Tips On How To Travel and Work Full-Time

*Continuous updates. Latest update in June 2021*

Travel and Work Culture

How to travel and work full-time? If you’re like the rest of America, you have the standard two-week vacation that isn’t enough to satisfy your travel wanderlust therefore you need solid travel and work tips that will help you maximize fun travel with a full-time career in America or anywhere with minimal vacation days.

It also doesn’t help that many Americans fall into the trap of sacrificing vacation and personal time on the path to career success. For years, Americans used up less vacation days than their European peers and in 2016, we left 662 million unused vacation days wasted on the table. A 2017 study found that even as Americans are getting better at using up days, men plan and use more vacation days than women. More on this informative study can be read at Project: Time Off.

The global pandemic and easing of lock down restrictions in the U.S. has prompted people to re-assess their working life and sacrifices, and while many workers are quitting in droves in 2021 to travel extensively, pursue passion projects, or switch to culturally fit careers, many others have to maximize travel within full-time careers and miserly vacation days.

For those playing the juggling act, here are some tips on how to travel and work full-time either as a solo traveller, couple, or family.

#How to Travel and Work Full-Time: Day Trips

I sing this from the mountain tops and I am the queen of day trips. If you reside in a town or city, explore the closest major city like a tourist and combine travel and work full-time. Hop on a tour bus, grab a map for a walking tour the way I do in Philadelphia’s Historic District or go on unique local tours run by residents of a neighbourhood. Not only do I experience a new city in Philly, it is a cheap bus ride from NYC and I spend ten fun hours before returning home.

You don’t even have to leave the state to experience another city for a day. In July 2019, my friend and I take a day trip to Rhinebeck, NY, for the Hudson Valley Balloon Festival and it is a fun day of county fair, cornhole and creams. In March 2020, I take a Friday off to Albany, NY, to experience the grandiose architecture of the NYS Capitol Building in all its majesty. It was a fun day trip and the last one before NYS and the world shut down.

Furthermore, experience a particular region in-state for day trips as I do in my pandemic Hudson Valley day trip adventures visiting picturesque and historic towns like Beacon, Cold Spring, Sleepy Hollow and many more. This has been a stress reliever for me during the pandemic and I am continuing this tradition “post-pandemic”.

 

Read More: Cheap Day Trip to Roosevelt Island from New York City

 

#How to Travel and Work Full-Time: Weekend Staycations

The same tip goes for staycations away from home but still within your city or state.

The best travel and work tip is to leave work early on a Thursday or Friday to beat rush hour or score cheap flight deals. A full weekend does wonders to the body and soul so take this time to experience rest and rejuvenation.

In May 2018, I take a solo travel trip for an overnight in Hudson, New York, and in pandemic period, I return for a weekend day trip and have a good time exploring the walkable town, buying organic and sustainable food and products, and noticing how lock down has affected the town. As much as travel took a pandemic hit in 2020/2021, there have been many travel deals to score and in fall 2020, I take advantage of Amtrak Northeast deals to Explore Alternative Washington DC away from the conventional tourist traps.

If you’re in corporate and get floating and PTO days separately, make sure to use up floating days first because when you leave, you are paid remainder PTO but not floating days. Tip from a veteran colleague. Click To Tweet

#How to Travel and Work Full-Time: Business Travel

Professions that know how to combine travel and work full-time are usually in Sales or any position that requires frequent travel and they use opportunities to stay back an extra day or weekend to experience a new city or country. For example, if you finish on Thursday, stay the weekend and leave on Sunday. Experience local culture at your leisure and maximize those vacation days with a full-time career.

 

#How to Travel and Work Full-Time: Departmental Retreat

The best way to travel and work full-time is by participating in employee retreats. This is an overlooked travel avenue but one that is becoming popular as lock down eases where corporate retreats keep aside a days or weekends for employee bonding and sight-seeing which is a great opportunity to spend hours exploring a new city. If this happens to be in out of state or country, count yourself lucky indeed!

 

#How to Travel and Work Full-Time: Break it Up!

Maximize more travel with meagre vacation days if you strategically plan it in chunks. For example, I prefer leaving on Thursday to take advantage of the weekend and return on a Sunday taking just two vacation days out of your miserly quota. Play around with travel days to get the best price regarding cost and layover duration so that you take good advantage of your PTO.

Practice these travel and work tips every quarter and by year end, you would have taken four well-rested vacations to make up for the pitiful amount we get Stateside.

