How To Add Some Fun When Traveling For Work
Traveling for work can be exhausting, boring, and even lead to burnout. The truth is you can easily turn your next business trip into a “workcation” or “bleisure travel.” What is this bleisure travel, you ask? Bleisure travel is the combination of the words “business” and “leisure,” and it is essentially the act of adding fun to work trips. It’s a segment of business travel that’s quickly growing in popularity among many professionals and businesses boosting team building.
According to the Harvard Business Review, 6 out of 10 business professionals add a few days to their business trips. This trend of bleisure came about due to lines being blurred with work and home life. You know how many companies say to leave home life at home when you come to work and to leave work at work when you come home? Well, with the advancements in technology, it makes work easily accessible at our fingertips even while at home.
We’re going to look at ways to ditch “all work and no play” and replace it with a good balance of business and pleasure… also known as Bleisure. Check out the following tips!
Plan Your Bleisure Trip
Pack with a Plan: Business and Leisure
To pack with a plan means your suitcase should be filled with the essentials needed for both aspects of your trip: the business side and the fun side. For the business side, you’ll want to pack things like your business attire, laptop, legal pad/pens/highlighters, reading glasses, and presentation materials. For the fun side, you may pack a swimsuit/swim trunks, sunglasses, and a few outfit options for going out.
Explore the Nightlife
Some companies make a point to plan at least one night out on the town for everyone to let their hair down and have a genuinely good time outside of business hours. Companies will even spare no expense for their employees by providing VIP treatment. Employees can experience the “work hard, play even harder” aspect of business trips with free entry, bottle service, an even free drinks! Exploring the nightlife is definitely an added perk to business travel.
*Just keep in mind that you’re still on a business trip, so go easy on the drinks and remain professional*
Indulge in the Local Eateries
One of the biggest perks of traveling for work is the food there. A big no-no with traveling, whether it’s for business or personal, is eating at chain restaurants. To eat at a location that you can get in your home town really defeats one of the perks of travel. Whether it’s for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, take the time to dine at some of the local eateries in the city… your taste buds will appreciate your efforts.
Treat Your Mind, Body, and Spirit to a Spa Treatment
Traveling, in general, can place wear and tear on your body, but to incorporate traveling with work too… that can send your body into pure exhaustion. Jet lag is a real thing, so if you have time during your trip, try a plan a spa session.
According to CNN, many spa companies are making their menus more accommodating to business travelers by adding spa sessions that are 30 minutes or less due to travelers busy schedules. These services are called “express treatments.”
The goal of spas is to help people relax and reduce stress. From flights to meetings, those can cause immense stress to business travelers and an express treatment is a perfect solution to helping these business travelers get balanced and refreshed for the next work-related task or project. Popular spa treatments among business travelers include:
- Facials
- Manicures/Pedicures
- Deep Tissue Massages
- Body Wraps
- Swedish Massages
Don’t Slack Off on Your Workouts
If you are someone who works out regularly, then a business trip shouldn’t stop your exercise routine. Now, there might be time differences and business meetings that might make workouts difficult to adhere to but you just have to plan around them. Working out is known to reduce stress and boost your metabolism and for a business trip, working out can be very beneficial to your performance during these trips.
If there isn’t a gym in the area that you’re a member of, you can take full advantage of your hotel’s gym. You’ll want to either wake up early to work out before your day starts or workout at the end of your day, but working out before your day starts is ideal… you’ll be refreshed for whatever the day will throw at you!
How do you incorporate fun into your business trips? Please comment below!
This post was sponsored.
Business Travel Life
Business Travel Life is an online resource supporting the road warrior lifestyle. We give business travelers the tools they need to maintain their wellness and productivity when traveling. The topics we cover include business travel tips, travel workouts, healthy travel hacks, travel products, general travel tips, and industry trends. Our goal is to make business travel a healthier experience – and to make healthy travel practices more accessible to all road warriors.