How to Travel With a Full Time Job: 7 Top Tips

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Trying to travel with a full time job can be tricky. But it’s totally doable if you have the right mindset Literally, I’ve never met a single person who doesn’t enjoy travelling.

I’ve met people scared of flying, incredibly travel sick, and those who don’t particularly like meeting new people. But do they give up going on holiday? OF COURSE NOT!

Travelling gives you something to look forward to. It also gives you time to socialise with friends, a partner or family without the typical evening of ‘how was your day’, then everyone sits in front of the television until it’s time for bed.

It’s also a chance to experience new things, experiment and explore. The rush of adrenaline and doing exciting things you wouldn’t do at home is often the reason people (like myself!) become addicted to travel. Travelling whilst working full time, however, is much trickier than taking a gap year to explore the world!

So many people believe that travelling is so expensive and not something they’ll ever be able to do as much as they want.

(Here’s the list of travel resources I use to travel as affordably as possible!)

Everyone’s situation is different but things like student overdrafts, loans, mortgages and family obligations often play a huge part in people’s worries. And much as we’d all like to give up our day jobs and leave our lives behind, for a lot of us, that just isn’t a feasible option.

But, does this mean you can’t work AND travel as much as possible?

Does that mean you can’t see the world?

Once again, OF COURSE NOT!

You just need to make a few small adjustments and you’ll be crossing whole continents off your globe in no time.

here’s how to travel whilst working full-time!

Without further ado, here are my top tips for travelling the world around a full-time job.

1. Plan ahead

I’ll be honest – I’m a little bit list-obsessed! And that applies to most elements of my life!

But when it comes to how to travel with a full-time job this is so so SO important.

If you didn’t know what there is out there in the world, then how do you know that you’ve seen everything you want to see?

If your goal is to travel everywhere, or even to a select list of countries, how will you know how close you are to that goal? Or where you should go next?

Planning is literally everything, plus the satisfaction you’ll get when you mark another country off your bucket list is just the best feeling!

2. Decide how many times you’d like to go away

The average person goes on 2 long holidays (a week or more) and 1 long weekend per year.

Personally, I visit about 8 countries each year and feel very restless if I don’t have a trip to look forward to! So, how do I do it?

It’s all about spacing.

Having 2 week-long breaks in a month could be quite overwhelming with the stress of coming back home, catching up with work, catching up with sleep, dealing with suitcases full of dirty washing and an empty fridge! Then, just as your life’s basically getting back to normal, you’re back at the airport!

With an average person’s holiday allowance, you could comfortably fit between 4-6 trips in a year IF you make the most of your days.

But only travel the amount you’re happy with. It’s not going to be a proper break if it makes you more stressed or you can’t properly afford it.

3. Work out your holiday allowance

If you want to travel with a full time job, you need to think about how many days of holiday you get per year.

The legal minimum for a full-time employee in the UK is 20 days plus 8 bank holidays (3 of which fall over the Christmas period), and part-time workers are pro-rated.

So, subtract anything you know you need to take and what does that leave you? Remember to think this through!

Do you want to spend Christmas with your family?

Does your company have a Christmas shutdown where you have to take extra leave?

Are there any birthdays, anniversaries, or family events that mean you have to take extra holidays?

Is there the potential of earning days back in lieu later in the year?

If we exclude Christmas, then you’re likely left with a minimum of 23 days of holiday (including bank holidays) for the year which doesn’t seem a lot, but it all depends on how you use it.

4. From that, work out when you can go and when would be most beneficial

Two words –

Bank. Holidays.

Use them!

Over Easter, for example, a ten-day holiday, which would usually mean using seven days of your allowance, can be done with five.

Likewise, a long weekend at the end of May would usually mean using two days, which can be done with just one.

5. Extend work trips

If you’re lucky enough to travel with your job, most companies allow you to tag a few days at the end of a trip with no extra hassle for you.

Some companies will even arrange your flights home for you which is a great bonus!

And it doesn’t take a genius to work out that, if you’re already abroad, seeing a few extra days of the country at no extra stress for you is a no-brainer!

For example, I was at a work conference in San Fransisco for a week and we were meant to fly back on Saturday. Instead, I tagged a few extra days in the end, explored the city properly and flew back the following Tuesday. As work was already going to book my flights home, they just changed my return flight to a different day.

Bingo, free trip!

6. Take half days – half price on a day’s leave!

You don’t necessarily need to book the whole day off work on the day you fly out.

If you work a normal 9-5 job and your outbound flight is at 8pm, then you only need to book a half-day. You’ll finish around 12:30 and have plenty of time to get home, grab your stuff and get to the airport.

Just make sure you’ve packed your case the day before to save any last-minute panics!

7. Save!

I say this to everyone who wants to travel with a full time job, make a budget and stick to it! It’s so important to learn how to save money to travel. If you know you have a trip planned in a few months, put money up each month for that trip.

If you know you want to travel a lot, I recommend setting up a separate bank account just for travel savings. This will prevent you from running out of money abroad or ending up dipping into a different account while you’re away.

Also, once you get into a pattern of doing this, it almost becomes second nature.

Final Thoughts about Travelling with a Full Time Job

It is totally doable to travel with a full-time job – you just have to plan it right.

And while we might not be celebrities in private jets with lavish holiday pads all over the globe, we can still have the best of both worlds.

Affordable luxury… 5 times a year!

Because at the end of the day, I believe that travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer and I think everyone wants to be as ‘rich’ as possible.

Happy travelling!

Disclosure: Some of the links above may be affiliate links that earn me a commission at no extra cost to you. If you purchase through my links – thank you so much! I only recommend products and companies that I use and love.