Second Cup: 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 iHeartRadio. 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 different

(00:23):
amounts of paid time off. Different countries have different traditions
in this regard too, 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. That's

(00:44):
three work weeks. But a lot of workplaces that aren't
in vital public services also close 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
destinations on our bucket lists, but even people who might

(01:07):
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
stack vacation days with existing office closures and holidays. Then

(01:31):
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
July first, second, and third as vacation days, you could
theoretically fly somewhere on the evening of Friday, June twenty eighth,

(01:54):
and have that weekend, the whole next week, and the
weekend of July sixth and seventh 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 beholden to school schedules. Thanksgiving week is also good
for this. Many US workplaces will close on Thursday, November

(02:18):
twenty eighth for Thanksgiving of course, and then also stay
closed on Friday the twenty ninth. So by taking off
in the evening of Friday, November twenty second, being gone
that week, and then the weekend of November thirtieth and
December first, you could likewise get a nine day trip
for three vacation days. When Christmas falls in the middle
of the week and it's on Wednesday this year, this

(02:39):
can be a prime spot too. If your office closes
December twenty fourth and twenty fifth, and then closes on
January first, you could theoretically leave on Friday, December twentieth,
travel the entire next week, and then come back on Wednesday,
January first. This is a twelve day trip for the
price of five vacation days, enough to really take a

(02:59):
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. That's enough to fit
in a reasonable adventure for the price of just one

(03:21):
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 calendars into the year twenty
one hundred or later if you want so. These dates

(03:42):
are definitely known for twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, 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 favor to your colleagues, but if you
know now that you'll be taking a nine day European

(04:03):
vacation in summer twenty twenty, you can start patting that
vacation fund and anticipating your adventure, and that can make
all the time before summer twenty twenty more pleasant. So
take some time now to strategize with your family and
the calendar. What great trips will you plan in the meantime.
This is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to making

(04:26):
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 the

(04:47):
number four then Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me
an email at Before Breakfast podcast. At iHeartMedia dot com
that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.

(05:07):
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