How you can have a full-time job or business and still travel the world
There's a little misnomer that in order to travel you must have "X" number of days. While the 10-day vacation to Maui sipping lava drinks and bathing the 80 degree sun is perfection, so are the possibilities to get small doses of travel even with a full time commitment.
Plan Ahead
This seems obvious, but we have had to adjust our trips due to unforeseen issues or forgotten commitments. For us, the planning the one of the most exciting times of the trip. It's where you get to dream and explore all the destination has to offer. We make photo folders on our phones and screenshot opportunities. We budget our trips out so we can take as many as we can during the year. Yes, sometimes we go out and come back on an overnight. You can always go back.
Be Flexible
But this is our vacation? You're supposed to relax on vacation, so do it then. We recently took a short weekend trip up to Grand Teton National Park. We had to adjust our departure time several times, but in the end we knew we would eventually get there so no reason to lose energy over it. The journey getting there should be as fun as the destination. It is for us anyway. In other words, put away the idealistic mentality that your vacation doesn't start until you are sitting in a beach chair sipping your drink. Vacation starts when you start planning. Enjoy the whole process.
Accumulation Effect
If you could go on vacation to 5 different destinations over three weeks would you go? So far during the shutdown we have taken five trips spanning 25 days with only one taking the work week off. Going out on a Thursday night or returning early on a Monday morning can help maximize your trip. You can accumulate a lot of adventure by just being committed to going when you can. Ideal can be grabbing as many days possible to see as many destinations as possible. We call them vision trips.
Vision Trips
What is a vision trip? It's an opportunity to check out a destination to see if it warrants returning for further exploration. We've done it on many occasions and sometimes the time spent was enough and others (like Iceland) we definitely want to go back for a longer stay. Here is a list of places we've visited for less than 48 hours: Iceland, Pisa, Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico, Grand Tetons, Bath, Venice, Bahamas, Portland, Oceanside Oregon, Aspen, Dominican Republic, New Orleans. Some of these destinations we really want to return to for extended stays but others the short visit was enough.
Final Thoughts
Don't limit yourself to taking week-long vacations just because you have a Monday through Friday commitment. Be committed to yourself to make the most of your free time and you will appreciate your extended vacations even more. Ideally, the more destinations you see in a year the more your travel bucket has been filled up. Go explore and be sure to tag us on Instagram (@walkaboutcouple) so we can follow along your journeys.