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How do I travel so much?

How do you travel more while balancing the demands of full time work?

Someone asked me recently how I am able to travel so much while still working full time. It’s a fair question that made me think. While I have worked at the same organization for well over a decade and accrue more time off than I can use, the strategies I use to plan how and when I take vacation time that allows me travel more than I would be able to otherwise. I’ll share my strategies in hopes that it might help you figure out how to travel more while reducing the impact it has on your work and workload.

The backstory

It may be important to first clarify that I have years of travel under my belt. I was fortunate to be a part of a student exchange program in France one summer when I was in high school and I studied abroad in Paris during part of one summer during college as well. I also had the chance to volunteer over a college spring break in the Dominican Republic. And two of my best girlfriends moved to England and Italy after college which made it easy to find the excuse to go visit them in Europe.

While I have always had the travel bug, that bug bit hard seven years ago when I went to Nepal and Thailand. After that trip, I knew I wanted to travel more internationally, and just travel more in general.

In 2017, I don’t think I had taken a full sick day in all of my career to that point. This of course was before COVID when we generally would tough it out and not think about the fact that other people probably didn’t appreciate working around a sick person. For vacation, I did have a wonderful boss who encouraged me to take a trip after I had been with the organization for almost 2 years. This is when I was able to visit my friends who had moved to Europe. After that trip, however, I would only occasionally take one or two days off at a time and I always felt guilty.

By the time 2017 arrived, I had a lot of vacation time accrued and what I felt like was a once in a lifetime opportunity to travel halfway across the world (to Nepal) with a local nonprofit organization. I thought that I might never go halfway around the world again, so I better go one more place (Thailand).

By now, you know the end of the story. I returned from these trips only feeling overwhelmingly compelled to travel more. I wanted to explore, experience other cultures and learn from them, try new and different foods, bask in new vistas, and connect with others near and far.

How did I figure out how to travel more while still working? I have explained below the 5 strategies I use to maximize the time I have, enabling me to travel more while feeling slightly less guilt for being away from the office.

How to travel more

1- Make a plan

If you want to travel more, consider planning out when and where you want to go roughly one year in advance. This year, I decided I would like to go somewhere during mid-summer as there is a small window of time that falls between two busier seasons at work. Again planning around what will hopefully be a less busy time at work, I booked another trip early January. Now that I have two trips committed, I can begin to schedule around that time off and accommodate being out of the office.

To help me decide exactly what dates will work best with my work schedule and with flight options, I use google flights explore. At a glance, I can see where I could go, for approximately how much, and roughly when. This flight search also helped me find a fantastic deal for my July trip.

After you have booked your trip, you can begin further planning for your time off by ensuring that you have your projects in good standing when you leave, that your shifts or any meetings are covered, that you have a thorough auto-responder enabled, and that you have given clear direction to those who may need to step in while you are away.

My circumstances and strategies here may not enable everyone to travel more but, if not, think about ways you can plan to travel more by gaining necessary permissions, committing to a trip, and planning for your absence at work.

2- Maximize holidays

Almost all of my trips have fallen around a holiday. If I leave on a Saturday morning before a four day work week and return the following Sunday, I can have a roughly 7-8 day trip depending on how far I travel.

If your challenge with taking time off is like mine, in that there really is never a good time to be out of the office, this technique is extra helpful. When I travel during a holiday week, sometimes work is a little less busy because maybe others are also taking time off from work. Secondly, I know that a holiday will generate fewer emails and I am also certain to not miss an important meeting as there likely won’t be one scheduled.

3- Sacrifice transition time back to reality

It’s not uncommon for me to arrive home from a trip the night before going back to work. After my last trip, I arrived home from the airport at midnight, got my luggage out of my car, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and was up at 6 a.m. to get ready for work. I know others who use or have used this technique in order to travel more. Another time, I returned from Australia and went back to work the next day despite the jet lag. That was a more difficult transition but I still remember the content of the meetings I was in the next day, so I was still present and engaged with work nonetheless.

I find that I am so energized from my travels that I can make it through the workweek with plenty enough energy. Generally I do follow it up with a restful weekend.

4- Work a little while you are away

This one might be controversial for some but hear me out. While I am an advocate for the importance of truly taking time off to disconnect and recharge, sometimes that is not possible, at least for me. If I were completely unplugged when I took time off to travel, my absence could create issues that may interfere with my ability to travel in the future.

Perhaps it can be viewed this way: by staying a little plugged in, I am investing in my ability to leave in the future with little to no issue. I am able to travel more because I am willing to check in and respond to important matters that may arise.

5- Schedule shorter trips

My Spanish teacher and I discussed a study she had read recently that said long weekends away more regularly are more beneficial to your happiness and wellbeing than fewer but longer trips. If I lived close to a major airport, I would more regularly make shorter trips that could fulfill my travel bug desire. The friend that I met on safari and traveled to Antarctica with is able to make long weekend trips from her home base airport: Dallas Fort Worth, or DFW.

I also choose to make shorter trips to closer locations more often that I perhaps would otherwise. I travel more to the Americas, which I absolutely love, rather than traveling to Asia for example.

It’s also fun to go on a road trip. If you have a holiday weekend or you can take a Friday and a Monday off from work, you can likely drive somewhere that feels pretty different and enjoy a couple of days of exploring and/or have some rest and relaxation.

Conclusion

While it may seem based on my articles so far that I am always traveling, the truth is that I am compiling years’ worth of trips into my new creative outlet and chronicling the adventures I have had. That said, I have been been quite fortunate to travel as much as I have in recent years. My supervisors have been especially kind and accommodating when I have asked three different times over the past thirteen years to take an extended vacation.

By deploying the techniques above (planning for the least disruptive timeframe possible, planning with colleagues and others who may be affected, communicating by way of a through auto responder, considering shorter trips, and checking in periodically to ensure important tasks and pressing issues are addressed), I have not had major issues when taking time off to travel.

I hope these strategies help you to travel more, or at least maximize your time off so that you can engage in your creative outlets, spend time with your family, or do other activities that encourage you to be more a more balanced and fulfilled human. Your well roundedness and fulfillment ultimately makes you a better employee anyway.

How do you find ways to travel more?

I would love to know. Tell me in comments – it may help others (and me!).