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!

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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 filling prescriptions and counseling patients on the correct way to take their medications. In the winter, Florida is a busy place for retirees looking to escape the colder temperatures of the northern United States.

That’s when I jump in with the company I’ve worked with for the past 6 years. They don’t have to hire on an extra pharmacist because they know I’m coming back during the busy times and I can count on the work to build up our travel account for the next season. Getting to help people along the way is just an added bonus!”

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Veronika from Travel Geekery

“I’ve been travelling extensively for the last 4 years, 5 of which I’ve had my travel blog TravelGeekery. It all has become possible ever since I moved into the online marketing field.

In the last 4 years, I’ve had 3 jobs. First at a travel startup, which was fun and exciting, but incredibly busy. I don’t know how I managed the year I spent there. After that, I’ve managed social media for companies. While in my current job my boss prefers me staying at the office, I can still travel every month provided I get my work done. I rarely take a full vacation during which I’d be completely unavailable.

I’m based in Prague, which is also a great base for short weekend trips. Apart from that, I do longer weekend trips and a week or two here and there. In my current job I cannot afford escaping for, say, a month, but I’m still grateful for the official 25 days of vacation they provide.”

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Brittany from Big Time Travels

“I’m a Primary School Teacher based in Ontario, Canada. Being a teacher is a great way to work full time and travel the world. With a lucrative holiday schedule, I’m able to optimize my time away from school to travel. Most of my travel experiences happen on school holidays.

This year I have been able to visit 6 countries over a 10 week span. During school holidays, I have been fortunate to explore Belize, Guatemala, England, Morocco, Indonesia and Taiwan, making for some epic adventures and even better memories. With an extensive background in travel, I’m able to help enrich my students experiences in the classroom.”

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Brianne from A Traveling Life

“After 10+ years of working full-time for various nonprofit organizations, I started my own communications consulting firm in Boston, Massachusetts, five years ago. My main motivation for starting a business was to have more control over my schedule than is possible with most traditional “9-to-5” jobs in the U.S. However, although I do have more flexibility now, I’m unable to ever truly “check out” like I did when I had vacation days – I need to be available for my clients when they need me.

Regardless, I usually take one or two domestic trips each month, and go overseas two or three times each year for 1-2 weeks. On two occasions – most recently last spring – I managed to take extended trips of 6-8 weeks. Everyone always asks me when I’m going to become a digital nomad or move overseas, but I’m very content with how I’ve structured my life and career. As much as I love traveling, I enjoy having a home base – I own my home, I have a dog, and I’m doing work that benefits my community.”

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Montoya from The Spring Break Family

“When I was about 17 years old, I saw the movie John Q. It’s a tragic story about a father that couldn’t afford a heart transplant for his son so he goes to drastic measures to provide one. In the movie, he interacts with a hospital manager and by the time the credits rolled I knew healthcare administration was going to be my lifelong career.

I entered the world of healthcare IT immediately after my college graduation — learning my way around Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and figuring out what it takes to run an intricate system like managed health care. It is a demanding field. After all, things in a hospital are literally life and death.

I spend so much time there working that it is almost fitting that it’s also where I met my husband. Before anyone asks — no, he wasn’t a patient! He also works in healthcare IT. Together, we juggle emergency system needs, maintenance events in the wee hours of the morning, and rigorous on-call schedules.

But somewhere in the melee, we manage to travel extensively with our three girls. We’ve been all over the United States, to Paris, London, Rome, Venice, and Milan — and we’re just getting started! Our “official” travel window is Spring Break where we spend anywhere from 7-10 days exploring an international destination. However, we are based in Houston and luckily benefit from plenty of airfare sales. If we find affordable airfare and lodging in a city in the US, then off we go!

Traveling while maintaining a traditional office job can be a challenge (and sometimes a complete and utter chore) but it is worth it! My tips? Keep track of your Paid Time Off (PTO), utilize paid holidays, watch for sales, and don’t be afraid to travel off the beaten path (sometimes it’s cheaper!).”

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Suzy from Suzy Stories

“For the past two years my full-time job has been at a digital marketing agency in London where I work as a Social Media Manager. Working at a centrally located office of course has many perks, but as a travel lover and blogger escaping city life can prove difficult to balance with work.

Besides my 25 days annual leave each year (where I take 1 or 2 bigger holidays plus a few long city-break weekends), I’m also incredibly fortunate enough to have a job which allows me to work remotely for a few weeks of the year. This arrangement came about as a result of my long-distance relationship, where my partner currently lives in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Being able to travel such a long distance makes it worthwhile to stay at least 3 weeks or more, giving me the chance to spend time with my partner as well as exploring more of the beautiful South Island of NZ. With a job that simply requires an internet connection, time zones and locations hardly impact my work. The flexibility to continue working from abroad helps my circumstances enormously, I can continue earning without compromising on my personal life, as well as being able to visit my favorite country again and again! Needless to say, I’m very grateful for such an understanding team, and the power of Wifi!”

