Bleisure Travel Hacks

# - Bleisure Travel Hacks (EDITED)

Fri, Mar 14, 2025 9:08AM • 22:31

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Emma, do you want to live a life of freedom and adventure? Are you wanting more than the daily grind? Me too. Welcome to the Emma Lovell, show a place where we talk about living a life you love. Now I'm your host, Emma Lovell, and my number one value is freedom. I've spent the last 14 years running a business and traveling the world, and now I take my husband and toddler along for the adventure too. It's possible, and I know you can create a life doing what you truly love as well. This podcast will inspire, motivate and encourage you to go after your dreams, to create a life you love and to live it now, not wait for a time and or someday in the future, I'll be sharing episodes weekly about how I harmonize business travel and self care. I'll also bring on incredible guests to share their journeys, the wins, the challenges, and how they're creating a life they love. Let's jump in and get dreaming. This is a space for you to manifest a life you love.

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I would like to acknowledge and recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of this place, now known as Australia. I am grateful for the continuing care of the land, waterways and skies where I work, live, listen, learn and play from here on, you can bear country and from wherever you are listening, I pay my respects to the elders past and present. Hello and welcome to today's episode. I'm going to be sharing my pleasure travel hacks. I know this is what you come here for, and I knew that the travel hacks were probably going to be the one of the most popular session sections of my book, but ended up breaking up the book into travel hacks, work hacks, and then leisure hacks. So that's the combining of business and leisure. But I want to take it back a step, because some of you might be listening for the first time. Hello, if you've just found me and you're running what in the name is leisure. So leisure, I actually wrote a book called The Art of pleasure, and it's all about how to travel the world, make money and live a life you love. Now, pleasure is the art of blending business and leisure so you can live a life you love. But pleasure was actually a term that was coined by futurists in 2009 but I've really taken it to a different level. So really typically, it was like pleasure was going on a conference and extending for a few days, going to have a meeting in a city and then going to catch up with a friend, or something like that. So used quite often in the corporate travel world, and then it was, it sort of hasn't really let out past there, so I have taken it and added in that it's about combining business travel and self care so that you can harmonize your work and life. And it's not about work life balance. It's more than that. This is a way of living. It's a pleasure life. It's not just pleasure travel. It's not a pleasure business. It's about a life that is finding the harmony around these things. So it's not being digital nomad. You don't

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need to just have a laptop and go and do your work from anywhere like you can. You can find ways to make income, to make money in many different ways, and to combine that with travel. So sometimes I travel and get to have experiences in exchange for working. Sometimes I'm volunteering and, yeah, getting to have experiences that would have cost five or $10,000 like tracking beverage base camp in exchange for being a tour leader on that program.

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You might use your skills so potentially even it's like building or you could be a marine scientist. You could be a chef, you could be a social media specialist. And you could use your skills in exchange for an experience or get paid while you're there, doing something, and then have a trip as well. There's many different ways, and it's not just the laptop lifestyle that's not what I'm promoting

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for me.

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You know, a great pleasure trip that I had was taking a trip with my husband and son to Melbourne for an event that I was running, getting to see family and friends at the same time. And it felt like a perfect business life, leisure, self care, harmony. I felt really nourished. I felt really hopped up. We got to do a little bit of work. I got to do my business. Kept running the whole time. I got to attend an event, got to do some networking, and got to share experiences my son and my husband. So that's what pleasure means to

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me, and what like. Why am I even talking about this? Why does it even matter? Why is it important? Because pleasure is about it's about avoiding burnout

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by

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including travel in your life, not just waiting for, like, work, work, work, work. And then I'll get to have a holiday, you know, like slave away daily grind, so you can go and have this wonderful adventure, only to turn around and do it all again. It's about bringing self care into your work, self care into your life, and using sometimes travel.

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Is self care, but it's about looking at as a longer form way of life. It's not just go and do this trip and cram everything in, or when I'm at home and I'm working, it's really like drudgery and boring, and then my travels and holidays are really awesome. I think

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both. Sometimes you can go on a trip and it can be not so great. And you can be at home and you can have the most wonderful, awe inspiring wondering experiences by having a travel mindset. So pleasure is about creating a lifestyle that prioritizes freedom and flexibility. And it's really like I said, that shift from work, work, work and then play to having work and leisure and life in harmony. That's the goal. That's what I'm aiming for. So the question you can ask yourself is, to live a life you love. Am I living a life I love? You know, is my like? Is work working for me is am I getting to do the things that inspire and motivate and encourage me? Am I getting to spend time with the people I love? And if the answer is no, then find a way to shift that. And I'm not telling everyone to go and quit their job. And quit their jobs or stop working. That's not always great for people either. You hear a lot a lot of people who retire and then

