The one thing I hear from my W2 friends is, “I want to travel more, but I think I’m almost out of PTO.”. Every year, I travel over Thanksgiving. It has been my #1 trick to sneaking in an extra week-long vacation every year. Read on to hear why it makes sense for YOU to leverage the holiday to travel.
Three Reasons to Travel Over Thanksgiving
PTO
Just about every company in the US gives Thanksgiving Thursday off. Most either give that Friday off or let people loosely work remotely. Honestly, very few people come into the office anyway. Therefore, you can leave the Friday before Thanksgiving and return the Sunday after. This 10-day trip would only ‘cost’ you 3 PTO days. 3 days of PTO for a 10-day vacay? YES!
It’s Cheap
It’s well-known that Thanksgiving is the holiday in the US that people travel most for. People who live outside of the US come back during this time as well. However, because other countries don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, the flights going to pick those people up are typically nearly empty. People tend to stay in the US during Thanksgiving week, especially business travelers. For that reason, flights out of the US before T-day and returning after the holiday are often SUPER cheap.
An example: I once flew from Boston to Budapest and back for $420. One Thanksgiving, I went from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona and back from Madrid for about $400. Another year, I flew Miami to Guatemala City and back from Honduras for $225.
Off-season
November isn’t really high season anywhere. It’s nearly winter in the northern hemisphere which usually means a high chance of rain, and in the southern hemisphere summer isn’t quite in full swing. For this reason, hostels and hotels are typically the cheapest during Thanksgiving week, restaurants are super easy to get in to, and you’ll run into fewer tourists. It’s a great way to have a low-cost time at your destination!
My Thanksgiving trip in 2017 in Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Bosnia with details here.
Thanksgiving 2018 in Central America trip details here.
Have questions about Thanksgiving travels? Comment below!