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How To Travel While Working Remotely: 10 Things You Need

Are you working from home? Why not take advantage and travel while working remotely!?

I’ve travelled while working remotely in 6 countries across Europe and North America! It was a learning curve at first to still be productive at work, but if you can do it, it’s one of the best ways to travel.

If you’re interested in travelling while working remotely, here’s my tips and what you’ll need for creating a productive portable office set up while on the road.

Psst! This blog post contains affiliate links in it which sends me a bit of extra money if you use them… at no extra cost to you!

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What Is Remote Work And Travel?

When you work remotely and travel, you pick up your home office and take it with you anywhere in the world to work and travel at the same time.

Based on your work schedule, you combine both work and travel during your time away. You can either keep your work schedule during the week and get to explore your new hometown on weeknights and weekends. Or maybe you cut down on work hours while you’re away so you work part time and travel part time.

The point is that depending on your work, you can make remote work and travel into what works for you.

Why Travel While Working Remotely?

Travel while working remotely is hands down my favourite way to travel. It allows you to extend your trip and really experience living like a local in a new place.

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Sometimes you luck out with a hotel lobby to work in like this! @Great George PEI

My Experiences Working Remotely And Travelling

As I mentioned, I’ve now travelled and worked remotely in 6 different countries. Each experience has been very different based on our jobs and where we were travelling at the time.

My first experience travelling and working remotely was in Europe on a 4 month long trip. I had the opportunity to work and travel in Belgium, Scotland, France, and Spain. Neither my partner or I had a 9 to 5 job so we were able to work and travel based on our own schedule. This trip had a stronger focus on travel than on work. Work was more of an after thought on this trip.

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But when we went to Florida for 6 weeks to escape the Montreal winter, the focus was more heavily on work than it was on travel. At this point, my partner had a new 9 to 5 job, so the weeks were spent working. We took off one week out of the 6 to travel Florida, but for the most part did our exploring over the weekends.

I also worked when we went to Prince Edward Island in Canada. This was a much shorter trip (only 12 days) so the focus was much heavier on travelling. I would work some nights, and took a half a day here and there to catch up on work.

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How To Travel While Working Remotely: What To Consider?

Before you embark on your remote work travel trip, there are a few considerations to think about. For example, how long will you be away for, where you’re going to go…etc.

It’s important to keep in mind your work hours and time zones. Are your work hours flexible? And would you be able to travel out of your time zone or not?

But! Before you make any of these decisions, you ultimately have to know what the focus of this trip is: is it work or is it travel?

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What Is The Primary Focus Of Your Trip?

Before you can make any decisions, you have to know the primary focus of your trip.
Is your goal to simply work from a new location for a change of scenery and travel is more of a benefit? Or are you looking to go on an extended trip but can’t take off work for that long…etc.?

After you’ve decided on your focus, you can more easily make a decision on where you want to go and for how long based on your needs.

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The Downsides To Remote Work And Travel Vacations

As good as remote work and travel are together, there are some negatives to be aware of as well.

Your Portable Office Is Not As Good For Productiveness

For starters your remote work travel set up can’t possibly match what you have at home or in the office. Maybe at home you have an entire office set up, with a standing desk, desktop computer, the perfect view…etc.

When you’re travelling and working you can’t possible know what to expect. But expect that you’ll definitely get less work done. Even if your primary focus is to work on your trip, you will never be as productive as you are at home.

Depending on how long you’re traveling for, you might be able to eventually get into a rhythm. But it definitely takes time to adjust to your new work environment. Give yourself time when you first arrive to settle in and properly set up.

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Before Leaving Double Check Your Policies…

Before you leave to work remotely and travel, you should double check a few of your policies…

What’s Your Company’s Policy

Every company will have a different policy on where you can work from (and for how long). For example, you might not be able to leave the country, Province, or State at all!

Or maybe you can work from a different country, but for a limited time. Some companies will allow you to work 6 weeks out of the country while others has a longer limit of 90 days …etc.

Like I said, every company will have a different policy on this, and maybe they won’t care at all where you’re working from!

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What Does Your Travel Insurance Cover?

Depending on how long you’re expecting to travel for, double check your travel insurance. Once again, there might be a limit on how long you’re covered for on your travel insurance.

P.S. you should also get travel insurance if you don’t already have!!

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What You Need For Remote Work While Travelling

When travelling and working remotely you should invest in a few things for your portable office. It’s all about being compact, saving weight, and space! But you also want to be able to work comfortably from wherever your new office will be.

Obviously, you will not be able to bring your desktop with you (maybe you can if you’re driving but that’s still a lot to bring) so you’ll want to invest in a good laptop that you can take with you wherever you go! I trust my 13″ Macbook Pro. It’s quite a few years old now but it’s still going strong!

Also, if you’re travelling to a different country, always make sure to double check the outlets and if you need an adapter.

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1. Invest In A Good Workspace

You need to make sure you will have a good workspace (especially if the primary focus of your trip is to work away).

You can either look into booking an apartment through Airbnb or Plum Guide or an apartment style hotel that has a designated work space. You don’t want to be working from the couch, bed, or even kitchen table while you’re away.

Another option is to check if there’s a rental workspace in the area (like WeWork). It’s sometimes nice to be able to get out of the apartment for a change of scenery. Cafés can also work, but of course a café is not meant for working – expect distractions!

