i started working away about the same time i had kids! 😀
over 10 years now. mostly in central London or surrounding areas so usually enough going on to keep you busy. i always used to travel on trains but now i drive which means i can get about a bit by myself when im away and i always keep my bike with me. I also tend to join the local squash club to where im based, enter the internal leagues or play on the team if they have them. the social side of squash is fantastic for meeting new people
playstation too. basically act like im a teenager all week. afterwork i either ride (summer) or play squash (winter) pint in the bar after. back to the digs for tea and mash the PS4 till i pass out. maybe once a month go into town or do something different.
playstation and squash racket travel overseas too. not so much the bike.
the temptation to hammer the ale does subside after the first few years!
Thankfully it's only this week, I could travel it but it's the m1 and it's so unpredictable at times. Got two days in york next week, Mrsws is coming with me so the boss said I could go the expenses for the hotel. Luckily the course is in the same hotel so I can literally roll out of bed.
I camp!
Away most weeks in the UK and simply book a campsite. Work think I'm nuts as I could spend £150 a night in a hotel (expenses are receipt based so I can only claim the £10 a night I actually spend).
I love it, rain/snow/sun all good (difficult sometimes to find a site open in winter). Hotels can be very depressing. Camping I have stuff to do like making tea and washing up (sometimes I find a nice restaurant). Always have the kindle for a read before bed and download a film or two on the ipad. Sometimes have bike or canoe with me (more in summer).
Some guys I know get a fixed amount for accommodation and sleep in their vans.
They also buy a sandwich out of Subway for their dinner and then swipe a receipt off an outdoor restaurant table and submit that for their expenses.
Camping sounds pretty fun though
I always take a bike if possible, sitting in a hotel bar on my own with a load of strangers isn't for me.
I'm lucky that a lot of the places I have to go for work are near Whinlatter, Woburn, Swinley, and Thetford so it may not always be the best riding (Thetford!) but it's better than the alternative.
I have to keep remembering to take it easy sometimes, I was coming down off the top of Grisedale pike the other day and thought I wonder what my boss would say if I had to phone him and say I wouldn't be going to the customer the next day as I've spannered myself while on the bike!
Last year I got fat 😉 First time in 20+ years of travelling for work on and off. Didn’t change much but my body clock clearly runs a bit slower as I got older!
When I was marooned in Coventry 2 nights a week, I’d ride in Binley woods at least once, or just go for a ride anywhere and have a pint outside in the summer. Then I got bored of that and just started running. That got a bit old in Winter and the hotel I stayed in had a crap gym. At one point I found myself in Coventry IKEA as I’d done and seen everything else!
Now I travel around a bit more (University towns) and my plan is
- 1 pint max. With food.
- never eat in the hotel. Always walk for 20 mins at least whatever the weatehr
- Cinema (love the old showroom in Sheffield)
- Theatre - seen a few things and every time it’s been great
- Podcasts/Netflix (if wifi is up for it)/books
- Never eat cooked hotel breakfasts, always walk to uni if it’s less than an hour away!
Tend to research a bit more now, look for decent healthy restaurants rather than burger and a pint. Don’t hate it as I’ve done it so long. Spend the rest of the time at home so it probably evens out.
Love the idea of camping.
My old job involved an assignment to a site for over a year so I could rent a small house. In retrospect I should have just taken out a loan and got a motorhome (or this being Teesside, just bought a house cheaper).
– Never eat cooked hotel breakfasts
Heretic!
Depends how greasy it is but I just avoid the carbs and all's well. Bacon, sausage, black pudding, scrambled egg, lots of tomatoes.
Noodles for lunch (<250calories)
Salad + protein for dinner (again very few calories).
OK so I'd lose more weight skipping the breakfast, but realistically I'd just end up eating carbs and getting hungry by mid morning and being miserable that I'd deprived myself of bacon and eggs.
On my last stint of working away I bought a unicycle which I learned to ride in the hotel room.
I forgot this! I learned to ride my unicycle in the car park of the Marriott Garden Court in Ipswich, while on a project for TXU. I knew I'd cracked it when I was able to take the nightly call from home while riding.
This thread is making me feel like a massive hotel underachiever - I normally order room service, boot up YouTube, and fall asleep by 10pm.
