10 Ways to Help You Travel More

Are you ever able to look back at a vacation and wish you could be there again? Or, are you still traveling the world on vacation? You are not the only one. It is quite common for people to feel the holiday blues when they return to work. Some people may wait months before they can go on their next vacation. We understand this frustration. Here’s an idea: Instead of looking back at the time you spent on the Caribbean beach or trekking through the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, why not look forward to the next adventure you are planning?

While I recognize that there are limitations to our modern lifestyles, such as a hectic work life or budgetary constraints, these tips can help us travel more and allow us to explore the world a lot sooner than we might think.

Ten Ways to Travel More

Most readers agree that there are two main reasons we don’t travel as much as our hearts desire: money and time. Because life is so busy, time is a major factor. Even if we aren’t working long hours, there are still household chores, extracurricular obligations, and deadlines. It’s easy to see why taking time off for a vacation can be difficult with all the balls in our faces. We are also restricted by our leave allowances, which can be harder in some countries than in others.

The second is money. It can be quite expensive, even if you have the time and money to travel once per month.

These 10 tips can be divided to address both concerns.

THE PROBLEM WITH TIME

• Maximize Weekends and Public Holidays

Let’s begin with the obvious: weekend trips. You can leave work on Friday afternoon, and head to the airport. Choose a vacation destination that is close by. It’s possible to arrive on Friday night in time for dinner, and then spend the weekend exploring. You can fly home Sunday night in time to return to work Monday morning. Some may find this more work than necessary, but I have had many great weekend getaways in cities such as Vienna, Amsterdam and Munich over the years. You can get a taste of the city by taking a weekend trip. Then you can decide if you want to go back for a longer stay.

To plan a longer holiday, make sure to take advantage of weekends and bank holidays. This could be a combination of taking a Friday off and a Monday off, or traveling over bank holiday weekends.

Many websites can calculate the best public holidays for a year, so you can extend your vacation time, depending on where you live. If you are a UK resident, the four days immediately following a Bank Holiday Monday can be taken off, which allows you to book a nine-day vacation by taking off only 4 days of work. There are also many opportunities for Christmas and Easter.

• Take longer work trips

You may be able to travel to work if you have the opportunity. If so, why not invite your family, friends, or partner? Unfortunately, work travel doesn’t allow you to see much of the city. However, having someone other than your boss along with you will make sure you enjoy the evenings and even the weekends.

• Discover Neighboring Areas that are close to your Home Town

It is possible to travel without a plane. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, travelling is defined as “to travel over long distances”. This means that even a train or car ride to take you to a new destination or place could be considered travel. Do not discount the beauty of your country. Towns within the same country might have totally different ambiences and characters and make for wonderful weekend getaways. As a Londoner, going to Bath for a weekend feels like traveling to another country.

This is the best way to escape for a weekend if you have a short time frame and don’t want to spend too much time at the airport.

• Remote Work

This depends on what kind of work is being done. However, if you are currently working at a desk job, would you be open to the possibility of working remotely for a set number of days per year?

Nowadays, as long as your phone is working and you have internet access, you can work anywhere. As long as there are no meetings during the week. Be sure to build a strong relationship with your employer. They should value your work and believe that you don’t need to be present in the office to do a great job. You can ask if you already have a relationship of trust. The worst thing they could say is no.

You may ask, “But why travel to another nation if you’ll still have to work?” True. But wouldn’t it be more relaxing to work from a poolside villa in the South of Spain than in a dull office in London? Let’s not forget the fact that you can explore on weekends and evenings. There are many things to think about!

THE PROBLEM WITH MONEY

• Start a Travel Fund

This is probably not the message that anyone wants to hear. However, here’s some good old-fashioned advice: Work, Save, Buy. Travelling and holidays are expensive. Unless you’re able to cash in your air miles (see below), then you won’t be getting anything free. Make it your New Year’s Resolution. Instead of spending your money on Starbucks every day, invest that $3.30 in your travel fund. It will cost you more than $1,200 if you do this every day for a year.

• Travel Hacking

This is one of the most important. First, join an airline alliance program and stay with those airlines every time you fly. After you have accumulated a lot of air miles from flying the same airline under the same alliance program you can trade those miles in for free flights (excluding taxes), or upgrades on long-haul flights. You will also be able to move up on the alliance program’s ranks the more you fly, which means more bonus air miles. And don’t forget that if you fly in a higher class cabin (such as business or first), you get even more! It’s easy to see how this goes up.

Indirect flights are another way to build points, and can often lower the cost of your trip. This is something you should plan carefully as there can be some awkward layovers on indirect flights. It’s not my first time booking an indirect flight. I used it to visit more than one country during a trip.

You should also know that certain credit cards can earn you points every time you use them. These points are often converted into airline miles. The British Airways American Express Card is a favorite of mine. It not only earns points that can be converted to air miles but also grants one companion ticket per annum if you spend more than a certain amount. This is a flight that’s non-class specific. These are used all the time for our trips to Moscow and the West Coast, in first or second class. You would only need to pay the taxes.

Travel hacking is what I am referring to and you can find tons of blogs on how to do it. You should check out Head for Points or The Points Guy for some great tips. They also mention hotels and airlines that may have specials at the moment.

• Book Hotel and Airline Packages

Check for airline deals on combined flights and hotel package offers when booking your next vacation flights. Combining the flights and hotels will often save you more than buying them individually. You will earn air miles if you buy both the hotel and flights together.

• Check out the Cheap Destinations

While a smaller travel budget doesn’t mean you can’t travel, it does mean you have to be more careful about what you see. This doesn’t necessarily mean the places you visit are less amazing – some of my favorite holidays were to the least traveled and most expensive. Uzbekistan is a perfect example.

You can trade places like Monte Carlo and London for Prague, Istanbul, and Krakow. These cities are just as beautiful, but will be much more affordable for lodging, transport, and dining.

• Book using a VPN

It sounds more complicated than it is. A VPN is a virtual private networking that routes your computer’s internet connection, or any device’s, through your VPN’s private server. It’s not your internet service provider. This means that your data will be transmitted over the internet from a VPN, not your device.

You may be asking, “Why is this important?” This is because airlines use dynamic pricing, which allows for a variation in the prices charged depending on who is looking to book the flight. To create unique prices for each customer, many factors are taken into account, including the user’s location, past flight data, and shopping trends. Once you have downloaded a VPN, navigate to a particular location and open an incognito browser. You can then check whether the price of your flight has dropped. Before you buy, it is worth trying out the price changes in a few other countries.

• Rent Your Home

You can add some cash to your vacation fund by listing your property on Airbnb. It is very simple. Take photos of the house and create a detailed write up about what guests can expect from it and the surrounding area. Register as an Airbnb host and list your property. Then, wait for the bookings!

While this may not work for everyone, there are many things to consider and precautions to take. This could easily be an entire article, but I have used Airbnb to rent my home to travelers in the past and can tell you that it could be a great way to add to your travel funds, as well as a huge help in saving money.