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Working full time and finding the time to travel is something that I struggle with on a daily basis. At the moment, my wanderlust levels are so high, I can barely make it through 30 minutes at work without opening Instagram and seeing the amazing adventures other people are on.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my job. I work for an amazing company and some of the people I work with have become life long friends (in fact, I’ve travelled with two of them already and we have another trip to Salzburg booked this year!).

But. And this is a big “but”. I NEED to travel. Currently I have 30 days “annual leave” per year and because I am currently studying to become a Chartered Tax Advisor, 10 of those days are used as days off to study. That leaves 20 measly days a year to try and cram as much adventure into my life as possible!

So here are my top tips for making the most of your holiday periods while working full time!

• Decide what you want early on – For me 2016 should have revolved around a 16 day trip to Zimbabwe to embark on a solo volunteering adventure. Unfortunately I had to cancel this trip earlier this year due to work/study commitments. Instead of booking another long-haul trip, I decided I would take lots of mini-breaks this year. It gives me something to look forward to almost every month and makes all of those deadlines and exams seem a little bit more bearable! Now I know exactly how many annual leave days I have left and will definitely need to use them wisely!

• Make the most of your weekends – So you want to go away for 4 days? Take a long weekend, you’ll only use 2 days of annual leave and still get the benefit of a 4 day mini-break! On a similar level, don’t ever waste your weekends at home – go and explore your home country!

• Take advantage of holiday breaks – My company currently close every year for Christmas and New Years for around a week and half – this is the perfect time to go away! A whole week away without using a single drop of your excess annual leave – perfect! The same goes for “bank holidays” in the UK. If you are being given an extra day off work, take it in your stride and do as much as you can with it!

• Be a bit cheeky and negotiate – This isn’t something I would ever imagine myself doing. I always had planned that I would become qualified and then leave my job to travel the world extensively before returning to the UK and looking for a new job/reapply to the firm I currently work for. In a recent catch-up meeting with one of the partners at my firm, I mentioned that I love to travel and he immediately said “GO TRAVELLING. Do you want 6 months off after you’ve qualified? Do it. You have job security. Make sure the other partners are aware of it now so that we can start planning ahead”. Incredible. That is more than I could have ever wished for – don’t feel afraid, ask your employer what your options are! The worst they can do is say no!

• Take this time to save – Remember that every moment you are working, you are earning money that can be set aside for travelling. Set up a special bank account dedicated to travel funds, do whatever it takes to remind yourself that this is a great time in your life and you’re aiming towards something even greater. Unfortunately travel isn’t free, so any money you can save now will really help in the future!

• Never waste a day of annual leave – Are you feeling a bit tired? Feel like you might need to  rest? Don’t do it. Don’t take that day of annual leave unless you really have to. You know you’ll regret it later on in the year when you have one less day of travelling.

• Book early flights/transport to your destination and late flights home – If you’re doing lots of long weekends like me, make sure you book early morning flights to your destination and late night flights home. Make the most of every day and don’t waste days off work by sitting around waiting for flights when you could be exploring!

• Travel with work – Unfortunately this isn’t something that I can do given that I work for a single-office accountancy firm in London. However, if your firm needs someone to do something abroad and you have the correct skill set – take the opportunity! One of my friends is always flying over the globe for work. Of course she doesn’t get to see as much of the destinations as she would like – but it keeps her wanderlust ticking over until the next trip!

So let’s summarise, I get 104 weekend days a year, 20 annual leave days that can be used for travelling, 7 days off at Christmas, 8 national bank holidays – suddenly travel seems a lot more realistic with 139 days to be played with!

Are you working full time and travelling? What are your top tips?

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post and all thoughts are my own.
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Why hello there guys and girls! This is a very belated post. Lots of people wrote posts like in January to signal the start of the new year, however I don’t like to play by the rules and thought I’d keep you all guessing (not that you probably care where I’m going this year, as long as I have pretty pictures to show you all).

2016 is going to be a bit of a rubbish year for me travel-wise. Not because I’m not visiting amazing places (of course I am!), but because I’m very restricted about what time I can and can’t be out of the country. I’ve had to cancel some trips (read more about that later!) and my year very much revolves around work and studying.

I’m currently studying to become a Chartered UK Tax Advisor and the exams are TOUGH. I’m told that in the US, the term “chartered” is somewhat equivalent to a Certified Public Accountant for example if that puts things into perspective? I have lots of deadlines to meet, lots of courses to attend etc. which really hinders my travel ability.

But without further ado, these are the plans I’ve managed to rustle up so far!

January 2016

Sadly, as I work in personal taxation in the UK, January is an absolute no-go for travelling due to a big deadline on 31 January. So instead, I spent the month tirelessly submitting my client’s tax returns, working and commuting all hours of every single day – alas, the overtime money will cover my travelling needs, so there’s a light at the end of every tunnel!

February 2016 – Various Locations in the UK

I wanted to go away in February SO much. After the stress that is January tax season, I felt like I needed a break, but I also felt like I wanted to sit on a sofa all day and vegetate until it wasn’t certain whether I was still alive or not. So instead I took a happy compromise and spent my weekends traipsing backwards and forwards from Essex to Leeds to see my boyfriend who is currently studying up North. I wish I had more to show for these trips but for some of them I was ill and spent most of the days in Leeds in bed and waiting for pizza to arrive. What a life. However, I did discover my love affinity with the beautiful city of York – read all about it here!

