I travel a lot with my job and have always used VPN from the hotels I was staying. On a recent trip I stayed at the local base and they had their own LAn system. I was able to get setup on their LAn, but it prevented me from using VPN to retrieve files from back home. Is there a way to have both access to the local LAN and reachback capability?

Is there a way to have both access to the local LAN and reachback capability?

Yes, it is called split tunneling. Packets destined for your company LAN get tunneled and the others don't. This configuration has to be supported by your VPN client or VPN solution, but there are also security implications for the company network in this configuration so coordinate with your company's network techs. They may be able to resolve why your current configuration didn't work and provide a better option.