One of the biggest trends in travel is the combination of business and leisure in one trip. A new major study says Americans will soon enjoy this combo to the tune of $370 billion work-travel annually. Is it a dream? Is it a nightmare? Is it a great way to take off, work part time remotely, save vacation days?  Is it possible to write off the trip cost? Will you not miss a great opportunity because of a one-off meeting?

I remember when we enjoyed the annual two-week vacation. We had no mobile phones, no one called internationally, and we were in a true fantasy bubble doe 14 days. Then work became more competitive; some women stopped taking vacations for fear they would look “lazy”. Others used time off to complete tedious household chores, to move or have a medical procedure.

The pandemic and electronics changed the game.

During The Women’s Travel Group tours, we now see women merging work/volunteerism and vacation. There is even a new word for this trend: workcation.

Recently we had a lady on a Women’s Travel Group tour who participated in all the walks, treatments etc. of the Ixtapan Spa/Fitness week we offer. In between, she worked on her computer. The work was done correctly and in a timely manner. Her three full weeks were a pleasant combo of workcation. Working in a hotel room can be a cool break from working in your home.

In another situation, one participant had a major speech to deliver to a global audience. She wanted to join a particular trip, but the speech was in the middle of the trip. Simple solution: we asked the hotel for its strongest Wi-Fi and for a quiet space. They offered their conference center. She walked over to the center, delivered the speech and returned to the tour.

I had a personal obligation to fulfill while on vacation. The General Meeting of property I own was during vacation.  I tested the Wi-Fi on the balcony of the hotel room. I updated Zoom, an app which seems to need frequent updates. The meeting went smoothly. And I was able to tease the others by showing them the tropical foliage below the hotel balcony.

Here is what you need to effectively have a work vacation:

• Light weight computer or a smart phone/ tablet. If you have not updated devices, do it now. There are phone companies begging you to move your carrier and offering you new phones. I have one on my desk from T Mobile.
• Buy the right adapters to fit electrical outlets. No converter needed, just adapters for overseas outlets. If you are confused as to choice, most adapters have letter identifications. i.e.: ‘E’ is used in much of Western Europe and has a 2 round prongs and a third prong. The third is for grounding. If you use electronic devices, only use grounded adapters. They are safer in power surges and thunder storms.  (We had a power surge in Central Asia on a Women’s Travel Group trip, the adapter burned but the computer survived. The adapter was grounded.
• Your devices should have a calculator and possibly a scanner (no scanner, do screen shots)
• Wi-Fi. For most work you do not need to pay for higher levels of hotel Wi-Fi.
• Hotel room with a workstation and hopefully USB ports. Try to work on a bed, auto fill will destroy you and the bed will destroy your back.
• Possibly a VPN phone line. One of our travelers has both a VPN and regular phone line. She uses the VPN, a secure line, for banking while overseas. There are many choices of VPN and they are cheap. One issue with VPN lines, is they cannot be used certain incoming payments like Paypal. Also some companies will not allow connection to a VPN.
• Whatsapp, an application for overseas texting and phone calls. It has 2 layers of security embedded in the app. Your business partners will need to load this onto their phones also. Corporate communications might not allow WhatsApp.
• Zoom app updated and tested. Yes you can use Zoom on a phone. If a frequent user, consider getting a small phone holder, so you can write and look at the screen simultaneously.
• Filing system for receipts. Ask you accountant about writing off some of the trip.
• An old fashioned pad of paper and a pen are still a must.

You will need basic skills of creating a folder, putting a title on documents so you can find them later. You need to tolerate possible phone calls and texts not on your time zone. Ick…

But you can now enjoy your meeting in a Parisian cafe with an espresso and croissant and keep that vacation day. Or as I did, overlook tropical gardens in a bathing suit during a serious property meeting.