Do not let the doubters put you off – travelling the world whilst working full time is totally possible.
And no, I don’t just mean in jobs where you’re allowed to work from home (although that admittedly does help a lot and if this is you, what are you doing? Get yourself out there)…
I mean in your job; the job that you go to almost every day of every week. The job that you can’t be bothered to go to on a Monday; that job.
I know this because this is what I do.
I work Monday-Friday full time and I travel in my spare time. A lot.
People ask me how I do it and to be honest, when I tell them they’re not shocked, they’re more annoyed at themselves for not going out and doing it too.
Anyway I’ll spare the backstory for now, but let me show you how you too can travel the world while working your full time job…
1. Set your heart on travelling the world
You’re obviously a keen traveller if you’ve ended up here.
But if you want to travel the world while working full time, the first thing you need to do is set your heart on it.
Sounds simple doesn’t it? But I mean really set your heart on it.
Chant ‘I want to travel’ as you go to sleep if you must.
Setting your heart on it means no more splurging on clothes, food and new tech (the latter being my own kryptonite), no more spending time on the weekends getting drunk with your friends; travel needs to be the priority and you need to save every bit of spare change and time that you affordably can to make it happen.
I’ve written a post on how to save money to travel the world, which is a good place to start if you can’t help but spend your every paycheck.
2. Travel during the weekends
I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve left work on a Friday night to travel somewhere, only to come back late on a Sunday night ready for work in around 12 hours time.
If you get weekends off, and I’m really encouraging this, use the time to travel.
Let me say it again – use your weekends to travel.
If you don’t get weekends off and you work shifts (believe me I understand the pain of shifts), just pray that you get two days off in a row and do your travel then instead. Admittedly it’ll be a little bit last minute whilst you wait to find out your shifts, but you might be able to find some bargain deals which will make it worth it!
When I travel during the weekend I like to do short-ish road trips or short city breaks to new places I haven’t been to before. If I have a couple of paid days off spare (more on this below), I might also use these on the Friday and the Monday so I can go away for longer.
Remember, use your weekends to travel!
3. Be flexible with your travel
Travelling whilst working full time can be expensive if you’re not smart with booking your trips.
However, if you can be flexible with:
- Dates
- Destination
You’ll stand a much greater chance at being able to find cheap flights, allowing you opportunity to travel more often (on the weekend of course 😉).
Don’t be afraid to use other means of transport like train and bus too; they might take a little longer but they could end up being a lot cheaper…
It’s all about being flexible when you work full time.
4. Travel closer to home
Now luckily for me I live in the UK so I can travel to most European cities within a couple of hours and see everything that I want to see within a few days, but if you’re restricted to how far you can travel, travel closer to home…
Travelling the world doesn’t mean you need to travel across the world.
Travel can start in your own back garden.
When I’m short for money or time, I go for local drives instead, which is what helped me find some of the UK’s best road trips around England, Scotland and Wales.
If you live in the US, Australia, Canada or anywhere else in the world, go out and explore your own ‘back garden’ and find your own best road trips before you go out exploring the world…
You might just find some hidden gems.
Or you might find some dumps that are best left unexplored. Who knows? You’ll only find out if you get yourself out there.
5. Don't be afraid to ask your boss
Now this is obviously only advisable if your job allows it and your boss isn’t a knob.
If you work for a company or in a role where you 100% need to be at the workplace, the likelihood of your boss allowing you to work from home or anywhere in the world is pretty slim.
Funnily enough the same also applies if your boss is a knob.
However, if you work in an office, or you’re in a role where you think you can you do your job away from the workplace (without compromising your productivity of course), just go ahead and ask your boss to see if you can do your work remotely, or maybe ask to trial it for a couple of days a week.
And if they say no? At least you asked and found out for sure (that your boss is a knob – just kiddin’).
6. Plan your holiday and vacation time to travel
Whenever you get vacation time, annual leave, paid time off or whatever you call it where you’re from, make sure you use it for what it’s there for, to travel.
Got a Friday and a Monday off because of a national holiday? Take a long weekend to travel somewhere you haven’t been to before.
Accumulated 5 days vacation time? Take that time to fly across the world. Or better yet, leave on a Friday night and return the following Sunday and enjoy 10 days of travel instead.
Plan your time smart and you’ll have lots of opportunity to travel the world – don’t just spend it sat at home Netflixin’ and Chillin’.
7. Ask for unpaid leave
Just because you work full time doesn’t mean you can’t take time off.
If you’re super desperate to travel, and you’ve got money to spare, ask to take unpaid leave so you can get your travel fix.
Most workplaces and bosses (going back to that boss not being a knob analogy again), will allow it and like I said, it’s a good way to get your travel fix without having to quit your job and continuing to work full time (kind of).
Just be prepared to never want to work again when you get back 😊.
