How to work FULL-TIME while still traveling “FULL-TIME”
We get it. We know first hand how hard it is to go to your 9-5 day after day when all you want is to be able to sit on a beach with a drink in your hand giving everyone at home the envy that you feel right now looking at bloggers and influencers that you follow.
WELL – we’re here to tell you can satisfy your wanderlust while still cashing in your paychecks and collecting that 401K for when you retire and move to Hawaii.
First, go talk to your HR department and get a understanding on how your PTO works. Every company is different and this is really crucial when planning your getaways. Some companies give you 10 days a year and that is it. Some you start with 0 days and accrue more as you work while others have this great thing called “unlimited PTO” and those are the companies that we all want to sign up for! 🙂
Either way – you need to have an understanding of this as your major first step in planning.
The next thing is to take a look at your calendar, your companies calendar and things going on in cities you might be wanting to travel to. Some people might look at that sentence and be VERY confused as to why you need to look at all of these calendars but they all come into play when we are planning because of what our goals are when we visit new places.
Your own personal calendar is a given. You don’t want to be planning a trip to the Philippines when your nephew is about to be born and you don’t want to be on on that amazing trip to the Amazon while your brother is graduating college.
Next is your companies calendar. Depending on what your job is, what market you work in and what kind of events you need to be present for will also depend when you should and should not vacation. Obviously if you work as an auditor, taking a vacation in March or April is probably a bad idea as that is in the middle of tax season. If you are like us and work in sports, you know the off season is probably your best bet but if your sports don’t really have an off season then there really is never a good time to take a vacation.
Lastly, you might realize that your favorite artist will be at a music festival in a location you are looking to travel to or like us you might be sports focused and want to see the Women’s World Cup while we are in Europe and make sure that we catch a game while we are in France before moving on to other cities.
So Court and Gabe – tell me how you do it!
If you are wanting a quick 3 or 4 day weekend getaway (we have even accomplished things with just 1-2 days of travel so really anything is possible) you need to be strategic on your planning.
Take a flight after work on a Thursday or very early on a Friday morning. Surprisingly, many people HATE traveling at this time. Personally I love it… Gabe still hates me for booking those but he thanks be later after we see as much as we do with the little vacation time we have. Now because you booked this either really late or early morning flight, this will give you a full day on Friday and Saturday to explore whatever city you are in. Depending if you are leaving Sunday evening or Monday evening, you could even have a solid 3 to 4 FULL DAYS in a location simply because you took a flight not many people want to take.
Now sometimes flights might not be the most affordable on a Thursday or Friday which is why the less expensive flights can be found on a Tuesday or Wednesday — insider info there! BUT this is where you need to ask yourself the age old questions of, would you rather?!
Would you rather:
Pay more and see more OR pay less and see less?
Pay less money by flying out on a cheaper day or use an extra vacation day on your travels?
Really, there is no right or wrong answer here because everyone lives different lives, travels different amounts in a year, and has different set of PTO days they can utilize.
We are working with limited PTO and unlimited places to travel to which is why we travel the way we do and we wouldn’t trade it for the world!
What it comes down to is planning, knowing your schedule, and working with your company to spread your wings and fly!
