How to Travel When You Work a Full Time Job

People often wonder at how I find so much time to travel when I work full time.

I usually respond back something along the lines of: Well I don’t travel as much as I would like!

But truth of the matter is, I do travel a good amount for an American (we get very limited time off). Having caught the wanderlust bug early, I’ve spent years perfecting how to travel in order to maximize my vacation days to see as much of the world as possible and make every moment count.

Here are are a few of my top tips for how to see the world when you work a full time job, have limited vacation time, and want to get the most out of a trip.

1. Tack your vacations onto existing holidays.

This one seems fairly obvious to me, but I’m shocked at the number of people who don’t know the most common holidays that nearly ever company observes.

Never fear - I’m here to help! I always plan trips around long weekends - even if it’s just a trip home to see my family.

Here’s a list of the holidays most companies observe: MLK Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas/New Years. You may also get lucky and get Columbus Day (although this one seems to be rarer). I’ll go into more details on these holidays in another blog post! Coming soon :)

2. If you company does Summer Fridays also make sure to take advantage of these!

Some companies let out their employees at 1pm on Fridays during the summer. It may not seem like a ton of time, but those extra few precious hours can go along way towards helping make your travel dreams come true! It opens up many more flight options without having to miss work.

3. Research destinations to visit in a weekend (or long weekend)

Look at a map of the world and play around with google.com/flights. See where you might be able to get to in under 7 hours (or via a red eye so you travel while you sleep).

For example, if you’re in LA - Mexico City is under 3 hours, Belize City is under 5 hours, or Costa Rica under 6 hours. If you’re in NYC - London & Paris are 7 hours away, Puerto Rico is 4 hours, or Jamaica 4 hours.

All of these places you could spend a week in, but I know that you don't always have a week. Which brings me to….

4. Accept that you’re probably not going to see EVERYTHING in a long weekend, but don’t shouldn’t stop you from going at all.

I see it all the time on TripAdvisor message boards, when people ask for advice on things to do in a city for 5 days and others give them a hard time for only going for 5 days “when Vietnam really deserves 3 weeks”.

Ok I hear you, but 3 weeks isn’t very realistic for most people.

Let’s be supportive of people traveling at all and help them figure out how to see as much as they can in a short amount of time! Only having a short amount of time isn’t reflective of their value of that destination but more often than not, merely a lack of vacation time/money.

Sometimes just going into a destination knowing that you aren't going to see everything (and that’s ok), and telling yourself, this is just round 1, I’ll be back soon, can be really helpful.

5. Red eyes are going to become your best friend when you are trying to maximize travel time. So get good at sleeping on planes!

Take red eye flights so you can 1) not miss work and 2) not waste daylight hours that could used for sightseeing. This is important when trying to maximize your vacation days. Plus these flights are often cheaper because people don’t like red eyes (they aren’t as wise as you, reading this blog).

6. Don’t forget about amazing destinations in your own country. There’s probably more within driving distance than you realize!

I’ll be the first to admit that I sometimes have trouble taking my own advice here! My heart yearns for the faraway, hard to reach, challenging destination. BUT there are honestly so many things in our own backyard that we forget about. The Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone National Park, the Smoky Mountains - to name a few. I’m hoping to hit a few of these this year! If you live in California (like I do) you have SO. MANY. OPTIONS.

7. Don’t use your vacation days “to recover”.

I know this sounds mean, but don’t be a baby. If you’re going on vacation Monday-Monday, don’t take Tuesday off to recover. I have never once taken a vacation the Monday after Coachella. And trust me, it’s not for lack of utter exhaustion LOL. But I just remind myself that it’s one more precious day I could be spending exploring a new country and power thru.

I’ll sleep when I’m dead. And so can you.

8. Plan your itineraries strategically so you can maximize time spent doing activities / sightseeing.

The worst thing you can do when you’re short on time, is spend the first day of your vacation trying to figure out what to do. You should already know before you board the plane (or at least research on the plane!)

I do extensive research about a destination I plan to travel to - planning out all the activities I want to do and noting the timing for each. I then arrange a schedule pairing activities - for example, if I know the coffee tour is 10am-2pm, I can then pair that with the 4-6pm zipline tour. Making the most of the entire day!

I also always front-loading the beginning of my trip with scheduled activities/tours (it’s easier to fill in any time gaps with museums, monuments, etc) and try to leave a day or two at the end free if possible. This will allow some flexibility if you learn about activities you want to squeeze into your schedule once in the destination.

I also always like to do a free walking tour when I first get to a city - as this is a great way to orient yourself for the rest of your trip!

9. Always take early morning flights or late at night flights to maximize time spent doing things in your destination.

I always recommend taking the first flight out (or last of the day as an alternative). When you schedule a flight for the middle of the day, you generally don’t have time to do any activities in the morning in your first destination or the afternoon in your 2nd destination. But if you take a 6am flight and arrive at 9am, you still have the whole day to sight see! Plus early flights are more likely to be on time.

10. Negotiate for more travel days!

When you start a new job, make it known that travel is a priority to you (and maybe even that you’re willing to sacrifice some salary to get more time off). Thankfully a lot of companies in the US these days are switching to a “unlimited” or “flexible PTO” policy.

11. Make yourself invaluable at your company.

When they really value you as an employee, they are going to do whatever they can to keep you happy and keep you at the company….and that includes approving your vacation time. I work really hard and everyone knows it, so when I ask for a day off it’s never a problem.

12. If you travel for work, try to add on a few days in the location for fun!

I recognize that not everyone travels for work, but if you do, consider adding on a few days in that destination to explore. This can be a very inexpensive way to see the world since the company already paid for your flight!

13. Ask your job to spend some time working remotely.

Again, I know this one isn’t possible for everyone, but more and more companies are going remote these days and with the rise of coworking spaces all over the world - the opportunities are now abundant! A change of pace can really be a wonderful thing for employees.

And when you work remotely, I find that you generally work twice as hard because you want to be certain you don't drop a ball (lest someone not let you work remotely again!)

14. Chose a career path / jobs that let you travel.

There are several careers that lend themselves a little easier to remote work. Some of the best jobs to travel the world that I’ve heard of are developer, entrepreneur, designer, online marketer, customer service rep, data entry, virtual assistant, etc. A lot of the people I met when working remotely were entrepreneurs with their own businesses. Coding/design/tech roles also seems to be very prevalent. It’s never too late to change up your career - companies like General Assembly, Le Wagon, App Academy, etc. help adults change their career paths with intense tech bootcamps.

Well I hope these tips were helpful! I’d love to hear from you if you are already implementing any of these tips and how much travel YOU are doing each year!