We've put together a guide to the best luxury bleisure destinations in the world using data from Airbnb, TripAdvisor and other sources.
Best luxury bleisure cities in the world
Published 1 years ago
The remote work lifestyle has been on the rise for years. It spiked in popularity in recent times due to Covid-19, when new ways of working were explored further after offices were forced to close their doors.
As a result of this new working landscape people now have increased flexibility to decide where and when they work, opening up the opportunities for ‘bleisure’ travel (a portmanteau of business and leisure). With remote workers earning up to $150k, it’s easy to see the appeal of working from anywhere in the world in style.1
A report from Qualtrics shows that 80% of employees looking for a new job listed the opportunity to live anywhere as very important, and employers are listening.2 In fact, a study from Upwork shows that 35.7 million Americans, or 22% of the workforce, will be remote by 2025.3
When travelling to a new city for bleisure it pays to know what to expect when you’re there. With that in mind, the team at Carl Friedrik analysed Euromonitor’s top 100 city destinations to uncover the best luxury bleisure cities in the world.4
Key findings
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Lisbon is the best luxury bleisure city, scoring the highest score of 1,078
out of 2,150 in the index, great news for those applying for Portugal’s new
Digital Nomad Visa
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Rome provides the best luxury accommodation for bleisure breaks with 329
Airbnb Plus listings and over 1,000 Airbnb listings available
-
Barcelona is the best city for coworking spaces with 93.86% of coworking
options rated 4*+
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Rome is the top city for gastronomic delights with 99.5% of 11,306 eateries
being rated 4*+
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Those seeking a relaxing spa experience should head to Phuket with 84.88% of
their 496 spa and wellness centres rated 4*+
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Krakow is the best city to visit for landmarks and viewpoints with 87.31% of
268 attractions analysed rated 4*+
What is bleisure travel?
Business and leisure travel, also known as ‘bleisure’, has continued to grow in popularity as work-life boundaries shift. Statistics from Travel Edge report an increase of over 25% in interest in bleisure trips and workcations during 2022.5
As the name suggests, bleisure travel is part business and part leisure. What does this look like in practice? One example is corporate travellers who, after finalising next year’s company growth plans or speaking at a conference, decide to spend a few additional days checking out the city they have travelled to. The rising trend of holiday goers logging on abroad just to eke out extra time in the sun also constitutes bleisure travel.
In essence, bleisure travel is about combining work trips or work abroad with time spent enjoying leisure activities.
- John Doe
10 best luxury bleisure cities
To create our index on the best luxury leisure destinations we analysed:
- The cities with the most luxury accommodation available
- The cities with the most highly rated coworking spaces
-
The average rating for the different types of activities available
- The average WiFi quality in each city
- The Safety Index score for each city
Using the data we collected on accommodation, coworking, restaurants, spas and wellness centres, landmarks and viewpoints, WiFi and safety from the 100 most visited cities in the world, we allocated points to each city to determine which ones ranked best overall. Below is our list of the 10 best luxury bleisure cities in the world.
The top destination for luxury bleisure was Portugal’s capital and largest city, Lisbon, scoring 1,077.5 points out of a possible 2,150. This is fantastic news for those keen to work remotely as the Portuguese government has recently announced a scheme that will let freelancers and remote workers live in the country for up to 12 months.6
In fact, five of the top 10 bleisure cities currently offer digital nomad visas and residency to those looking to extend their trip.7 Portugal, Spain, Australia and the United Arab Emirates all provide this, with Italy looking to follow suit soon.
In second place is London, England with 982.2 points, followed by Rome, Italy in third place with 982.
In fact, five of the top 10 bleisure cities currently offer digital nomad visas and residency to those looking to extend their trip.
Read on to discover the breakdown of these rankings based on number of venues, ratings and safety.
Top cities for luxury accommodation
One of the main considerations for bleisure workers when abroad is the quality of accommodation. With that in mind, we wanted to discover which cities are offering the best luxury accommodation.
By analysing Airbnb data we identified how many listings each city had that included WiFi, alongside which cities offered Airbnb Plus alongside WiFi.8 Airbnb Plus is a selection of high-quality homes with extremely positive reviews and hosts with great attention to detail — making them ideal for luxury stays.
Rome, Italy came in the top position with the full 250 points. We found that the average cost of an Airbnb Plus listing with WiFi is $226 (£195) and the average Airbnb listing with WiFi is $159 (£137).
Cape Town, South Africa ranked in 2nd place with 245.3 points, followed by Lisbon, Portugal with 240.9 points.
Top coworking cities
A comfortable coworking space is an essential part of any bleisure trip. With that in mind, we analysed review data using Google Maps for each city where possible using the search parameters of ‘coworking space, city, country’.9 For example ‘coworking space, Lisbon, Portugal’.
In cases where a city did not have Google listings or reviews for their coworking spaces, data was taken from WeWork.10
Barcelona, Spain topped the list with 350.9 points out of 550. Our analysis found that 93.86% of the cities' coworking spaces were rated 4*+.
Warsaw, Poland ranked in 2nd place with 334.1 points, followed by London, England with 320.3 points.
