Business trips can be glamorous at times. But often, they look better on paper than they are in reality.
My husband travels for work about 25% of the time. Often, I am jealous of his business travel because of the destination or the specific hotel. Other times, I am admittedly envious that he just gets to sleep in a quiet hotel room without hearing our kids fighting and our dogs barking.
Before I escaped the corporate retail world, I did my own share of business travel. A few trips were brag-worthy, but most were not. Check out some of our best and worst business trips.
Brian’s Business Trips
Jealous: I was extremely envious that time Brian got to travel to Ireland for work. He stayed in an old castle and spent an afternoon visiting more sites around Dublin. He ever got his own row on the flight over!
Not Jealous: In January, he went to Boston. The temperature was in the single digits. No, thanks!
Jealous: Last fall, Brian’s company had a conference trade show at Disney World. He stayed at the Dolphin hotel and hung out at Disney Springs. One night, his company rented Universal Studios for a private party. He got to ride on all the rides with no wait since the park was closed to the public. Super jealous!
Not Jealous: He spent two weeks in Jackson, Mississippi. No offense to anyone who lives there, but I just wasn’t jealous of his time there. He was very bored.
Jealous: For three years in a row, Brian attended a company conference at the Aria hotel in Las Vegas. I would have loved to tag along! I actually haven’t been to Las Vegas in many years. Checking out the pool and spa at the Aria would have been just fine with me.
Not Jealous: While Salt Lake City is a very clean city, I am not jealous that Brian spent several weeks there. He filled his extra time exploring the Mormon Tabernacle and researching his family at the Family History Library.
Jealous: Brian took two separate business trips to Irvine, California. While there, his group frequently hung out in Laguna Beach for meals.
Not Jealous: He took a business trip to Phoenix, Arizona in the summer. I went to Phoenix once in the summer and I could barely breathe because it was so hot. Not jealous!
Jealous: This past year, Brian has traveled to San Francisco frequently for work. I’m jealous of most of these trips because San Francisco is a beautiful city. At night, he gets to have dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf and other yummy restaurants.
Not Jealous: He was just in San Francisco a few weeks ago, but this time I was not jealous. Due to a conference that filled many of the city’s hotel rooms, he had to stay at an older hotel in Chinatown. His room looked like he was staying at Grandma’s house. A homeless man tried to start a fight with him outside. But the worst part was that he was staying in Chinatown during Chinese New Year. Every night, all night long, he heard fireworks and fire crackers. He hardly got a wink of sleep. Yikes!
Nancy’s Business Trips
Jealous: My most envy-worthy trip was probably two separate trips over three weeks to Tokyo, Japan. I explored the city on the weekends, and I got to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
Not Jealous: Shortly before I quit my last corporate job, I was chosen to be part of a team to fly to Puerto Rico on the corporate jet. It sounds awesome, right? It was terrible. I never even saw the ocean. We visited stores from sun-up til sun-down. Puerto Rico was way more congested than I ever imagined for an island in the Caribbean, and I couldn’t believe the traffic. I’m sure if I visited it on a cruise it would be a much nicer experience.
Jealous: When I was in my 20s, I went on a business trip to Montreal, Canada. The city is gorgeous, and I felt like I was in France. I would love to return.
Not jealous: I went on a business trip to Ohio, visiting multiple cities on the same trip. We only spent time in the car and in stores, so we really could have been anywhere. It was brutal.
Jealous: In my last corporate job, I went to New York City twice. Even though my days were packed, there is still something very magical about NYC. I managed to squeeze in a trip to the top of the Empire State Building, and we had great food in Little Italy.
Are you ever jealous of a spouse’s or friend’s business travel? What are some great/not so great business trips you’ve taken?
Click here to view various credit cards and available sign-up bonuses
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
One of the nice things about business travel is not only traveling on the company dime but if you get to use your own personal card and than submit expense reports all the points you are earning! Having family tag along especially if you have that companion pass is very nice.
For sure!
what a fun post! I enjoyed reading it!
Before I had my baby, I volunteered for all task force jobs so I can travel. I was sent to train others in San Francisco and Boston. Loved both of those trips and as an introvert…loved the time alone during travelling (well at least after work hours).
I always volunteered for Hawaii jobs but never got picked 🙁
My husband gets to travel for a week once a year for conference too. This year in Columbus. Ohio. I did a quick look on the city and see if I wanted to tag along. I didn’t find much so we will skip this year.
@lea I would have totally volunteered for Hawaii, too! I don’t blame you for passing on Columbus.
Columbus isn’t terrible! We like the COSI museum a lot, and the Zoo is fun. I don’t know about what’s good for other ages. We are 3 hours from Columbus so have stopped there on other road trips.
Before we had kids, I tagged along with my husband to San Francisco on a week-long trip. Our hotel was in a prime location and I had the best time exploring on my own. Now with two kids, I don’t get jealous of his work trips anymore. He goes to some nice places, California, Las Vegas, NYC, Orlando, but honestly, I would rather stay home and live my day to day life. 🙂 Now, I love the points that he earns though!
