Business or pleasure? Are you among those who mix business travel with pleasure travel? Take a business trip and take the family along? Count yourself among the lucky ones who have discovered bleisure travel.
Instead of quickly jetting in and out midweek, why not plan meetings for Mondays or Fridays and take advantage of free time on the weekend to explore. You can even use some of your vacation days to really enjoy a destination. — without having to pay a hefty airfare to get there. It’s been great for me, and a cost saver for my company as I’ve been able to take advantage of lower weekend airfares. On weekends, I can take advantage of a corporate hotel rate or book a reasonable priced B&B or Airbnb. I’ve even had friends invite me to stay with them.
Bleisure travel, as it is affectionately nicknamed, gives you an opportunity for sightseeing, theatre, cultural experiences and time with friends. I’ve had opportunities to explore so many cities with this bleisure concept. Dubai, London, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Beijing and more! How else would I have found time to travel to the top of the world’s tallest building in Dubai, enjoy half-price theatre tickets in London or walk along the Great Wall in China? I even scheduled in a trip to coincide with a complete solar eclipse in Austria.
I love these mini-vacations. They are short, but with good planning I have really been able to experience a new city. You can do it, too.
Planning and “Feducation”
If you bring along the family, put together some suggested itineraries that will engage the kids — and be educational. Mixing fun and education? Would that be a feducation trip?
Let your fingers do the walking through the Internet. Research destinations and offerings on city and country tourism sites, like those for:
How to Enjoy Bleisure
So, how can you do the same thing and mix business with pleasure? If you are planning a trip that lets you add a few leisure days, you’ll need to do some research. What floats your boat, as we Americans say? For me, it’s theatre and cultural experiences.
If you are a theatre aficionado heading to London, why not visit the West End, where most of the popular shows run. It’s an area between Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus, Tottenham Court and Trafalgar Square. There are more than three dozen theatres there with a wide selection of plays. And don’t forget the National Theatre and fringe theatre. You can check out what’s playing here.
Over the years, I’ve had countless business trips to London. Discovering the half-price ticket booth in Leicester Square was life changing. On most of my trips, I managed to squeeze in a few nights of theatre or a matinee.
Purchase tickets online or at the famous Leicester Square Gardens half-price TKTS booth on the day of performance. The half-price ticket booth is run by the Society of London Theatre. It’s open seven days a week from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. You never know what will be available until you get there, but you’re sure to find lots of the latest productions — and at a bargain price. Click here to see the latest offering.
Explore Possibilities
If you are a theatre afiociando visiting other cities, check out their offerings, too. For example, the American Theatre Group of Europe visited Brussels last week. How often can you view an open-air production of Shakespeare at an actual castle? The German-based company brought Hamlet to Groot Bijgaarden castle in Flanders last week as part of their annual castle tour. This year, they traveled to castles in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and the U.K. (Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man) I hear that the 2022 Castle Tour may bring Othello to the stage! You can check their website to see if any of the dates work for your bleisure travel.
Wherever your travel takes you, business or pleasure, be safe and enjoy the experience.
