Last Updated on 30/06/2026 by kami
This year, more than ever, I’ve heard how inspiring I am and how refreshing it is to hear that yes, it is possible to work full time and travel a lot (and run a decent blog in the meantime as that requires a lot of time and work as well, but that’s another story). While I don’t really think I’m all that inspiring, I just try to live my life the way I want, to fully enjoy it, I do think it is refreshing to hear that it is possible to balance work and travel.
There’s this disturbing trend that tells you to leave your job to travel the world and I feel like so many people think this is the only way really. Well, it is not. There are so many reasons why you might not be able to leave everything behind: you don’t want to leave your family or friends behind, you might not have enough money to fund your long-term travels, you are too afraid to leave the safety of stabile life or you simply don’t want be away for too long.
And you know what? It’s all fine. I’m not saying leaving everything behind to travel the world is bad. It is not. I just want to tell you that there is no one way to do things. It’s your life, your travels and it’s all up to you and you only how you’re doing things. You don’t need to feel bad for not wanting to travel extensively. I’m here to show you stories of numerous people who work and travel in their free time.
What I do for a living
But let’s start with me. As you know very well I do have a full time job that I really enjoy and that kind of is my passion too. I wrote the whole post how I manage balancing work and travel but to give you a quick summary: having 26 days off per year and being based in Warsaw, Poland with its central location definitely helps.
I also work very hard to balance everything but it’s worth it and I don’t complain at all. My full time job is in a way travel related too.
I work in the local railway company and I’m responsible for trains’ schedule (I focus on planning rolling stock for the connection and making sure all the data for each running train is correct. Also, if you fly to Warsaw Modlin Airport and want to get to Warsaw you will most likely use bus+train connection – managing it is all my job too).
It might sound like slightly difficult job, very technical or complicated and well, it is. There’s only a small bunch of people in the country dealing with trains’ schedule and we more or less know each other. So next time you complain about your train keep in mind that it’s all not as easy as it may seem, you can also blame everything on me, I’m used to that really.
My travels with full time job
Even if I have such a “serious” job I still manage to travel a lot, proving that it’s possible to balance two worlds. In previous years I’ve spent over 100 days per year travelling (here’s how I did it in 2017, 2016 or 2015). At the time of writing this post (end of September 2018) my travel plans for the next 3 months are pretty crazy: weekend in Bucharest, Romania, long weekend in Bulgaria, work trip to Czech Republic, two weeks in Central Asia (Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan), weekend in Vienna, long weekend in Georgia and I will welcome the new year in Egypt.
And in the meantime I need to implement two train’ schedule changes, including the major yearly one (well, obviously I don’t do that myself but still). So as you see it is possible to have a normal, regular life and still be able to travel to some great destinations. It takes some planning skills and being able to compromise but is definitely possible.
Bloggers stories
But I don’t want to give you only my example as one swallow does not make a summer. I asked fellow travel bloggers who still have their normal jobs (and don’t forget blogging on top of that too) how they do it. Below you can find some stories proving that yes, it is possible to work and travel, to have a normal life and see the world. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did!
Nicole from Travelgal Nicole
“Based in Wellington, New Zealand I own my consulting company and work full time as an IT Project Manager. I work on contract which means an organization hires me for a set amount of time to do a piece of work such as implement a new IT system. I usually work on a six month contract and at the end of the contract I can extend my contract if the work is not finished, look for a new contract or go travelling.
I usually decide to go travelling! My current contract finishes in a few months and then I am heading to West Africa for six months travelling from Gibraltar to Cape Town. I have been living this lifestyle of working for six months or so and then travelling for six months for the last four years.
Previously I would take a month off at a time and travel. I would use public holidays and take extra time off. I went to China for two weeks over Easter and I only took four working days off to do it. I also try to travel a bit closer to home and would visit the Pacific Islands like Tonga where I went swimming with humpback whales. I enjoyed this but it felt too rushed and of course living in New Zealand its a 12 hour flight to get anywhere so I prefer to go away for longer.”