March 2016 – Kraków (Poland)

YAY, finally it’s time for me to start properly exploring again. Starting with a long weekend in Kraków with 3 friends. This trip had been booked for MONTHS in advance, so it’s safe to say that we were excited! Kraków is a beautiful city but didn’t quite live up to my expectations. However, I am very glad to have ticked Auschwitz off of my ultimate bucket list! Read my first thoughts on the city here – more blog posts will be coming in the upcoming weeks!

April 2016

Unfortunately, another quiet month for me.  I have one of the potentially hardest exams I will ever sit in my life at the beginning of May, so I am on lock down, spending every single waking moment of April either working or revising (apart from the time spent writing this blog post obviously hehe).

May 2016 – Lake Ohrid (Macedonia)

Photo credit here.

FREEDOM. My exams are over and some of my friends are graduating university. What’s the best way to celebrate? Take your best friend to Lake Ohrid for a few days as her birthday present. Unwind, soak in the beauty of the former-Yugoslavian country, have great food, hopefully great weather and just generally have a great relaxing time. We’re only in Macedonia for a few days but might be able to manage a daytrip outside of Ohrid. Is there anywhere that you would definitely recommend?

June 2016 – Salzburg & Halstatt (Austria)

Photo credit here.

And we’re heading off to Austria! Myself and two of the girls from work (you may recognise them the beauties in my Prague posts) are off to Salzburg with hopefully a stop off at Halstatt also! While Vienna looks beautiful and I’ve heard great things about it, flights and accommodation were hideously expensive and Salzburg looks like a great alternative. I haven’t seen half as many blog posts on Salzburg as I have Vienna, so hopefully you will enjoy that!

July 2016 – Tallinn (Estonia)

Photo credit here.

This trip isn’t yet booked, but hopefully in the next few weeks the entire thing will be under way! My amazing friend Grace (of the hilariously written, deep, meaningful and all-round amazing blog Finding Graceland) has always wanted to go to Tallinn and after our amazing trip to Copenhagen together last year with two other friends, we knew the 4 of us need to make another trip. I couldn’t be more grateful to have these 3 lovely people in my life and can’t wait for another trip with them, even if we don’t end up in Tallinn (but lets be honest, we will if Grace and I get our way!).

I had 2 weeks in  Zimbabwe booked for a volunteering/safari experience with a trip to Victoria Falls but I had to cancel it due to work/study commitments. I am so gutted but hopefully I can do that trip next year!

August 2016 – Cologne (Germany)

Photo credit here.

My boyfriend and I are taking our very first international trip together! We’re heading off to Cologne for a few nights and I can not wait. The entire trip was based around the fact that Eltz Castle was seemingly popular on my instagram at one point and I decided that I simply couldn’t not visit! Although it isn’t a new country for me, so doesn’t mean I can update my “Been” app or my scratch-off travel map – dammit!

September 2016 – It’s a Surprise!

So I have a little something in the works for September but it’s a surprise for someone special’s birthday and I don’t want to ruin the surprise! As a few clues – it’s reasonably close to home, looks absolutely stunning and will make the perfect short September break (that narrows it down to practically the whole of Europe). Unfortunately it’s an early birthday present for someone as I can’t go away in October boo!

October 2016

Another quiet one for me as I have exams in the first week of November (on my birthday too boo-hoo!). P.s. my birthday is on 2 November and donations to the Danielle birthday fund are welcome.

November 2016

This is when our busy period really starts kicking in at work, so I can’t really take any more time off than necessary. I’ll probably spend the latter part of the month having belated birthday celebrations in the UK with my nearest and dearest. *starts singing Taylor Swift’s 22*

December 2016 – Undecided – Maybe Iceland?

Photo credit here.

Each year I get somewhere between a week and 2 weeks off work as the office closes due to Christmas and New Years. Last year, I used this time to go to Amsterdam and I really want to get away again this year – preferably somewhere Christmas-y! I have been thinking about heading to Iceland, but it seems so expensive, I’m not sure I can justify that amount of money around Christmas time (I do like to spoil people on special occasions after all!). Also, a lot of people seem to be heading to Iceland at the moment. I’d love to go somewhere off-the-beaten-track. I’d love to hear where you like to go around Christmas!

Other Plans

I do have a few more days off work that I can play with. There’s only a few days, so I can’t go too far a field, however any recommendations would be great! I’m thinking about maybe spreading my horizons and leaving Europe and heading to Morocco? After all, a girl needs a bit of sun during the year!

2017

Get ready for some really exciting plans for 2017. I’ll be done with studying in May 2017 (hopefully) and can go further afield, take more time away, potentially take a sabbatical from work for a few month long trip – I can’t wait!

I’d love to hear where you’re going this year! Do you have any exciting plans? Have you already visited some of the locations I have booked? Do you have any recommendations! I hope you all have a fantastic travel year *raises champagne glass*.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post and all thoughts are my own.
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