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get bored. So I really enjoy working. I see myself being like an old lady with gray hair, still trekking, still writing books, still speaking on stages like just think of Jane Goodall but doing her amazing work. Older lady, still so passionate in having so much purpose and delivering life changing, world changing work. Yeah, just, you know, just for small goals, just be like Jane Goodall, you don't need to have, like, super big purpose. You need to be living a life that you love. And if that's having being able to be at home, have your camping trip and having your family around you, that's your life, like you get to decide. And I just want you to have the freedom and the flexibility to do that. So I'm going to share with you some pleasure travel hacks that I have just a few little takeaways today. So obviously, top tip, get the book got a lot more detail, a lot more information in there. But of course, I'm going to be sharing snippets and helpful tips throughout this podcast, and I'd love if you want me to delve into any of these topics deeper. Please let me know. I would love to do episodes on that as well. But some pleasure travel hacks that I have for you are adding in extra days before or after a work trip to explore some new places. So you're already going somewhere for work. You're already taking that time away. If you could just, just take one or two extra days, or even extend for the day, like, don't fly out at seven o'clock in the morning, fly out in the evening. So you get to enjoy that place, so you get to integrate the work that you've done. So you get to feel refreshed before you go back. My greatest regrets are when I rush back and I now even So sometimes I'm missing my family and I love them. I know that I need that extra night, or extra two nights after, especially after I've hosted an event,

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hosted a retreat, to have that time for myself,

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one of my biggest tips, and I will be doing I have an episode on this, but I will be doing more on it. I'm actually going to run a master class on it, so stay class on it. So stay tuned for that, and let me know if you'd like to be included. Using travel rewards programs and loyalty schemes to save money. I have a flight like a trip coming up. The flights, we got six flights, my husband, son and I to Perth and back. It should have cost $2,070

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it's costing us $350

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thanks to points. We just paid the taxes. We're staying in a hotel for two nights in Perth for $41 because of Qantas points, we use the points plus pay using other points with that,

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we staying at a place in Fremantle for two nights. Bookings.com.

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We booked that on and I have got cash back on that booking. So I'll get 5% cash back after we stay, so about $40 and I'll also already saved $100

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because I am a genius level

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genius. I am genius level, so level three with them. So I also get savings and also perks like free breakfast and free cancelations and things like that. So it does pay to be loyal. Um, cash back has been amazing as well. I've just signed up for that cash back rewards. Please let me know if you would like a referral code. I've got that and, yeah, I just use the app before I go and shop. You can even use before you buy flights, before you use hotels. Amazing, just ways to keep more money in your pocket to do more things you love. If

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you want to stay somewhere longer, and you run a business or you have some work flexibility, you can always find a co working space or a hotel with work friendly sort of spaces. So whether that's they might have meeting rooms or they just have, like, work pods, look out for those. I do look for those when you're looking at accommodation so that you can stay there a little bit longer, because you can work comfortably. We tend to now as well. When I travel with my family, we book two rooms, so booking an apartment style more than a hotel.

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Hell, because then we can have close the door and have some space if I need to work at night or early in the morning, my husband and son can be in the bedroom. I can be in the lounge room or in the other bedroom and do my work. It means we can stay away longer. I can still make some income. We don't get angry at each other. So many perks. So think about where you're booking and if it's going to facilitate your work. And

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you can also, of course, pack smart, so, you know, thinking about not just the business stuff that you're doing, but also wearing, you know, I see so often people go and stay in a hotel and they're like, Oh, I've got, I don't have any, like, nice dress to wear out tonight, so I won't go and do anything. Or I don't have swimming costumes. I couldn't use the pool like just even though it's a work trip. Take your work clothes. But always think about there might be a gym, there might be the swimming pool, there might be a lovely place you could go for a walk. So take your leisure clothes with you. You might decide that you feel like going out for dinner, and

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sometimes as well. If you would cancel, like it was cancelation or delay, you might have to stay longer. So take those leisurely clothes as well, because that would just even motivate you to go. Oh well, I've got my gym gear. I better go to the gym. I've got my swimming costume. I'm going to go use the sauna. Definitely make use of those perks. If you're out of place with those facilities. I'm talking more like hotels or resorts, but wherever you travel for work.

