5 Useful Tips for “Bleisure” Travelers

Not every travel is a vacation. It could be a business trip. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be both. In fact, more and more people today have found the right mix of business and leisure on the trip, influencing the marketers to coin a new term – ʽbleisureʼ.

This fairly new trend seems quite obvious – if your company already sent you to some destination for business, why not extend that trip a bit to explore that destination for your own leisure? Since your company is already covering the cost of the business portion, you’ll get a pretty cheap vacation trip. So if you’re someone who goes on regular business trips, it’s about time to take advantage of that.

On the other hand, traveling for both – business and pleasure – requires a bit different planning from your usual vacation. In addition to your mandatory travel gadgets, you need to be aware of a few more things, especially if you’re traveling to a new country alone. That’s why we’ve put together a few tips for making the most of your leisure in the midst of business.

1. Pick The Right Destination

If you’re a lucky one that goes on several business trips per year, you should pick wisely when deciding which one of them to extend into a leisure trip. Although ʽbleisureʼ vacations cost much less, they still cost and you don’t want to waste your money. It’s best to pay attention to which of your business conferences take place during the off-peak season in a certain location. This is the time of many financial perks, including lower hotel rates, which makes it the best option.

And pay special attention when it comes to booking hotels. You need to find yourself in the ones that cater both to business and leisure. Depending on the type of business and vacation preferences everyone has its own list of requirements, but we can agree that free and strong WiFi is in the first place when it comes to both. You probably need a firm chair and a desk that will keep you concentrated on the work and a comfortable sleeping area. Then you can pass on to more personal preferences such as coffee maker, microwave, bar fridge, etc.

2. Expect The Unexpected

Since you’ve already found a hotel that will cover both of your business and pleasure needs, you’re probably gonna stay in it until the end of your trip. So why not try asking them to extend the corporal rate to your personal portion? This may seem like a pretty unexpected question, but it’s actually far from it. Hotels want your loyalty, and allowing the discount for some additional days is one of the simpler ways to get it.

On the other hand, the unexpected also may come as a financial loss. Your company should cover your security and safety, but only for the business part of the stay. All the safety-related services provided by your company such as 24/7 helpline, concierge services, risk intelligence, and travel insurance will cease to exist with the start of your leisure extension. So, in case something unexpected happens, you should always contact your accident claims lawyers before the trip just to make sure your pre-paid and non-refundable costs for the leisure part will be insured.

3. Don’t Skip Research

If you wait to finish with your work to figure out what you want to see, you won’t see much. In order to really see the best of your destination, you’ll need to do a bit of advance planning. Try to find some local newspapers or visit the blogs which have online event listings so you’ll know what’s happening on the dates you’ll be there. If you find some events you’re interested in you can even book tickets in advance. Furthermore, it’s definitely an advantage to have the experience and the knowledge of the locals, taxi drivers, and hotel staff that will be able to help you in your search of things you wish to see. You don’t even need to go further than your Facebook profile where you can simply post questions on the Solo Travel Society page.

4. Make The Most of Your Time

Sometimes business trips leave us some downtime even if we don’t plan the leisure extension. But if we do, even better – you can use that downtime to explore the area even before your vacation part starts. That way you’ll get to know the destination sooner and maximize your time for sightseeing the important stuff.

Now that you have your list of food and drink shops, wine bars and restaurants, art exhibits, etc. you shouldn’t waste your time on public transport. On figuring the way it works, that is. Sometimes arriving from point A to point B takes the most of our time, so you should consider some ridesharing apps that will provide you with more time on your destinations, opportunity to meet and chat with local people, and a fairly discount on the ride. Of course, if the weather is nice and you’re not in a rush, there’s nothing better than wandering around on foot.

If you’re bringing your family along for the trip, make arrangements that they join you after your business obligations are over. Having them around from the start might affect your concentration and prolong your tasks. This way you’ll be carefree and able to hang out with them with no distractions.

5. Don’t Underestimate Tours

There just may not be enough time, and tours are still the best way to make sure you’ll see all of the destination’s highlights. First of all, you won’t need to hop on and off buses alone trying to find your way around. Secondly, there are many specialized tours where you can pick something specific to your interests such as local food tours, architecture and monuments, craft breweries, graffiti walking, etc. And thirdly, you can always get additional advice and tips from your guide.

And this is how you make the most of your ʽbleisureʼ trip – you carefully choose the destination and do a research on it, but still prepared for the unexpected. After that, all that’s left is to spend your time right.

6. Pack responsibly

Try to take not too much stuff for your trip. Believe me, you won’t need half of it.

If you are planning to take some gadgets or tools, always look for some small and handy travel replacements. E.g. there are small travel irons, small laptops. Then you can pass on to more personal preferences such as coffee maker, microwave, bar fridge, etc. And if the room doesn’t have a coffee maker you could always bring a small one in your suitcase.