Working While Traveling: The Reality

The Fantasy Looked Like This

Coding in a cafe overlooking the ocean, surfing in the afternoon, seafood dinner in the evening. I envied the digital nomad life I saw on social media, so I applied for a two-week workation at my company. "I'll be working from Jeju Island." When it got approved, I excitedly booked an Airbnb. 67,000 won per night, 14 nights would be 938,000 won.

Round-trip flights 120,000 won, rental car for two weeks 380,000 won. Total cost: 1,438,000 won. On top of paying Seoul rent. (I started having second thoughts while doing the math.)

Reality Hit on Day One

The Airbnb Wi-Fi was slow. 23 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up. Code pushes worked, but video calls kept cutting out. My screen froze three times during the team standup. When the team lead asked "is the internet okay over there?" I said "yeah, it's fine" -- it was not fine.

Moved to a nearby cafe, but cafe Wi-Fi was even worse. Solved it with my phone hotspot. Upgrading to unlimited data cost another 20,000 won.

Coding in a Cafe Is Not Romantic

Sat down in an ocean-view cafe. Opened my laptop. Honestly couldn't focus. When you can see the ocean, you look at the ocean. Tourists at the next table are taking photos and laughing and chatting, and there I am doing a code review in the middle of it -- "what am I even doing?"

Took two hours to process one PR that would've taken 40 minutes in Seoul. 6,000 won for a drink and half the productivity. I knew this wasn't it, so from day two I only worked from the Airbnb.

Work and Travel Compete for the Same Hours

Working 9 to 6 means it's almost sunset by the time you're done. No time for sightseeing. "I'll explore after work" -- but after 6 PM, all you can really do is grab dinner and take a walk. The coastal road drive was nice, but that's something you could do on a weekend too.

I used two half-days during the workweek and visited Seongsan Ilchulbong and Manjanggul Cave. That was the entirety of my sightseeing across two weeks of workation. Two tourist days out of fourteen. The rest was coding at the Airbnb. Can you even call this a trip?

There Were Good Parts

The morning routine of walking along the beach at 7 AM before "commuting" (sitting down at my Airbnb desk) was genuinely nice. Starting the day walking by the ocean versus cramming onto the Seoul subway -- completely different energy.

Dinner-wise, a whole grilled hairtail fish was 23,000 won -- half the price of Seoul restaurants. Tasted incomparably better too. Sashimi was cheap. I actually spent less on food than I would have in Seoul.

Weekends were full-on tourist mode. Spent half a day at Jungmun Beach, wandered around the Aewol cafe strip. Weekends at least felt like a real vacation.

Verdict: Workation Is Only Half True

"Working while traveling" isn't accurate. "Working in a travel destination" is what it actually is. You work the same hours -- just in a different place. It wasn't romantic. But the change of environment did provide a genuine refresh. For about a month after returning to Seoul, my condition was noticeably better.

Would I do it again? Two weeks is too long. Five days feels about right. Rest Friday-Saturday-Sunday, work Monday-Tuesday, head home. Cuts costs in half and increases the tourism ratio. But this might vary from person to person. If you're good at compartmentalizing work and leisure, two weeks could work.