6 ways to avoid feeling lonely when you travel for business

Dear travellers,

As a business travel agency, we know very well that travelling alone for business can seem exciting initially, but like with everything, it also has its downsides. Being away from family and friends, the changes to your sleep cycles and daily routine, fast food, a busy meeting schedule or a bad hotel choice, can turn your business trip into an experience you wish you’d avoided. In these cases, travelling alone can become a chore rather than a healthy space for spending alone time.

By managing your business trips better, you can transform your experience radically, which is why we have decided to compile some advice so that travelling alone can be valuable, rather than a burden, both for your professional and personal life.

 

To feel less lonely, the first thing we should do is take care of our physical and mental health, and we will only be able to do this if we keep up with our healthy habits while we travel. People that most enjoy their business trips try to be disciplined with their routines, whether that be diet, daily reading, exercise or medication time.

If you use travel as an excuse to “break your routine”, try at least once to stick to it. We promise that you won’t want to break it ever again.

 

Another important point about travelling alone for business and enjoying the travel experience at the same time is making time to get to know the area you are in. This is why it is important to negotiate two things with your company. Firstly, choose a hotel that is well-located from which you have easy access to places of interest. Secondly, organise a meeting schedule that is compatible with your life. Some companies try to keep costs low during business trips by choosing hotels far from downtown areas or packing their employees’ schedules full of business meetings. The ideal situation would be to do the opposite; plan your schedule efficiently in order to devote time to tourist and leisure activities. This stimulates creativity, reduces stress and means you will have a more positive attitude when it comes to work.

In fact, the current trend is to make the most of the trip and to set aside a few days for leisure during work trips, especially if it is a destination you have never visited before.  

 

This is an important point so that you don’t get lonely while you travel: don’t work in your hotel room. The idea of being in pyjamas on your laptop may seem like a romantic notion to some, but any experienced freelancer will tell you THAT IT ISN’T (laughing emoji).

If your hotel does not have a communal workspace, look for a coworking space that you can use to work at for a few days or a café nearby, or even a public library. Remember that separating the space where we work from the space where we sleep is vital for our wellbeing. Working in public spaces is also an opportunity to meet new people and strike up pleasant and unexpected conversation.

Picking up the previous point… another important habit to consider during business trips so that you don’t get lonely is to go out for dinner. Pick a restaurant where you can try local cuisine, take a walk there, choose a place with live music. If you research before the trip, preparing for it can actually be as a fun as when we plan a regular holiday.

 

It seems like obvious advice, but especially when we travel in different time zones, contact with our family and friends can be a little more complicated than we anticipate. In these cases, we recommend planning calls in advance with our loved ones.

We should also keep in mind that overusing social media to stay in contact can make us feel even more lonely. Social media is simply a temporary substitute for face-to-face relationships and it can make us miss whatever is happening in the present. That’s why we recommend staying in touch with “home” but without ruining our travel experience. 

 

Business travel can be a good time to do things that we don’t usually do in our everyday lives like the fantastic exercise of talking to strangers. In The Happiness Lab, the podcast by a doctor and psychology professor from Yale University, we can hear about the positive effects of talking to strangers. If your business trip is longer than a few days, you can also look for social gatherings through apps like Meetup.  

 

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