Remember when “working vacation” was a contradiction in terms? These days, for plenty of us, it’s just… the week. The laptop comes along, the calls happen between the pool and supper, and nobody thinks twice about it. The question isn’t whether you’ll work on your next family trip — it’s whether you’ll do it from a cramped hotel desk chair or from a porch in Lakewood with a coffee.
Welcome to the workation: half work, half vacation, and — done right — better than either one alone.
Why Lakewood works for working
Not every destination is workation-friendly. You need three things: reliable internet, a place to take calls without the kids providing background commentary, and enough to do that the family doesn’t resent your work hours. Lakewood checks all three boxes without breaking a sweat.
The internet here is solid — this is a town full of people running businesses from home offices, and the infrastructure reflects it. Most quality villa rentals have fast, reliable wifi as a matter of course (always confirm the speed before booking if your work depends on video calls). And as for the family staying busy: parks, shopping, the Jersey Shore twenty minutes away, and enough pizza shops to fill a week of lunches. Nobody’s sitting around waiting for you to close the laptop.
There’s also something to be said for the rhythm of a frum town. Your workday naturally breaks around mincha. The streets go quiet on Shabbos whether you want them to or not — which, for the workation crowd, is a feature: a forced, weekly, complete disconnection that no productivity app has ever managed to deliver.
The non-negotiables: what your rental needs
A workation lives or dies on the workspace. Before you book, verify:
Real wifi, with numbers. “Fast wifi” in a listing means nothing. Ask for the actual speed, and whether it’s been tested with video calls. If you upload large files or run video meetings all day, you want 100+ Mbps down and a stable connection. Ask whether the router has been rebooted since 2019.
A door that closes. This is the whole game. You need a room — a den, an office, a quiet bedroom — where you can take a call while the kids have a water fight in the yard. Open-plan living is lovely for family time and terrible for client calls. A dedicated workspace, even a small one, changes everything.
A real chair and a real surface. Laptop-on-the-couch works for an hour. It does not work for a week. You want a desk or table at proper height and a chair you can sit in for hours without regretting your life choices. If you have a bad back, say so when booking — a good host will tell you honestly what the seating situation is.
Outlets where you need them. Scan the workspace for outlets. Laptop, phone, monitor, hotspot backup — if you’re crawling under furniture to plug in, the “office” wasn’t designed for working.
Structuring the workation day
The families who love workations all land on roughly the same rhythm, and it’s worth stealing:
Mornings are for work. Up, davening, breakfast with the family, then laptop open by 9. The kids are freshest in the morning anyway — that’s when they’re happiest at the pool or the park with the other parent. Knock out your focused work before lunch.
Afternoons are for family. Close the laptop around 2 or 3 and be done. Go to the lake, hit the boardwalk, take the kids for ice cream. The psychological trick of the workation is that a half-day of real vacation beats a full day of distracted half-work. Protect the afternoon fiercely.
Evenings are flexible. After the kids are in bed, an hour or two of catch-up work feels painless — you’re in a comfortable house, not a hotel room, and there’s no checkout looming. Or skip it. That’s the beauty of the setup: the work expands or contracts to fit.
Mincha is the reset button. There’s something about walking to mincha in the middle of a workday that recalibrates everything. Ten minutes of davening, a walk in the fresh air, and you’re back sharper than any coffee break ever made you.
The Shabbos advantage
Here’s the workation’s secret weapon, and it’s one you can’t get in most places: Shabbos. For 25 hours, the laptop is closed, the phone is off, and you are fully, completely present with your family. No “just checking one email.” No Sunday-night dread creeping into Saturday. Just Shabbos.
People who workation in Lakewood consistently say the same thing: the week feels longer, in the best way. You get real work done, real family time, and a real Shabbos — and you come home rested instead of needing a vacation from your vacation.
Making it work with your employer (or yourself)
If you work for someone else, the pitch is simple: same hours, same output, different zip code. Most managers care about results, not location. If you’re self-employed, the only permission you need is your own — though your spouse’s buy-in helps considerably.
One practical tip: tell people. Put it on your calendar, mention it on calls. “I’m working from Lakewood this week” normalizes it instantly, and you’ll be surprised how many people respond with “I’ve always wanted to try that.”
The workation isn’t about working instead of vacationing. It’s about refusing to choose — and discovering that a villa with good wifi, a door that closes, and a pool twenty steps away might be the best office you’ve ever had.
Thinking about a working week in Lakewood? Ask us about villas with dedicated workspaces and verified fast wifi — we’ll match you with a setup where the whole family gets what they need, including you.