Alternatively, take seven days off and travel twice a year. Of course, everyone’s work and life situation differs so do what suits you best on how to travel and work full-time in the U.S.

#Off-Season

Most families travel in summer because schools are out and kids are able to tag along and this results in a lot of empty offices for at least 2 weeks. I hear that some jobs deny summer vacations if a lot of people book or it is a first-applied-first-approved situation. Tragic!

Major travel tip: If you’re without children, travel off-season when destinations are cheaper and less crowded. In most firms, January is the quietest month of the year as the big bosses are on vacation too so take advantage of this and plan a vacation.

I do this in January 2017 for a girl’s trip to Havana where beaches are devoid of tourists and we soak up the sun into our frozen NYC bodies. If your vacation days accrue at year end, it works out best because you can spend 2 weeks away.

 

#Unlimited Vacation Days

 

DO NOT FALL FOR THIS!

*Clears throat* sorry for screaming. My colleague has this and I am initially green with envy until I hear the caveat: “…at manager’s discretion.” Of course. I had visions of monthly getaways or a full travel month every quarter; that’s what “unlimited” means, no?

I prefer a raise to unlimited vacation days if I cannot utilize the “unlimited” in vacation days to its full meaning and extent.

 

#2-in-1 Getaway

This is my favourite travel tip to give!

The best way to maximize travel is by visiting cities close to the main city you’re booking. For example, if you have a NYC trip planned, spare a day trip to Philly or Connecticut. There are buses and trains to these states because most people live here for the affordable cost of living and commute to Manhattan.

The same strategy applies abroad too.

Every major Euro city has high-speed trains to near-by Euro cities. For example, train rides from Amsterdam to Antwerp or Copenhagen to Malmo are available and affordable and can be done in a full day.

In April 2018, I squeeze in a day trip to Malmo and Lund from Copenhagen on my inaugural solo trip to Denmark and it is an experience. The trip cost the equivalent of $34 return to and from Sweden over the Oresund bridge, made famous by the Hulu Original series, The Bridge, a Danish serial murder mystery. I’m the only one who watched it?? Oh, ok then.

Fast forward to off-peak travel in October 2018, I take my second solo trip of the year to Brussels and from there, spend two nights in Amsterdam, take a day tour to Ghent and Bruges in Belgium and a day trip to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg! Isn’t that grand?

See how I maximize travel on this trip? I knew where I wanted to visit and even had alternative cities just in case. Yes. I am a Capricorn lol.

I promise, it wasn’t expensive as I had planned and mapped out destinations and cost before leaving NYC. Ghent/Bruges and Luxembourg were through Brussels Tour Company and the total cost for these destinations was $87.

Plan ahead and visit for a day, depending on distance, or stay overnight in affordable digs. You can squeeze in an extra city and country into your itinerary for cheap to maximize travel with meagre vacation days we get Stateside. Always make sure you know entry requirements of the city beyond the country you land in.

Read More: Amsterdam: A Cultured City Sprint in 48 hours

 

 

 

#Airline Perks

If you have a partner or spouse as an airline employee, you are lucky. Many airlines have generous travel perks for employees and a designated beneficiary.

Andre, a pal of mine, travels monthly because his wife is a long-time Delta employee and they’ve been everywhere because of the perks. Belize, Thailand, Mexico…name it. Sure, they have to be on standby and seating is not entirely guaranteed but they only pay taxes for all trips. What a steal!

 

#Volunteer Events

This is rarer for travel experiences but some volunteer sporting or NGO events enable you to see a local town or city for a tiny fee.

A colleague did a bike-a-thon from NYC to D.C. for climate change action and the group passed through Amish country where they slept in a field and met Amish families. This was a new experience for all of them and they will never forget it.

Another colleague is part of a cycling group that bikes miles into rural New Jersey, Upstate NYC and Long Island where the landscape is wide and picturesque. This can also be done abroad with a group and requires months of planning ahead.

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I hope these travel tips inspire you to make the most of travel and work with the meagre PTO we get here in North America.

Travel doesn’t have to be international; it can be local or regional but it should be enriching. I regularly become a “tourist” in my own city by re-visiting spaces & events I haven’t been to in years or I experience new exhibitions and events New York City puts out.

Let me know what you think of these travel tips and don’t be stingy with the sharing buttons.

Happy travels! xxx

 

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