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Burlington, VT
Estes Park, CO
Guilford or Madison, CT
Bar Harbor, ME (or many other coastal towns in ME)
Carmel, CA
Frisco, CO
Edgartown, MA
Some of these might not seem that remote, but they are to me. They would require me likely forgoing working at a larger company in my industry, and strictly working remotely.
Big city remote I can do. I'm sure I would be fine with Minneapolis, Denver. Probably Albuquerque and even Honolulu.
Now what's the smallest town that I would live in that's not next to a large city? Maybe Asheville, Chattanooga or Portland (ME), if 2 hours away from a big city is "remote"
I lived in Hays, Kansas for a while. It was okay, but I'd prefer not to move back there. 1.5 hours to Salina, city of 50K, 3-4 hours to Wichita 600K, and about 6 hours to Denver.
Living remote isn't hard as long as it's a decent town and something interesting near by. A lot of coastal towns in Maine look interesting and I like some small towns up in Montana or Wyoming as well.
Somewhere that is at least a half-day's drive away from any big city is our minimum remoteness requirement. At the same time, ideally it is within a 30-minute drive to a town with grocery store, post office, gas station, library, a couple of restaurants, and a hardware store. Occasional inconvenience is worth the extra travel time, if the setting is peaceful, private, low-population-density, naturally beautiful, and retains much of its wildness despite human habitation.
Taos is remote but still has access to some sophisticated stuff...not just a Walmart or Dollar General sort of small town.
Wealthy resort towns are like that. Rich tourists want "specialty" shops, not chain stores they can find all over the country. Some of them specifically prohibit big box stores, not that those stores would bother locating in such places anyway. Rent too high, volume of business waaaaay too low, lack of workforce.
When I think of remote, I definitely don't think of most of the cities that have been named by others. I guess with all the "gimmicks" of technology now, remote doesn't retain it's true form.
That being said, Eureka, CA or Forks, WA would be fine by me. Both are away from major cities by a long shot, both have mild climates, both close to the water (Eureka is coastal), somewhat affordable, and still at least have cell service.
Some of these answers are...interesting. Carmel? I don't remember having to carry water from the well when I lived there.
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