How To Maximize Vacation Time For Travel

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I sometimes wish I could travel the world all year long, bouncing from place to place. But like many others, I have chosen other responsibilities. A full time job to pay my mortgage for one. Maybe you do too, or you’ve got kids or other people to support. No choice is more right than the other but some choices do limit travel opportunities. Traveling is definitely a privilege, and for many we have to make do with traveling during our small amount of vacation allowance each year. That’s kind of the reason I started this blog. I wanted to show that travel can be done with a full time job and limited vacation. But as someone who loves travel, I’ve found some great ways to maximize vacation time so I can travel more. And today I want to share a few of my tips.

A small amount of vacation time

In the UK where I grew up you get at least 4 weeks off a year. Much of Europe gets even more. That’s for most jobs, not just high up professional work. As you spend longer with a company your number of days usually increases. So when I moved to Vancouver, Canada I got a bit of a shock. Upon landing my first job here I was told that my vacation allowance was 10 days. That’s two weeks. TWO WEEKS! What can anyone do with that? This is the norm for North America though.

I had to try and figure out how to make the most of my limited time off. Since my family expected I would visit the UK each year that didn’t leave much time for other vacations.

In my next job, which was in the tourism industry, I started at 3 weeks per year. Much better, but still not what I was used to. After over 5 years at my company I am now at 4 weeks per year. But now I have the money to be able to travel, I want to visit more places. And that still leaves me running out of vacation time. Keep reading to discover some of the ways you can maximize vacation time. But even if you don’t go far, there are many great ways to travel locally to further maximize your annual vacations.

How to maximize vacation time

Getting the most out of limited vacation time is like seeing Matt Damon solving those big equations in Good Will Hunting. You know it’s possible, you just don’t know if you’ll ever be able to figure it out yourself. That’s why I’m here to help. A lot of these tips are things I’ve done in the past or still do. Some may depend on how flexible your job is and how your work contracts are set out. But it’s worth looking into for your own travel needs.

Bank overtime

Do you ever work overtime? If so, are you automatically paid out for it? While it’s nice to get a little extra cash in your paycheck, I find that time off is way more valuable to me. So when I work overtime I like to bank the hours. My job also involves working a lot of Statutory Holidays. When we work those we can either get paid out the extra time or bank them. Again, I like to bank the time. My company allows us to bank hours for use at a later date. If I have a vacation coming up I like to cash in my banked time to save on some precious vacation hours.

Plan around Statutory Holidays

Let’s go back to those Statutory/Federal/Bank holidays. Whatever you call them in your country, they are a great way to maximize vacation time. I often plan bigger vacations around a statutory holiday or add a day either side. Even without the added vacation days, these holidays often allow for a 3 day weekend. That’s enough time for short break locally, or a cheap flight somewhere. Leave early on a Friday and come back on the Monday evening and you’ll feel like you’ve been away a lot longer than you have.

Use your sick time

Now I’m not suggesting you pretend to be sick, running for the airport, suitcase in hand. But in a lot of companies sick days are officially known as Personal Days. This doesn’t mean you have to be sick or fake cough over the phone to get away with a day off. Everyone needs a recharge sometimes, a mental health day. And if your company’s contract includes personal days then make the most of them if you’re accruing them anyway. In my job we get 6 personal days a year. The only thing to remember is you don’t want to use them all at once in case you actually do get sick. A distinct possibility if 2020 has taught us anything.

Ask about unpaid time

While you will only get a certain number of paid vacation days and personal/sick days, there could be another option. Depending on your job, companies often allow small amounts of unpaid time. Especially if it’s a slower time of year for the company and they are looking to save some money. If that means they don’t have to pay their employees to work during a quiet period, they might jump on the chance to offer unpaid time. In my job our employees who have used their vacation allowance for the year may take unpaid time as long as those with vacation allowance still to use have had the chance to take it first. Some offices close down over the holidays too, so you might be able to take some unpaid time instead of using vacation time for those days off.

