor, a wireless keyboard and mouse. During my first visit I worked for a 15 ”laptop, in the second - for a 24” monitor. With the monitor it turns out more efficiently. By the way, the monitor can be bought here, the price tag is about the same.

Internet in Montenegro

With the Internet in Montenegro, everything is fine, although not so cheap. Fiber optic anlim at 20 megabits from T-Mobile costs 30 euros per month. 1 gigabyte of mobile 3G Internet for 15 days from T-Mobile costs 3 euro. 3G coverage is good.

By the way, about the mobile Internet: at the end of the package validity period, the Internet does not disappear, but it starts charging for wild prices. Notification about the expiration of the package does not come. It seems that the system is made so stupid and intends to get additional money from tourists.

But with the Internet services in Montenegro trouble. Online stores, food ordering services via the Internet, ordering a taxi online, there is simply no adequate bulletin board. The design and usability of most local sites cause almost physical pain. There is a feeling that the local Internet is stuck in the middle of the two thousandth. And it seems that the Montenegrins are completely satisfied.

My schedule

Wake up at 8 am, work for 3 hours, take a dip in the sea, work hard during the heat of the dinner, get to the beach at 5 pm / visit nearby sights, go back at 8-9 pm and do time-consuming tasks until noon distracts. On weekends, in the morning, in a couple of hours, you can run through the routine and deal with quick tasks, and then rush off to another journey along mountain roads, inspect another abandoned fortress, or a high-mountain lake, or a deep canyon or monastery of the 13th century, or rock paintings, which are several dozen. thousands of years. In the evening - go back and do business until late at night.



I can say that I began to spend less time on work, mainly due to traveling on weekends. But on sensations, work efficiency did not decrease, rather the opposite: because of the variety in graphics, it became easier for me to write texts, invent unusual ideas, an almost lost drive appeared.

Difficulties

The main and not quite expected complexity that I encountered when moving is the solution of everyday problems that take a lot of time and distract from business. The search for an apartment, the arrangement of the workplace, the purchase of necessary trifles — all these minor tasks, as a result, eat up quite a lot of time and energy. As soon as these problems are solved, the working life enters its usual measured course. In my second visit, I already knew a lot about Montenegro, and the solution to everyday problems turned out to be much faster and painless.

In addition, it is important not to lose contact with colleagues. No matter how distracting domestic problems are, one should still be as close as possible when working remotely.

And it is also necessary to convey to colleagues the idea that your wife and daughter are resting on the beach day and night, and you are still in the ranks, fully working with one hundred percent return.

What did not like

Yes, there are negative impressions of Montenegro. Little, but there is.

Montenegrins have a stunned nature and have no understanding at all that it should be protected. Garbage in Montenegro can be found not only in solitary places where tourists do not drop in, but also taking just a step to the side from the tourist trail. Here it is dirty and because they do not clean it, and because they scold all and sundry. Throwing a plastic bottle in the bushes or cigarette butt past the trash - a common thing.



Montenegrins smoke a lot. In any cafe or restaurant it is impossible to sit with a child, since several people smoke at the adjacent tables without stopping. Why, even in a shopping center, leaving a child in a playroom is problematic. After all, there is a cafe next to it, each visitor of which smokes several cigarettes in ten minutes - so that real smog hangs in the air of the shopping center.

After some time, the lack of thought and carelessness in the urban infrastructure begins to strike. Broken tiles on the sidewalk, curved asphalt with concrete crumbled patches, on which it is impossible to walk normally with a pram. There are no sidewalks on half the streets, despite heavy traffic. Traffic lights are burning so that only half of the road can go to “green”. The grass on the lawns is often uncut. Sometimes, there are no lanterns, although the nights here are not white at all. In general, in places Montenegro resembles an untidy Soviet sanatorium.

Would you stay for life?

Definitely not. In addition to the above mentioned minuses of the Montenegrin culture, there are a couple of significant shortcomings in immigration to Montenegro.

First, Montenegro is small and provincial. For example, a modern cinema, a large shopping center, a theater is only in the capital and then only in the singular.

Secondly, in the winter in Montenegro, it is very sad: the weather is cool and rainy, and social life, unlike at home, calms down completely.

Thirdly, in Montenegro, the laws work as the local government decides, and most cases are decided by acquaintance. Moreover, it is difficult for immigrants to conduct business here because of the very close attention of inspection bodies: they turn a blind eye to violations at Montenegrin companies, but are judged with the utmost severity for the slightest offense of the company of our former compatriots.

Would you recommend coming to Montenegro to work remotely?

If your work does not depend on the specific office - come to be sure. This is a great experience, a great opportunity to change your habitat for a while and breathe new life into what you do.

Now I am still in Montenegro, but the last time after returning home, I painlessly returned to the former rhythm of work, keeping the charge of the drive for the whole of the next year. By the way, it should be said that for the first time in my entire life, my family and I never got sick for a year. Sure - it's in the sun and the healing air of Montenegro.

By the way, I calculated that due to low-cost rental housing and cheap products, my three-month trip cost was equal to three months of living at home, plus a two-week vacation at sea.



I think it's damn cool to work just like at home, just within walking distance from the beautiful warm sea and the stunning imagination of the high black mountains. I can say for sure that the time spent here in Montenegro is one of the best in my life.

The original article is posted on AIN.UA.


about the author

Alconost is engaged in the localization of applications, games and websites in 60 languages. Language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, 24/7 project managers, any formats of string resources.

We also make advertising and training videos - for websites selling, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliners, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.

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