Robert Harley Mostad

I spend at least one third of the year traveling around the world visiting companies, factories and exhibitions. Except for the exhibitions I travel mostly alone. A lot of people tell me how much they envy me my job and how lucky they think I am who are traveling around as much as I do. Well there is a backside to the story that a lot of people don´t think about. I spend endless hours at airports in a line, waiting for a delayed flight or claiming lost luggage. And the excitement of staying at a fancy hotel isn´t really there any more. Another thing is that viewing gorgeous scenery, experiencing exotic cultures and enjoying delicious dinners over and over kinda looses its value if you have no one to share it with. But there is ways to make the trips enjoyable and more fun! I will give you a few tips on how I make the business trips a little more fun and enjoyable! 

1. Stop getting worked up or stressed over things you cant do anything about or have influence over! I cant state this enough, it is easy to say but a lot harder to do if you don´t think about it and actively work not to. If your flight is delayed and you wont make you next flight or what ever, it is nothing you can do about it, realize this. Spend your energy and thoughts on trying to enjoy your self instead. The same goes for lost luggage, you cant stress your luggage back on the luggage-claim belt! If you have travel insurance (as far as I know all insurance companies in Norway) will cover your expenses on clothes and necessary products up to approximately 2500,- kr (≈$430) if your luggage is missing for more than 4 hour (and believe me, if it is not there right away, it will take more than 4 hours). Be happy and go shopping, free clothes, yaay! But be reasonable about what you buy, you will  need to document it. I have even called the insurance company and they have transferred money to my acc right away.
2. Get involved with local happenings and events. “But how do know what is going on locally?” you probably ask. There are several tools you can use for this, I will mention some of them for you.
   • Twitter is gold (http://www.twitter.com). Use one of many Twitter clients and make a few searches for the cities and places you are going to visit. Example “Washington” and you will see what everyone writes with that tag, or if you want to go to a concert you can just write “Concert Washington”. Bing has also recently released a map that shows all the geotagged tweets for the area you are viewing. Zoom in to your area and see what they are talking about. http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/ and then go to “MAP APPS” and “Twitter Maps”, you also have a “Events” map in the same site.
   • Tripadvisor is my best friend! (http://www.tripadvisor.com) Search for the city you are going to and go to “Things to do”. That will give you a list over popular touristy things to do where you are.
   • And the obvious, Google. Use Google for what they are worth in searching for things about where you are going!Lonely Planet. Get the lonely planet travel guide books. That gives you a little more value out of the places you see to, there is often a short history chapter, read it. Knowing a little more about the places you visit makes it more interesting see in real life. And off course it will tell you about places, restaurants and events. 
3.  Meet people! This is maybe the toughest one, because it involves you getting out of your “I am just thinking about work, want to get this over with and go home” state. Take a look around and see if you see any interesting people that you would like to hang out with and talk to them! Even if you are just at the airport and are not  planning to hang out with them it is a great way to practice you social skills! Flirt with people, they will most likely never see you again so who cares if you sound stupid. Test out your stupid pick up lines and see if they work before you use them on the love of your life! Here is a few tools you can use to meet local people.
   • Twitter again, is a excellent tool to get in touch with people locally.
   • http://www.couchsurfing.org/ This site is mostly for backpackers who are in search for a couch to crash on, but they also have a lot of users who just want to meet for a cup of coffee!
   • “Check Inn” applications. You have several applications for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Palm that allows you to see who checked inn around you. http://brightkite.com/ , http://gowalla.com/ and http://foursquare.com/ 
   • Craigslist, mostly for users in USA though. http://craigslist.org/  
4. Find a different motivation. Try to find something apart from the purpose of the business trip to motivate you on your trip. Something that you need or can get from every place you visit. Being a picture of the local town square, local church / cathedral, public toilet; buying a collectors edition of the Starbucks City Mug or getting a local tee from every place you are. This off course is to get your mind away from always thinking about business, but if it makes you even more stressed it kind of works against its purpose though. It gives me a achievable and fun goal for every trip.
5. Work out! It is unbelievable much easier after a long day at a new place to just crash in bed. But get your ass up and use the fitness room in the hotel, this is yet another great way to meet people. Or find a local gym, almost all companies will cover the expenses of you staying in shape (if not, tell me and I will personally call your boss). I love opening google earth and figuring out a route that I can run before I get at it. This will get some blood flowing around in your system and make you much more awake and i believe even make better business decisions. Another suggestion is, to for example 30 push ups and sit-ups when you wake up and before you go to bed, easy and you don´t even need “work out” clothes. 
6. Business class and lounges. Now is really the time to polish your social skills, gather all your last energy (you will have even more if you follow point 5) and charm (works better if you follow point 3) and talk your way inn to lounges and on to business class if you are not in it already. When it comes to business class you can ask when you check inn if the plane is full (don´t ask for a upgrade yet if you are not willing to pay for it), if the plane is full you have a bigger chance of being upgraded to business class if you have a flying miles elite card when you board. And this is where you can ask if they have anything available in business class. It helps to wear a suite! If the plane is not full you can try to grab a whole row of seats, usually in the back of the plane (they also prioritize elite status on reseating).
7. Audiobooks and podcasts. Bringing a good book on longer trips is kind of obvious, but often there is not always a opportunity to read. If you are in a cab, driving your self, or even walking from one place to another. Audiobooks solves this problem! Listening to your favorite books really gets your mind off the stress highway. For Norwegians you have http://www.lydbokforlaget.no/ and my personal favorite is http://www.audible.com/ . Another good thing is to download podcast´s before and during your trip. I always download the local news from home on my iPhone. 
8. Take pictures and or video. Take lots of pictures and post them so your friends and family can follow your trip! I personally use flickr (http://www.flickr.com) but you also have other easy ways to upload your pictures like http://picasa.google.com/ and if you have a Mac, http://www.me.com is another option. Personally I like flickr because when you get a “Pro” account you can upload as much as you want. A good tip is to geotagg your images so you and others can see where they are taken. The easy way is to get a camera that does this automatically, like the iPhone, the Nikon P6000 compact camera and Sonys HDR-TG5V compact video camera.
9. Write about your trips. This allows your family and friends to see what you are doing and thinking so you can share what you are experiencing. Every time you get inn to situations that normally would be crappy, you start thinking “I cant wait to write about this” and how to write your next article or blogpost. I mostly write a blog to keep sane, when I write about the things I get frustrated over I get it out of my system. 
10. Finding good food and not getting sick! The last, but not least important point! For the business trip it is very important to find good food and restaurants around where you are traveling. In the states my best suggestion is to go to a fresh grocery market and buy the things you need to make your own food. There is so much junk food that you will look like the Michelin Man if you keep eating it! Ask locals for suggestions and use Tripadvisor and its iPhone / Android app to find local picks and read their reviews! There is lots of mobile apps that searches the local restaurants around you and gives you peoples review of them. Try to eat healthy and stay away from all the cookies in lounges and in lobbies. Some good tips that I live by to find good food and not get sick is. 
    • If you see a lot of people at the restaurant it is a good sign.
    • If you see several “old” people there, the food is often good (don´t ask me why).
    • If you have access to see the kitchen and where they prepare the food you can see if it is clean and it is a good indicator on hygiene!
    • If you are far away from the sea or lakes, stay away from seafood for example.
    • Stay away from meatballs and in general meet that has been cut up and stuffed together. 
    • Stick to the local specialities at the restaurant. Don´t order stake in India as an example.

I could write a whole new blogpost on the last point, especially when it comes to tips on how not to get sick. let me know if you want me to and if you found this post useful or disagree on anything.

Have a safe trip and enjoy!