How to maximize your vacation days

Schedule big adventures with smart vacation strategies

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about how to maximize your vacation days
if you'd like to travel more. Different organizations obviously give

(00:23):
different amounts of paid time off. Different countries have different
traditions in this regard to and if you live somewhere
where everyone takes all of August off, you can just
ignore the rest of this episode. Join me again tomorrow.
In the US, at least where I live, the widely
reported figure is that people with five years on a
job tend to get about fifteen days of paid vacation.

(00:44):
That's three workweeks, but a lot of workplaces that aren't
in vital public services also closed on the major holidays
such as Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, and so forth. People
often talk about wanting to travel more. When I ask
people what they'd like to spend more time doing, that's
one of the most popular answers. We put various international

(01:04):
destinations on our bucket lists, but even people who might
be able to swing such trips financially often think these
will need to happen during retirement because it's really challenging
to travel far if you have limited vacation days, but
I don't think this has to be the case. The
key is to be proactive about your vacation scheduling. To

(01:25):
stack vacation days with existing office closures and holidays. Then
you can do quite a bit of traveling while limiting
the vacation cost. So for instance, this year, America's Independence Day,
the fourth of July, is on a Thursday. Bowing to reality,
a number of workplaces will close on Friday the fifth
as well, But that means that if you were taking

(01:47):
July first, second, and third as vacation days, you could
theoretically fly somewhere on the evening of Friday June and
have that weekend, the whole next week, and the weekends
of July six and seven off for the of three
vacation days. That's a nine day trip, which is definitely
enough time to fly to a country you've been hoping
to visit in Europe or South America if you're not

(02:10):
beholding to school schedules. Thanksgiving week is also good for this.
Many US workplaces will close on Thursday November for Thanksgiving,
of course, and then also stay closed on Friday the
twenty nine. So by taking off in the evening of Friday, November,
being gone that week, and then the weekend of November
December one, you could likewise get a nine day trip

(02:33):
for three vacation days. When Christmas falls in the middle
of the week and it's on Wednesday this year, this
can be a prime spot too. If your office closes
December and then closes on January one, you could theoretically
leave on Friday December, travel the entire next week, and
then come back on Wednesday, January one. This is a

(02:55):
twelve day trip for the price of five vacation days,
enough to really take a trip to Asia or Africa
or Pacific Island if you wanted to. Even long weekends
can be good for stacking. If you get President's Day
off in February, for instance, you could take off Thursday night,
enjoy Friday, Saturday, and Sunday visiting somewhere in the US, Canada,
Mexico or the Caribbean, and then come back Monday evening.

(03:17):
That's enough to fit in a reasonable adventure for the
price of just one vacation day. The key, of course,
is planning ahead, because you probably won't be the only
person in your office. Who wants one of these stackable
holiday weeks. But here's the thing, it's not a mystery
when future holidays will occur. You can look at future

(03:38):
calendars into the year or later if you want so.
These dates are definitely known for and so forth. If
you look ahead and put in your request whenever your
office vacation system opens up, then you're far more likely
to have first DIBs on these days if you want
them now. Maybe don't take all the holidays as a

(03:58):
favor to your colleagues, but if you know now that
you'll be taking a nine day European vacation in summer,
you can start patting that vacation fund and anticipating your adventure,
and that can make all the time before summer more pleasant.
So take some time now to strategize with your family
and the calendar. What great trips will you plan in

(04:22):
the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd
love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E.

(04:47):
The number four then Breakfast p o D. You can
also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at
i heeart media dot com that before Breakfast is spelled
out with all the letters they so much should, I
look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a

(05:08):
production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I
heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H