FOR 20 million Brits, holidays are less about sun, sea, sand and sangria, and more about laptops, emails and regular calls to the office, according to a new survey.

Most business women think it's necessary to take their work on holiday with them, research by online travel company AlphaRooms.com has revealed.

Two thirds of those questioned admitted to having their holidays interrupted by work, while 80 per cent said they worried about their work while they were abroad.

And it's not just work-obsessed city slickers who are guilty of taking their computers to the beach; East Lancashire has its fair share of women who just cannot switch off on holiday.

"I am going on holiday in a fortnight for three weeks to Tenby in South Wales and have just changed my phone contract so I can pick up emails on my Blackberry," admitted Carol Chadwick, who runs joinery firm Panel Master UK, in Haslingden.

"Luckily the Blackberry also has a facility to take photos so I can take pictures of the children while working - two things at once.

"I have also designed and organised some postcards that I can write and send out to our customers. I will take the laptop with our customer database on to do this."

Carol's holiday routine is enough to make most women think twice about going away.

"I'll get up about 6am and work until the children get up, usually about 9am," she said.

"I'll spend the day with them, checking emails along the way, and when they go to bed at about 8.30pm I'll write out personal hand-written postcards until about 11.30pm. There'll never be a dull moment at least. I'll end up still working a six to seven hour day in between cooking a family meal and playing cricket or football on the beach."

The survey also found that a third of people take their laptops or Blackberries on holiday, while three-quarters have made or taken a work telephone call while on holiday and 60 per cent have sent a work-related email.

But it's simply part of the deal when you run your own business, said Michelle Mellor, director of East Lancashire-based Cummins Mellor Recruitment.

"I take my Blackberry on holiday with me to check emails and keep in touch with the office," she said.

"I like to stay in touch, particularly when I am in the middle of a piece of recruitment. The role of an excellent recruiter is being able to ensure that my clients and candidates are completely in the picture throughout all the stages of the process and certainly at the key stages of the interview."

Heather Langridge, of York Nurseries, Burnley, agreed.

"I certainly take a laptop when I'm away on holiday," she said.

"I check emails from my personal account and the business accounts. I also look daily at the bank accounts and expect to be contacted by my colleagues if anything significant occurs. I would rather be told at the time of anything that happens rather than come back after two weeks away to be bombarded with issues."

The shocking statistics are proof that today's technological age means that people are constantly contactable by work, whether it be by mobile, laptop or Blackberry.

However, most women admitted it wasn't their bosses piling on the pressure, but themselves.

Hannah Bano, of 24hr Recruitment, Nelson, admitted: "I even checked my work emails the day after I had my baby and I was working from home while on maternity leave. So while on holiday it's becoming a norm to be working, because there is just too much to do."

Louise White, field sales executive at Bury-based Excelsior Ltd, agreed.

"I am unable to switch off, constantly looking for opportunities where my products could benefit, or indeed for new ideas," she said.

"The sad thing is that, because my partner is very keen to encourage my success, he is on the lookout too. Sometimes it is positively relentless."

But working on holiday isn't necessarily a good thing, according to The Stress Management Society, which is supporting a campaign to ban Blackberries from beaches.

"The purpose of a holiday is to remove yourself from the work environment which is often the cause of stress and it defeats the purpose if you take that work and that stress with you," said Neil Shah, director of The Stress Management Society.

"We spend our lives surrounded by technology, talking on our mobile phones, sitting in front of a computer and plugged into iPods, all of which can cause stress. People should try to leave their phones and computers behind, spend a few days without electromagentic frequencies interfering with their brains and instead trying to unwind, perhaps by lying on a beach, walking, having a massage or swimming to de-stress."