How to Travel with a Full Time Job
This is the ultimate travel guide to help you travel with a full time job. I was able to take 11 trips while maintaining a full time job last year.
How is this possible?
It took time and effort, but I’m here to simplify it for you. That’s the whole reason I started this blog – to normalize part time travel. You don’t HAVE to quit your job to travel, unless you want to. I fully respect it if you do, but for me, that’s not the case.
I want the stability of the job but the spontaneity of a traveler, and I’ve been able to find a balance.
How to Travel with a Full Time Job
Here are some of my favorite travel hacks to travel without quitting your job (from easiest to implement to potentially harder).
Travel Hack 1: Maximize Your Paid Time Off (PTO)
Your paid time off is the biggest limiter when it comes to traveling while working. So it makes sense to start with the most impactful hack first.
This can consist of many things– taking more weekend trips, leveraging stopover programs, and more. I’ll explain those later on. First, the main thing you need to figure out to be able to travel with your full time job is what days you can take off.
I recommend pairing the days your company gives off naturally, from holidays to company days off, with your PTO to make the most of your time off.
By doing this, I was able to take pretty much one trip a month last year (and am on track for the same this year).
I have a full guide on all PTO hacks, including a calendar and step-by-step walkthrough in my blog about maximizing your PTO here. It should help you travel frequently, even with your full time job!
Travel Hack 2: Take Frequent Weekend Trips
Out of the 11 trips I took in one year, the majority of them were weekend trips. And yes, a few of these were international as well.
It’s all about expanding your local horizon to explore what’s around you.
You can find a lot of exciting destinations under a 4 hour flight, allowing you to take a 3 day or 4 day long trip and have it feel like a full week!
For example, if you are from San Francisco, you can explore Mexico City, Vancouver, or Las Vegas in a 4 hour flight or under. You could also head over to Lake Tahoe, Carmel, or Napa in a few hours’ drive.
The point is, you can find a way to maximize your vacation time to travel more while keeping your full time job. All it takes is a motivation to use your weekends to explore your passion for travel– and I have a full guide on destination ideas and how to do it here.
I personally have found hidden gems in the places close to home, making it easy to fit more travel in for less PTO taken.
Believe it or not, I’ve taken all of the trips mentioned above and linked in the San Francisco weekend trips blog. All I had to do was shift my mindset, and plan out my trips in advance to be able to travel with my job.
Besides leveraging your PTO wisely, I think this is the most important travel hack to travel with a full time job. It enables you without taking away from your 9-5.
Travel Hack 3: Stopover Programs (to make the most of long trips)
If you take longer trips, it makes sense to fit a few destinations into the trip. But did you know that you might be able to fit another city in for free?
This is the perk of stopover programs. They are airline deals that let you spend a few days in a layover city—often with a free hotel stay—before continuing to your final destination.
Some popular ones are offered by Emirates to stop in Dubai, Turkish Airlines in Istanbul, and even IcelandAir in Reykjavik.
While there might be certain conditions with the programs, they still offer a great opportunity to save money and visit more destinations while only taking the same amount of PTO.
Travel Hack 4: Cut Down Travel Planning Time
This might not sound impactful, but when you have enough to deal with at work, you rarely want to deal with more planning and metal load in your off time.
Reducing how much time you spend planning your trips can allow for more relaxation and motivation to plan more.
Personally, I’ve found a few tips and tricks to help reduce the amount of time I spend planning… here they are!
Using an Itinerary Template, Flexible for Any Destination
According to Priceline, “It takes the equivalent of two full work days, or 16 hours, to plan and book a trip”. This template saves me so much time that I cut down hours of work once I use it.
Most of this time spent is during the itinerary stage. It’s tough to feel satisfied in finding activities, restaurants, etc. because there’s so much to see.
After planning countless trips, I have found that each itinerary has similarities–regardless of the destination. You can use this to cut down your planning time, and cater it to yourself. Everyone has their own interests, and every itinerary should reflect those!
Because of this, I created an itinerary template that I use for every trip.
