Coworking Week Location - 2025

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Decision time! :slight_smile: We have to decide where to go for the cowoking week.

A Coliving Space?

One thing that I have been wanting to do for years for the coworking week is to host it in a coliving space. If you have never been to one, from the outside it can look like a kind of hotel with a coworking space, but the good ones actually feel quite different from a hotel or an Airbnb. It has an emphasis shared spaces, which makes them a great place for community and serendipitously shared experiences. You might come alone and know nobody the first day, and a week later have a group of 10 new friends :blush:

We are no strangers already, so I have been curious to see how that would play out for our group. But it’s a bit tricky to find a coliving space that can host as many people as we are, as we need a lot of rooms. It can also be a bigger budget than smaller Airbnbs. But this year, it looks like we have options :slight_smile:

Option 1 - Normandy, France - Chateau Coliving

How about renting an entire chateau in Normandy? :grin:

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Read the PDF presentation, it’s worth it :) (18.3 MB)

Pluses:

  • It’s based in an active coliving space, though it would be privatized for us – so I know it would be a good coliving experience :slight_smile:
  • It’s in a beautiful region of France (not like the Parisian suburbs of the conference week!! :scream:)
  • Despite the decadent looks :stuck_out_tongue: the price is actually fairly reasonable for the place - it’s about the same cost as what it looks like accommodation will cost in Paris for the conference week (with some caveats, see below)

Minuses:

  • It can only be privatized the week before the conference, so that would make the coworking week the last week of June (23-30th), instead of the second week of July
  • They have plenty of space, but only 18 bedrooms, and we are currently counting 22 people attending. So to be able to go there, some of us would need to either share a room, or setup our own tent in the (huge) park around the castle.

Option 2 - Vilnius, Lithuania - Solo Society Coliving

For the second option, I asked a retreat company to find us a space somewhere in Europe, and they came up with a potential good option:

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Their description: "Vilnius City House offers a unique opportunity to fully experience the city while enjoying a comfortable, private, and sustainable coliving space in the heart of Vilnius. Its small distance from both the airport and the city center is a great advantage, allowing you to use public transport and reduce transportation costs. The venue is ideally located near cafes, restaurants, galleries, and the vibrant Old Town. The coliving space includes all necessary amenities such as a gym, coworking areas, study rooms, and a cinema room, all with no hidden fees. Each floor features a large communal kitchen where you can prepare your favorite meals, and every room is equipped with a small kitchen, enhancing your comfort. With its modern design and pleasant atmosphere, this venue is a popular coliving and coworking hub, and you will surely feel at home here."

Pluses, aside from the above:

  • There are enough rooms to all have our own room
  • It’s close to the center of a major city
  • It’s a bit cheaper (though only about ~10% cheaper than the castle, when taking into account transportation costs)

Minuses:

  • It’s also a coliving space, but it looks much less focused on community - the experience might end up being closer to a hotel (but would likely still be nice!)
  • It’s a longer trip than staying in France, especially taking into account getting to & through airports

Option 3 - Budapest, Hungary - Individual Airbnbs

This is the approach we have discussed so far, and the closest to what we usually do for our coworking week, so I am also including it here.

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We haven’t searched for Airbnbs there yet, but it looks like there are still quite a few options:

Pluses:

  • We would all have our own room
  • It would be within a major city
  • We would have a good local tour guide :stuck_out_tongue:
  • It’s the cheapest of the 3 options (by ~30-35%)

Minuses:

  • We would be split out in many different houses
  • It’s a longer trip than staying in France, especially taking into account getting to & through airports

Vote!

What location would you prefer? (stack ranking)

==> Vote here! <==

Since we will need to start booking soon, the voting will end in a week, on January 17th.

Accommodation preference

And a second poll, in case we go to Chateau Coliving – for your accomodation there:

  • I would like my own room
  • I could share my room with someone else, but I want to pick my roomate!
  • I could share my room with anyone
  • I could sleep in a tent in the park
0 voters
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Wow Xavier, super options! Thank you!

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Thanks Xavier! All the places look beautiful! I voted for “my own room” because my wife will probably accompany me on the trip. I hope that won’t be a problem. Thanks!

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@ChrisChV No worries - that’s exactly the type of reasons why it’s worth asking :slight_smile:

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Same here, I voted for “My own room”. As I’m planning to bring by wife and 2-year-old daughter with me.

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@antoviaque The castle is still 35% more expensive including transport? In comparison to Budapest? Those are my two best options. I saw it could be cheap going to Budapest from Paris, but not always. So I’m not sure which is cheaper. Just going from Paris to the countryside and paying more for the castle, or just leaving Paris and going to Budapest, but paying less for accomodation.

I also voted for Budapest to consider some advantages of being in a city which is meeting locals.

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@antoviaque These sound like great options! One concern with Europe in general in June/July is the heat. I noticed a review of the Vilnius option which says:

Keep in mind that there is no air conditioning and in the summer it was impossibly hot in the rooms. It made sleeping quite difficult most nights and there was no way to cool down. For that reason I wouldn’t be able to stay there again during the warm months. Also, the website advertises a "gym’ in the building, but it’s just a few pieces of equipment and is more akin to a small hotel studio gym or even smaller.

Could you check that with them? Then I’m also wondering about the Chateau, would it have AC (or would the castle-style stone design keep it cool enough)?

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Well, yes, it’s… a castle! :stuck_out_tongue: While the Airbnbs in Budapest would be your average apartment.