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So a little bit, I've also like to share with you

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some self care and mindset tips as well around this pleasure travel. Because I think sometimes people hear when you talk about pleasure, and they just think about, oh, well, I don't get paid to go somewhere for work, or my I don't have the laptop lifestyle. I don't have the digital nomad lifestyle, so I can't do this. Or,

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oh yeah, I've got a fixed job. So my job's like, in an office, I can't do it. And it's like, No, I'm talking about including more travel and leisure, or whatever you love, and self care in your life, around your work. So

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works, work, you gotta do your job, and you gotta there are certain amount of working that we have to do, but you can find other ways to include your life. I think we waste a lot of time in drudgery. We waste a lot of time in procrastination. We waste a lot of time of doing the mundane when we could be doing something new. So it's lovely, like you've got a favorite takeaway shop that's cool. Go to the takeaway shop, but why don't you maybe sometimes try a different shop? Like, for me, travel, and having a travel mindset is literally like having little micro adventures. So instead of walking left where I go walk along the boardwalk, I'm going to walk right today. You know, I always go to this coffee shop, why don't I go over to the next suburb and try a different coffee shop. Why don't I reach out to a friend and share this experience with them?

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Instead? Mini breaks and micro adventures are so important. So I live in the Gold Coast in Queensland, and it is a tourist destination, but there are so many places that I haven't even been, things that I haven't even done that would make it feel like a holiday to me, whether we stay in a hotel or whether we just go and try something different, like my husband took my son to a trampolining place the other week. I've never done a trampolining place like these bounce places. I was so jealous they went. It's 10 minutes away, it's always accessible. But we don't think to do it, whereas we probably would have thought to do that overseas, like we did the iFLY adventure, which is like indoor skydiving on a cruise ship, but we haven't done it. We would never think to take our four year old and do that at home, even though we totally can. You're allowed to four year olds are allowed, but we're like, we're on a ship. How cool would it be to do this? We did it so finding ways to do things in your local area that are different and new. That's a mini break. It doesn't have to be getting on a plane, it doesn't have to be extremely expensive, it doesn't have to be far away and big and extravagant. I think sometimes those little mini breaks, we went the other week to Toowoomba, just for a night. That's two hours from our place. Toowoomba, it's fun to say it was charming. It was beautiful. It was so much better than I expected. I would totally go back. We went to a steam train museum, just, just a really lovely, kind of cool hotel we stayed in, and just beautiful parks and gardens. And it was just so nice to be together and to do something different than being at home on a Friday night, doing the same old

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self care, just it doesn't have to be extravagant. Travel and self care, travel as self care, both do not have to be extravagant. So it can really, honestly just be, like I said, trying a new location for dinner, going for a different walk,

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or just having a new experience.

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And it's about reframing travel as an investment in your well being and not an expense. I think that's the other thing. You'll be like, Oh, it's so expensive. Travel so expensive. It does not have to be. I go and stay with my friends tonight. I am staying with my gorgeous friend in Melbourne. I'm staying in her home instead of a hotel. We are gonna go to the gym together just.

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Is my trainer, actually, so it'd be amazing. Nikki from singe training, She's incredible. I'm going to try new foods because we we're going to have something to her dinner. I'm recording this podcast. It's all new and fun. And she's very generously hosting me here. So I'm sure you have a friend who has a home who would happily invite you to come and have new experiences with them, just as you might do that for them, having somebody come visit you, this is why I'm so open to small, little mini breaks and different adventures, because my family from England, my parents are English, we always had visitors, so I did get to be a tourist a lot as a child, when we had visitors come and were showing new things. And thankfully, we've kept up that experience, but even I have to keep reminding myself, you know, to do that. And then now I go back to Sydney, where I'm originally from, and sometimes I just go back and I visit people, and I go to the same place, and I see the same people, and I love them, but it's so much awesome, more awesome or cool when we do something new together. And now my son is four. Like I said, seeing the world through his eyes is a new experience. Today. My dad is out with him. They went on the bus, they went on the ferry, they went and played on Manly Beach. I would have done that as a child. And what a fun thing to now share that with his grandson, you know, and to get to see the beautiful city that you live in. I caught the train from Milton point today, oh my gosh, amazing view the Harbor Bridge. Like you're standing in this train station and the Harbor Bridge is right there. I'm like, this is, like, a really amazing view that these people get to see. And I just had it with new eyes. And this Sunday, we're going to go and take my son to luna park with my brother and his family. And I loved it. My brother suggested it, and it was like, Yeah, we could have just gone to their house for to their house for lunch. Love it. Love seeing them, but we've done that. So it's really nice. We're going to go out and have a shared experience and enjoy that together. So it's travel is a mindset. It's about making choices that align with your values and your personal freedom, and about just having new experiences. So having that lens on it,

