The Art of Bleisure Travel: Blending Business and Leisure with Style
September 2, 2023
In today’s fast-paced world, travel has evolved beyond its traditional boundaries. No longer confined to business or leisure, a new trend has emerged – the art of bleisure travel. This innovative approach allows professionals to seamlessly integrate work commitments with leisure experiences, creating a harmonious blend that enhances both one’s career and personal life. Let’s delve into the intricacies of bleisure travel, exploring the benefits, strategies, and real-world examples that showcase how to master the balance between business and leisure with style.
The Rise of Bleisure Travel
Gone are the days when business trips were solely about meetings, presentations, and hotel rooms. Bleisure travel, a portmanteau of “business” and “leisure,” has gained immense popularity as professionals recognize the value of combining work obligations with rejuvenating leisure activities. There is a shift, particularly among millennials, with workers and travelers seeking a holistic approach to work and play that recognizes the importance of a work-life balance.
According to recent statistics, the trend is on the rise, with a significant percentage of business travelers extending their stays for leisure purposes, reflecting a desire to extract the most from each trip, making it an enriching and fulfilling experience in more ways than one.
The allure of bleisure travel lies in the array of benefits it offers. By seamlessly blending work and leisure, professionals can achieve an enhanced work-life balance, contributing to their overall well-being. Engaging in leisure activities during trips can also stimulate creativity and boost productivity, revitalizing the mind and allowing fresh perspectives to emerge.
Moreover, the networking opportunities presented by business events and conferences can be combined with leisurely explorations, fostering stronger relationships and connections within and beyond the professional realm. This approach also enables travelers to uncover new destinations and cultures, broadening their horizons and creating lasting memories.
The Art of Planning and Maximizing Business Engagements
The key to successful bleisure travel lies in meticulous planning. Strategic alignment of business commitments and leisure activities ensures that neither aspect overshadows the other. Leveraging technology and travel tools can streamline the process, facilitating efficient scheduling and coordination. By prioritizing tasks and setting clear objectives for both work and leisure, travelers can strike a balance that enriches their overall experience.
For business travelers, making the most of their professional commitments is paramount. Attendees of conferences and meetings can strategically plan to engage in networking activities, attend relevant sessions, and connect with industry peers. Weaving leisurely activities around work schedules further complements the experience. Exploring local attractions and engaging in cultural experiences during downtime can transform an ordinary trip into an extraordinary one.
Logistics and Making the most of Leisure Experiences
To curate a memorable bleisure experience, thorough research of local attractions and activities is essential. Tailoring leisure plans to personal interests ensures that travelers indulge in activities they genuinely enjoy. The key is to seek a balance between relaxation and exploration, ensuring that the leisure component complements the overall travel experience.
Logistical considerations play a crucial role in the success of bleisure travel. Choosing accommodations catering to work and leisure needs is a strategic decision. Packing versatile attire that suits business-casual settings and leisure activities enables seamless transitions. Maximizing efficient transportation modes makes the most of downtime, allowing the traveler more leisure opportunities.
Cultural Sensitivity and Etiquette
While indulging in leisure activities at foreign destinations, it’s important to be aware of cultural sensitivity and adhere to local customs. Be willing to adapt. Imagine you’re a business professional attending a conference in a foreign country known for its conservative cultural norms. You decide to explore the local markets and engage in some leisure shopping. While interacting with local vendors, you notice that the atmosphere is more reserved than what you’re accustomed to.
Here, cultural sensitivity comes into play. Instead of using a casual communication style, you adjust your approach to be more formal and respectful. You greet the vendors with appropriate local greetings and maintain a polite demeanor throughout your interactions. You also observe that bargaining is a common practice in this culture. While negotiating prices, you ensure that your tone remains courteous and respectful, showing your appreciation for their craft and expertise.
By being culturally sensitive and adapting your communication style, you enhance your experience and create a positive impression. The willingness to adjust and embrace local customs showcases a high level of awareness. This approach makes a more meaningful interaction and reflects positively on your overall engagement with the destination’s culture.
