As 2019 comes to a close, I have a lot to reflect on. For the first time in my life, I had one (ONE!) full-time job for the entire year. This was one of the biggest changes in my life from last year. I wasn’t juggling multiple jobs and schedules, I wasn’t picking and choosing shifts around various trips. This has been a huge adjustment for me. As rough as the past few years have been for me in terms of my career and finances (and trust, me, it’s been rough), it meant that I had a lot of freedom for trips. How would I adjust when I no longer had that freedom to take time off whenever I could afford it? How would I manage when I had a set amount of annual leave/paid time off?

Well, for my first year I think I managed pretty well! I took 9 trips outside of England, 2 of which were with work. I traveled to Belgium for a day (with work), Malta for a long weekend, Canada for a week (with work), Scotland for a week, a 2.5 week trip around the Balkans, a long weekend in Northern Ireland, a week in Finland, and a week in Rome. Additionally, I also had lots of weekend trips around the UK. I also managed to take time off when I had people come visit!

Time is such a precious commodity. I’m really proud of how I planned in advance and was able to maximize all my time off! Here’s how I traveled so much with a full-time job in 2019!

How I Did It: Traveling With A Full-Time Job

My situation is in some ways quite unique because of my job, but also not really all that unique because most of my trips have nothing to do with my job. I work full-time but also love to travel. I have a lot more paid time off than most people in the US, but I have a fairly standard amount in the UK. Here is how I managed to travel so much this year with a full-time job!

I strategically planned out all of my annual leave and counted every single day. I started the year with 20 days of annual leave plus 8 bank holidays (UK national holidays). Then, I planned out every single day of my time off over the course of the year with the trips I wanted to do. Every single day off was going to be used for a trip of some sort. I wasn’t going to waste any time at all.

Throughout the year, I planned on working several of the national holidays. My office is open for all of the bank holidays (what the UK calls national holidays) besides Christmas Day and Boxing Day. So I planned on working over Easter and the May bank holiday. This meant that I would therefore get an extra 3 days of annual leave since I wouldn’t be taking time off during these bank holidays. I don’t want to use up my holiday days unless I’m going to be away on a trip. Especially since bank holidays are shorter days at my office!

Part-way through the year, my benefits package increased and I got an additional 2 extra days of annual leave. I went from having 20 days off + 8 bank holidays to having 22 days off + 8 bank holidays. This was huge for me, as 20 days with 8 bank holidays is standard for most jobs in the UK!

Everything had to be re-worked following Adam’s car crash. Thankfully, I was able to take lots of annual leave “back” since we had to cancel our trip to Greece in February. I had to take one day off to go to Adam’s grandpa’s funeral, since it didn’t count for “compassionate leave” for my work. This is because it wasn’t my grandparent who died. Which I thought was a bit unfair as all of my grandparents are already dead, and Adam had nearly died in a car crash two weeks earlier, but oh well. As I was no longer going to Greece, I immediately planned on using those days to take off when my parents came to visit.

My job involves travel so I had two trips with work! One of the perks of my job in the travel industry is getting to go on trips. While it was pretty exhausting and not as glamorous as it may seem, it is still pretty amazing. I spent a day in Brussels, and a week in Canada, all thanks to my job. For these trips, I didn’t have to use any time off to make those happen, and I basically didn’t have to spend any money at all either.

I work every other weekend at my job. If you know me at all, you know that I complain bitterly about working weekends. I hate it so much, and I have so much less time to spend with Adam. That being said, working weekends actually gave me SO much freedom further down the road. For every weekend day I work, I get one day in lieu to use during the week. Due to strategically working a lot, and the days of the week that I used my annual leave, I managed to have quite a few lieu days to use when I wanted. I was able to extend trips, which saved my holiday days. Or have short mid-week trips when Adam was off. Planning in advance, I knew how I would use every single lieu day and managed to get quite a few days off during Adam’s summer (school) holidays.

I had one week (5 days) of “banked hours” to use in November. Because January is the busiest time of year for my job, everyone works every other weekend day (either Saturday or Sunday) for 5 weekends. November and December is the quietest time at work, so everyone gets one week of “banked hours” to use then. This was huge for me—it meant I could go to Finland and see my best friend without using any holiday days!

 I maximized weekend trips when I was off work. The first part of the year was very quiet travel-wise as Adam was recovering from his car crash. But for most of the rest of the year, we used the weekends I was off for shorter trips. We went to the Lake District (twice!), Edinburgh, and the Peak District to name a few. You can actually do a lot in a weekend, especially if you’re visiting somewhere that’s just a few hours away!

Over the year, I did a LOT of daytrips around Yorkshire! If I wasn’t on a trip, I usually spent at least one day of my weekend off doing something. I went on same great daytrips around Yorkshire. I also did a lot of hiking in various places! Just because you’re not jetting off somewhere far away doesn’t mean you can’t explore somewhere new.

In the UK, every person is guaranteed paid time off as a right. Every job in the UK gives some version of paid time off or annual leave. This is true even on zero-hours contracts, ie. a job when you don’t have a set number of hours per week (it just depends on the shifts you get). One of my zero-hours contract jobs gave me the money I had accrued in annual leave in my monthly paycheck. At another job, I never used holiday days (I just told them I couldn’t work over the days I was gone). So when I left, they gave me all my accrued annual leave in a lump-sum payment on my last paycheck. The fact that paid time off is a guaranteed right where I live is a huge privilege, and one I certainly don’t take for granted.

I have a LOT of annual leave/holiday days compared to my friends in the US. While the UK doesn’t have the most paid time off in the world or even in Europe, it’s a hell of a lot more than what most of my friends have in the US. 10 days (aka 2 weeks) is usually seen as the average amount of paid time off in the US. This is a huge cultural and legal difference to my job in the UK. It’s important to acknowledge that in terms of paid time off, the US is appalling compared to just about every country in the world.