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Catherine from We Go With Kids

“I am a public finance lawyer and mom to three kids who runs the family travel website We Go With Kids with another lawyer mom. We are based in Cleveland and love to travel as a family, but my billable hour requirement does not give me a ton of vacation flexibility. However, I am able to travel for work, over extended weekends and take one international trip each year and also take advantage of day trips in Northeast Ohio.

In the last year, my mom and oldest son traveled with me to a conference in Los Angeles, and we were able to spend most of a day sightseeing together. I’ve also added some sightseeing time to business trips to Phoenix and New York City and tagged along with my kids on several of my husband’s business trips to Pittsburgh. We also took weekend trips to New Orleans, Tampa, Washington D.C. and Amherst, Massachusetts and a summer trip to Paris, Venice, Florence, Pisa and Rome in July 2018.

Combining work and pleasure or taking weekend trips have allowed me to travel in 11 states and three countries in the past year with minimal vacation time. The harder part is finding time to write about those experiences in my non-existent free time…”

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Alison from Up&AtEm Travel

“Like many others, I have combined my love of writing and travel as a travel blogger – but luckily I am able to write about travel at my ‘regular office’ job, too. I am the content lead with an airline, whose headquarters are based in London; so I write and edit destination content about the places that we fly, in addition to useful articles about where to stay, what to eat and which attractions to see.

As an expat looking to settle in the UK, I can currently travel out of the country 90 days per year. I manage to stay below the limit, but travel is so easy from London because it is such a large travel hub. Within the past year or so, I have visited Paris, Macau, Hong Kong, Kuala Lampur, Colorado, Florida, Venice, Amsterdam and Zurich.

While I travel, I also work on freelance stories for digital and print publications. Although closely related, there are distinct differences between travel writing and travel blogging.

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Amy from The Wayfarer’s Book

“I got into teaching English after getting my CELTA, a highly respected TEFL certificate, in New York City. Since then, I’ve taught in Singapore, Ukraine, Georgia, and next week I’m heading to Moscow to work at an immersive English-language kindergarten.

I’ve taught adults and teenagers, group classes and one to one, general English, exam preparation, and specialized classes – I even got to teach English to film executives! While teaching conditions can vary from country to country (and school to school!), you can find a position that pays well, gives three to four weeks of vacation a year, and allows you to immerse yourself in a culture the way you never could on a two-week trip. I’ve been castle hunting in Ukraine, hiked in the mountains of Georgia, and spent my long weekends touring Southeast Asia’s treasures.

Many people think about teaching English to support their travels for a year or two, but I chose to do it because it’s actually a professional career that can sustain a lifestyle of travel for… well, as long as I want. I’ve been teaching English for five years, have just started my Delta (the next level qualification), and plan on transitioning into teacher training in the near future. It’s a career plan and a travel lifestyle rolled into one!”

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Lyn & Steve Baker from A Hole in my Shoe

“We first travelled overseas for our honeymoon in 2010 and fell in love. With travel, which when you live in the most isolated city in the world presents itself with a challenge. This is because we both work full time. Steve, an IT specialist works for local council and I work in Human Resources within the disability sector. We have been blogging since 2014 and try to travel as much as lives allow.

Our jobs give us 4 weeks paid leave per year and Steve also accrues one day per month (with pay). My employer allows me to purchase an additional 2 weeks’ leave per year and when taking leave we always try and take advantage of the weekends and public holidays.

We try to take one big trip each year and as Bali is our closest neighbor, we try to schedule a trip there each winter as well. A trip to the east coast (Sydney or Melbourne) is usually managed each year too. On top of this we try and do a road trip within our vast state every month or so. When we are not travelling our time is filled with attending local festivals, tourist attractions, national parks and seeking out local street art. So far we’ve managed to travel to 33 countries and have no plans to change our travel style in the next few years.”

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Paroma from Year of the Monkey

“I am Paroma Chakravarty, aka the nerdy brown girl who lives in San Francisco, California with her husband and Babu, 15 year old Tibetan Spaniel mix and am the blogger behind Year of the Monkey (a travel, pets, food and lifestyle blog). I have a full time, 9-5 corporate job as a Material scientist (thanks to a backbreaking PhD in pharmaceutical material science) at a biotech company in the Bay Area.

I work in the research and development of cancer and immunology drugs, aka guide the formulation scientists on which form of the active therapeutic ingredient (the one that actually does the work in your body when you pop in a pill) to develop in the final product (our lingo for tablets/capsules/stuff that you need prescription for).