Establishing clear boundaries between work and leisure is essential to prevent either aspect from encroaching upon the other. Effective time management and the ability to manage work-related tasks while enjoying leisure activities are skills that require refinement. Equipped with contingency plans for last-minute work emergencies, travelers can navigate challenges with poise and professionalism.
Case Studies: Successful Bleisure Travelers
Real-world examples of individuals who have seamlessly embraced bleisure travel can offer valuable insights. Profiles of professionals who have mastered the art of balancing work and leisure shed light on various approaches, challenges, and lessons learned. Their stories inspire others to adopt a similar mindset and approach to travel.
While bleisure travel offers numerous advantages, challenges can arise. Conflicts between work and leisure commitments, time constraints, and potential stressors necessitate strategic planning and resilience. By acknowledging and addressing these challenges, travelers can mitigate their impact and ensure a positive experience.
Measuring the worth of your bleisure travel
The true value of bleisure travel extends beyond the immediate experience. It encompasses personal growth, development through diverse experiences, and enhanced professional achievements. Evaluating the lasting advantages of combining work and leisure provides a comprehensive view that can influence your personal life and professional career.
As the world of travel evolves, the art of bleisure travel emerges as a powerful approach to enriching professional and personal lives. By blending business commitments with leisure experiences, professionals can achieve a harmonious balance that fosters well-being, creativity, and growth. The key lies in strategic planning, effective time management, and a mindset that embraces seamless integration possibilities. By mastering the art of bleisure travel, individuals can embark on journeys that redefine the way they approach work, travel, and life itself.
Lost and Found in Santiago Chile
June 8, 2014
The Pool on May’s Mountain
There is much to be said about friendship. Growing up in the DC suburbs of Fairfax County Virginia in the late 60s one favorite memory is the road trip to the beach and hanging with my high school classmate Jon May. Forty five years later that day still burns bright, but pales compared to our recent reunion. I last saw Jon during the autumn of 1969, our freshman year in college, when I made a bus trip up from Nashville to visit him at Indiana University (IU), Bloomington. We lost contact afterwards until recently, he found me on a Fort Hunt High School alumni site and was I happy to hear from him. Turns out he’s living in Chile with a restaurant business. I asked if I could visit and he gave me the obligatory mi casa es su casa.
Reconnecting with old friends can sometimes be dicey. Friends often outgrow one another and compatibility over the years can wear thin like an old garment. You try it on after a long absence, notice the threadbare seams and remember why you abandoned it. I was anxious over our reunion wondering if we could recapture that adventurous fresh freedom we experienced as young men. I went on to become a lawyer and he a successful businessman. Life placed us on separate super highways that down the road would reconnect in Santiago.
Jon was always a people person. I knew that the moment the friendly 16 year old new kid struck up a conversation in the hallway between classes. Still years later he’s the only person I know who will stop and hold a conversation with a toll booth operator like old friends. He has a sharp sense of humor, loquacious, gregarious and ever the conversationalist. Then as now there is never a dull moment with my friend. He decided to show me some of the Chilean countryside and the best way to experience a foreign land is by the side of a local who knows the back roads and best inexpensive places to eat and sleep.
I happened to arrive on Good Friday and with the holiday weekend he had standing dinner party invitations for the first three days. He’s part of a community of international expatriates he calls his tribe. Having worked at the IMF and the World Bank briefly in the 80s I have since been enamored of that web of international networks and felt very much at home with his friends. On day four with the parties behind us we set out on a road trip south to the Casa Blanca Valley. Located on Route 68 between Santiago and the city of Valparaíso, at about 30 minutes southeast of Valparaíso and 50 minutes northwest of Santiago. It is a region known for white wine grapes, especially Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.
The original plan was to visit Valparaiso, but the week before the port city was hit by the Gran Incendio de Valparaiso. The Great Fire swept the hill tops killing 15 and leaving 11,000 homeless. The curious and non-residents were urged to stay away. We heeded the advice and detoured to Zappollar with two stops along the way, the Matetic Vineyards and the Museum House of Pablo Neruda.