I travel on a budget. Every time, every trip. I can afford to travel as much as I do because I am a seasoned budget traveler. Therefore I don’t spend as much money per trip. A lot of our daytrips only cost us parking (if that) because we brought our own food and spent no money. I planned multiple trips to visit people so we could stay with them for free (like on my trips to Edinburgh, Wales, and Finland). I camped in Scotland for a week, because camping in Scotland is free and legal everywhere (within reason). My budget travel lifestyle meant that my money lasted me much further this year!

Here is how I used all of my annual leave (paid time off) in 2019!

1 day in January: I had to take annual leave to go to Adam’s grandpa’s funeral.

1 day in February: I took a day off in February which was desperately needed as I was on the verge of a complete mental breakdown.

3 days in April: I spent a long weekend in Malta, using annual leave and the weekend.

4 days in May: I used a mixture of annual leave, 1 lieu day, and the weekend for my trip to Scotland!

4 days in June: I was able to take lots of time off when my parents came to visit! (+ 4 lieu days)

10 days in August: I spent 2.5 weeks traveling around the Balkans: North Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania. I was able to take 3 weekends off in a row to make it happen with just 10 days of leave.

1 day in October: I traveled to Northern Ireland using 1 day of annual leave, 2 lieu days, and the weekend.

1 day in November: I went to Finland using 1 day of annual leave, a weekend, and 5 days of my “banked hours.”

5 days in December: I spent a week of annual leave (including the weekend) to spend Christmas in Rome!

I also got lucky with two work trips this year. I went to Belgium and spent a day in Brussels, and I spent 7 days in Canada!

I definitely maximized my weekends off, as well as my lieu days:

1 lieu day in May: my Salomon event in the Peak District!

Weekend in June: Lake District with my parents!

Weekend in July: trip to Edinburgh.

2 lieu days in July: mid-week trip to Nottingham.

A weekend day in July: daytrip up to Durham.

Weekend and 1 lieu day in August: trip to Wales (where I climbed Snowdon!).

Weekend in September: another trip to the Lake District.

Weekend in October: a trip to the Peak District.

2 lieu days in November: to spend time with my friend Andrea!

Tips For How YOU Can Make The Most Of Travel With A Full-Time Job

PLAN, PLAN, PLAN. Make sure you know exactly how many days off you will have. Strategize in advance when and how you will use every single day. The early bird gets the worm as well—get your time booked off work as soon as possible to make the most. Each day counts! Even if you only have 10 days of annual leave a year (like the average amount in the US), you can still use those to your advantage. For example, you could use 5 days for a 9-day trip to Europe including weekends. Then use 2 days for a 4-day long weekend somewhere close like Mexico or the Caribbean. And you could use 3 days each for a 3-day weekend trip somewhere in the US. Boom, 5 trips with only 10 days of holiday.

Take shorter trips. I’m not going to lie—I prefer longer trips. But you can squeeze in a lot more trips if you take shorter trips. This year, I took one big trip, 3 medium trips, a lot of “long weekend” trips, and weekend trips and day trips thrown in as well. If you spread your holiday days throughout the year, instead of using them in one or two big trips, you can go on more trips and visit more places.

If you’re off on national holidays, use those to travel. Yes, it’ll be more expensive to travel then, because it’s usually classed as a peak time to travel. But if you know you’ll be off, then book it off and book your flights ASAP, no need to wait! For example, if you know you’ll be off over Easter, you can have 4 days off for a long weekend without using any of your annual leave. In the UK, both Good Friday and Easter Monday are classed as bank holidays so with the weekend it’s 4 days off in a row. If you know you’ll have a 3-day weekend over Memorial Day in the US, make plans to go somewhere! Book a trip away then and maximize the time off!

Explore options with work if you can. I know not everyone can have work pay for them to go to Canada. But there may be other options if you ask. Can you work remotely one day a week? Can you ask for flexible hours? (ie. Working an extra hour Mon-Thurs, then taking a half-day on a Friday?) I won 2 hours off of work in an incentive and used it the Friday that we drove to Scotland. Instead of leaving at 6pm, we could leave at 4pm. I would happily take shorter lunch breaks throughout the week if it meant I got to leave early on the Friday I go away on a trip!

Make the most of weekends if you have them off! I would plan a lot more weekend trips if I was off every single weekend and didn’t have to work half of them. It’s a great way to explore a small region in detail, or get a nice overview or taster of a large area. Weekends are also set in stone—if you know you’ll be off every Saturday and Sunday, why not book 6 months in advance when you see a good deal?!

Explore close to home on daytrips. Travel doesn’t have to be to another continent or another country! Check out a destination within an hour of you. Or be a tourist in your own city. Spend a day in another town, or just visit a new museum or brewery you’ve never been to before. Change what travel means to you—and incorporate that into your days off work!

You can still have plenty of adventure if you work full-time. Not everyone needs to or wants to quit their job to travel! I may be in a very privileged situation compared to many of my friends in the US, and I’m fully aware of that. I also had trips with work, which again I know isn’t the same situation for everyone! But at the same time, if you put in some work to come up with a strategy and plan things carefully, you can definitely balance a full-time job with a travel-filled year.

I hope this post helps show you how it’s possible to build travel in around your full-time job! And hopefully inspire you to make the most of your time off by planning a few trips!

How do you use your time off work? Do you try to maximize days in order to travel? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

You might like my other posts:

5 Years Since Nottingham: Reflections On My Study Abroad

8 Years Since I Caught The Travel Bug: Reflections On Spain

A Reflection On 5 Years Of Independent Travel

All my yearly recap posts!

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