How to work remotely while traveling and still maintain productivity

The work-and-travel lifestyle—whether you call it being a digital nomad or something else—has a lot going for it. Working remotely while traveling lets you visit new cities and countries without taking vacation days, so you can settle in and spend extended time in any place you choose and live a bit more like a local than a tourist. 

Key Takeaways

• Staying productive while working remotely and traveling requires setting up boundaries, since it’s easy to slip into “vacation mode” or burn out from constant novelty and logistics.
• Work-friendly accommodation matters most: look for a separate workspace, real desk, reliable WiFi, natural light, and a usable kitchen.
• Building a portable office with items like a laptop stand, keyboard, and noise-canceling headphones helps you recreate focus anywhere.
• Time-blocking, async communication, and backup WiFi plans protect your schedule from time zone chaos and connectivity issues.
• Slowing down travel pace and protecting personal routines like exercise and rest prevents burnout and supports long-term productivity.

The most romanticized setups (see: working from a hammock, joining a video call from the beach) may sound fun, in theory, but ultimately don’t work if you’re trying to actually stay productive while traveling. Getting work done while moving from place to place can ultimately be more difficult than it is dreamy, and requires you to create healthy work/life boundaries, make travel plans carefully, and implement your own systems to help you tick off your to-dos without burning out or getting distracted by the newness all around you. 

The key is to stop treating productivity like a test of willpower and start building a system around how you work best, where you stay, and what you need to feel focused, rested, and ready to log on.

Why productivity tends to slip when you work remotely while traveling

Working remotely while traveling seems easy, in theory: all it really takes is opening your laptop, right?

The truth is, remote work while traveling requires you to juggle a lot: experiencing the place you’re in; “life admin” like cleaning, doing laundry, and feeding yourself; taking care of yourself by sleeping enough and getting exercise; planning your next destination; and, of course, doing your job. It’s tempting to shift into “vacation mode” and prioritize adventuring, seeing your surroundings, or moving to a new location over doing your work.

You’re also bound to encounter some logistical hiccups. WiFi can be spotty even in the biggest cities, and working across time zones can complicate scheduling and, if you’re far enough from the rest of your team, even disrupt your circadian rhythm. Hotels, hostels, and even rental apartments don’t always have great workspaces, and working from cafes or coworking spaces can be costly and distracting.

Constantly getting to know a new area (finding grocery stores, locating a gym, mastering the exchange rate) and choosing a new place to live every few weeks or months can contribute to decision fatigue and burnout. And when you’re working full-time from the same place where you’re eating, sleeping, and relaxing, it can begin to feel a bit suffocating, even if you’re in a picturesque new location.

This is all to say, while being a digital nomad is a massive privilege, it isn’t a total vacation—and when push comes to shove, your work productivity can be one of the first things to take a hit. Luckily, you can mitigate the impact if you know how to balance your energy, workload, and personal needs going into your next destination.

Set up your environment for focus

Finding work-friendly rentals

When you’re working remotely and traveling, your accommodation is one of the biggest factors in how comfortable, productive, and enjoyable your time in that destination will be. Take it from Hannah Dixon, a nomad of over 20 years, who’s found she can’t work well from coworking spaces or cafes because it’s overstimulating. “This means when choosing a destination, I put extra effort into ensuring my accommodation is work-friendly,” she says. “For example, blazing-fast WiFi, a decent desk to work from, and, for me, ideally, a high floor with an expansive view to keep me feeling connected to the outside world even during periods of higher workload.”

To ensure you’re booking a place that’s comfortable to live in and work from for days, weeks, or even months, look for the key features listed below. It’s common for hotel and hostel rooms to lack many of them, and even furnished apartments designed for shorter stays may not have it all.

