Hotel to work from abroad, single female

[IceCreamWoes]

Bit of a specific situation. My new job has a working from abroad policy and I'd like to make use of it by going away for a week in the summer holidays, work in the day and enjoy meals out, spas, nightlife in the evenings. I don't mind where I go. I'm a single parent and can't afford to take the children away with me and my annual leave is all used up to cover their school holidays. They will have a week with their grandparents in the summer holidays so I can have a (kind of) holiday (first in 5 years!)

The hotel needs to have brilliant WiFi, be safe for female travellers, have a pool, be near restaurants I could eat at alone. Not be too expensive or have big time different to the UK.

Any ideas??

We travel with laptops at least 90% of all trips. DD has her own for school work and Netflix/Prime and we use it for all kind of things, restaurant bookings, day out planning, event bookings. I don't like using my phone for this.

Yes, I can log into my work from my private laptop, but not on hotel wifi.

Our company has this but a requisite is right to work in the country otherwise all requests are declined.
We paid a lot of money to immigration specialists setting it up though we are very risk averse So am sure many employers just wave their people off without considering things such as legal entities, tax, insurance.

There's no tax implications working from Spain or France for a week. I'd continue to pay tax in the UK. It does appear I'd need a visa for short term work from those countries, but honestly, I'm happy risking it. I'll only have a laptop, no paper files, so shouldn't arise too much suspicion.

My budget is prob about £600 for hotel/flight. Like the idea of an apartment and agree a spa hotel also sounds like a good option.

Will check out all the recs, thank you.

My partner works every single morning when abroad. I also log on every day.
Loads of people do.

Well at least she now knows that a visa is required so can make an informed decision and knows that when they ask what she’s doing she doesn’t say working.

My comment seems to have blown up a bit...

As PP have mentioned, the chances of OP being caught are homeopathic. EES is not yet working, so if she goes to the EU it will be up to the desk, hallo, bored look, stamp in passport, off you go. The officer will not ask if there is a laptop in her bag. And when you arrive at an EU holiday airport, post-Brexit, about one person in a million gets their main luggage checked going through the green channel.

My only point is formally what she is planning to do will be illegal, and so cheerfully volunteering that she is there for work would be a bad idea. 🙏 But I thoroughly approve of the overall plan and hope she has a great time!

I think there's a difference between working for a UK company whilst you happen to be in the EU and a UK national working in the EU for an EU company without a work visa.......

Hotel Next in Funchal is really stylish and specifically appeals to ‘digital nomads’ (people working abroad) https://hotelnext.pt/digital-nomads/

It’s in a great location and the food is good too. They also offer a good range of spa treatments.

the rooftop pool is adults only.

Not particularly. Doing a couple of emergency things/dialling in to the odd meeting on holiday is ok but what the op is proposing is not allowed without a visa (not saying she shouldn’t do it just stating the fact). My work would not approve it without eu citizenship.

No, legally visa-wise there isn't.

There's no tax implications working from Spain or France for a week. I'd continue to pay tax in the UK. It does appear I'd need a visa for short term work from those countries, but honestly, I'm happy risking it.

I really doubt you'd need a visa if you're still working for your UK firm, but remotely. IAMNAL, but I don't know who told you this - it's a bit bonkers. I'm always working abroad without a working visa as I'm employed & domiciled in the UK! Otherwise conferences etc would be impossible in my profession.

There is an HMRC policy that UK employees can only work away from the UK for (I think) 3 months in any tax year, but that's not the case here.

@IceCreamWoes as a fellow single female traveler for work, I'd probably be looking for a chain hotel - Hilton, Raddisson, Sheraton, or Marriott are all reliable, and are also likely to have an in-house restaurant & bar which is always useful to have as a back up when you're on your own. The Ibis/Novotel/Accor chain is also excellent at a number of price points and even their budget rooms are really excellently designed & scrupulously clean, wherever I've used them.

It might sound bonkers but that’s the implication of brexit.

just attending meetings (so a conference) is different but working working (which is the case here) needs a visa.

Does your company provide a VPN client? Just use that.

I’m sure lots of people do this, but it is illegal. I think I’d just be careful about the country. On another thread recently someone shared a story about a German tourist who has been detained indefinitely (including a week in solitary confinement) because US immigration authorities suspected she planned to work and therefore was in breach of the visa waiver programme. She was detained at the border on entry so hadn’t even entered the country yet, which feels like quite scary minority report stuff. I’d just be careful with anywhere with right wing or authoritarian governments and hardline border enforcement. I have definitely done a few emails here and there on holiday and DP maybe a bit more than that, but I would be wary in some countries.

I'd definitely look at AirNnB at that price point. That's my usual price point for holidays and I usually start by looking for reasonably priced flights on Ryanair (because they do the cheap from my nearest airport) and then find places to stay on AirBnB within an hour of there.

My company has the same policy but you must have the right to work in that country - sad as it would be great to do 6 weeks from Barcelona but post Brexit it's a no for UK passport holders.

Rome would be fantastic for that. Plenty to do in the evenings and nice weather. W Rome is great but might be out of your budget. Also maybe Seville. Look at Airbnb.

I would recommend the mon port in Puerto andratx in Majorca- beautiful upmarket hotel , lovely gardens, spacious and mainly 'grown ups' , no gangs of lads, easy walk into Puerto andratx at night which is very nice indeed, and around £920 for a week in August plus flight

@IceCreamWoes ah I've seen your budget - so ignore my suggestion

just attending meetings (so a conference) is different but working working (which is the case here) needs a visa.

Do you know what the definition of 'work' is please? I get sent abroad a bit where I would have some meetings with other organisations, and work from my hotel room the rest of the time. What counts as legal/illegal work?

It varies by eu country but this gives info per country https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/travelling-to-the-eu-switzerland-norway-iceland-or-liechtenstein-for-work

just going to work in an eu country for a uk company without a specific need to be there is a strange one as it would be difficult to actually get a visa (and would sponsor it) but it’s not within the scope of allowed activities.

DH travels for work on a regular basis. He always has details of the conference/meetings scheduled with him.

So if he is asked, he can provide details of the reason for being in the country.

One of his colleagues got caught up in the definition of "work", was detained in NY and now has to apply for visas for the US. It costed the company a fortune in lawyer fees to get to the bottom of it and the reason (according to immigration in the US) was that he couldn't provide a work reason to be there.

That was several years ago where you had dropbox or several email accounts on one phone.