Zapollar Arms
Matetic Vineyards are located in Rosario Valley, a subdivision of San Antonio Valley, 120 kilometers from Santiago between Casablanca and San Antonio. Equilibrio, the restaurant at Matetic specializes in traditional Chilean cuisine. We lunched on seafood appetizers and beef entrees. Not only was the food superb but I had this memorable citrussy sauvignon blanc I’m on a mission to find here in the states.
Sated, our next stop was the beach at Isla Negra and home of Chile’s famed Nobel Laureate poet and diplomat Pablo Neruda. Named for its isolation and wild black rocks, Isla Negra beach is associated with the poet’s love for the sea. The house is chocked with Neruda’s eclectic collection gathered over his life time of travels. Like most of the house his study is crammed with among others things display models of ships, butterfly collections, astrological charts, portraits and an antique wash basin.
Next we drove down the pacific coast with no particular destination in mind. Jon decided to show me some of his old beach stomping grounds. And he had plenty having raised three children he pointed out the landmarks and shared memories. Taking it all in with great interest I marveled at the spectacular beaches set against the panoramic mountainous terrain.
Whenever the stimulating conversation lulled there was always good music accompanying the spectacular visual landscapes. An avid music lover it was Jon’s love for music where we first found common ground. When I paid that visit to IU it was for a Dizzy Gillespie jazz concert. Jon played drums in a band while in college and with a working knowledge of the keyboard and guitar music remains his passion. It seems there is a perpetual soundtrack to his life.
Restobar Zappolar
The Spring of our senior year he took me to see the now classic Monterey Pop movie at DC’s old Biograph Theater in Georgetown. The film has since served as my survey course Rock and Roll 101 introducing Jimmie Hendrix, Janis Joplin and a whole host of other greats from that era. I in turn took Jon to see Paul Carter Harrison’s Tabernacle performed by the Howard University players at the Ira Aldridge Theater. He was so taken with the Jazz and Gospel musical ensemble we returned 2 more times. We still talk about those shared experiences with the same enthusiasm. Sports, politics, current affairs, such was the conversation on the road that day filled with what other life experiences we had to share over our forty five year absence from one another’s lives.
So caught in recounting the times of our lives we neglected to consider dinner and accommodations. Ordinarily I plot out my travels but Jon flies by the seat of his pants making this excursion all the more adventurous. It’s not my style, but I love the way he rolls. By sun down we reached Zappallar, a picturesque coastal town with beautiful beaches that sits on the wooded hillsides running down from the steeply forested coastal mountains. During the high season it’s a favorite summer destination for Santiago’s wealthy. For me it was déjà vu, from out of the past that trip to the beach.
It was late April and well into Chile’s autumn. We were turned away from the popular restaurants that serviced the high season crowds either because they were closed or hosting private events. Hungry and ready for sleep we stumbled upon the Restobar Zappallar, an inexpensive café where we enjoyed delicious beef sandwiches fries and beers. With our appetites taken care of next we needed rest. Jon inquired of the Restobar proprietor who suggested a place around the corner. The great thing about traveling without spouses or kids we could afford to be less discriminating. Jon managed to find us rooms at a place he initially called a dirt bag. I thought it was anything but. Although we couldn’t get the cable TV with the antennae to work it was clean and comfortable sans towels but that was just fine. This establishment displayed no name so I dubbed it Zappallar Arms with 3 stars. I would return with my own towel if necessary. To start our journey back we breakfasted around the corner in a far from luxurious working class neighborhood café enjoying cold biscuits and eggs washed down with a cup of tasty Nescafe. It was all so satisfying.
Two journeys to the beach 45 years a part, where in the latter I found my lost friend much the same, except his hair is white and thinner, waist a little thicker, but otherwise little has changed. My friendship with Jon was extraordinary from the beginning. He is white and I am Black. It was the 60s and the Fairfax County School system was still evolving from segregation. None of which made any difference to us on a personal level. Nevertheless, but for that change we may have had less fulfilling life experiences.
