Worka-what? Workation is the contraction of WORK with VACATION, and that’s exactly what it is. Two contradictory words at glance but the pandemic forced most of us to work from home, so why not move your home office to the beach or the mountains. You do your work from behind your laptop exactly like you would do at home, but the moments when you are not working suddenly become a lot more interesting.
The growth of remote working comes with new freedom. Going for a walk in a new environment instead of the same old walk around the block, starting your day with a swim in the ocean instead of your daily commute, climbing a mountain peak over the weekend instead of spending your Sunday with Netflix as your loyal companion. Pretty sure it will raise your energy levels, not only after working hours but as well during your work. It sure did for me. Continue reading to find out about our personal workation experience. If you’re considering a workation yourself, learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of a workation first.
Why we went on a workation
We are November 2020. We spent most of our days at home behind our laptops. I – working in tourism – was mainly working on back office tasks and figuring out what to do with my life now that this pandemic has brought the tourism industry to its knees. Benjamin – in market research – was mostly running from one Teams meeting into another. Crazy busy, what’s not really unusual in market research, but the fun in-betweeners were non-existent. Having a casual talk with a colleague in the kitchen, taking a ‘mental break’ in the car when driving back to the office after a client meeting, a Friday after work drink, … all gone.
Some days we did not even go outside. We luckily made up for that during the weekends, going for a run or a walk in nearby parks. What else was there to do? Our social agendas were second to none, no family visits, no dinner parties, no meetups in a cosy bar, …
And then it struck me. If all we do is teleworking and going for walks, why not temporarily relocate to a place where the walks are a bit more interesting. I always dreamt about the digital nomad lifestyle but always thought it was not for me, as I am not a freelancer or IT specialist. But now I could get at least a taste of working remotely. A few days later we loaded the car and left for Austria.
How a working day looks like
Our rental apartment surpassed our expectations. We had mountain panoramas from our living room and from our bedroom, with a different angle. Some mornings we went for a short walk before breakfast and others we took our breakfast to have it on the go. Even the days that we did not go out in the morning, started out well. Opening the curtains in the morning and wondering how the mountains would look like that day was already worth getting out of bed for. Contact me for the apartment details if you want to have this view in the morning yourself.
I placed my laptop strategically so I could stare over the mountains now and then. The days were short, so if we wanted to go out on a working day it was best done during lunch. On a sunny day, if we didn’t have the time for a walk, we just had lunch on our terrace. Tucked in, but so good to feel the warmth of the sun on your skin in November. With a fresh portion of Vitamin D and a smile on my face I continued the rest of my working day. In the evening we (read: I) cooked, had a good dinner, spend more time behind our laptops or watched a movie. Not being at your own home -where there are always chores waiting- made it easier to just relax.
A blessing in disguise, due to COVID I was on furlough some days so I could go on a longer run or walk every now and then. I took care of groceries, laundry and – the more fun part – planning our weekend hikes, so we could fully enjoy during the weekends.
How a weekend day looks like
No need to put this in words. Let the pictures speak for itself.
Our weekends suddenly got a whole lot more exciting than in Belgium. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to bash Belgium. It’s a good country to live in. We have interesting cities, a good cuisine, the best beers in the world, … We have some peaceful nature reserves where you can go for a walk. BUT… there are no mountain panoramas, no peaks to climb, no challenging hikes. We really love the feeling of being in the mountains. Spending time outside, challenging yourself during a hike, being surrounded by beautiful nature and mesmerizing peaks. You feel tired at the end of the day, but at the same time you get so much energy out of it.
If you want to learn more about the hikes we took in the Vorarlberg region in Austria, I will make a collection of my favourite hikes mapped out on Komoot in the future. Let me know if you’re waiting for it to give me that extra push to get it done ;-).
Our temporary home in the snow 
Capturing the ever changing view from the apartment
Would we do it again?
Absolutely! As soon as we got home, we looked into our next workation destination. After all this mountain and snow time, we longed for some warmer temperatures and some winter sun. Morocco? Canary Islands?
But then – to our great disappointment – the Belgian government announced a travel ban for all non-essential travels mid-January so we had to forget about our plans. Instead of being lifted earlier like we hoped for, the travel ban had been extended till April 18th. We carefully start designing a new workation idea for the beginning of May. This time the vacation part will be a bit more substantial, as we have some days off work during our stay. In the meantime the travel ban has been lifted and that’s our cue to continue our workation planning. If all goes well, we leave on May 8th to Croatia. Nothing is certain these days, travel restrictions can change in an instant and we’ll need a negative PCR test, but we are hopeful. Fingers crossed!
Check out the benefits and challenges (yes, it’s not all light and bright) of a workation to decide if it’s something for you.
