Champagne & Chandeliers: Travel for Work

I remember before I started working full time in the corporate world, I craved a job that provided the opportunity for lots of travel! I thought it was sexy. The images in my head looked a bit like this.

After twelve years of working with more business travel than I care to remember, I can confirm that there is nothing sexy about twelve+ hour days in back to back meetings, followed by lonely nights in a hotel room generally working through the night, no private jets, no views of the ocean and very little down time to explore a new City. Reality is, it looks more like this.

I spent this last week interstate for work and am very much appreciating being back at home and in my usual habitat this weekend. I get three nights back at home before I have to do it all over again. Which gets me thinking, how do you survive travelling for work?

Here are my top 5 quasi-survival tips:

1. Find good coffee.

2. Call home! Regardless of how busy you are, take a few minutes to call home (ET managed to do it).

3. If you have friends in the City - arrange a catch up (even if it is late into the night after days of meetings, a friendly face is therapeutic).

4. Good concealer (to hide the panda eyes after all those late nights working). I am currently loving Napolean Perdis' Mighty Concealer Pen.

5. Eat right. Finding a great place to eat good food (with good company if possible) after a long day of meetings goes a long way. My favourite in Melbourne (where I spent the last week for work) is Hanabishi.