Rarely travel compared with previously. 2 or 3 trips last year, about 4 this year
I also rarely travel in the UK, it's largely overseas. If it was the UK and I was driving I'd definitely take my bike. Outside the UK I tend to go out on my own, just walk around and explore. Get some food while I'm out rather than eat in the hotel. Obviously that's if I'm not doing the dinner etc thing with people I'm there with. I'm a social drinker so I would never hit the bar on my own
I stayed in a hotel a few weeks back, there was a group of around 4 to 5 Czech business people, who polished off three large bottles of tequila between them. I was amazed to see them all at breakfast the morning after looking as right as rain and gearing up for the day's conference.
25 years so far at around 100 nights per year, UK only. I'm strict with any family stuff, I reorganise/swap jobs as necessary with the rest of our team (5 of us covering UK civil nuclear sites). Try not to eat in, get out and sample what the area had to offer. Limit booze intake, run in the mornings 2-3 times a week, I would take bike but company van going on-site etc means storage is a problem. Books/kindle/tablet for entertainment. Enjoy the moments when it goes tits up and you get a day off for sightseeing.
Been travelling a bit for two years but only lots of overnights in the last six months - finding it too easy to seeit as a treat and treat myself to a few beers, especially if it's not an inviting location. That said, spent three nights in Hove a fortnight back when my head was straight and it was lovely, ate healthy and well, no beers, every night out walking the promenade, swimming in the sea and reading on the beach until it got too dark, made think "THIS is what I should be doing...". 🙂
Signed Pondo, sitting in a hotel watching Eggheads with a beer to hand... 🙁
Edit - on the bright side, my main in Runescape mobile is coming along a treat! 🙂
Running, biking, see the sights, all the stuff I couldn't do at home with the kids! Rode As, Cannock, long mynd, afan, peaks, yorks, Chilterns, south downs, whitelees, Clyde valley and many many more thanks to work.
Very easy to sink in the sauce if you don't get out of the hotel. Rarely away now though, so get pissed when I am!
Well, a lovely chap I've just met called Ton (you might know him from here 😉) has showed me the sights of Leeds urban bike park. What a great little place, I'll be visiting Tomorrow and Thursday for sure so longs we don't get set too much homework!
Cheers Ton 👍
I was away last week for the first time in ages, but in the early 2000s I was all over the planet.
I consciously tried to avoid the cooked breakfast and too much beer. I also got a lot of reading done.
Did go out one night though when promised a walk in the forest, but it was less than 1km!
https://www.strava.com/activities/2579321523
Check the thread about herding cats regularly.
Slightly cheating on this working away thing as I’ve got myself a consultancy project nearish to my parents’ house in Germany this time. It’s quite nice to see them for slightly longer without taking a load of leave. Also I’ve got a bike here and it’s lovely.
Usually use the time and quiet of a hotel to get ahead with reports so that I can ride my bike when I get home. In between I walk everywhere and spend as much time outside as much as possible.
Contractor here. Work away about 80-90 days per year. Always stay in Premier Inns on account so getting quite sick of purple... Plus they took away the ability to earn free nights a few years back 🙁
No booze midweek. Always eat early, before 8pm anyway, and usually by 7. I find that I'm hungry by morning this way, plus occasional acid reflux might have been affecting my voice! Eating early being a partial solution. Trouble is, I pay for my own food so inevitably eat crap in the evening, skip breakfast and find a pret/etc for lunch.
Am often travelling in the evening and arrive any time before midnight (once 1.15am) but try and have a bit of a walk/ stairs.
Occasionally watch documentaries and have tried pc games before but with limited success. Have tried stashing the bike in the car too but lots of wear and tear and worries about it being nicked. Have been wondering about going for a run or maybe golf to split the evening up.
When I'm home I'm "off" so try and make up for it then. Lots of pressure on the wife, but come September the kids are full time in school so hopefully that will start to decline a bit. Keeping an eye out for a proper training job in Merseyside just on the offchance!
Previously I've been away lots for work, but last one was Davos for the WEF.
Locations tend to be somewhere I wouldn't usually choose to visit;generally European cities. Fortunately I get an allowance and depending on who else is tagging along I'll try and get into the centre and soak up some local cuisine and culture at least once.
If I've got a day off I'll wander the city.
Evenings I'll try and avoid work colleagues when possible. Figure having spent all day together I don't need to be in their company in the evening, too. Depending on hotel I'll go to the sauna and then flake out on the terrace /balcony /room with a bottle of red.
I quite like it. Bike or run, then telly, a book, bit of surfing, some coding, photo editing, something creative, Netflixing stuff my wife won't watch. My problem is I never get enough sleep cos I'm doing all that.
I'm never bored when I have a computer and internet access.
Hotel living wears thin after a while. Thankfully I don't travel often.
Went for a run last night, didn't drink, didn't eat a stupid amount.