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Becky from KidWorldCitizen.org
“My name is Becky, and I teach English in Merida, Mexico. Whether I live here, or back in the US, I always take my kids to travel during the summer months when we are all off school. Because there are 7 of us, we like to do slow travel, to really take advantage of the trip. We started spending summers in Mexico, to improve their Spanish.
A couple of years ago, we road tripped through Europe, visiting family and sites in Germany, Slovenia, and France (and driving the countries in between!). The next summer we rented a place in Peru, where my sister was living at the time. We loved visiting Machu Picchu, but also joining a local soccer team, and our daily life in Arequipa. Last summer we spent a month touring in China, where my son was born.
Then we moved to Merida, Mexico, and enrolled in a local school. We’ve really enjoyed exploring the world together! At the same time, I am able to continue writing my web site, KidWorldCitizen.org, while taking a break from teaching, and producing my podcast, Language Latte.”
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Michael from The Round The World Guys
“I work full-time as a corporate training developer at one of the largest telcoms in the US. I’ve been there for 18 years and have 6-7 weeks of vacation every year now. But I didn’t always. About 6-7 years ago, I decided I wanted to travel more.
Fortunately, I’ve always had supportive, trusting bosses. That’s because they know I never let my work suffer, no matter what I do. They understand that I’ll buy any good flight deal and ask later for the time off. In 2010, I started So, I surrounding myself with travel-minded friends jumped in with one a trip to Southeast Asia in 2011. I’d been to 5-7 countries before this, but it was my first trip where I was responsible for everything.
I’m 48 now, and since 2011, I’ve been to 45+ more countries. We’ve been saving for 2 years. In 2019, my partner and I (who also works full time) are quitting our jobs to travel permanently. It’s going to be very liberating.
My rule since 2010: You have vacation for a reason. Use it. Subscribe to lists and buy the cheap flights no matter where they’re going. Prioritize travel. Seeing the world is important.”
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Cynthia from Mackintosh Travels
“My family and I live in Florida just 1.5 hrs away from Disney World! I am a huge Disney and Hawaii fan! Consequently, one of our favorite family trips ever was at Oahu, Hawaii.
I am full-time elementary Spanish teacher. Because I am a teacher, my family and I travel primarily during the summer and any holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring Break.
Typically, we like to take a 1-2 week vacation (in the U.S. or internationally) during the summer along with 2 weekend trips within our state. If we can, we will take a weekend getaway during a holiday. We have traveled more internationally than in the U.S.!”
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Victor from Victor’s Travels
“When you make travelling a priority in your life, it’s almost always possible to find a way to do it while working full-time. In my case, I run an Amsterdam-based digital agency that creates websites from start to finish. I work with a team of remote freelance web developers and a business partner who handles the client meetings and designs the websites.
With this structure, I was able to travel for 6 months in 2017 visiting India, Japan, South Korea, Scotland, Spain, and Denmark. Apart from the occasional power outlet, I found that I only needed an old iPhone and a local sim card to create a personal hotspot, which allowed me to work practically anywhere: on trains, cafés, in a tent, on the floor of a bus station, you name it! Interested? Check out my in-depth article on the topic of how to become a Digital Nomad.”
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Maggie from Pink Caddy Travelogue
“Maggie here, Virginia-based travel blogger from the Pink Caddy Travelogue! I don’t just work in DC – I work on Capitol Hill, frequenting the hallways around the House gallery, regularly attending meetings with Congressmen and Senators and other lobbyists. It’s a crazy place to be full-time, and as much as I love politics, it’s a world that can drive even the most diehard politico insane. So I travel – a lot. For my sanity.
My job gives me 2 weeks of vacation, and I use those two weeks to take two long trips each year. Those trips are when I go overseas or to the West Coast of the US, places that I can’t get to quickly. I try to connect those trips with holidays that the office is closed anyway to get the most out of my vacation time.