• Separate work and living spaces. It’s key to separate your physical workspace from areas where you can relax, whether it’s a separate room or a desk you only sit at while working. This physical boundary ensures your brain is in “focus mode” when it’s at your workspace, and prevents work stress from bleeding into your personal or relaxation time.
• An actual desk setup. Remote work-friendly rentals should have a dedicated workspace. Working from barstools, high-top counters, and kitchen tables is doable for a couple of hours or days, but it will eventually have negative effects on your posture and your ability to focus on your work for 8 hours a day. Look for spaces with a proper desk setup, including space for an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse, if you travel with them, plus an ergonomic chair—or at the very least, one with a back and where your feet will touch the ground.  
• Reliable, high-speed WiFi. “I book accommodation based on backup internet, not the view,” says Jordana Abitbol, a former nomad and founder of a digital marketing agency who’s now based in Spain. Before booking, look for reviews that mention WiFi or internet speed, and check average internet speeds for the city or town where you’re headed, in case it’s not a lodging issue but a geographic one. Some rentals targeted at remote workers will even list the internet speed or screenshots of a speed test—if they don’t, you can message the host for that info. In areas where power or internet connections often go out, ask about backup generators or satellite WiFi options.
• Natural light. Digital nomads may travel, but just like anyone else who works from home, they inevitably spend much of their time inside their accommodation getting work done. Choosing accommodation with an abundance of natural light—and, even better, a view of your surroundings, as Dixon does — can help prevent the WFH doldrums and also remind you that you’re somewhere new worth exploring.
• Quiet space for calls. If you’re traveling with friends or a partner, this one is especially key: you’ll want a door you can close to create a quiet, meeting-friendly environment, whether to separate your workspaces or create a sound barrier from cooking, cleaning, or watching TV. 
• Sufficient climate control. If you’re headed somewhere warm, check that you’ll have functioning air conditioning in your workspace and bedroom. A space that’s too hot, humid, or poorly ventilated can make it harder to focus, stay comfortable, and get through a full workday.
• Construction noise. Many nomad hotspots are experiencing a tourism and housing boom, bringing a lot of new construction. If possible, ask about any nearby construction noise before you book. 
• A usable kitchen. Look for a functioning kitchen with all the necessary appliances, including a fridge, stovetop, oven, microwave, and coffee maker, so you don’t spend time and money leaving the house or coordinating takeout for every single meal. 
• Space or amenities for your other routines. What you have available for your non-working hours can impact your productivity, too. If you know you need blackout curtains to get shut-eye after working late, want to catch every football game on a sizeable TV, or need a gym to maintain your mental and physical health, those are all important things to keep in mind. Choosing a space that’s great for working—but not living—can also backfire by hindering your ability to relax, which can ultimately contribute to burnout and hinder your productivity. 

Many of the reasons above are why so many remote workers find Blueground’s furnished apartments ideal for stays of 30+ days.

Build a portable office

You can’t bring an ergonomic chair and table with you, but traveling with a small laptop stand, external keyboard, mouse or trackpad, and even a monitor can help you set up any workspace for more productive days. Noise-canceling headphones can help you stay laser-focused on meetings or quiet work even when your surroundings are chaotic.

Create routines that travel with you

Remote work and travel may be all about flexibility, but routine and structure will help you stay grounded and actually get work done.

For Arbitbol, “time blocking is non-negotiable,” she says. “I time-block like my life depends on it. Deep work, client calls, and admin each have fixed windows.” She admits it’s counterintuitive—that rigid scheduling is the exact opposite of what makes the nomad lifestyle feel free. But when you have distinct edges to your work time, it allows you to explore a new city guilt-free, she says. Otherwise, “work bleeds into everything and you end up half-working, half-vacationing, and doing neither well.”

Block out sections of your calendar for different types of work, being honest about what you’ll realistically get done and when. “As my work is very flexible (I’m self-employed), I work at times that honor my natural peak creativity; for me, that’s evenings,” Dixon says.

Then layer in personal tasks (such as grocery shopping or exercising), and also designate time to intentionally enter travel mode. If you need to fly mid-day on a Tuesday or want to go for a hike during the only sunny day this week, schedule extra focused work time before or after so you can enjoy it guilt-free and without compromising your productivity. 

And when larger chunks of your routine need to shift, smaller habits like morning coffee or journaling, evening tea and reading, or a lunch workout can help ground your days, no matter where you are. 

Master your logistics

Manage time zones and communication

When you’re constantly switching time zones, it can be difficult to coordinate schedules and find time for calls. Keep things simple by relying primarily on async communication, whether email or instant message, if you have the option. Abitbol offers “no call services” as part of her digital marketing agency: “I only have calls if I am meeting with a new client or potential lead. For my ongoing clients, I keep all communications to email to make things flow better,” she says.

Be honest about when you’re off the clock by establishing hard-outs, quiet hours, or turn on “do not disturb” modes so you don’t wake up to a flurry of texts or emails. And wait until the start of your official workday to look at your inbox. Nothing will steal the joy from your morning beach walk or coffee and pastry faster than seeing your to-dos before you can actually start them.

