How do I turn 18 Vacation days to 30?

I add the national holidays observed by my employer (some companies observe up to 12 including New Year, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day among others) to my 18 Vacation Days, and travel around those holidays.

I’m a typical working class American with a full time job. Although I have heard of some companies in America giving their employees up to 25 days off, I get 18 days a year. I once worked in a company that initially gave me 12 days and increased it to 14 days after 2 years of service. Yikes!

As someone with a chronic case of wanderlust, 12 to 18 days of vacation is hardly enough for me- considering the fact that I try to travel several times a year.

My trips abroad lasts about 9 days on average. I try to visit as many countries as I can in a short period of time so I usually stay 3 -4 days per country. If a typical visit lasts 9 days, 18 vacation days means 2 trips a year. This is an possible number of trips for an avid traveler like myself.

However, several trips can be planned in a year by maximizing vacation days.

“How is this possible?” you ask. Very simple! These tips will have you fulfilling all of your vacation dreams, with time to spare.

• Working remotely

Thanks to technology, a lot of things have become possible. Working remotely is one of such. I have a strong belief that in the future, cooperate America and the cooperate world in general will rely on working remotely. Presently, a lot of employers allow their staff work remotely several days a week. If your employer allows working remotely, it comes in very handy while planning a vacation.

I usually work remotely the day I am leaving for a trip so that I can leave in the morning or afternoon. It is best to work at the airport instead of at home so you don’t get caught up working and run late for your flight. I also only take flights that offer inflight WiFi so that I can purchase WiFi on the plane and work remotely from the plane. A large number of United Airline and Star Alliance flights offer this service. Working remotely on the day of travel works best on days that my flight leaves on a weekday morning or afternoon, so that the time used to travel does not count towards vacation time.

• Taking advantage of National Holidays

The United States has several national holidays that most, if not all employers have to observe as public holidays. Christmas Day, New Year, 4^th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Good Friday are all examples of such holidays. I have learnt to take advantage of these holidays by booking vacations around national holidays. This way, I use less vacation days. I recently traveled to Peru during memorial day weekend in May. By doing this, I only used 3 vacation days towards my 6 day trip. Here is a breakdown of my trip:

• Maximizing weekends

Another thing I do to prolong my vacation days is booking a vacation from one weekend to another. I would leave on Friday and come back the following Sunday or Monday morning. If I plan well enough and add a holiday to the mix, the vacation ends up lasting 8 to 9 days but only 4 vacation days are actually use used (Monday through Thursday, assuming the holiday is on Friday).

Smart right?

• Taking weekend trips

Taking an extended weekend trip within the US, Canada, Latin America, or the Caribbean is also an ideal way to vacation more. For example, a trip to Cancun, Mexico could easily be scheduled for a weekend. If the trip is properly planned, it can be scheduled around a national holiday. That way, more days can be spent in Cancun.

People constantly ask me if I have a day job, seeing as I travel a lot. Yes I do, but I use these tips to stretch my vacation days. With the tips above, I am able to travel several times a year without having to quit my day job.

How do you make the most out of your vacation days?

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