When I was in college, the idea of having a full-time job seemed to have a lot of perks. I mean, consistent income, stability, being able to pay your bills, all seemed amazing after getting through the college-hustle.
However, I quickly came to realize that just because I was making more money with a full-time job and could afford things like traveling, it didn’t make traveling more accessible to me now than it was before.
If you’re dying to explore the world, but whether it’s for financial reasons or you just can’t seem the time to travel with a full-time job, this is the perfect post for you. In this post, I’m going to show you not only how to afford to travel a lot more, but my tips for traveling the world with a full-time job.
I’m all about traveling on a budget. Although I work full-time, with my partner studying for his Masters, we are essentially living off of my one income. With rent, utilities and student loans, life can get super expensive. However, one of our favorite things to do is traveling and even with a smaller budget, it wasn’t something that we wanted to give up. Whether it’s weekend day trips to Figure 8 Pools, long weekend getaways to Whitsundays, or road-tripping through Maine, we absolutely love traveling and exploring the world around us.
With having a smaller budget when it comes to traveling, we’ve had to get creative to allow us to travel as much as possible without spending tons of money. If you’re looking for tips on how to travel on a small budget, I highly recommend checking out my blog posts Best Sites for Finding Cheap Flights, where I dive in my tips and tricks when it comes to finding cheap flights and How to Travel the World on a College Budget, all about maximizing your travel on a very small budget. Regardless if you’re in college or not, if you’re looking to travel more affordably, that is the post for you.
Those two blog posts go in great detail on how to travel affordably and get the best deals on flights, accommodations, and in my opinion, just how to travel smarter.
However, if you’re specifically looking at this blog post about How to Travel with a Full-Time job, your greatest concern is probably finding the time to travel.
When you get welcomed into the world of having a full-time job getting days off work isn’t as simple requesting time off or getting time off approved. I also feel like there’s a bit of guilt whether it’s expressed or not when you take time off as well which can definitely hinder you requesting time off.
The Statistics
It was reported that in 2018, a total of 768 million vacation days went unused in the US which resulted in over $65.5 billion in loss of benefits.
55% of workers reported that they did not use all their vacation days.
As U.S Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow said in a statement,
When I see how many vacation days went unused, I don’t just see a number — I see 768 million missed opportunities to recharge, experience something new and connect with family and friends.
If traveling is one of your passions, you need to make time for it.
Actually, Take Your Vacation Days
My first tip to traveling with a full-time job is actually to use your vacation days. Those vacation days are specifically there for you to take off and enjoy life. Taking a vacation and traveling has proven to not only increase people’s value of life but also their work productivity. This essentially means that taking your vacation days not only benefit you but also your job as well.
My motto when it comes to taking vacation days off is to let my work know as soon as possible dates I would like to have off. That way I’m not springing anything on them last minute and people tend to react better to the request.
Especially when I was getting close to graduating college, I constantly heard from the “adults” in my life that one of their biggest regrets was not traveling as much when they were younger.
I don’t want to look back in time and wish that I had enjoyed my life more.
So instead of regretting it later on, take your allocated vacation days and enjoy yourself!
Long Weekend Getaways
Something that I’ve been doing more of this year with my full-time job is long-weekend getaways. Taking off a full week of work may seem a bit overwhelming, however, taking two to three days at a time and planning a trip Thursday- Monday seems a lot less involved and a lot more doable with a full-time job.
I was in the mindset that you can’t do much during a long weekend getaway, but that’s not true at all. With our trip to Christchurch for 4 days, our Whitsundays Adventure for 5 Nights, and we have a Tasmanian trip coming up, trust me, there is so much you can do in a few days and you’ll be surprised how refreshed you’ll feel after your getaway.
Not only are long-weekend getaways a lot more doable with a full-time job, but it’s also a lot more of a budget-friendly way to travel. With longer trips, you’ll be spending more on accommodations, food, and excursions and some locations you only truly need a few days to get a good feel for the area anyway, so incorporating more long-weekend getaways into our year is something we’ll definitely do more of in the future and I encourage you to do the same as well.
Related Posts: A Weekend in Newcastle, Australia
A Weekend Getaway to Christchurch, New Zealand
Utilize Public Holidays
Public holidays are typically more expensive times to travel, but not always. If you’re after more time off and less about cheap prices, organizing your long weekend getaway over public holidays are free additional vacation days and something you should take advantage of.
One thing I like to do at the beginning of the year is looking at all the public holidays or “free vacation days” as I like to call them. I highlight these days in my planner so they stand out from the rest of the year and that way I can see a picture of the whole year at one glance and start brainstorming trips I want to take and when. This allows me to start planning ahead of time and hopefully get better deals on flights and accommodations regardless of it being a more popular time to travel.
Explore Locally
I feel like one travel hack that’s not talked about nearly enough is exploring locally. I admit that the idea of international travel sounds a lot more exotic and exciting. However, after moving to Australia a couple of years ago, exploring the local area has been more and more exciting to me. When you open your eyes and do some research, you’d be amazed by the number of beautiful places you can discover locally.
We love to travel, and even weekend getaways every single month isn’t doable. However, day-trips is a great way to get your travel bug out but not have an extravagant trip planned. The great thing about local day trips is that you don’t need to request any time off or do much planning at all and it can be as spontaneous or as planned as you would like.
I love planning or organizing, but there’s something so nice and stress-free about just getting in the car and driving. Pack up some food, a bathing suit, spare of clothes, and your camera and just drive around. Stop at a cute cafe, take a walk around an unheard-of town and you’ll be amazed how great of a day you can truly have just exploring a new area and getting out of the everyday routine.
Traveling to new places just makes life more exciting
Related Post: Travel Diary: Figure 8 Pools, Australia
Travel Diary: Jenolan Caves, Australia
I hope this blog post not only showed you how traveling with a full-time job is realistic but as gave you the inspiration to go out there and enjoy life. It’s so easy to get into the hustle mindset of working constantly, but it’s so important to stop and enjoy life too.
My motto is I’m working to live, not living to work.
I think that’s an important distinguishment to make that a lot of people don’t think about. There’s huge importance in working and being responsible. This post isn’t to tell you to avoid your bills and expenses, you still need to do that. This post is to, however, motivate you to treat yourself to the new experiences and people you’ll meet when you travel around the world.
Do you find it difficult traveling with a full-time job? Let me know in the comments below! If you would like to stay up-to-date with Our Wandering Mind, don’t forget to subscribe!