I try to make the most of the time in the evening to get admin type jobs done such as changing enery supplier, car insurance, that sort of dull but essential stuff. Although I did change the car brake pads and discs in the hotel car park last year - got some funny looks for that!
Generally I try and get anything done that I can do free up more time at the weekends to spend with the family.
A few years ago, after nearly a year of 4 nights a week away and with the same colleague so there was always the obligation to eat out together, I made the mistake of saying to my wife that I was sick of eating out. She still has never let me live that one down! It was hard for me to explain that it wasn't the food that was the problem, but the whole thing of getting changed, going out, finding somewhere, ordering, then hanging around for the food to come, then waiting for slow-eating colleague to finish, waiting for the bill. That took a minimum of 2hrs every night when all you wnated to do was crash in the hotel and do nothing. Yeah it's nice as a treat occasionally, but after a year it's just tiresome.
Which is why, now I'm on my own, I just grab some cold stuff from the supermarket to eat in the room at my leisure while getting on with other stuff.
I get to stay away 2 or 3 nights, 3 weeks out of 4. Fortunately I get to plan my own "routes" and accommodation. This means I can take myself to places where an early evening walk, ride or even canoe is possible. The latter means some serious time spent planning car parks without height restrictions for a week's worth of town/city centre visits! Worth it though.
I eat out of the hotel if its a chain, unless I really can't be arsed. Sometimes I just buy a good loaf or bread, some pate, cheese or smoked salmon and then head off to the river bank to eat it.
Ginger beer is my substitute for a pint of rubbish hotel beer, but if there's a decent pub I allow myself a pint of real ale.
All the above works well from April to October. In winter, the evenings can be a pain, and I have even resorted to hotel gyms on occasion to get some exercise. Agree with the injury thing, some of the static bike things are really poor. My work is flexible enough that I can sometimes take a longer lunch hour to get a walk in, which helps sanity.
Guitar comes along too.
Obviously I also spend ages on the internet.
Which is why, now I’m on my own, I just grab some cold stuff from the supermarket to eat in the room at my leisure while getting on with other stuff.
I do that, quite happy to just have salad and meat, fish or cheese. I must learn guitar....
Used to hate working away and staying in hotels. Now Work at festivals, so most of the summer away. Absolutely love the life, spending all day outside with mates, evenings around a fire and a few beers. Feels odd coming back to normalish life come autumn
Definitely recommend a Brompton here. I find it's great for getting around easily and small enough to take on/in the car/van/train/hotel room
Have yet to get on a plane with it. I find it helps me just explore, go for a ride just for the sake of it. Had a lovely couple of hours cycling around Manchester last year, just having an explore. Also used it for getting between the hotel and the venue I was in
My problem (!) is that the hotel where I stay most in Africa, the Lagos Sheraton, gives executive club guests free drinks between 5pm and 7pm, so the club lounge is busy with courier and private airline pilots socialising and the dammned waiter keeps topping up my glass of cold Gulder or Star beer, which slips down remarkably easily after a stressful day out in the traffic jams.
South Africa is better because the local agent likes to test out good local restaurants at my company's expense so we usually end up eating great food and drinking great wine, especially when I'm suffering in Cape Town. (*cough*)
I had intentions of writing my book, taking on side projects and riding my bike in the evenings.
But ended up eating too much and getting fat, slow and miserable.
I've managed to avoid it for several years but looks like it might be coming round again ... I'm going to find a gym and give myself a target. Maybe pack a few dehydrated meals I can make with the hotel room kettle, to avoid noodle bar visits.
I took a bike with me and read a lot.
Gym, running, exploring, étudier une langue étrangère, going to concerts just anything other than bar or tv.
Wish I had taken up the guitar earlier I'd be brilliant by now unlike my French.
When there was group of us we had contractors night out just a few drinks and a meal.
After last night's excursion out with ton n the bike I feel I did a bit of exercise so I've been in the bar but revising at the same time since 4.15pm, this is also the first time I've ventured on here, consumed only 2 pints so that's very well behaved in my book! Back to the bike park tomorrow night so no beer, might even take my kit in the van so I don't have to come back to the hotel after the course! Friday 3pm is escape to Derbyshire time....
Yesterday.
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Tonight
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Hard to eat well I find as I get bored in the hotel and often end up in uninteresting places. Therefore I dine out on carb heavy meals and fight the temptation to drink too much.
Have taken my bike a few times but a broke wrist put an end to riding when away for a while.
+1 for bike in the car. Did this for years. Much, much better than the drudgery of hotel bar.
