How To Travel With A Full-Time Job? Here Are 6 Ways!
Updated January 2025
Figuring out how to travel with a full-time job might seem daunting, but with the right strategies, it’s possible to turn your travel dreams into reality even when working the 9-5.
Before leaving my last office job some years ago, I had limited PTO and a huge desire to travel, so I did what anyone in my situation would do: get creative with what I had to work with.
Whether you’re planning long weekend getaways, exploring locally, or traveling abroad, a little creativity and planning can help you maximize your time off.
In this post, I’ll walk you through practical tips and ways to help you travel more while maintaining your full-time job, from using paid holidays wisely to starting a travel fund to jump-start your adventures.
How To Travel With A Full-Time Job
1. Look at paid holidays and long weekends
Review the calendar year ahead, and take note of holidays, bank holidays, days on your work schedule/calendar that the office closes for whatever reason, etc.
Grab a blank calendar to designate for vacation planning, and take note of these dates. Jot them down so you can visually see what days you have to work with.
What you’re looking for is to see which holidays fall on a Thursday, Friday, Monday, or Tuesday.
If a holiday falls on a Friday or Monday, you have 3 days to go somewhere. Leave Friday night and come back on Monday or Monday morning.
If a holiday falls on a Thursday or a Tuesday, and if you can, you could use one vacation day and have 4 days to go somewhere.
2. Find the dates that work for you and your plans
Once you write down all the possible long weekend dates you have to work with for the year, start planning and researching destinations of interest or cool events/ festivals you can travel to that may coincide with your dates.
The good thing is that all year long, there’s something cool to attend and experience everywhere.
Look for nature phenomenons to see like Cherry Blossom in DC, season and Tulip Festivals in Holland, Michigan in the Midwest USA, or cultural events like Día de Los Muertos in México, a last-minute trip to a bustling city or Magical town in México, seasonal events like Mardí Gras in New Orleans, visit Salem, Massachusetts in October, explore our neighbors to the north, Canada, and places like Montréal and Québec City.
You don’t have to go too far! Stay in North America, and there’s so much to see!
💡Need help with your trip planning? Check out my favorite travel resources to plan, and book travel easily!
Remember that if you are planning to travel to a destination for a specific event, prices may be more expensive, so be sure to book your flight and lodging as soon as possible!
3. Play around with Skyscanner
Struggling to find dates that work for you? Let your wallet lead the way, and head to Skyscanner!
Try your luck, and see if any dates you wrote down as potential travel dates coincide with cheap flights somewhere. If they do, awesome! If they don’t, maybe you’ll find a flight price too good to pass up, it’s worth taking that extra vacation day or two.
You could also check for those “quiet” seasons within your job/job role and consider getting extra vacation time.
💡Want a visual of all the bank holidays in the U.S. where people typically have the day off? I got you! I created a FREE resource to give you a snapshot/cheat sheet of the most common holidays and days off in the U.S. that you can take advantage of!
Look at this calendar, which I have marked with federal holidays in the U.S. and potential dates you can take off around the holidays to maximize your travels and vacation PTO.
Use this calendar to plan a few trips around the long holidays ahead while using minimal vacation time. Just leave me your name and email below, and I’ll send it right over!
4. Traveling on the weekends and exploring your surroundings
A good way to travel more while working full-time is by taking advantage of any free weekends.
Take the opportunity to travel within your city or state if you only have weekends available!
Take day trips, weekend trips, take a train trip somewhere new, or hit the road on an adventurous road trip to see something or try something new. Road trips are such a fun way to travel; half the fun is the drive!
Traveling on the weekends is a good opportunity, and it isn’t too expensive to do either.
>> Read More: 7 Ways To Become An Everyday Explorer At Home
5. Be open to solo travel
To really, REALLY increase your chances to travel more while having a full-time job, you need to open yourself to the possibility of solo travel.
The reality is that the times that you are going to want to travel, your friends may not be able to.
However, if you’re determined, already set your intentions to travel more while having a full-time job, and feel ready to take the opportunity to visit the place you’ve been wanting to see, you must go!
Traveling solo is not a rarity nowadays, and because so many people do it, there are ample opportunities to meet other like-minded solo travelers abroad on your journeys.
>> Read More: My best tips to keep safe as a female solo traveler
Join a tour, do a cooking class, or do any activity that will bring you to a group of like-minded people.
6. Start a travel fund
It’s important to mention that you can make all the plans in the world and set your intention to travel more while having a full-time job, but you also need to be financially ready to book and go.
One of my favorite ways to save money without even noticing that I’m saving is to start with financial platforms like Acorns.
I’ve been a customer of Acorns for 5+ years, and it’s been the best decision and option for me to save money for travel because of how simple it is to get started and see your fund grow.
I’ve saved $1,000 USD in the past for travel, which greatly helped supplement my yearly travels when I worked full-time.
>> Read More: How I Easily Saved An Extra $1,000 For Travel Using The Acorns App
A couple of stats and interesting facts on American vacation/travel culture:
- While Americans may say they wish they could travel or take a few days off through the year, research shows they still don’t, even if they have the money! According to CNBC, between 1976 and 2000, Americans usually took around 20 or more vacation days. Today, this number has decreased to 16 – but this may actually be lower for some.
- The U.S. Travel Association did a study showing that 55% of Americans didn’t use all their vacation time in 2017. To put it into perspective, that is around 768 million unused vacation days, $65.5 billion in lost benefits.
- According to CNBC, American workers usually receive fewer vacation days compared to other countries worldwide. In Austria, for example, people receive 13 paid public holidays and 25 days of paid annual leave. In the U.S., professional and full-time employees have between 7-8 paid holidays and around 10 days worth of paid vacation time off during their first year of employment, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor.
- “The United States is the only advanced economy in the world that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation days and paid holidays,” says John Schmitt, Vice President of the Economic Policy Institute, in a report for the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
- Source
Don’t become part of these statistics. The world is big, things can change quickly if you keep waiting, and there’s no better time to travel than now. No one’s ever regretted traveling.
Concluding thoughts on how to travel while working full-time more
Working full time doesn’t have to mean putting your dreams on hold.
Planning strategically, staying flexible, and taking advantage of solo or local travel opportunities can open the doors for you in 2025 to add more travel into your life, even with a full-time job.
Start planning today, and let your next adventure prove you can travel and work full-time.
Don’t forget to leave me down below your email and name so I can send you the Full-time Potential Travel Dates 2025 at a Glance – a calendar with federal holidays and potential dates marked off to help you more easily and visually to look at a couple of travel opportunities where you don’t have to spend more vacation days than you have to!
Do you have any travel tips that have helped you take more travel breaks, even as you work full-time? Share in the comments below!
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I love this!! As someone from the UK, we are lucky to have around 28 days holiday leave and about 8 public bank holidays, and yet still, we find it difficult to utilise our time.
This Blog post really helps people to prioritise and plan for the travel that we desire, but also need as life isn’t just about paying bills.
Thank you Rhiannon! Yes, exactly I’m really glad to hear that.