Try This: Plan your Vacations for the Whole Year in ONE Weekend
The Genius of Planning Ahead
Wouldn’t it be nice to look at your calendar for the year to see it peppered with little escapes to look forward to? Take a weekend to consider what it is you want to do this year; consider where you want to go; think about who you want to travel with. The answers to these questions may not immediately jump out at you but I am telling you that you should block off time in your calendar for these potential getaways, long or short, on your calendar now.
Look Ahead
Gather your personal calendar, your work calendar and your children’s school calendar if applicable Gather the calendar of any of your extracurricular teams or clubs. Keep in mind or create a list relevant holidays and important dates. Finally, you will need a paper calendar printout that you can write on, a pen/pencil and if you’ve got one a highlighter.
Next, you will need to consider how much PTO/Vacation time you have, your budget and how much you want to travel for the year. Ideally, I would like to have at least one getaway per quarter of the year, but you may want a winter and a summer getaway only or one long getaway for the year – it really is a personal choice.
Let’s start planning! Block off any dates that you know you can absolutely not travel on. If applicable, look for teacher workdays on kid’s school calendars, find all the breaks, compare that with work holidays find the sweet spots on the calendar that will give you extended weekends. Consider your ability to work remotely – does this allow for even more time? Monday is the magic day. Many federal and bank holidays are celebrated on Mondays – make the most of this. Make all these notation on your paper calendar - I find it helps to see it in writing.
Hack the Calendar
There are ways to maximize your vacation time if you just take a look at the calendar. Let’s take a closer look for 2023:
In January – If you take Thursday and Friday before MLK day off (being celebrated on Monday Jan 16) You can get 5 consecutive days to vacation using only 2 vacation days
In April – If you take off the 4 days off before Good Friday (and Easter is not a blocked off travel time for you) you can get 9 consecutive days to vacation using only 4 days of PTO
In July, the 4th is on a Tuesday. If you take Monday, the 3rd off you can get a 4-day long weekend.
Here’s a doozy, if you take off the 5 days after Veterans’ day and 3 days before Thanksgiving (November 13 – 7 and November 20 – 22), You can get 17 consecutive days (November 10 – 26) to vacation as you see fit while only using 8 vacation days.
One more, if you take the 4 weekdays off between Christmas and New Years off you will get 10 consecutive days to vacation.
Keep in mind these hacks are most useful if you work a Monday – Friday schedule. The point here is to encourage you to look closely at the calendar and work with what you are given and to USE your PTO and vacation days.
Use Tools to Help you Plan
Once you’ve decided when, with whom and how often you hope to have a vacation from your usual life, you can use some of the many available tools to solidify your plans and to find deals. Here are a few of my favorites:
Use Google Flights to find the best time to travel and cheapest flights.
Looking for a place to stay use Vio to compare hotel options or if you are looking for a home away from home, search AirBnB or VRBO. Bonus Note if you are bringing the family look for options on Kid and Coe for homes guaranteed to be kid friendly
I like TripIt to organize my itinerary and Google Maps to create a customized map of locations and places to keep track of all of my must see locations. This helps me visualize which places are in close proximity of each other forf planning transportation and deciding daily itineraries. Bonus you can download this custom map to be available without wifi if you are going off the grid.
Finally, don’t underestimate the people around you. Ask the people who you know have gone places you are interested in going about their experiences. If you don’t have personal references then utilize sites like tripadvisor ot Pinterest to find out what others recommend.
Be Intentional
You don’t have to have all the details completed this one weekend of planning. During this planning session, you ultimately are prioritizing the time to make sure that you have a chance to go on vacation. As we all know, we often have good intentions but if we don’t actually set aside the time or prioritize tasks they often fall by the wayside for more immediate issues. Connect with current and old friends, escape work stress, rekindle romance, explore, learn and experience new places - all this is possible if you plan and make the time for it. What is it they say, “Don’t talk about it, be about it!” and like I said it could be one weekend a month or once this calendar year - just be intentional about it and put it on the calendar!
What is the getaway that you have been wanting to take but have not had time for?
