How To TRAVEL MORE Without Changing Your Lifestyle

“How on earth do you travel so much?”

This is THE question my husband and I get asked A LOT! I may have a work at home job where I can set up shop anywhere in the world at any given moment, but my husband works a normal, wake up early in the morning 5 sometimes 6 days a week type of job. His co-workers, who have the exact number of vacation days as he does, still bombard him with this question & he has known most of these people for years now!

The truth is that we really don’t travel nearly as much as many people you see in the Blogosphere living a jet set life (even if my instagram seems like I’m constantly generating new pictures).

Nonetheless, with the constraints of my husbands “normal job”, we can still manage to see a lot of the world by being strategic about our time and money. You don’t have to be a full-time backpacker to see several fabulous destinations every year.

we have found that if you just prioritize travel, it can make a GIGANTIC difference in how much you really get out there exploring the world around you.

Here are a few ideas on how YOU can travel more without a radical change in lifestyle!

1. Travel in the off season​

Have you ever looked at hotel prices during spring break?!?!! The cost of hotels and transportation can double during the busiest months. It’s hard to imagine that a trip can cost nearly 50% of its high season price if you just wait a few months! And in a lot of warmer places, like Florida or even the Caribbean, early Autumn has more enjoyable weather, just as much sunshine AND fewer crowds!!!

1B. It's Easier to get time off of work in the offseason

Depending on where you work, spring break and Christmas break are usually the most popular times to ask for time off since the kids are out of school! Which makes it an outright competition to request vacation time off. Traveling in the off-season means fewer coworkers are likely to be out at the same time as you, making it easy for your boss to approve the request.

2. Take more long weekend trips

Don’t limit yourself to a few big trips per year! When you don't have a ton of vacation days, it’s easy to think that the only kind of travel that makes sense is a single long break. But I’m here to challenge that idea. Most people have Saturday and Sunday off of work. Use your vacation days on a Friday or Monday off! Hello long weekend and an awesome long weekend getaway. Just imagine how many long weekend trips you can take a year if you use your vacation days one or two at a time?

3. Travel close to home. STAYCATION

​There are so many hidden treasures in our own cities and within a tank of gas away!!! It really is unbelievable the places you can find when you look at a map!! This year it has actually been a blogging goal of mine to do more of these staycation type of trips and showcase all of these local hidden gems. I have been searching NY and PA for all the touristy things and believe it or not, have been having the best time ever playing tourist! None of these trips required any vacation time to be consumed, and we have been making life time family memories on these local adventures.

4. Shop Around for Cheap Flights

This is obviously something we all do, regardless if we are professional travelers or not. If you're family is like mine, on a mission to see the whole world, sometimes taking a scan of all the discount flights and where they are headed is the best option for planning that getaway. One of my all time favorite sites to use is skyscanner.com. I wasn't paid to suggest this site, it's the real deal and I use it all the time!!! Just type in your local airport and select a month, and it will tell you EVERY killer deal for that specific airport! This is where traveling during the off season can really come in handy as well. So when your friends are shelling out thousands for that spring break airline ticket, you can just giggle knowing that you can vacation a few more times than your work bestie that year since you planned around peak seasons and paid the same price your your two-three trips as they did on their one!