The pricing is actually super good for the castle, generally coliving spaces or houses with so many rooms are much more expensive per room than smaller houses. It’s likely a factor of rarity – and why generally we have to split up in many places. The fact that the large place in Vilnius is 30% more than the Airbnbs reflects that - what is surprising is to be able to get the same price as in Vilnius but in France and in a large luxury castle, rather than having to pay 5x times the price of small average Airbnbs.

Good question, I’ll ask - I have never been to Vilnius so I haven’t considered that aspect, but from what I can see on Weatherspark the temperatures should be quite reasonable:

In Europe in general there is rarely A/C anywhere aside from some hotels, the houses with it are the rare exception.

For the castle, I’ll ask too, but yes big stones can be a pretty good substitute to A/C :) Also, Normandy has a relatively cool weather, due to being in the north of France and by the sea:

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Btw, if it wasn’t clear enough from my presentation above, and to not regret not saying it afterwards – I highly recommend selecting the castle coliving! :) If I picked for the group by myself, I would select that option in a heartbeat. Of course, it’s not just me going there ;p – especially, some of us need to be ok with sharing a room, so it’s up to the group for voting, and no worries if you really don’t like the idea.

But if you are unsure, trust me on that one. I have been to many places and communities around the world, and I know the week we would spend there would be exceptional.

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Hi everyone,
This is Katia from Chateau Coliving in Normandy. Xavier invited me to the chat so I can directly answer your questions.

Regarding weather - June is the best month in Normandy - the weather gets warm and sunny but never too hot, so we don’t use air conditioning. The climate in Normandy is not comparable to the south of France or south of Europe.

We are close to the ocean, in a big green park with massive trees and in solid stone buildings, so heat is for sure not an issue. For reference we’re usually still using a bit of heating until May and then often restarting it again around the end of August.

If you have more questions about the space or things to to do around, I’m happy to answer

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My plans aren’t final yet, so I’ve selected both options for my own room and to share with anyone since I don’t mind sharing if I’m there alone, but would otherwise like my own room if my partner can come along.

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@antoviaque Excited that we’re finalising these plans! I can’t wait to see the results.

PS: Normandy surrounds look BEAUTIFUL. And the castle is crazy :astonished:

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As a quick aside - for the accommodation during the week of the conference, we have found a hotel close to the venue which can accommodate most of us. It was actually cheaper than the Airbnbs, which are expensive around Paris, and for once the hotel is actually cuter than most houses in this area:

https://lemoulindelily.com/en/home/

Depending on our exact count, we might still need to book 1-2 Airbnbs, but that solves most of our accommodation for that week in one go. And while it won’t quite be the same as a coliving space, we will still be closer from each other, as the Airbnbs in this area are far and few, and spread out.

It’s still a 15 minutes drive to the venue, but that will also make it easier to share Ubers - maybe even use Uber vans if some are available.

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@braden I have a reply about your question for the venue in Vilnius:

I have checked the information regarding the climate, and the average temperature in Vilnius in July typically ranges between 16°C and 24°C, with summer temperatures generally being mild. However, there can occasionally be warmer days.

Solo Society City House is currently taking this feedback into consideration and exploring solutions to enhance the comfort of all guests, with the aim of having improvements in place by this summer. I hope this clears up your question.

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Thank you for offering several different alternatives to choose from; this is nice! The Château coliving experience looks really interesting, but I prefer the other two options because of their less secluded locations, which offer much more in terms of casual activities (transit options/walkability and business hours).

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On the topic of the price, does Budapest option account for the fact that we would need to rent a coworking space? The other two options kind of come with it included. Although, the castle only comes with 14 seats in the workspace room.

The castle sounds like a dream come true. At the same time, I’m not comfortable with the idea of having to share a room with someone for a week, and the fact that it’s secluded, restricts our options. Plus, I would imagine that food/activities would be expensive because of that.

On the topic of heat, I’m not that concerned - in my experience, usually the worst heat waves are between end of July and mid September. As long as it’s below 30 C, especially during the night, I don’t think it would be a problem.

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@KatiaDimova Could you tell us more about the Murder Mystery Night? It sounds interesting, but I wasn’t able to find more information about it.

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This is a valid point!

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Just to clarify about the coworking space - it fits up to 40 people if arranged theatre style (for a presentation or similar), but to sit and work around 15 would be most comfortable. With that said here are other places to work from in addition to the coworking including the big dining room of the Chateau (which is different than the kitchen where people eat), the dining of the Manor, outdoor seating where there is internet coverage and desks in the rooms, so there is plenty of space to work if you don’t need to all be together at the same time.

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The Murder Mystery is a super fun game to play with a team and is very professionally done. In brief: we set up a storyline, everyone receives a character description with a back story, secrets, information and objectives - you have to prepare your character, even better if you dress up etc. Then we gather for dinner (one of our team facilitates) and you start playing and trying to reach your objectives (such as get information, get money, convince someone to do something etc, etc.). Half way through the game a “murder” happens - one of you is the victim and one is the killer. each of you receives a new set if information and objectives and you have to find out who is the murderer and why, while the objective of the murderer is to frame someone else and remain unsuspected. It is sort of a deception game but with a full professionally written backstory. It’s very suitable for a team. It lasts one evening, depending how much people get into character and into the game around 2 hours or more, you can have drinks and snacks while playing and it is dynamic you don’t have to stay around the table

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