How much travel is too much travel? Reconnecting with vacation time.
What is your ideal year? Does it include spending New Years Eve in Times Square in New York City, Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Spain, and your birthday in August in a temple in Bali?
That might be your ideal travel year but how much travel is realistic?
A typical American job offers 2-3 weeks of vacation time. Some employers will allow you to roll-over unused vacation days and others offer up to 5 weeks of vacation time, pending on the amount of time you (the employee) have spent with them. Knowing that saving some vacation days for travel around holidays or sick time (if you do not receive any personal days) might be necessary, the number of days available for a dream vacation can quickly dwindle down.
This is when you need to plan ahead.
* Talk with your supervisor or teachers about vacation plans before making the deposits.
* Understand the flexibility of your vacation days and when you are needed at the office. Working over the first weekend of the month might mean you can enjoy a long weekend during the next month. Perhaps your cruise on the Triumph got canceled and you are able to re-arrange those vacation days in order to enjoy one two weeks later than previously planned.
* Make and stick to a budget. Vacations don’t have to cost a lot of money but adding them up together will mean higher expenses from your overall vacation budget.
* Count small things as vacations. If you know you will be attending a friend’s wedding out of state at the end of the year, save up money to do something fun that same weekend. Take an extra day off around the Thanksgiving holiday to re-connect with an old friend who lives 30 miles from your parents.
If you keep these few tidbits in mind, your vacation planning might go a bit smoother. Which in turn, can result in a more enjoyable – rather than stressful – time away from daily stresses and work.