Shift swap with colleagues

I’ve done shift work before. Call center work where we are open 7 days a week from 6am until 10pm. While working weekends sometimes sucks, it does present other opportunities. Namely swapping shifts. If you want to maximize vacation time, it might be worth reaching out to a coworker to help. Let’s say you work 9-5 Monday through Friday but other employees in the same role work weekends. You could offer to work a Sunday for one, and a Saturday for another and create a Sunday-Thursday shift and a Tuesday to Saturday shift. Sure you’ll get two shorter weekends on either side, but one solid 4 day weekend in the middle. Start earlier on the Thursday and you’ve made your weekend longer still.

Plan a sabbatical

We already talked about using unpaid time for shorter trips, maybe just the odd day off. But what if your job would allow a much more extended period of leave? It’s worth checking out if your company has a policy on sabbaticals. My friend’s mother was a nurse and was able to take a one year sabbatical. This allowed her to travel to South America and live for 12 months, then return to her job a year later. Another friend I had was able to be approved for 3 months off work to go traveling and visit her family, knowing she had job security upon her return.

Look into seasonal work

If traveling is your passion, then maybe you want to look into a job that would allow you to travel more. Not every job will bend to your every wish for more time off, but there are other options. Seasonal jobs are perfect for this. Work full time during a winter season or a summer season, depending where you live, then take some time off when it’s slow. I have worked in tourism for a long time. In Vancouver I have had seasonal work, and know others who have worked from April to October in a job then it’s over. Plus you might even get a chance to travel more in your job if you become a tour guide or cruise ship worker.

Use flight times to your benefit

If you finish work on the Friday, try booking a Friday afternoon/evening flight instead of waiting until the Saturday. I’ve done more than a couple of red eye flights so I can arrive at 6am the next day and have a full day rather than arriving at 5pm and “wasting a day”. When I flew back from Hawaii I took an evening red eye, landing in Vancouver at 7am then worked that day. I probably wouldn’t do this again, but you get the idea. Also ask yourself if it’s worth paying a little more money to get on a direct flight to maximize vacation time. For me it usually is. Remember to take into account time differences when planning your trips.

Taking advantage of business travel

I have traveled more than once for work. I am in Vancouver and have managed to visit Chicago, New York City, Denver and Portland for work. In each of these cases it was my first time there so I used the flight time method mentioned above to maximize my time, and also added on a vacation day to each to maximize my trip. I didn’t work all day so got each evening to myself after work and my vacation day. In some cases I even factored in my standard day off and delayed my flight by a day. Having my day off in a new city was much more fun than having the day off at home.

Work remotely

The new normal as of 2020 is being able to work remotely. Working from home has gained momentum as the global pandemic has taken hold. Instead of heading into a downtown Vancouver office every day I have been working from home since March. While I have a house to pay for and cannot just leave it, remote work might hold more possibilities for you. A lot of companies are now moving to a permanent remote worker model. This means that, with your company’s permission, you may be able to work further than just at home in the same city. Many tropical destinations such as Barbados have been offering incentives to remote workers to move there temporarily. Why not look into options that might be available to you and continue working at your job from somewhere new?

Maximize vacation time for your next trip

For anyone with a full time, year round job you will get at least 104 weekend days/days off, plus any national holidays and your vacation time. Even with only 2 weeks of paid vacation time, that’s still over 120 days to use as you please. Planning vacations doesn’t have to be expensive either. Use these budget travel tips for your next getaway. But you are ultimately in control of the time off you have and what you use it for. The suggestions above can add to that, or help you get more out of your vacations. Taking time off work is very important. It’s important for you to relax, to recharge and after the year we’ve had we all need a little break. Happy planning!

If you’ve enjoyed this post leave a comment or share using the social media buttons below. What ways do you maximize vacation time in your job? Which of these ideas hadn’t you thought of?