Despite lockdowns slowly fading into the past, lots of companies in Toronto continue to opt for the hybrid work model — meaning an increasing number of nine-to-fivers are spending less time at the office and more time at local coffee shops, flexible workspaces, and home.

The work-from-anywhere practice has since exploded in popularity and become the de facto working model, essentially granting workers the opportunity to take the office anywhere with them. 

Flexible workspace and office provider IWG recently compared 25 cities across nine key categories to discover the best "workcation" cities around the world. As its name suggests, "workcations" basically combine your traditional travel vacation with remote work. 

Cities were scored out of 10 based on their climate, culture, accommodation, transport, subsistence, broadband, food, happiness, and availability of workspaces. 

According to the study, Toronto and Barcelona were tied for the best workcation city in the world, boasting high scores in accommodation, happiness, and wealth of flexible workspaces. 

The top 10 cities for workcations. Source: IWG.

IWG highlighted Toronto's multicultural ambiance, thousands of diverse restaurants, vibrant neighbourhoods, local coffee shops, and abundance of flexible workspaces that make it a "top destination for employees to prolong their holidays and work-from-anywhere." 

Toronto received a score of 5.5/10 for climate, 5.5/10 for culture, 7/10 for accommodation, 6.5/10 for transport, 6/10 for subsistence, 6.5/10 for broadband, 5.5/10 for food, 9/10 for happiness, and 7/10 for availability of flexible workspaces — with a grand total of 58.5/90. 

The study also found that over two-thirds (67 per cent) of workers surveyed believe they can effectively perform their jobs from abroad, and 71 per cent said they would only consider a job that offers the flexibility to work remotely.