How to not drink on a business trip (without making a speech)

Here is the odd thing about work travel. At home you have a routine, a kitchen, people who know you and a bed you chose. On a work trip you have a lanyard, a key card and an expense policy that seems to cover wine but not sleep. The day is long, the evenings are empty, and the easiest way to fill an empty evening in a strange city is the bar downstairs, where your colleagues already are.

So if you have decided not to drink, the work trip is where the plan gets tested. This guide is for anyone in that spot: doing a sober month, cutting down, or simply tired of coming home from every conference feeling like a wrung-out tea towel. I run an alcohol-free month for up to four guests, so I am not neutral about alcohol-free living. But nothing below needs my month, or anyone's. It needs a plan made before you pack.

Please read this first. If you drink heavily or every day, or use other drugs daily, stopping suddenly can be dangerous. Talk to a doctor before you stop. The Quiet Month is not medical, not therapy and not rehab. In a crisis, call your local emergency number or find a free helpline at findahelpline.com. More in our questions.

Why work trips are where the drinking happens

It is not only you. Work trips stack up several things that make a drink feel normal: tiredness, a free tab, no one at home to notice, colleagues who are also bored, and a social script where the evening drink is part of the job. Add jet lag and a hotel room that is a little too quiet, and "just one" starts to look like a reasonable plan at 9pm.

There is some research behind the feeling. In a 2017 study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Andrew Rundle and colleagues at Columbia University looked at health check records from about 18,000 employees. Among people who drank, those who travelled for work 21 or more nights a month were about twice as likely to score in the range that suggests alcohol dependence on a screening questionnaire, compared with people away 1 to 6 nights. They also slept worse, smoked more and moved less. It was a snapshot, not an experiment, and it cannot prove the travel caused the drinking. But it matches what many frequent travellers say: the trips are where the habit grows.

Before you go: three decisions that do most of the work

1. Decide what this trip is. "I'm not drinking on this trip" is easier to keep than "I'll see how I feel". Feelings at 10pm in a hotel bar are not famous for their good judgement.
2. Ask the hotel about the minibar. Many hotels will empty or lock it if you ask before you arrive, and the welcome bottle can be swapped for something else. One email, no explanation needed: "Please could you empty the minibar before I arrive? Thank you."
3. Book your evenings. Look up a gym, a pool, a park, a late museum or a good café near the hotel. An empty evening is the risky one. A planned one is just an evening.

If you can choose your hotel, pick one with a gym or a pool, or near somewhere you can walk. If you are doing a sober January, my guide to Dry January at work covers the office side, and the Dry January abroad guide covers longer stays away.

The flight and the first evening

The trip often starts with a drink before it has properly started: the airport bar, the lounge, the trolley. Order your first drink early, and make it something you actually like: sparkling water with lime, a tonic, a ginger beer, a coffee. A glass in your hand ends most offers before they start. I wrote a whole sister guide on not drinking on a flight, from the lounge to jet lag.

The first evening matters most, because it sets the pattern. Arrive, unpack, go outside for twenty minutes of daylight (the NHS advice for jet lag includes getting outside in natural light and not drinking too much caffeine or alcohol), eat a proper meal and go to bed at a sensible time. If you get through the first evening without the bar, the rest of the trip usually follows.

The client dinner

This is the one people dread. In practice it is usually the easiest, because a dinner has a job to do and nobody remembers what you drank. A few things help.

• Order first. When the waiter comes, ask for your drink before the table starts a conversation about wine. "A sparkling water with lime, please." Done.
• Hold a glass at the toast. Lift whatever you are drinking. No one checks what is in it, and a toast is about the people, not the liquid.
• If you are the host, order wine for the table without making a fuss, then let the waiter fill other glasses. Hosting well is about the guests having a good evening. You don't have to match them.
• Check the menu for alcohol-free options. Many restaurants now list alcohol-free beer, wine or cocktails. My guide to what to drink instead of alcohol has a list worth knowing by heart.

And remember the quiet advantage: at the end of a long dinner you are the one who remembers what was agreed. That is not a small thing in business.

Five-second lines that need no speech

You don't owe anyone a reason. A short line said kindly, then a change of subject, works better than any explanation. Pick one and practise it until it sounds boring:

• "I'm not drinking this trip. What are you having?"
• "I'm good with this, thanks." (Lift your glass.)
• "Early start tomorrow."
• "I'm doing a month off. Ask me in February."
• "I'm the one with the notes tonight."

