How to Travel More: Utilizing Company-Wide Holidays

Do you want to travel more? But can’t afford to quit your job to travel?

I’m about to share with you why you don’t need to leave your 9-5, but instead need to learn to maximize company holidays offered. Make sure to check out my first post on How to Make the Most of Limited Vacation as well.

Most companies offer at least 10 holidays a year. But often times people don’t take advantage of them. They don't remember the dates, and by the time they catch wind of Monday being a holiday, it’s too late to book travel.

….and they just end up sitting at home…..

So the first step in all this is 1) AWARENESS - find out from your boss, HR, or whoever what the company wide holidays are and mark them on your calendar and step 2) PLAN - more people are obviously trying to travel during long weekends and holidays, so make sure you get out in front of it and book early.

In order to help you all out, I’ve gone ahead and done the homework for you. Here are the holidays that most companies observe. Dates are approximate as these tend to change year to year.

1. MLK Day (mid Jan)

This holiday often flies a bit under the radar since it falls so close to the Christmas/New Years holiday, BUT that makes it extra great because it’s one of the few holidays when you can often find flight deals. January is notoriously a lower travel month (people have just spent their wallets at Christmas), so make sure to track what day MLK falls this year/next and use it to your advantage!

2. President’s Weekend (mid Feb)

This one is a little more widely known than MLK Day - and prices can be a little higher than it’s winter counterpart. But people are still easing into the new year and there can be plenty of opportunities to use these days for vacation - whether it’s just a long weekend getaway or taking a 10 day trip starting the Friday before President’s Day, encompassing the week of President’s day, and returning that Sunday (only missing 4 business days!)

3. Memorial Day (end of May)

With Memorial Day, we start getting into the more popular dates to travel since it falls near summer time. But if you plan ahead, I think you can still use this date effectively. I’ve used miles to take 10 days trips to Colombia and Germany that fell over the week of Memorial Day (and only missed 4 business days!)

4. July 4th

July 4th is a fun one because depending on the year and what day of the week this holiday falls on, you may get MORE THAN 1 day off from your company.

For example, in 2019 July 4th falls on the most ideal day - THURSDAY. The reason this is exciting is because most companies will also make Friday (July 5th) a holiday as well, and sometimes a half day on Wed (Jul 3rd). This gives you a span of 5 days in which to travel without using ANY vacation days.

5. Summer Fridays

If your company participates in Summer Fridays, take advantage of the extra free hours to book flights & travel! Don’t let these go to waste!

6. Labor Day (beginning of Sept)

Summer travel starts to slow down by September, so Labor Day is an excellent choice to plan travel around. You can often find deals around this time as air carriers and hotels are anxious to keep momentum going after the busy summertime.

7. Thanksgiving (end of November)

Thanksgiving always falls on the last Thursday of November and Friday is always off as well - often a half day on Wednesday too. But this entire week is usually quiet even if the business is not technically closed - it’s easy to take off.

The best part is - you can manage a 10 day trip by leaving the Friday before Thanksgiving week, coming back the Sunday after Thanksgiving - ONLY USING 3 VACATION DAYS (Mon-Tues-Wed of Thanksgiving).

This is one of my favorite date ranges to travel…..flights are less expensive than at Christmas, and company actively is usually fairly light. If you plan ahead, you can also find lots of flight deals during this time as well (don’t want until the last minute though!)

8. Christmas Eve (Dec 24th), Christmas (Dec 25th), Day After Christmas (Dec 26th), New Years Eve (Dec 31st), New Years Day (Jan 1)

So depending on how great your company is, you’ll probably have some combination of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Day After Christmas, New Years Eve, and New Years Eve off OR the full 2 week stretch between Christmas & New Years.

In terms of limited work load and vacation days needed, this is an excellent time to travel. However, keep in mind that prices are at their highest during this period. You’ll want to plan well in advance and it helps to be flexible with your travel plans (whether it’s with your destination, dates, etc.).

A trick I often find useful is trying to start your trip before the Christmas travel season really kicks into high gear (earlier Dec) OR come back beyond the first week in January. This helps you avoid some of the highest price spikes.

Well I hope this gave you some ideas of dates you could possibly take off to make your travel dreams come true!

Anyone have any exciting plans during upcoming holidays? I’d love to hear about them!