It's hard trying to have a life-- even a solo life-- when you're on the road a lot. The biggest challenges are time and energy. After a day in the client's office and often 1-2 hours of additional work back at the hotel (status reports, email, research, etc.) I don't have the time or energy for much more than a leisurely dinner followed by an hour or two of fooling around on my personal computer before going to bed.
Weekends offer more of an opportunity to break out of the work-work-unwind-sleep routine but energy is still a problem. After a day of travel and 4 or 5 days of project work I'm often ready just to laze around the hotel all day, maybe going out for a few hours of sightseeing. I've frittered away weekend days in some of the world's best tourist cities being too tired to do much more than walk around the neighborhood.
And, of course, for every trip I've had to one of those great tourist cities I've had 5 to suburban office parks.
ETA: I agree with many of the suggestions offered by JY1024 above. I never order room service; I always go out for dinner, even if it's just the hotel restaurant, and try striking up a conversation with someone, even if it's just the bartender or waitress. I try to meet up with a friend or relative in the area when time permits. Having even one leisurely dinner with someone you know makes the week a lot less dull.
Last edited by darthbimmer; Feb 9, 2013 at 10:04 pm