Yes, there can be more to business trips than business

Marian Thier expects clients to pay for an early arrival for business trips so she can be "rested and ready to work". Thier decided to build in the extra time after being asked to "go from Sydney to Seoul" with no consideration "that I might be tired, and I had a life".

Thier, founding partner of the leadership development firm Listening Impact, based in Boulder, Colorado, says clients don't complain about paying for extra hotel nights and other expenses because "both clients and I benefited. I felt more in control of my time and life, and the clients got me at my best." The approach has helped Thier view "business travel as a gift, a way to see the world, rather than as a burden".

Sashee Chandran, who owns a small artisanal tea company, Tea Drops, says adding time for sightseeing to a business trip is "part of my philosophy of an integrated lifestyle" with "a great balance of work and life every day, even on weekends". Chandran attends a lot of trade shows and likes to extend her stay afterward "because prior to the show I'm usually wrapped up with show preparation".

In mid-July, she rewarded herself after attending a show in Hawaii by tacking on an extra Friday to Sunday. Her stops included the Honolulu Art Museum, where her tea is sold in the gift shop, and a stop at Shangri-La, a historic mansion known for its Islamic art collection. "The fun outing of going to Shangri-La gave me an event to really look forward to as I worked all week at the trade show," she said.

Just don't overdo it－a lesson Achille learned after cramming in three museums in Madrid. "Trying to do too much means you've defeated the purpose," she said. "You're trying to create memories."