It's time to try a "workation"

After a pandemic winter, everyone is thinking about the holidays, the freedom they so much missed and a return to normal. If the holidays are ideal to disconnect from daily work, they also have the disadvantage of being quite short and you must hurry to see everything as soon as possible, so that you can return home “relaxed” after a week or two.

A workation is a combination of remote work and vacation, for shorter or longer periods of time, which allows you to take care of everything at your own pace: to work from a new space and to relax in your free time. You can combine a few working days with a weekend or you can stay in one place for a few weeks to get to know it better.

If I haven’t convinced you yet and you strongly believe that holidays shouldn’t be mixed with work, think how it would be to swim in the ocean after work, to visit a museum in an interesting city or to take a walk in nature. Below are some destinations I have worked from in the last year plus one from our country:

Madeira

Probably the greatest destination from which I worked remotely, Madeira is ahead of other European destinations and decided last year to turn a village on the island – Ponta del Sol – into a destination for remote workers, who will find everything they need right there: high speed internet, a beach within walking distance and homes with all the necessary facilities.

But you don’t have to go exactly there, I really liked the capital Funchal, with its dozens of miradouros (viewpoints), natural pools and black sand beaches, not mentioning the very good connections with the rest of the island. On weekends, you can choose between a hike from Pico Arieiro to Pico Ruivo or a walk on the hundreds of levada. And the internet is very good 😊

Azores

A little further into the Atlantic Ocean is another welcoming archipelago: the most accessible island is São Miguel with volcanic lakes, countless beaches and incredibly green hills. You can work in Ponta Delgada or any town on the island, and on the weekend you shouldn’t miss Sete Cidades or an ocean trip to see the whales living there: they liked the Azores so much that they decided not to leave. Be careful, this might happen to you too: D

Bukovina

A place as green as the Azores, but closer to home is Bukovina, a region with a lot of interesting places to visit: you can stay in Vatra Dornei and take the cable car in the evening to the top of the mountain, and on weekends to visit the painted monasteries or take the “mocanita” from Sucevita. In addition, there are so many beautiful hikes there that it is definitely a shame to stay just a few days and not fully enjoy the fresh air and the calm of the region. Of course, being in Romania, the internet is the best in the world and you don’t have to bother with another time zone 😊

Mexico, Riviera Maya

For the adventurous ones there is an unbeatable destination when it comes to combining beach + tourist attractions: Mexico. Although it’s not true that you can work from the beach, you can work near the beach and enjoy a swim in the ocean every day while you’re there. The weekend is for the Mayan pyramids and colonial towns like Merida or Valladolid, and you can establish your base in Playa del Carmen or Tulum. The only problem is the time zone: Mexico is 7 hours ahead of Romania, so pay attention what time you set your calls with the team 😊

Berlin

Germany’s cultural capital has gathered the best in the country, from exceptional museums to historical monuments and a cultural babel where you can explore all the flavors of the planet in the small restaurants of Kreuzberg. There are lots of coworkings where you can work during the week, and on weekends you have the German infrastructure that takes you to any corner of the country to visit castles, picturesque cities like Lubeck or the fantastic landscapes of Saxon Switzerland.

Are these places too far away and seems too risky? Try something closer to home, for example a workation of a few days in one of the cities where we are present: Sibiu, Oradea, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara, Constanta, Galati, Craiova, Targu-Mures and Bucharest.