You’ve just wrapped up a client meeting in Barcelona, and there’s nothing stopping you from spending the weekend on the beach. That’s the bleisure dream. 68% of corporate travellers now extend at least one work trip a year for personal time.
The trick? Making sure your tech setup doesn’t fall apart when you switch from spreadsheets to sangria. Let’s explore the kit that’ll keep you connected on both sides of the trip.
Get Your VPN Sorted Before You Leave
A VPN isn’t optional when you’re working from a hotel lobby or a cafe with open Wi-Fi. Public networks are easy targets. Most corporate VPNs will connect automatically once you’re logged in, but if you’re self-employed, a paid service like NordVPN or ExpressVPN will do the job.
Test it before you go, though. Some VPNs clash with certain apps or slow your connection on weaker networks, and you don’t want to find that out mid-presentation.
Cloud Storage That Works on Patchy Wi-Fi
Hotel Wi-Fi has a habit of dropping out at the worst time. Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox all let you mark folders for offline use, so set that up before you travel. If you’re working on large files, sync them the night before any big deadline. Trying to upload a 50MB presentation over shaky hotel broadband at 8:55am is a recipe for panic.
Collaboration Tools That Don’t Need Perfect Signal
Slack, Microsoft Teams and Zoom are staples, but they behave differently on a weak connection. Slack handles drops better than most because it’s text-based and will queue messages until signal returns. Teams and Zoom struggle more with video.
A good fix: default to audio-only calls when you’re on the move. It’ll use a fraction of the bandwidth and will sound far more professional than a pixelated face freezing every three seconds.
Pick the Right SIM Plan for Work and Play
Connectivity ties all of this together, and it’s where a lot of bleisure travellers get caught out. According to the GBTA’s 2025 Business Travel Index Outlook, 68% of corporate travellers now extend at least one trip a year for personal time, with an average extension of 2.3 nights. Many don’t think about roaming until the charges hit.
Be Clear on Your Network’s Roaming Charges Before Takeoff
Avoiding roaming charges on the leisure half of the trip comes down to what plan you’re on. O2 still includes EU roaming at no extra cost for pay-monthly customers, and several MVNOs do the same. Lebara free EU roaming now covers 36+ EU and EEA destinations plus India and Ukraine without daily fees, with up to 30GB of roaming data. The important thing is checking your coverage and fair-use limits before you fly, not after the charges have already landed.
For context, EE currently charges £2.47 per day for European roaming, and Three charges £2 per day on most existing plans (though newer customers joining after December 2025 will pay £2.75). On a two-week bleisure trip, EE’s daily charge alone would add £34.58 to your bill. Three’s would be £38.50 at the current rate. Lebara’s EU roaming is included on all plans with up to 30GB of data, and it runs on the Vodafone network, so coverage isn’t an issue.
If your trip takes you outside the EU, buying a local SIM is sometimes cheaper, but it means juggling two numbers and potentially missing work calls. For most bleisure trips within Europe, a UK SIM with inclusive roaming will be the easiest option.
Don’t Forget the Small Stuff
A few extras that are easy to overlook. A portable charger with at least 10,000mAh capacity, because you’ll burn through battery fast when you’re using maps, translation apps and hotspotting your laptop.
A universal travel adaptor that covers EU two-pin and UK three-pin sockets. And noise-cancelling earbuds for calls in busy environments. The AirPods Pro or Sony WF-1000XM6 both do a solid job of cutting out background noise.
Pack Smart, Switch Off Faster
You shouldn’t have to choose between doing good work and having a proper break. With the right tech packed and configured before you leave, the transition from laptop to poolside will be smooth. Test your VPN, sync your files, sort your SIM, and you’ll spend less time troubleshooting and more time actually enjoying the trip.