Here’s the simple day template:
- Morning – coffee shop/bakery + walk (find a neighborhood that’ll have good sights or experiences)
- Afternoon – lunch place + potential activity/sightseeing/cultural experience
- Evening – potential activity/sightseeing/cultural experience + dinner/drinks
- Nightlife – bars and/or clubs
It seems simple, but it really helps me to have a few lists:
- List of activities I want to do based on my interests
- List of food places I have vetted by friends/reviews/locals
- List of nightlife places I can visit also vetted by friends/reviews/locals
While this might be short, once you actually build out the days with specific activities you’re interested in, it starts to fill up.
I made mine based on the fact that I like to try cultural experiences and I’m a big foodie. If you want to learn how to make one based on your own interests, I created a full guide on how to make it here.
Streamlining Airline and Hotel Booking
Booking air travel and accommodations can be stressful–it’s hard to know if you’ve got the best location for the best price and so on.
After booking many flights and hotel stays, I can confidently say there’s an easy process to help ease that stress and cut down the research time… and it’s all about booking based on the purpose of your trip!
If you are going in with a group of friends with limited hotel options, an Airbnb is probably your best bet. However, if you’re staying in the middle of the city with just your partner, a hotel is a great option (especially because you can probably get it for free on points).
Basing your flights and accommodations on specific factors of your trip will help you save the hassle of searching endlessly for hours. I’ve explained it all in my blog here.
Personally, cutting down the time it takes me to plan trips motivates me to travel more. I end up traveling a ton even with my full time job because it’s much more enjoyable, and takes a way lighter mental load to do it.
Travel Hack 5: Find Friends Who Like to Travel
This might not seem like it makes a difference, but if your main community is interested in travel, it will make it a lot easier to fit it into your life.
By having friends and family who love to travel, you’ll be more motivated to spend your time taking trips rather than hanging out at home.
I’ve seen the difference first hand. My friends love to travel and we often take weekend cabin trips, road trips, and other fun getaways. It helps us all unplug from work while also doing something fun together.
If you don’t naturally have these types of friends, there are tons of ways you can make some! Though it seems outdated, Facebook is actually a great place for this. They have groups like “Find a Travel Buddy”, “gals who like to travel”, and more.
There are also a ton of new solo traveler apps popping up, where you can meet other solo travels while on your trip. Going Solo and TripBFF are good examples.
By surrounding yourself with friends who want to travel, you’ll find it easier to travel while keeping your job… and actually enjoy the trip.
Travel Hack 6: Hybrid job
It might not seem like it, but a hybrid job can actually give you a lot of leeway when it comes to travel. If you’re truly passionate about it, you can take Thursday nights for the overnight or even shorter flights.
As long as you’re able to work remotely on Fridays or Mondays, you might be surprised at how much travel you can truly fit in.
I recommend flying out Thursday nights after work, and coming back Monday nights so you can rest up before heading to work on Tuesday morning.
It might be tiring, but you don’t need to do it often and can rest on the weekends outside of your travels!
Here’s a full guide to different PTO hacks you can use, and which days to take off, even as a hybrid worker.
Travel Hack 7: Remote job
This is likely harder than finding a hybrid job, but getting a fully remote job is the best way to travel while maintaining a full time job.
You can travel around meetings, leverage other time zones, and get the most out of your days– all while getting your full 40 hours a week in!
As we’ve gotten further and further away from the COVID era, remote jobs are getting harder to find. I recommend using platforms like remote.co, Working Nomads, or We Work Remotely.
This is the most powerful thing you can do to travel more with a full time job, even though it’s the hardest.
Travel Hack 8: Mindset Switch
More than anything, it’s incredibly important to make a mental switch to enable the ability to travel with a full time job.
It might seem like a dream, but there is a huge investment of time and energy to make it happen. From taking red eyes to having to wait all day to get in your hotel room, not every travel situation is perfect.
However, if you make the most of your travel situations, I can guarantee that all of the travel is worth it. You get the amazing global memories to last a lifetime, without having to quit your job. To me, it’s the best of both worlds!
Summary
You don’t have to quit your job to live a life of adventure! By maximizing your PTO, taking more weekend trips, streamlining your planning process, and building efficient itineraries, you can fit more travel into your life. These hacks will help you explore new places without cutting into your career.
You can find more of my tips and tricks for those working a full time job (9-5ers) here. I try my best to list everything out to keep it easy.
If you’re new to travel (yay, welcome), you can find some of my hacks for beginners here. If you want more personal advice, give me a shout at hello@jumpwithmali.com and I’d be happy to help. Happy traveling!
