As a UK traveller, Spain is an ideal place to get away to for an easy trip abroad, some better weather and that holiday feeling. I often travel to Madrid for business, and depending on the amount of notice I get to travel the budget and the quality of the accomodation can vary greatly.
- Spain Private Luxurymarcp_dmoz / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA
I’ve been lucky enough to stay in one of the many luxury hotels in Madrid, with the award winning Gran Melia Fenix being one of my favourites. I’ve also spent a few nights in some hostels, which whilst affordable and ok for a stopover, and great for sociable travellers, don’t always offer the best night’s sleep if you are travelling for business and have an early start in the morning.
A happy compromise between the two – luxury hotel and hostel can be a stay at one of the independent hotels. Staff will fall over themselves to offer you the best possible service, especially if they know you are a business traveller and are likely to return or recommend their accommodation to your colleagues.
But this time around, when I travel in April, as my business trip will be longer, I have decided to try something a little different from the city centre hotels and will also allow myself some personal time to relax. I have decided to put some budget towards private accommodation. There are a wide range of villas in Spain that serve as holiday homes and that can be rented for longer periods of time. Most come with their own private pool, little luxuries like free Wi-fi, satellite TV and a jacuzzi and have a much more homely feel than staying in a carbon copy hotel room.
Renting a villa can also be a lot less expensive than a hotel if the right amount of people come to stay. My friends are also well overdue a holiday so have decided to join me. Whilst I will have to work and attend meetings during the day, I can enjoy the time when I’m not working relaxing by the pool with my friends and sharing dinner cooking duties in our Spanish home from home.
If you are about to start travelling for business for the first time, here are my top tips:
- Purchase a special travel folder, bag or briefcase that you can use to keep all your travel documents, passport, emergency contact numbers and a map. You can store this away somewhere safe at home and will always know where everything is if you need to leave for the airport in a hurry. This also backs you up in case your Smartphone decides to stop working.
- Research your hotel before you arrive. You may have little say in where you stay if you are travelling for business. But you can make the most of your accommodation by having a look at the facilities on offer before you travel. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that you have free use of a spa or gym whilst you’re away, and if you’re traveling alone this might be just the thing for relaxing in the evenings.
- Check out the Wi-Fi Facilities. If you need to work whilst you’re away you’ll need to check out the wi-fi facilities in your hotel or room. Some hotels only have access in the reception area, some only have cabled internet in the rooms and some charge by the minute so be sure your budget stretches to actually being able to work whilst you travel for work! It’s a good idea to check out whether there are any local cafes in the arrea with free wi-fi that you might be able to work from too, to save money but also for a change of scenery.
- Measure your hand luggage. You probably won’t have a luggage allowance if you’re travelling for just a few days, in which case you’ll need to be able to squeeze all you need in to your hand luggage. The UK has strict handluggage size rules so be sure to check these and measure your bag before you travle to avoid extra charges.