Traveling with a full time job and its demands is super hard, but when you love travel as much as I do and have a blog to talk about it, you come up with creative ways to satiate your desire to see the world. Unlike most other US companies, mine is pretty generous when it comes to leaves and we get 18 days of leave per year along with all the Federal holidays as well as a full shutdown from Christmas eve to New year. We also get a 6 week paid vacation (called “sabbatical) for every 6 years of service.

I try to make full use of my vacation time judiciously and besides taking 10 days off in summer, I plan mini breaks every 2-3 months utilizing long weekends or with 1-2 days tagged to a weekend. if possible, I take a few days off if I am traveling for work (with full ethics and transparency to my manager) and in this way I manage to travel 5-6 times a year, not including long weekends. There is never a dull moment while living in California and I hope to continue exploring my beautiful state and the world while chipping away towards healthcare innovations.”

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Allison from Flights to Fancy

“My day job and my night gig couldn’t be more different. By day I’m a Senior Risk Manager with one of Australia’s biggest banks and I spend my 9 – 5 leading a team of highly-skilled individuals dedicated to investigating and preventing application fraud. I (mostly) love my job and I go home each night content in the knowledge that the good guys are on the case.

As you can imagine my job is demanding and the pressure is real. Travel is my escape; for the body and the mind. When I’m not on the job busting crime, I use every second of my allocated leave to explore the world. I get 20 days annual leave each year and by virtue of my tenure (almost 30 years!), I have a bucket load of long service leave available for the taking.

My employer promotes work life balance and flexibility and last year I took advantage of our lifestyle leave option to boost my existing leave by 4 weeks. Lifestyle leave is essentially leave without pay but instead of taking the hit all at once the deductions are averaged out over a year so it’s not so painful. I travel overseas a minimum of four times a year and sneak in as many Aussie trips as I can. More recently I’ve started to write about my adventures on my travel blog Flights to Fancy.

My hubby also works full time and his complicated schedule often dictates our travel style. He gets a week off every eight weeks in addition to his annual and long service leave and we use those breaks to maximum advantage. As our time off work is usually in short blocks, we stay close to home and mostly travel through Asia, Australia and Oceania.

The older I get the more I realize how much I value my comforts and I’m all about travelling in style. Let’s just say I left my backpacking days way behind in my 20’s and I don’t ever care to see the inside of a hostel again. That said, I love a bargain and I pride myself on finding the very best deals at the luxury end of town.

It’s all these factors that has shaped my blog’s niche which is ‘travelling the world a week at a time in luxury for less’. I share tips and tricks with my readers to help them save their pennies where it counts so they can splurge where it matters. I share amazing hotels, must-do activities and fabulous feasts so my readers can plan their own perfect getaway.

In 2018 I’ve visited Hawaii, Canberra, Bali and Darwin so far with Vietnam, Cambodia, and Tasmania still to go. 2019 is shaping up to be ever bigger. Fitting it all in is hard, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Head on over to the blog to see all my latest adventures.”

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Nicholas from Rambling Feet

“I’m based in Singapore and I work in a non-government organization (NGO). My employer isn’t exactly flush with money and my job doesn’t take me around the world. However, the 14 days of paid leave that I get are enough for me to travel five or six times a year. In addition, I earn extra time off work by volunteering at weekend events.

My trips are short weekend getaways to other Southeast Asian destinations. It helps that there are three budget airlines – AirAsia, Jetstar and Scoot – that operate out of Singapore. I don’t have the luxury of taking in multiple cities slowly but it’s a situation that I make the best of. Taking advantage of long weekends also requires advanced planning so that I don’t pay too much over the lowest prices.

Besides short trips, I take one vacation annually that lasts a week or more so that I can travel further. Over the last three years, this plan has enabled me to visit cities in 21 different countries in East and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Australia and Europe.”

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Kevin from The Outcast Journey

“While it might surprise you, I didn’t start a major travel until I was 21 years old. My interest in going places really started to grow after I graduated in engineering. Since then, I discovered my potential in mountain climbing which eventually led me to landscape photography, other outdoor activities, and the nature in general.

Presently, I work in an IT company in Taguig City as a full-time business analyst. I closely work with software engineers to maintain and develop a stable ERP system most especially in the supply chain area. My career as a BA is great, but the outside of office always calls to me. That’s why I also tried being a part-time travel blogger.

My true love in hiking, photography, traveling, and all these adventures is enhanced through blogging. But due to my commitment in the corporate world, I should always have to plan all my trips for the whole year. Basically, I will book a travel overseas (mostly Asian countries) at least once, or if by any chance get two countries. The remaining trips will always be local travels to feature all the hidden gems in my home country, which is the Philippines.”

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