By now you may know, (if you don’t you can read more here) we’ve sold our house and have hit the road. We have full time jobs and are fortunate that our employers allow us to work from anywhere we want. We decided to take advantage of a seller’s housing market and remote work opportunities so we could try out this new workcation lifestyle. 

What is workcation?

Basically, we do our normal job but from somewhere that’s not our hometown. As of writing (11/4/21), that’s currently a townhouse on the beach in Sunset Beach, North Carolina. We sign on to our computers, work our eight hour days and shuffle from the kitchen table to a spare bedroom if we have calls at the same time. Some days are more challenging than others, especially since we have a toddler running around, but it beats sitting in a cubicle all day! 

A few important things to note:

1. This workcation would not be possible without our brother, David (aka Chubbs). https://awayfromhomeadventures.com/about-us/ He is our live-in “manny” and helps watch and entertain Luca all day. 
2. This is NOT a way to replace vacation time. We are adamantly against working while on PTO. That is our time away and we all need time to reset and allow for a mental break.

Workcation allows you to experience new places on days off, morning, lunches, nights and weekends. So, how can you make this possible? 

Make sure your employer is on board

We started thinking about this idea back in March of 2021 and hit the road in October of 2021. 

Adam’s employer announced a work-from-anywhere policy in February of 2021, and Amanda had multiple conversations with her manager while we were thinking about IF we could make this a reality. 

We realize that not everyone has this opportunity, but even if you’re able to get away during the holidays to make a short workcation happen… we advocate for it!

Choose your destination

You can pick somewhere you have been before and love, or pick a new destination to explore. Choosing a city you previously lived in, and/or is close to family or friends, would be another great option. One of the reasons we chose Sunset Beach, NC, was for warmer weather and our incredible view of the beach from our townhome. Since we knew we wouldn’t be visiting the beach every single day, we wanted to at least be able to sit outside for our morning coffee or take calls from our covered porch and enjoy the scenery and sounds. 

Find a vacation rental

We had a pretty good idea of what kind of house we wanted to stay in for our workcation. Three bedrooms, 2+ bathrooms, washer/dryer, reliable WiFi, and somewhere with a view or a backyard. We plugged these into VRBO, zoomed into certain areas along the coast, and that is how we found this hidden gem. 

Since we are planning on road tripping for all of our locations, we looked at properties that allowed for monthly stays and were within realistic driving distance from St. Louis with a toddler. By doing this, we found out that a lot of places offer great discounts if you stay for over 30 days. You also are able to cut down on cleaning fees if you aren’t hopping from house-to-house. 

Get Packing

You can find a packing list for monthly stays here. Outside of clothes and lots of toys/snacks for toddlers… making sure we had everything we needed to do our job was important. We are used to large monitors and multiple screens, so we bought a portable screen that helped cut down on space in the car. 

After that you can get work done, have fun and repeat!

We’ve been taking advantage of our Midwest/Central Time Zone work hours while living on East Coast time. We’re able to get a quick Peloton workout in, consume breakfast and coffee, and enjoy a quick walk all before the work day begins. During lunch, we may hit up a restaurant we’ve been wanting to try out or enjoy a walk on the beach before getting back to the computers. 

It’s been fun and challenging figuring out how to adjust to a new place and live out this workcation dream. You can do it too!