But two weeks just isn’t enough for me, so I also take a lot of weekend getaways. Fortunately, I live close to a lot of awesome places –New York City, east coast beaches, Shenandoah national park – so getting away for a couple of days is pretty easy.
Travelling with a full-time office job isn’t easy, but with strategic planning and a desire to just make it work, it’s doable!”
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Mikkel from Sometimes Home
“I feel very proud I’ve built a successful business from the ground up. Whereas some people have the misconception being a business owner is easy it’s quite the opposite. It requires way more dedication, time and energy than simply working for someone else 90% of the time. I own and operate a wedding photography business I dedicate more than 60 hours to (if not more) on any given week.
One of the reasons I enjoy this is because I am in command of my schedule. Yet, I let weddings dictate when, and if, I am able to travel. I plan any trips around wedding dates and ensure I’m in the wedding location area in advance of the big day. The amount of days I’m able to travel vary. And if I have a lot of editing to do from a wedding, since I edit all my own images, I need to make sure I’m home, not traveling.
This limits my ability to explore new areas a lot of weeks of the year and means I often travel in the off-season and winter months. It also means my travel blog takes a backseat to my full time job, which affords me income to travel. But that’s a-okay with me because I love wedding photography and travel! If I can travel at all I’m grateful!”
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James from Travel Collecting
“I spent over a decade living and backpacking around the world and started teaching ESL in Japan as a way of doing this. When I got married and settled down in one place, I stayed in the ESL industry, but am now Executive Director at a university Language Institute in New York City. With generous (for the U.S.) university vacations, I travel abroad every year for a two-week trip and another one- or two-week trip.
If I don’t go overseas for the fourth week, I visit somewhere in the U.S. for a week. In between, I travel domestically on long weekends and travel around New York City and the Hudson Valley on regular weekends. I am still travelling in a way, as I am from Australia originally, but even if I wasn’t, there are always places to travel to close to home.
Attending conferences is another way to travel and if I go somewhere new for a conference, I try to stay there for at least the weekend before or afterwards. In total, I travel for about 35 workdays (7 weeks) a year including conferences plus multiple weekends. If travel is your passion, there are ways to keep the passion alive!”
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Sinjana Ghosh from Backpack & Explore
“I am a full-time analytics professional based out of Bangalore (India), currently working at Microsoft. I like my job because I get to work with some of the brightest minds in the industry in one of the coolest workplaces in India and have flexible working hours.
A regular day in my life would go like this – start for office at 9am , be on road for a couple of hours every day thanks to traffic, reach home at 8pm and cook and have dinner, check and reply to some mails from office, after which I have about 2 hours to focus on blogging if I don’t have anything pending for that day at work.
My travels are limited to road-trips and weekend wanderlust almost every other weekend, in which I have covered some outstanding hidden beauties in south India – Coorg, Ooty, Wayanad, Munnar, Mysore to name a few. I mostly like budget travels but I have enjoyed a few lavish luxury stays as part of corporate holidays.
My husband is my permanent travel companion since our marriage. We sometimes take 1-2-day leaves for extended weekends and two vacations every year- one for travel and one for family get-togethers.”
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Wendy from Worldwidewendy
“I am Wendy, a Belgian travel blogger based in between Antwerp and Eindhoven (Netherlands). During daytime I work in my husband’s company. We sell trucks and spare parts in Belgium, Holland, Poland and Russia. I am chasing the money so I contact the people that forgot to pay their bills. Unfortunately there are quite a few.
I am home at 4PM and at 5PM the kids are back from school. At that time I start cooking and helping with homework, bringing them to sports clubs ,… In the evening I love to plan our next trip or write about our last trip.
In 2017 we went to Cuba, South-Africa, Italy (Venice), The Netherlands, Spain (Valencia and Ibiza), Germany, France (Paris) Switzerland, Bali and Singapore. So I visited 10 countries, took 22 flights, stayed in 15 hotels and traveled 51 days. Thanks to good planning (weekends, bank holidays,..) I only needed to take 26 days of vacation. I think that proofs that traveling a lot is possible for everyone.”
