A workation usually means spending a limited period somewhere different while continuing to work. The attraction is easy to understand: finish your working day and step into a new place. The difficult part is expecting the same week to behave like both full-time work and a full-time holiday.
Start by deciding what success would look like. Perhaps it is a normal, productive week with a swim afterwards and an afternoon exploring at the weekend. That is a more useful plan than a long list of sights you have no time to visit.
Put the working hours in local time
Write down your meetings and deadlines in the destination's time zone before choosing accommodation. Consider seasonal clock changes during your dates. A quiet afternoon at home may become an evening of calls abroad.
Talk to your employer or clients about availability. If you are employed, get approval for the country and dates rather than assuming that permission to work from home covers working abroad. Ask the appropriate advisers about immigration, tax, insurance and employment requirements for your circumstances.
Book for a working Tuesday
Check desk and chair photographs, recent internet information, call space and access hours. Ask who can help with a problem and what a realistic backup would be. A café nearby is only a useful alternative if you can actually work there at the time you need.
Read our monthly accommodation comparison to separate included services from extras. Add any duplicate housing costs, transport and workspace fees to your own budget.
Separate work days from leave days
If you want a long excursion, give it a day of its own. Arriving before an important deadline or moving rooms between meetings can make a short stay harder than it needs to be.
A simple pattern might be working on weekdays, keeping two evenings free for plans, and taking one genuine day off. Leave room to change that pattern once you understand the place.
Review the experiment before extending it
At the end of the first week, ask: did I work comfortably, sleep well enough, enjoy the place and stay within my budget? What created unnecessary friction?
A successful workation does not need to become permanent nomad life. It can simply show you a different way to spend a working week. Our planned Beeloha locations are being designed with that ordinary working week in mind.