Have backup WiFi, always

“Internet redundancy is the least glamorous and most important skill of working from anywhere,” Abitbol says. No matter where you’re working, the WiFi could cut out. “Before confirming any stay, I check what cafés are within walking distance; if the home WiFi fails an hour before a client call, I need a plan B within five minutes,” she says. It also pays to have a local data plan that lets you hotspot if a cellular connection is your only option. 

Have a charging plan

When you’re working and traveling, keeping all your devices charged with limited outlets or plug adapters (and in the midst of long travel days) is an unexpected yet frustrating hurdle. And when your laptop or cell dies—along with your WiFi hotspot—it can seriously get in the way of getting work done. Consider investing in an all-in-one charging station, multiple universal power adapters, or power banks with enough juice to power a full laptop charge.  

Simplify your food routine

Few things dampen productivity quite like hunger. It helps to have a few quick, simple meals in your rotation that use common ingredients you can find anywhere and don’t necessitate a ton of pantry staples or kitchen tools you may not have. This will make grocery shopping in new places faster and easier, and reduce the number of decisions you’ll need to make mid-workday when you’re just trying to get things done. Look up local delivery apps for prepared food and groceries, so you can get it delivered if you need.

Protect your energy

One of the biggest things you can do to protect your energy while working and traveling is to slow down. 

“Over the years, I’ve significantly slowed my travel to allow for more focused stretches of work,” Dixon says. “It gives me the best work/life balance this way, as I’m able to immerse myself more deeply and meaningfully in both my work and the place I temporarily call home.”

Many nomads choose to spend at least a month in each place so they have time to truly experience the area, get work done, and establish routines. This method also gives you a few free weekends to do shorter trips nearby or dedicate entire days to tours or time-intensive activities.

When you first start working remotely and traveling, you may find yourself going out every night with new friends or ticking a must-see site off your list. Don’t forget that you need downtime too. While in a new city or country, it may feel silly to spend your Sunday evenings watching Netflix or your favorite sports team, but you still need some moments to recharge the same way you would at home. “The benefit of digital nomading is that it genuinely complements slow travel, with the need to sometimes sit at home, watch movies, and crank out work,” says Angela DiLanzo, a travel advisor and nomad.

And if you know that activities like journaling, working out, or cooking healthy meals are key for maintaining your energy levels or mood, don’t let them fall by the wayside. It’s easy to discard these healthy routines and slip into total holiday mode, but you’re not on vacation; you’re building a version of your daily life in new places. 

Tools & apps for staying productive on the road

Having the right tools at the ready can help you prevent work interruptions, like losing WiFi or getting stuck at the airport with a delayed flight. Consider adding these to your toolkit:

• Cell data: Spotty WiFi and travel delays will happen—unbroken, reliable cell coverage ensures you aren’t dependent on unstable or insecure public WiFi networks and that you can always fire back a Slack message or hop on a Zoom in an emergency. If your cell phone is unlocked (i.e., not tied to a specific US carrier), you can buy short-term cell packages through local networks with electronic SIM (eSIM) providers such as Airalo and HolaFly, which you can activate immediately upon arrival and top-up whenever needed—no need to fumble through activation and language barriers at a local cell kiosk. 

• Travel insurance: Not only does travel insurance (like policies offered by Safety Wing or World Nomads) cover costly and annoying travel hiccups, such as illness, lost luggage, and delayed flights, but most also cover your tech, too. If anything happens to your laptop, phone, tablet, camera, or other work essentials, they can often help you cover the cost of repair or replacement. 

• VPNs: VPNs like NordVPN and Surfshark can help keep your data and devices secure whenever you need to use a public or questionably secure WiFi network, and also allow you to stream entertainment from your home country you might otherwise not have access to.

• Translation and exchange rate apps: If you’re traveling internationally, the free Google Translate app (which lets you translate text with your camera and download languages for offline use) and simple exchange rate apps will become indispensable in navigating your temporary homes. 

• Work timers: If you’re self-employed or a gig worker who wants to track your hours, try work timers like Toggl or Clockify. Want to dial in your productivity and build in micro breaks to prevent burnout? Try Pomofocus, Forest, or Be Focused, which can help cut down on digital distractions. 

The bottom line

Working remotely and traveling could be the key to your most fulfilling life yet, but it’ll take some trial and error (and hard-won boundaries) to make working on the go both sustainable and productive. As you might glean from the laundry list above, booking the right place to stay is perhaps the biggest factor in whether or not you’ll be able to get work done. Consider furnished apartments like those offered by Blueground, which often include dedicated workspaces and other amenities you need to settle in and get to work wherever you land.