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Somnath from Travel Crusade
“Travel with a full time job is undertaken by travelers like me throughout the year but it depends on the individual as to how often he plans it. I normally plan at least 3 big travel events during the three seasons Summer, Winter and Autumn. Apart from that I plan small trips during national holidays, sometimes during the weekends and also during the festival time.
I reside in India and have a full time IT job where I work and spend 5 days apart from travelling quite often with my friends and family. I also undertake these trips quite often during my travel span with an agency or operator and sometimes even plan the journey as per our own convenience and time. I normally travel within India and my interests of travel are hilly destinations, places of natural interest, places of historic importance and economic importance.”
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Sage from Everyday Wanderer
“As the daughter of a career Army officer, my childhood was filled with frequent moves, lots of travel, and the opportunity to live half of my most formative years abroad. While I understand the tremendous benefits of travel and wish more than anything that I could sell everything and travel the world full-time, I am the single mom of four kids with a mortgage, three cats, and a dog. So I have to adult and work full-time instead.
I believe that wishing for something you don’t have will cause you to overlook all that you do have, so I work hard to love the life I live. That’s why I juggle a full-time job and a travel blog, embracing the opportunities that my work and personal life offer. In fact, this very philosophy is at the core of my travel blog, Everyday Wanderer. It’s a travel blog for people with wanderlust and a real life.
Based in Kansas City, in America’s heartland, I work for a software company located in Salt Lake City. This means that I spend four to six week a year in a beautiful, high desert community that is very different from home. While those travels are for work (and not pleasure), I do my best to experience at least one new thing each visit. This approach has allowed me to taste the local cuisine, hike mountain trails, and explore downtown. The company I work for has a global presence, and my job has international responsibilities, so I get to travel beyond Salt Lake City, as well. And, it is easy to tack on (and pay for) personal travel on either end of most business trips.
Because I get to keep my airline miles and hotel points, I use them — especially my cherished Southwest Companion Pass — to take advantage of weekends, holidays, and precious vacation days for fun trips. Planning family travel with a full-time job and school-aged children can take a bit of extra effort, but it is important to me to augment my children’s classroom education with real-world experiences. After all, is there anything worse than having to learn geography or history exclusively from a textbook?”
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Kavey from Kavey Eats
“For over 15 years, I’ve found a great way to work a regular job at home and spend plenty of time travelling too. My solution allows me to build a strong career and earn a good living, whilst taking lots of time off not only for travel but for a wide range of personal projects.
My solution? I work as a specialist contractor, signing on with a client for a contract that may last anything from a few weeks to several months or even a year.
My role is a Business Analyst, and I am essentially a conduit between the business and the IT team that will develop and deliver changes or new systems. In a nutshell, my task is to help the business work out what they really need (as opposed to what they may initially think they need!), to resolve and prioritise their requirements and to document and communicate these effectively to the techies.
The nature of my job is very much project-based, so it’s well suited to working as a contractor rather than a permanent employee. The downsides of working as a contractor are a lack of paid leave (vacation), or paid sickness. However, being good at my job means I am able to charge a high enough rate that I can cover the costs of time off, up to a few months per year.
Although I do take some time off for shorter trips during longer contracts, the bulk of my travelling time is when I’m not working – every time I finish a contract, I always take at least a couple of months off before seeking a new one, often more depending on the bank balance! It’s not as financially steady as a permanent job, but my contracting career gives me job satisfaction, a good income and plenty of time off to create a great work-life balance.”
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Lotte from Phenomenal Globe
“My name is Lotte, born and raised in the Netherlands and trying to explore as much of the world as possible! Since 2013 I have successfully combined a fulltime job and traveling the world. How? By being creative with my annual leave and making smart choices.