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I just want to address as well again, you know, of course, travel has that financial or expense concern, but like I said, there's ways to not only

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travel free travel, save money, reduce your costs, but also you can earn money while traveling. So explore some of those experiences. I do mystery shopping, that's ways to have new experiences, to get paid and to

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paid, as well as to earn free experiences. I've done tour leading or volunteering. There's a lot of ways that you can make money. You can also like I think people don't want to sometimes travel and work at the same time because they're worried about what would my clients think? What would my work think? Communicate, ask them, tell them, say, this is what's happening. This is where I'll be. It's not for a long time. I'm sure they'll be happy. Just communicate and you can deal with it. Another thing that I have dealt with over the years, and you might be thinking, is like, what are my friends? What do my friends think? What do my family think? What about what do my colleagues think, if I'm doing this pleasure life? A, who cares? B, it's your life. C, give them my book. Tell them here's this lady. She's doing it. Whatever. It's your life, and you need to live it. And if you want to work from a balcony on a resort in Hawaii, or your friends are in the pool and they think you're silly for wasting your holiday, so be it you're sitting up there making phone calls, earning money, drinking cocktails, having a great time. Yes, I have actually done that. There are ways for you to do this life, there are ways for you to include more travel, to have more time for yourself, to have self care, but you have to choose it. And you have to do that by defying or what your other people, what people expect of you. But you have to make that choice. And then, of course,

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you know, I think this is the balance that I'm trying to find is the balance between spontaneity and structured planning, so having the freedom to just do things, but also obviously having a life, and having to plan around that, and sometimes trying to find the harmony between that. So

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those are some things to consider, but I really encourage you to take at least one set step, just one step from what I've said today, some ideas I've shared today towards your pleasure lifestyle. So that means finding a way that you can combine your work and life, finding a way to include more travel around your work in your life, finding some more ways to have self care, maybe to treat travel as self care,

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finding ways to have new experiences, to have to embrace a traveler mindset. This is all ways that you can live the pleasure lifestyle. Of course, you have my book, The Art of pleasure, which you can get at. Emma lovell.au forward slash book. I also have free journal prompts. So if you head to my website, Emma lovell.au scroll down the front page, you'll see journal prompts.

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And these will help you to start thinking about and reflecting upon what is it that you want, and how could you what if? Wouldn't it be cool if you could do these things? So those prompts going to help you, and the more that you practice, the more that you Journal, the more that you write and pull these answers out, the closer you're going to get to this pleasure life. So I really encourage you to download that.

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Of course, there's also my retreats you can cover long on if that's a step to we have the pleasure life retreat. So the pleasure life retreat is all about how you can live this pleasure life. It's a bit of a big adventure, maybe a bigger step than a mini break. We're going over to Nepal for six nights. So check that out at rest and receive.au forward, splash, Nepal. I think that's the URL. Let me just check rest and receive.au

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forward slash

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Nepal. That is the URL. So

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if you are interested, please come and join me. I need to do that more seamlessly. No, it's rest and receive.au forward slash, Nepal, 2025 You're welcome. I would love to see you there if you're ready to take on that adventure. It is in November 2025 and there are just four spots left. So I would really love to share that with you if you're ready to take the leap into the pleasure life.

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And I just would love to you share to think about as one more thing to take away. What is one way that you can integrate more travel into your life this year, one way that you can just do like in your weekend away, a night away, some sort of one little bit of extra travel that's going to inspire, motivate and encourage you to keep going. I'd love to hear what it is you can write to me at Emma, at Emma. Lovell dot. Thank you so much for listening today, and I'll see you next time.

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Thank you for listening. Lovell one. I hope this has inspired you to dream big and start creating a life you love today. If you love what you're hearing, don't forget to follow and rate on Spotify and rate review and subscribe on iTunes. It helps other awesome people to find this podcast and get motivated and inspired as well. Want to stay connected, come and join the live a life you love group on Facebook or connect with me on Instagram. Emma lovell.au the same as my website, but all the details are in the show notes. Lovely. I'll see you next episode for more inspiration, motivation and freedom, seeking now, go out there and live a life you love you.