Beach Bar Crawling or How I Learned to Work on Vacation

Posted By Tom W. on Aug 23, 2013 in Travel | 2 comments

Tagged: beach bar, islamorada, jump right in, key largo, postcard inn, rum runners, travel, zac brown

To say I’m excited about my trip to Florida next week would be an understatement and to say I’m stoked about the overnight trip to the Key Largo/Islamorada area would be an even bigger understatement. I’ve always looked forward to vacations and have always handled the planning. It’s always been my belief that I missed my true calling as a travel agent. In the past, however, most of the work involved around the trip was done before it began. Before we stepped foot in the airport, all of the side trips were researched, the beach bars were mapped out and the plan to do nothing the entire trip but relax was in place. That has all changed since I launched the Beach Bar Bums Facebook page and website. The pre-planning is still in place with the difference now being that it’s much more involved. And the real work doesn’t even begin until I get to the final destination. I have interviews to conduct, tours to take and beach bars to “research.” Am I complaining about the opportunity to get a tour of and party at Rum Runners beach bar at the Postcard Inn, the same beach bar that Zac Brown filmed his “Jump Right In” video? Absolutely not but it has changed how I view my vacations. I used to look at them as a chance to get away from the grind and relax. Now I view them as opportunities to network and grow the brand. For instance, we’re considering where to take our annual Thanksgiving trip. St. Martin and Cancun are at the top of the list. For a person who runs a beach bar website, the obvious choice would be St. Martin. Throw in the opportunity to scoot over to Anguilla for a day and it becomes a no brainer. However, I need to grow the number of fans I have in their 20s and 30s – you would be amazed at how low the number is. If you ask someone in their 20s or 30s where they would rather go for vacation, my guess is most of them would choose Cancun over a Caribbean island. I would have – I’ve been there three times and love it. In the end, though, SXM will probably win out over CUN. The islands almost always do.

Will I take the time to relax on my vacations? Of course. That’s still the main reason I go. Will I seize ever opportunity I have to grow the travel part of my website? Well, maybe not ever opportunity but if they pop up and someone wants to meet at their beach bar and participate in an interview over drinks at sunset, who am I to argue?

For the travel bloggers who have been at this for a while, how do you balance work and play while on vacation? Are you ever truly on vacation? Do you take vacation or are you on a perpetual vacation?

Since I will be on “vacation” next week, the updates to the blog may be sparse. They may just contain a bunch of pretty pictures but I’ll update as I can. If you’re in the Boynton Beach, Florida area, let me know and maybe we get together some night! And no, if you show up as Rum Runners beach bar on Tuesday night, I will not be dressed like the maracas player in the video.

Islamorada on Dwellable