In May 2013 I finished my first job, a 2-year Management Development program. Instead of immediately starting my new job, I negotiated my starting date would be 4 months after my successful application. That gave me 4 months to explore London, the city to which I accompanied my husband who was working there at the time.
In 2014 I didn’t travel but saved up all my money and annual leave, so I could go on a 5-month sabbatical in 2015 during which I explored Southeast Asia and New Zealand.
In fact, in 2016 I was working fulltime but still managed to travel for 87 days! I bought extra annual leave days at work and choose my holiday periods carefully so that any public or bank holidays would fall in this period (so I could travel longer).
In January 2017 my husband and I quit our jobs to travel the world for a year, during which we visited 11 countries! In January 2018 we got back in the Netherlands and I have been working full-time again since our return. Until we leave again…”
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Shannon from SoleSeeking
“A British expat based in Victoria, Canada, I have a full-time job as a recruitment consultant with 3 weeks of paid vacation a year. While this is nothing compared to your average travel blogger’s lifestyle, it doesn’t make travelling impossible; I just have to be more selective, modify my expectations and use my vacation time effectively.
The west coast of Canada doesn’t offer easy access to the amount of varied countries within Europe that I could take for granted when living in England. However, the country’s vastness and diversity means that I have so much to explore here. Domestic travel is still travel. In the past year I have travelled to Kelowna in BC, the Rockies in Alberta, and Kingston in Ontario.
Each trip has only lasted a few nights but provided enough enjoyment to satisfy my travel appetite. Working on my birthday allowed me to use a lieu day towards the Kingston trip and treat myself through travel. Conveniently, British Columbia has 10 statutory holidays spread nicely over the year, so I try to time a trip with a long weekend, meaning I often only need to use one day of my annual leave.
Visiting family and friends in Europe is where things get tricky; I want to see them and yet this leaves less time to travel to other places. Fortunately, they are very understanding of my constraints. I recently squeezed reunion visits to Yorkshire, London and Poland into a 13-day trip (including a Canadian stat day) and simply did the best I could to get the most out of the short time.
Travelling with a full-time job is possible if you are prepared to compromise and organize!”
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Justin and Tracy from A Couple for the Road
“While there are many people who travel the world based on the strength of living a digital nomad lifestyle and starting their own travel blog, or simply de-selecting from Corporate America, my wife and I have been able to keep a steady travel schedule while working demanding full-time jobs for nearly 10 years.
As a Sales Director for a neurosurgical consulting company, I’m fortunate enough to have 18 days of paid-time-off each year, while my wife has 25 days each year as a senior data analytics consultant. How many of these days do we use to travel? All of them – and then some!
Our key is to not waste days on anything other than travel, but this requires keeping your health at the forefront. Why? Because burning vacation days while getting over the flu or a bad cold is another day you aren’t on the road traveling. We eat consciously, work out, and do everything we can to keep ourselves healthy.
This allows us to use those precious days we’ve earned for roughly three weeks of international travel each year – in addition to the numerous weekends we use for road trips or short flights within the U.S. In total, we stay somewhere that isn’t home about 30 nights per year.”
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Taima from Poor in a Private Plane
“Travel for me is a lifestyle choice. However so is working a full time job. I am an attorney based in NYC but I am also a travel blogger. Even though I work full time I have managed to travel to three continents, 25 countries and over 25 US states in the last several years.
Although I only have about two weeks of vacation I make it a point to maximize my time. I am a weekend warrior. Even if I have two days I will take a trip. Most of the time I travel around the holidays or take a Friday and Monday off for a long weekend.
Although traveling on holidays can be expensive I use tools like Google Flights to find cheap flights and use airline points when I can. So far this year I’ve taken 8 trips and I am scheduled for several more. On deck for the rest of the year. California, Florida, Washington, Canada, Mexico, Portugal and Puerto Rico.”
