Working from a holiday home: a checklist for a week or a month away

To work well from a holiday home, get five things right before you book: the internet, the power, the desk, a quiet place for calls and, for longer stays, a kitchen and a washing machine. Then give the work fixed hours and the place the rest.

This checklist is for a workation anywhere in India, from a week to a month or more. Goa is our example, but the questions travel, and they build on our guide to choosing a small stay.

The internet: a stated speed, and a backup

Treat “fast Wi-Fi” as no answer. Ask for the speed as a number, ideally a recent speed test showing upload as well as download, because a video call sends your picture as well as receiving theirs. And ask where the router is: a strong signal beside it can be weak at the desk.

Then bring a backup you control. A mobile hotspot or a second SIM on a different network turns an outage into an inconvenience rather than a missed call. Test it from the desk on the first day.

• What's the speed, upload and download? A recent test beats a description.
• Where's the router? Near the desk beats two walls away.
• Is the connection shared? One line across many rooms can slow when everyone is online.
• What happens in an outage? Is there a second line, or someone to call?

Power: ask about backup before you book

Power is the question most people forget. Ask whether the home has power backup, such as an inverter or a generator, and what it runs. A backup may keep the lights and fans on but not the air conditioning; for work, the question is whether the Wi-Fi router stays on.

The desk, the chair and the light

A dining table and a bar stool will do for a day, not a month. Look for a real desk and a chair you could sit in all morning, and check where the light falls: side light from a window is kind to eyes and to video, while a window behind you turns you into a silhouette on calls.

• Desk: room for a laptop, a notebook and a cup.
• Chair: one you'd sit in for hours.
• Light: from the side, not behind the screen or behind you.
• Your kit: a laptop stand, a keyboard and mouse, and headphones with a microphone.

Where to take calls

Find the quiet corner on the first day and learn the home's sounds: the road, the neighbours' mornings, rain in the monsoon. Take calls on headphones rather than the laptop's speakers, make a short test call before the first one that matters, and if there's housekeeping, agree a time that doesn't clash.

Time zones: know your overlap

India has one time zone, India Standard Time, which is UTC+5:30 all year. India doesn't use daylight saving, so if your team is somewhere that does, the gap between you moves by an hour twice a year. Work out your overlap before you book, protect it, and give the rest of the day to the place.

With Europe, the mornings are yours and the afternoons are the team's. With the US East Coast, the overlap is your evening, so take the long lunch and the afternoon out first.

A routine that protects the work and the place

The risk of a workation is a week somewhere beautiful spent looking at a screen. The fix is a routine with edges: fixed hours for work, and the best light kept for being outside. In Goa, where the midday sun is strong, that means out early, work through the heat, and out again late in the afternoon.

Keep weekends for longer trips. Remote work and slow travel share a rule: one base, and fewer plans.

Long stays: laundry, a kitchen and the second week

A week can be lived out of a suitcase; a month needs a home that works. Ask whether long stays are welcome before you plan around one, and look for:

• A kitchen you'll cook in: a cooktop, a fridge, pots and pans, and drinking water to refill.
• A washing machine, and an iron if you're on camera.
• Storage, so the suitcase can go away.
• Housekeeping on a schedule you can plan calls around.

Choosing the season, and getting around

Pick the season for the work you'll do. Goa's dry season runs from about October to May, with December and January the busiest and April and May hot and quiet. The monsoon, June to September, is wet, green and calm: good for focused weeks once you've asked about power backup. More in when to go to Goa and Goa in the monsoon.

A scooter or a car is the easiest way around North Goa, and taxis suit evenings out and airport runs. Uber and Ola don't operate in Goa, so use GoaMiles, Goa's own taxi app. Our guide to getting around Goa has the rest.