Jon is still opening doors to new experiences for me, and hoping to reciprocate I thank whatever powers that be for bringing us back together again. It was through traveling to a foreign place I rediscovered and reestablished an old enduring friendship. Just saying.
A Conversation with Brian Boger
January 17, 2014
When I first picked up Southern Fate I thought because the author was an attorney it was just another legal thriller, but the opening didn’t neatly fit into the thriller formula. I read on thinking perhaps it was a mystery but the first body didn’t show up until Chapter 9. Obviously not a mystery, so I read on and suddenly it swept me up and blew me away like a hurricane. The genre was literary and quintessentially Southern with elements of both mystery and thriller. The novel centers on the inner story of a South Carolina attorney Frank Rhodes and the journey to his fate and fortune.
Introduced as a rather pathetic character Frank Rhodes is an accident prone klutz and a mediocre lawyer whose only passion is hunting and fishing. The only thing making him worthy of attention is his extreme good looks. Suddenly things change for Frank in a big way when he lands a windfall judgment instantly propelling him into the national spotlight. On the road to money and fame he soon learns the bad news his wife is leaving him for another women. And things get complicated quickly when a serial arsonists plaguing the city with one of the first victims being a member of Frank’s non-traditional family. Meanwhile his brother teaches him an unorthodox method on how to get develop rhythm to thereby overcome his clumsiness, a lifelong affliction.
There is much going on in Southern Fate with numerous subplots. The book is full unexpected plot twists and Boger takes the reader into areas past traditional Southern writers feared to tread. He incorporates several popular motifs commonly found in Southern literature including sense of family and sense of place. However we see some newer motifs developing. For example the non-traditional family and same sex relationships. At a young age Frank’s father was killed by a burglar. His mother and another single windowed mother with a son of similar age merged households to form a non-traditional family headed by two women. While these women are heterosexual another non-traditional family with young children taking root when Frank’s wife leaves him for her same sex lover with young children. These types of non-traditional modern family models are uncommon in traditional Southern literature but realistically capture today’s society. Lesbian relationships have rarely been openly presented in such openly fashion and again capturing the dynamics of today’s modern families.
Another traditional motif is the sense of place. Southerners are exceedingly proud of their region and as social historian Carl N. Degler once described the South as a region “where roots, place, family and tradition are the essence of identity”. All of which are apparent in Southern Fate which in this jet age moves from Columbia to Charleston, New York, the Bahamas and Costa Rica. However, make no mistake the stories beginning, middle, and end are deeply rooted in Columbia, and Boger does not spare the details of Columbia’s rich Civil War history recounting the tales of Sherman’s march. Indeed the ghost of the War against Northern Aggression and the horrors Columbia faced under Sherman conjures up a deus ex machina villain the serial arsonist. Like Bo Radley suddenly arriving on the scene and not a moment too soon.
This is perhaps the books one major shortcoming. We never get to know the villain or his motivations only that he has targeted women belonging to the Daughters of the Confederacy in the name of Sherman. There are no red herrings or clues to suggest anything about the character and his motivations. The villain emerges in the end and disappears in a puff of fire and flames. As a reader in the end I was left frustrated with too many questions as was Frank. Perhaps this was the author’s intent.
As social issues and politics evolve with time so does a society’s literature, and Southern Fate stands as an exemplary work of modern Southern literature. The author is a practicing attorney, the father of three. He and his wife live in Columbia where he studied law. He also holds a degree in English from the University of Virginia. Brian Boger pushes the boundaries and thereby expands the conventional motifs placing him among the vanguard of new Southern writers.
I would dare suggest being on the future lookout for Brian Boger. He expects to release his second title in 2014. When asked about the project, he says “the working title is Champagne Friday. It’s another legal thriller type book with some (surprise) literary themes like loss, redemption, vindication, and young men leaving their Bacchanalian Rite of Passage behind them for good women. It’s a humdinger of a book developing strong female characters appealing to a broader female audience. The women are cool.”
