You love to travel, but between the cost, your job, and other commitments, you probably don’t get to do it as often as you’d like. The tips below can help you get a lot more travel into your life even if you aren’t blessed with all the money and time you’d like.
Have a Financial Plan
Experienced travellers know that you can explore the world for a fraction of what many people imagine it costs, but you’d be hard pressed to do it without any cash at all. Having a budget and a travel fund is a great way to ensure that when opportunity knocks, you’re able to respond. However, what if there’s a great trip you want to take and the coffers are looking empty? In this situation, instead of grabbing your credit card, consider taking out a personal loan to cover the costs. These loans can offer a lower interest rate than credit cards, so you will be pay able to pay them off more quickly and easily.
Think Mini-Adventures
Travel doesn’t always have to be about taking off for a long time. In fact, the constraints that a regular job imposes can pose a fun challenge. How far can you go between quitting time on Friday and Monday morning? How much can you cram in after work on a weekday? Learning to maximize your regular time off without having to burn any vacation time can be revelatory.
Plan Ahead
A weekend is suddenly unexpectedly free, and you could go somewhere, but where? It can be easy to get trapped in analysis paralysis in a situation like this and end up not taking advantage of the free time, which is why having a variety of trips planned in advance is a great idea. Most travellers enjoy researching and planning trips when they can’t be on one at any given moment, and this makes the most of that tendency. Of course, you’ll need to double check whether things are open, prices, and other details before you go, but having a few ready-made itineraries organized by such things as distance, price and length of time needed can mean you’re ready to hit the road as soon as you clock out. Also plan ways to ensure the safety of your stuff while you travel so that you don’t overlook a crucial component and come home to a situation.
Combine Remote Work and Travel
It’s not possible for everyone, but the lucky remote workers out there, you may be able to do your job from the next town, the next state or even another country. Be sure to clear it with your boss first, as you don’t want to try to log on one day and find the IT department has blocked your access because you don’t appear to be where they think you are. Watch out for any tax implications for you or the company that you work for if you end up spending large swathes of time away from home. If the kind of job you do makes remote work impossible, another option is to take a job in the travel industry itself. If you work for an airline or a cruise ship, you’ll be on the road all the time.