Oh, the whole family did follow him to NYC one time for a couple of night stay. That was pretty sweet.
@Joyce That’s great that you got to tag along on a few trips. San Francisco would be fun to explore on your own. I understand what you mean about staying home sometimes, though. My husband misses his normal routine and exercise classes every time he goes out of town.
My husband travels sometimes for work and we have gone with him twice now. Once, we joined him on a road trip to Detroit. I only went because my sister lives there, haha! But we had fun. We also went with him last month to NYC. I figured paying for 4 flights instead of 5, plus having our hotel room covered would make it reasonably cheap. It wasn’t bad! January is uh, cold, but I missed the midwest polar vortex so that’s fun.
He also has been to rural Texas (no thanks), San Jose, Buffalo (in December!!), Toronto. Mainly nowhere I’d want to tag along.
The best part are all the points he brings home for us to use elswhere.
@Kacie That’s great that you get to tag along on some of your husband’s trips! Free hotel room is hard to pass up. And I agree, the best part of about a spouse’s work trips are the points. I’m always disappointed if Brian has to stay at some small boutique hotel that doesn’t earn points.
Best: Eh…..not sure. Probably Charleston, South Carolina for a conference this past December. Tacked a day on each end for sightseeing, and ate well during the conference. Charleston is a lovely (and foodie) city.
Worst: Las Vegas/Needles. Major flight issues on either end for a 2-night trip. Flight out was canceled and had to drive to SFO to catch a plane to LAX, then finally to LAS. Got in at 2:00 a.m. Did a site visit the next day, drove back to Vegas. Slept. Left. Was horribly delayed and didn’t get home to northern California until midnight.
Typical: Roanoke, Virginia. Work is mostly enjoyable, but has its ups and downs. Mainly, I like maximizing hotel promotions to earn as many points as possible. I think I have stayed in a dozen different hotels in the area.
@Ian Charleston sounds nice. It’s on my wish list. Your Vegas trip sounds horrible. My husband is so sick of going to Vegas for work conferences.
Best:.
Went to Portland for a conference. I’ve loved Portland ever since and had returned many times .
Went to Seattle a few times to visit the HQ. Seattle is so beautiful.
Got to stay at a Disney Resort at WDW for work. Disney is truly magical.
Worst:
Went to Provo, UT for work. The plane landed late and by the time we got in, all the restaurants in town we could find were closed. Plus there’s nothing to do in UT!
Several years ago, I had to go to Danville, VA for a week for work on a solo business trip. My UA flight got in late and I missed my connecting flight at Chicago heading to Greensboro NC. The flight landed much later than I had anticipated. After I picked up my rental car, I still had to drive for an hour to VA. There were not many choices for hotel so my company did what they could. It was a hotel slightly better than a roadside motel. At night, the only entertainment option was to scroll down the aisles of Walmart. Dining options were pretty much just chain restaurants (recommended to me by my local colleagues). The kicker was that the first day I showed up at the warehouse, the folks who worked there took one look at me and would say, “OMG YOU SPEAK ENGLISH!” (I am Chinese American.) I was very young and didn’t quite know how to handle these awkward situations then. It was a real culture shock coming from LA. That said, all the folks were really nice once they got past the initial shock. Still, my local colleagues were adamant that I didn’t go anywhere in town by myself. Maybe they are not used to seeing someone of Asian descent there?? It made for a vaguely uneasy feeling during the entite trip.
@Winnie Thanks for sharing your best and worst business trips. I went to Portland on a high school band trip, and I would love to visit again. Gotta love any business trip that takes place at Disney! Your trip to Danville sounds awful. I can’t believe people said that to you! Wow.
LOL they did not mean ill will and I get that. Still, when I was already jetlagged after a long travel the day before, the “you speak English” comment was not quite the reaction I had expected.
@Winnie We live in an area with very few Asians around. As a result, when we went on Alaska cruise few years ago, my son exclaimed upon seeing a Japanese family: “You guys are ninjas!” My husband and I were mortified, but they thought it was hilarious. If we make it Japan next year, it will probably blow his mind. 🙂
I just want to chime in also…I was sent for training in the suburbs of Tennessee. I was standing in line to order food at a chain restaurant and someone came over and ask if they can touch my hair. I’m Asian-American and have long silky black hair. The person said
while touching my hair ” wow. just like Mulan’s hair”. I replied “thank you?”. Such a weird experience for me.
Coming from L.A., there is so much diversity that I don’t really notice it anymore.
If I was there I would be throwing pretend-ninja stars with your son. 🙂 Bringing him along in your travel adventure is probably the best thing you can do for him in his impressionable years. Good for you!
@lea Your story made me LOL. I had gone on a date once with a guy I did not know very well back in college. He was in one of my classes and after bumping into each other on campus for a few weeks in a row, he asked me out after class one day. On our first and only date, he could not stop running his fingers through my hair telling me how soft it was, in the middle of El Pollo Loco (we were poor students). I was both flattered and weirded out.