Pro Tip For Remote Work And Travel

Don’t be afraid to spend money once you arrive at your destination to make your workspace better for you. A good workspace doesn’t only include having a good desk to work at.

For example, for us, a good workspace includes having quality coffee after lunch. Our place we stayed at in Florida didn’t have a way to make good coffee so we bought the place a French Press. This wasn’t expensive and also ended up saving us money by being able to buy coffee beans instead of Keurig cups.

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The cat also makes a good workspace!
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2. Subscribe & Save To A Cloud Service

When you travel while working remotely, you’re ultimately moving around a lot. To avoid missing documents my new strategy is to save EVERYTHING on a cloud service.
I use Evernote for any text files (but you could also use Google Docs), Google Drive for larger PDFs or files. You could also subscribe to One Drive from Microsoft.

You don’t know what you’re going to need while you’re away and it will always surprise you. You somehow always end up needing what you don’t have. So save yourself in advance and just get into the habit of working on the cloud.

If you don’t like cloud services, you can also opt for a small external hard drive (like this one on Amazon) to save everything on. But, as this is an extra item, you risk it breaking, or losing it.

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3. Have A Back Up Plan For Internet (Hot Spot or Pocket Wifi)

Having good internet is such an integral part of our work these days, especially if you have a lot of video calls. But the internet can really be a hit or a miss at your destination. Obviously, you’re not the one in control of choosing the Wifi package so the only thing you can control is having a backup plan if the internet is bad.

You have two options for a back up plan if there’s bad Wifi. You can either get an international phone plan (which I recommend getting anyway!) with mobile data or invest in Pocket Wifi.

Pocket wifi is exactly what it sounds like – portable wifi that’s small enough to fit in your pocket (like this one on Amazon).

These are beneficial to have either way because now you aren’t bound to the confines of your apartment. You can take your fully charged laptop to the park across the street or maybe even to the beach if you’re feeling up to it! The possibilities are endless now with internet (well until your computer dies!).

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4. An International Phone Plan (eSIM)

If you’re leaving the country, I recommend buying either an international phone plan through your provider (like Roam Like Home). Or another option is to buy a SIM card for the country you’re visiting once you arrive.

Having a phone plan is important to have for both work and all around safety while travelling. Now you have a contact number if someone needs to reach you.

I highly recommend getting an eSIM (electronic SIM card) if your phone has that capability. Most Android phones will have this enabled, and any new IPhones (see if your phone can support an eSIM here). We used the app Airalo – and it was the easiest way to get an international phone plan. You simply download the app and install the eSIM (you do need Wifi to install it so I recommend setting it up before you leave!).

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5. Comfortable Backpack To Carry Your Computer & Gear

When you travel while working remotely, you should have a way to carry your portable office. Whether it’s to carry it through the airport, or to different cafés around the city – having a comfortable backpack will come in handy (like this one on Amazon).

It’s mainly a bag for you laptop, but you may also want to carry some other portable office essentials like headphones, a charger, and notebook.

We use an Osprey (although it’s really more of a hiking bag it works well doubling as a remote work and travel bag!

6. Work Appropriate Shirts

Just because it seems like you’re on vacation, you are still working! So DO NOT FORGET work appropriate shirts if you often have video calls!

You don’t exactly want to show up in a bikini top or crop top in the chat… do you!?

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Portable Office Supplies

7. Basic Office Supplies

Don’t expect to have basic office supplies at your destination. Make sure to pack some office basics, like pens, paper, your agenda, and notebooks if you use any!

8. Travelling Desk – Portable Laptop Table

A travelling desk or a portable laptop table is my work remote travel necessity (like this one on Amazon)! I even use it at home because it’s so convenient to make working from anywhere that much more comfortable.

If you need to work from somewhere a little less convenient, this will make your life that much easier! You can set it up to sit on the couch with and now your laptop won’t be directly on your lap.

If you’re used to working from a standing desk at home, it also doubles as your travelling standing desk! You can easily set it up on any table to turn it into a standing desk.

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9. Flat Mouse & Mouse Pad

I’m someone who doesn’t really like using the trackpad on my laptop for extended periods of time (like when I’m working for a whole day!). It’s always more comfortable to have a mouse. So, the best mouse I found for my portable office was the Microsoft Arc Mouse (see on Amazon here).

It lays flat when you aren’t using it making it very easy to travel with!

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10. Head/Ear Phones

If I haven’t said it enough, here it is again – you never know what your work environment is going to be like until you arrive. So, best to be safe than sorry and always pack a good set of headphones or ear phones.

This can be regular headphones, or noise cancelling headphones (like these on Amazon) if you find you’re easily distracted by noise. You also might need this if you have a lot of work calls for your job.

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Last update on 2024-03-28 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Chloe

Thursday 21st of July 2022

Hey! Did you need to get a visa to work in another country or was your tax affected at all?

Meghan

Tuesday 26th of July 2022

Hi Chloe,

We didn't need work visa because the companies we work for allow us to work remote (we didn't find new jobs at our new location). We still payed our Canadian taxes and we remained in the allotted time that we could leave Canada for the year. If you're Canadian as well, this might help https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/living-abroad/taxation