...means you can treat yourself to some proper food after your ride too.
Last night consisted of heading straight to Morrisons after work, grabbing a ceasar salad, some tikka kebabs, a ginsters cornish pasty, yoghurt and couple of bottles of beer. Back to the hotel - got changed and out for a 10k run then back to cool down before chilling out in the room eating the food, drinking the beers and watching a couple of episodes of Bosch on amazon prime. Was 10pm before I knew it.
I only did this for a few months in Bristol.
Always took my single speed
Most times an electric guitar and Ableton on the laptop
"Clueless busteds with well paid jobs will not turn into Sly and Robbie just because they've installed Ableton on their Macs"
Nothing personal mate, that's just the first time I've ever seen Ableton referenced outside of this tune
I'm usually the first to be unimpressed at another Premier Inn just outside Barnsley.
However later this month I have the onerous task of taking 5 teachers to Florence for a weeks training and sharing with our European partners. An important detail is that our original accommodation was cancelled and we were passed onto a friend of the owner - who filled thier own cancellation with us. In a flat with rooftop hot tub. 😎
Result!
Away work sporadic for me. Summer is great as are Trail Centres to keep me out of the bar and I don't need local knowledge. I actually quite enjoy it, I can get a long cycle in without needing to get back to do normal day to day stuff.
Winter, not so enjoyable.
I've had some epic times away with some colleagues and some awful times away with colleagues. Some of our trips to the VW plant in Portugal were legendary.
Speaking of Premier Inn, £96 for a double room in Manc the other day and they stil manage to fail at bacon.
One other thing that bothers me about Premier Inn at the moment is this little debacle...
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-49028337
Midday fire at a staffed, large hotel in a major city causing that amount of damage? Not good! It was being refurbished at the time (I stayed there the week before) so I assume the cause was a contractor error, but why the heck did it destroy the place?
What a thread! I wonder how many of us have crossed paths? And particularly without knowing it.. I think I’m on 86 countries, used to travel a lot, less so now but still do two- three nights every other week.
When I was younger it was running, would run 5 to 10 miles around cities, towns, hills, coasts, then get back and eat everything I could. Rarely drink when away and have had ‘two poached eggs on toast please’ for b’fasts more than any other. As said above, a good hotel in a good city is one thing, a bad one in an indifferent place is another.
Bit older now, so it’s a short run on the odd evening, usually try stay in interesting B&Bs now, avoid hotels when I can. Read lots, Netflix, Prime for things not watched at home (we hardly watch a screen at home) so get to watch Preacher, the Boys, SciFi when away, usually one episode a night, a bit of internet surfing, always call home and sleep and repeat.
Does mean, for years, I have struggled to leave my local area, never mind county for any reason other than work and the odd race or strangely to buy a boat (kayak/canoe/dinghy), a bike (race/classic/everyday), a car (race/classic) or a plane (small/vintage/classic things) - when it seems the further it is the more likely we are to want it and buy it.
Always used to take the bike with me when I could as I only went to a few regular locations, so got to ride Cannock a lot and a Mam Tor/Jacobs Ladder route when I was at another site.
My last trip was 4 weeks in BasingGrad. That was soul destroying. Hotel was average, its gym cycle machines were awful and the food was naff.
Exam and presentation on the course finished yesterday at just after 2pm which was a result as I had the joys of the m1! On getting in the van I realised what I had missed the most whilst away, music!! I literally turned it up loud and sang my whole way home!
Started my first grown up job late last year, and started to travel a bit within the UK the last few months. Just managed to negotiate a territory which includes my parents house, so I’ll be staying with them next week. Week after is Holyhead, so a costal morning run out of town is on the cards based on last time up there.
Just me and my wife at home, and she doesn’t mind having a few evenings to do her own thing, without having me around all the time. We do make more effort to do things together at weekends as well which is nice.
Travelling with colleagues can be great or horrible, depends who they are! One of my team is now a good mate, so we have a laugh and see the positives of being away. Others are constantly moaning about the inconvenience, which drags you down of an evening sometimes.
As mentioned earlier, Cannock chase is ideal, I popped in on the way back down from Manchester the other day.
Agree about the moaning, a bit of a whinge like everyone does is fine but after a while it gets tedious. I mostly work alone so working away with colleagues can be a nice change.
I've found the best Manc budget hotel to be Hotel One (Royal Exchange) and it's right near the sublime Rice Bowl and not too far from BundoBust or Tampopo and, if you can't overcome the temptation of NQ ale, walkable/rideable to the Smithfield, Port Street BH or City Arms.
