When we caught up with Elspeth, a few weeks after her stay at Swiss Escape, she is calling in from Sun&Co, another coliving & coworking space in Spain.
Change of plans
This wasn't the plan at first but "we're going to do way more of this" she says right away. When her and her partner Ari left home in Canada for six months, they had only booked their Swiss Escape stay, wanting to try something new. After a week in our little community, they decided to change their plans and incorporate more Coliving & Coworking spaces to their European trip (so far Portugal, Germany and Italy). As a marketing generalist and freelance writer in the travel industry, Elspeth has the freedom to work remotely. Covid inspired her to use that freedom to explore more places but never thought such spaces existed. That is why both Ari and her came to Swiss Escape ready to be surprised, wondering what it will be like.
Productivity and community
They were happy to realize their productivity wasn't affected at all, on the contrary. Elspeth says she was probably the most productive ever that week, while being able to enjoy the slopes 5 times in 8 days. The "living with people" part was also a very positive experience: getting to meet like minded people with a shared passion for skiing made it easy to connect. The space in the chalets allowed for private and shared moments to flow easily and the "positive peer pressure" of community worked its magic: "we all knew we wanted to do something together so I felt motivated to get work done" .
Time, space and people
Being able to travel "only" for 6 months, Elspeth and Ari really enjoyed the fact that living in a coliving in Switzerland allowed them, not only to discover the Swiss culture, but also to get to know people from different countries, bringing their own flavor to their Swiss stay.
A week was a great first dip into the coliving world but another week of skiing, eating raclette and getting to know new friends would have been great for them. Elspeth really appreciated how the day to day was not overloaded with activities but really respected the flow of the particular people staying at that time, allowing to balance FOMO & JOMO* in a healthy way.
Thank you Elspeth for taking the time to share your experience! We wish you the best on your travels and cannot wait to welcome you again at Swiss Escape! *Fear Of Missing Out - Joy Of Missing Out