COWORKING COLIVING - SOMEWHERE DIFFERENT

Coworking Coliving – Somewhere Different. Digital Nomad Houses & Hotels designed purely for location-independent, remote working professionals.

What to expect when staying - Somewhere Different

Currently, one house is located in the Sahara Desert, the other in the North of England.  Both very different locations and experiences, both with the same Somewhere Different culture of work hard in the week, play hard at the weekend and the same remote working values. These are:

Coworking – Good quiet coworking rooms with dedicated desks

Coliving – Affordable clean, quiet accommodation designed for  digital nomads

Cost – Our locations are in low cost of living areas. You are not on holiday, it’s a way of life.

Wifi – It’s all about the connection speed and insuring 24/7 7 days a week uptime.

Weather – Not too hot or cold, a good working climate is the focus.

Wow – We live up to our name and where ever you stay with us,  it will be Somewhere Different.

Weekend trips out are included in your monthly membership cost. Being productive at the same time as experiencing Somewhere Different is what we focus on providing you. See you out on the dunes.

Who is the Somewhere Different team?

Somewhere Different is owned and run by Duncan Ridgley. We are a small hands-on business and do everything ourselves. I am writing this copy for starters.

Duncan Ridgley – You can see my CV here. Was full-time nomad for 5 years before setting up Somewhere Different to how it is now. I am hands-on currently running Blackpool and hopefully based in Egypt next winter. Work & travel, online marketing and photography are my areas of interest. 

Gabriel – 21, from Italy. He lives at Somewhere Different Blackpool and is hands-on doing whatever is needed from updating data cables to mopping the floor. His online thing is eBay – buying and selling 🙂

Fathi Malin – Fath is “our man on the ground” in Egypt.  As we are currently closed there so its fixing pipes and collecting the olive harvest for now. Fathi is very entrepreneurial and will love to hear your startup ideas when you go Somewhere Different Egypt.

Working Travellers – They say the CEO should eat his own dog food. I own Workingtraveller.com and I use it to fill all my seasonal skill needs. Currently, we have two hard-working girls from Brazil helping us here in Blackpool.

Join the Team – We are expanding even under Captain Corina and always looking for great people to join the team part or full time. See the Job section for our current needs.

More information about the company.

Our back story and where we see it all going

I get asked all the time ” Why did you choose an oasis in the desert and tourist town in the UK? “

2004 – Left corp world to set up Somewhere Different in Argam Bay Sri Lanka. I wrote a book about my travels there with my family.

2005 – Change of plan due to Tsunami and opened a boutique hotel made of mud in Egypt instead.

2007 – Opened the second hotel up a mountain in Transylvania.  Due to divorce is no longer part of the Somewhere Different portfolio.

2013 – Idea of coworking and coliving was born. I started to build Tree Houses & Hobbit Houses up in the forest for backpackers working online in Transylvania. Project on hold since 2014. Hopefully will be completed in 2023/4.

2014 – Took a break from hotels and worked as a Digital Nomad till 2020 running Ontop.agency.

2019 – Converted Somewhere Different Egypt to a coworking coliving house and was busy till Captain Corona closed us down.

2020 – Saw the opportunity to charge the same in Blackpool as in the desert and opened Somewhere Different UK in Nov.

2021 – Open for the winter season in Egypt from Nov to March 2022 as long as the fibre optic connection to the Villa goes live in early 2021. Somewhere Different Blackpool will stay open all year round. 

2022 – As long as Starlink goes according to plan, open 60 acres of land we have on a lake in the oasis for a truly desert experience. 

2023 – Finish the Hobbit House project and open in 2024 from Easter to Halloween each year. 

Restoring a Victorian House under Captain Corona

The saying ” Don’t count the days, make each day count” in LockDown or Loch Doon as I called it kept me going. Having lived abroad for 15 years, to come straight back into lockdown and UK ways of doing construction under lockdown, was a challenge for sure.  If anyone asks me in the future ” What was lockdown like for you?” it will be really simple. I will point them to my ” Restoring Blackpool” playlist on my youtube channel.

We started the restoration just as Lockdown started in 2020 and finished just as it ended. If you are interested click on the image and it will take you Somewhere Different’s YouTube channel 🙂

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