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Jules from Part-Time Passport
“It’s easy to think that the only way to travel the world these days is to quit your 9-5, pack up your bags and head for the open road with a one-way ticket in hand.
There isn’t a whole lot of advice out there for those of us who want so desperately to explore the world but with all the perks of a “normal” home life (and a comfy bed to come home to!). So I set out to share my own personal tips and fast-track travel itineraries on Part-Time Passport to inspire others that a life of travel and adventure is 100% possible without quitting your job.
I work full-time for a charity in Bristol, South West England – a job I absolutely love and feel very lucky to be able to do. But I’m also a wanderluster at heart and try to get away as much as I possibly can, within my budget and annual leave allowance.
In the last 12 months, I’ve visited 8 different countries and 3 continents. I’ve also been a local tourist in my own city and enjoyed stay-cations all across the U.K. I make this possible by planning my annual leave strategically around national holidays; prioritizing my wages on travel; and making the most of my location, with frequent cheap breaks to Europe and at least one long-haul or multi-centre holiday each year.”
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Priya from Outside Suburbia
“I’m Priya, a suburban mom with a full time job and lucky to have a family who shares a passion for travel. Outside Suburbia is a portal where I share insight about our family trips and feature travel inspiration. I’m a software Engineer, which gives me the flexibility of working from home in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas and also the ability to travel anywhere anytime within the US.
Our kids still go to school and we are bound by their schedule. We have one kid in college in California and one who just is in 10thgrade. We typically travel for 3 weeks in summer and 2 weeks in winter and do some weekend trips when all our stars and scheduled align!
While we don’t keep track of country counts or passport stamps, what we do have is a big fat bucket list of experiences, and keep working on checking things off the list. We recently checked off going on a safari to East Africa to see the Great Migration and the Big 5, we also got to hang out with some South African Penguins on Boulders Beach, in Cape Town. When we do retire (hopefully in 3 years) we plan on taking a mini sabbatical and going on a trip around the world with the kids.”
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Amrita & Agniswar from Tale of 2 Backpackers
“We have often been asked how do we manage our jobs and travel also. It seems like quite a feat to many who are into 9 to 5 job. But let me tell you, managing a full time job and travel is not that difficult. All that is needed is a little planning.
We both work in a very demanding banking industry in India. The job requires a lot on customer interaction in the rural grass root level as well as lots of desk job. We have transfers every three years, though our job does not require much travelling. And we definitely need the job as it pays the EMIs and also funds the travel.
So how do we fit in the travel? We use the weekends and the holidays to the full. When we work, we do that with full concentration and are good at it. So that when we ask for leaves, we are not usually turned down. We usually go for a Himalayan trekking for 7-10 days once a year and two long vacations in the year. And every month, we explore a destination nearby. So there are some serious work in job and many great travel escapades as well.”
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Kris from Nomad By Trade
“I work full-time in the software industry with a base in the Detroit, Michigan area and get 15 vacation days and 7 paid holidays per year. I’m lucky because my job itself requires a lot of travel, so even though I only spend around 3 weeks vacationing during the year, I spend most of my working time traveling around the United States.
I like to maximize my travel time by combining vacation days with paid holidays – for example, I get Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday off, so by taking the previous Monday-Wednesday off, I can get a 10-day trip for only three vacation days. Long weekends like Memorial Day and Labor day are also your friend if you’re a full-time worker who loves to travel.
I like to plan 2 bigger trips lasting a whole week and then use my remaining vacation days to take long weekends throughout the year. Lately I’ve been aiming for one international trip and one domestic trip because as much as I love visiting new places and using my passport, I want to make sure I see amazing places in the United States too.”
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Lisa from The Travel Pharmacist
“Traveling as a pharmacist is never dull. Someone is always asking “what can I take for this?” or “what should I do for that?” – and that’s also what makes being a Travel
Pharmacist fun!
I’m a registered pharmacist (RPH) based in Tampa, Florida and I typically travel 6-8 months of the year. The other months, I’m busy