Travel trend: Workation

In 2014 more vacationers pack their jobs in their suitcases. Entrepreneurs and freelancers have been taking so-called “workations” for some time, but now even more nine-to-fivers are using the increased flexibility that technology offers, to travel while continuing to work at their full-time jobs from the road.

“A warm breeze flutters the gauzy fabric of my sundress as we open our laptops to start the workday. It’s 1:00 p.m. in Santa Cruz, Chile, 9:00 a.m. on the West Coast in the U.S. — and day 17 of our workation.”

Some people turn workations into a lifestyle like Vanessa Edwards, a writer and an entrepreneur. Vanessa describes herself as an urban nomad. “Urban Nomads are a new generation of worker travelers that transplant themselves to different cities across the globe to both build and find career and adventure opportunities. They want to escape the 9-5, make passive income and work at what they love from any location in the world.”

I also sense that the workation-vibe thrives in a different context. Some people create a particular project around a travel-experience they want to have. I stumbled upon an amazing adventure recently: the Locavaux bus project. Three music-lovers converted a  School Bus to a traveling house/studio.They used the bus in the summer of 2013, to make a film about local music throughout the United States and “explore the unique relationship between local musicians and the communities in which they perform.” They even made a portable stage on the roof of the bus to be able to invite bands to perform in a great spontaneous outdoor setting.

Extend your travels: It’s not always a good thing that work intervenes with our vacations. How healthy it is to switch off work totally sometimes! But the workation as a way of being able to extend your travels (because you make money to cover expenses along the way) is perfect. It enables you to deepen your travel-experience and it helps you, getting to know a city/country much better than when you’re only running from one touristic highlight to another for a short period of time. Apart from that… when you’re picking up a local research project as well, you will gain even more inspiration/insights from your trip.

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