If someone keeps pushing, that is about them, not you. Say the same line again, smile, and ask them about their flight. People can only push against resistance; a calm repeat gives them nothing to push against. There is more on this in not drinking when your friends drink.

Ask Rowan: How do I say no to a drink at a work dinner? Rowan is our AI assistant. Please keep health details for the video call.

The conference party and the hotel bar

Conference evenings are the long-distance version. The party starts at seven, the free bar keeps going, and the real conversations happen somewhere around the third hour. Some honest tactics:

• Go early, leave early. The first hour is when the useful talking happens. By the time things get loud, nobody notices who left.
• Give yourself a job. Meet three named people, then go. A goal turns a party into a meeting with music.
• Change the venue. Suggest breakfast, a coffee or an early run with the person you actually want to talk to. Some of the best work conversations happen at 7am, with everyone still able to remember them.
• Have an exit plan. A call home at 10pm, a gym booking at 6:30am, anything. "I've got a call" is a perfectly good goodbye.

The lonely hotel room

For many people the hard part is not the bar but the room after it. A quiet hotel room at 9pm, a long day behind you, nothing to do: that is exactly when the minibar starts talking. Fill that hour on purpose. A shower and a walk. A call with someone at home. A book you are actually enjoying. A film you chose earlier. A proper evening routine, the kind I describe in a morning routine while travelling, works just as well at night. Sleep tends to be better, too: my guide to sleep without alcohol explains why.

If the trip is long, or you travel alone a lot, the advice in travelling alone for a month applies here too: build in daily contact with people, even small. And if you are travelling with colleagues, a sober colleague is a gift. Find out if anyone else is not drinking; you may be surprised.

Coming home from the trip

The flight home is the last test. "Well, the trip is over" is how many good weeks end at the gate. Plan the evening you get back the way you planned the first evening away: a meal, an early night, nothing to celebrate. Then notice how the next morning feels. For many people that morning, clear-headed after a work trip for the first time in years, is the moment the plan stops feeling like a sacrifice.

If work travel and drinking have become tangled together for years, one trip will not untangle them. A longer break can help: a sober month abroad, a dry trip for pleasure, or an alcohol-free holiday with people you like. If you prefer company, sober group travel covers the options. And if your next holiday is an all-inclusive, read how to be sober at an all-inclusive first.

Planning a holiday without a bar after the trip? I listed 10 alcohol-free holiday resorts and retreats, with real prices.

Where The Quiet Month fits

The Quiet Month is, in many ways, the opposite of a business trip: one calm place, no lanyards, no hotel bar, no client dinners. The first month starts on 1 January 2027, with up to four guests. Each guest lives in their own private flat a short walk from me. We share simple low-carb meals, move every day at a pace that suits you, sit for a short, always optional meditation, explore, and talk over coffee in the evenings. The rule is no alcohol, no smoking, no drugs for the whole month. You keep your own phone, passport, money and key, and you can leave whenever you like. If your company might pay for a leader to come, there is a page for companies; the company never sees health details.

Honestly: I'm self-taught, not a doctor or counsellor. The Quiet Month is not medical, not therapy and not rehab. Every guest is 21 or over and brings a doctor's fit-to-join letter and travel insurance. The location is never published; after a free video call, if we both want to go ahead, you learn the country and city before you sign anything. Nothing is paid before that call and a signed agreement. See January 2027: the founding guests, or start free with 30 Quiet Days, one short email each morning in January.

Would your company pay? How a company can send one leader for a month; the company never sees health details. For HR teams: for employers.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Columbia Mailman School of Public Health: frequent business travel and behavioural health (Rundle, Revenson and Friedman, 2017, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine) (about 18,000 employees; 21+ nights a month vs 1 to 6)
2. ScienceDaily: summary of the same study
3. NHS: jet lag (daylight, water, not too much caffeine or alcohol)
4. Alcohol Change UK: Dry January and the Try Dry app (includes the safety note for people who are dependent)
5. Find A Helpline: free helplines in many countries

Prices and facts were checked on 25 October 2026. Prices change; always check the source before you book anything.