If the women are anything like the men of Southern Fate it should indeed be a humdinger. Southern Fate is an incredibly delightful read, rich with local color and chocked with quirky characters. Boger’s voice and style are a cross between John Gresham and John Brendt. The state capital Columbia might want to get behind their adopted favorite son because Southern Fate could very well do for Columbia what Midnight In the Garden of Good Evil did for Savannah.
Thread of Gold Beads by Nike Campbell-Fatoki
November 7, 2013
About The Book
About The Author
Nike Campbell-Fatoki was born in Lvov, Ukraine to Nigerian parents. She spent her formative years in Lagos, Nigeria, listening to stories and folktales told by her maternal Grandparents. Her fondest memories were the weekends her mother took her and her siblings to Kings Way, on Lagos Island, returning back with bags of story books.
Though a social science major, she found great pleasure in taking literature classes. She graduated magna cum laude in Economics from Howard University and further went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in International Development from American University, Washington, DC. She worked for several years in International Development field working with International Development consulting firms managing projects and programs overseas.
Presently, she is a Budget and Finance Manager in the municipal government in the Washington DC area. She is an avid reader. She loves traveling, watching movies and listening to music. She is also the Founder of Eclectic Goodies, a party favors and gifts packaging company. She lives in the Washington DC area with her husband and three sons.
Review
“A highly competent contribution to the growing genre of popular historical fiction in Africa.”
– Sefi Atta, Author of A Bit of A Difference, Swallow, Everything Good Will Come. Winner of Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa.Connect with the Author
Email Address: nikecampbellfatoki@gmail.com
Website www.nikecfatoki.com
Twitter link www.twitter.com/nikecfatoki
Twitter Hashtag: #GoldBeadsTour
Facebook link www.facebook.com/nikecfatoki
Facebook Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/ThreadofGoldBeads
Book Trailer http://youtu.be/yc6V8nM7k2k
Buy Links
CreateSpace: https://www.createspace.com/3958444
Link to Tour Schedule http://wnlbooktours.com/nike-campbell-fatoki/
Dead Dreams, Book 1by Emma Right
November 5, 2013
Genre: Young Adult
Book Title: Dead Dreams, Book 1, a young adult contemporary psychological thriller and mystery
Print Length: 170 pages
Publisher: Right House Books; 2013 First edition
(August 26, 2013)
Format: Kindle
ASIN: B00ESVEVBQ
Hosted by: WNL Virtual Book Tour: http://wnlbooktours.com/
About The Book:
Eighteen-year-old Brie O’Mara has so much going for her: a loving family in the sidelines, an heiress for a roommate, and dreams that might just come true. Big dreams–of going to acting school, finishing college and making a name for herself. She is about to be the envy of everyone she knew. What more could she hope for? Except her dreams are about to lead her down the road to nightmares. Nightmares that could turn into a deadly reality.
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About The Author:
Emma Right is a happy wife and Christian homeschool mother of five living in the Pacific West Coast of the USA. Besides running a busy home, and looking after their five pets, which includes two cats, a bunny and a Long-haired dachshund, she also writes stories for her children. She loves the Lord and when she doesn’t have her nose in a book, she is telling her kids to get theirs in one.
Right worked as a copywriter for two major advertising agencies and won several awards, including the prestigious Clio Award for her ads, before she settled down to have children.
Social Links:
Email Address: emmarightmarketing@gmail.com
Website: http://www.emmaright.com
Twitter link @emmbeliever
Facebook link https://www.facebook.com/DeadDreamsEmmaRight
Goodreads User:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18396455-dead-dreams
https://plus.google.com/u/0/111644513292318573575/posts
http://pinterest.com/emmaright/
https://twitter.com/emmbeliever
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7036571.Emma_Right
http://www.librarything.com/profile/emma.right.author
http://www.shelfari.com/emmaright
http://www.freado.com/users/35467/emma-right
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Emma-Right/e/B00BD7C4A8/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Dreams-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00ESVEVBQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1380565365&sr=1-1&keywords=young+adult+thriller%2C+B00ESVEVBQ
Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM7MI_3vqyo
