There are a lot of things to love about starting a new year: longer, brighter days, an excuse to drink champagne, the end of arguing about politics with your family over holiday dinners. But my favorite part of beginning the new year has to be seeing my vacation balance replenished! Then it’s time to get scheming…
Tips for getting the most out of your year of travel
Make a note of all the holidays you have: vacation and holidays. First things first, I open up a Google doc and type out all the months of the year, and insert the public holidays. This year Berlin has 7 week-day holidays which I can use to pad my trips! Combine that with my 27 days of vacation, making 34 weekdays of travel. From that, I could easily make 11 long weekends, or a few longer + shorter trips. There’s really so much potential!
Get a realistic sense of how expensive it is to travel to the places you’ve been dreaming of. That means, checking flights, checking duration of the flight, and checking expenses. As full-time employees, our time is more precious than our money, so finding out how long the trip will take is key to fitting it into the year.
Check the budget airlines for nearby destinations you haven’t ticked off yet. Have I raved enough about how much I love
<a href="https://www.ryanair.com/us/en/cheap-flight-destinations” onclick="ga(‘send’, ‘event’, ‘Affiliate Link’, ‘Click’, event.target.getAttribute(‘href’));”
target=”_blank">Ryanair's flight map ? It makes weekenders a breeze and keeps things low cost.
Look for close-to-home points of interest that you really should’ve seen by now. These are perfect to visit in between more expensive trips, because you can either do them during the day or spend relatively little on accomodation.
Decide on your 1-2 long trips for the year. Commitment is hard, but with limited days, we can only do so many long flights every year. Last year my long trip was to Japan, which was incredible. This year I’m planning two long trips (see below 😉)
Where I’m going in 2017
I’m starting the year with 27 vacation days. Here’s how I plan to spend them!
♦ ♦ ♦ Long trip | ♦ ♦ Short trip | ♦ Weekender
January
Nowhere! After flying back from the United States in time for New Year’s, I enjoyed the month of January slowly getting back into the groove of work and city life after a week and a half in front of the fireplace.
February
Barcelona
♦ – I’m not sure whether the novelty of
budget flights will ever wear off for this girl. I’m returning to Barcelona
for an impromptu weekend of fun with some friends from University.
Oh my tapas, it’s been too long!
_2.5 days traveling, -1/2 vacation day_
Iceland
♦ ♦ ♦ – For Gernot’s 30th
birthday, I bought him a 10-day road trip around Iceland’s ring road. We’ve got
a detailed itinerary planned and I can’t wait to take 10,000 pictures of this
beautiful country!
_10 days traveling, -7 vacation days_
March
My only plans for March are to recover emotionally from the cost of visiting Iceland! I’m sure I’ll also have tons of material to write after both trips, so expect to see new posts galore this month!
April
Austria
♦ ♦ – My now-annual pilgrimage to
Graz for Easter will be extended this
year with a side quest to either Hallstatt or Salzburg. Visiting Austria at
this time of year is wonderful because they’re further along with Spring ^__^
_4 days traveling, -1 vacation day_
May
Venice
♦ – Berlin’s connected to Venice
by a cheap Ryanair flight. Combine that with a public holiday, and I’ll have
three days in Venice for the cost of zero vacation days! I’ve never been to
Venice, so I’m hoping to see what all the hype is about 😉
_3 days
traveling, -0 vacation day_
Greece
♦ ♦ – There’s a holiday on a
Thursday at the end of May, which would give me the perfect opportunity to make
a quick jaunt to Greece.
_4 days traveling, -1 vacation day_
June
Stockholm
♦ – This is one of those places
I pledged to visit last year, but it ended up slipping through my fingers.
June seems like the perfect tip to take a trip to Stockholm, as it’s before all
the shops shutter in July but still warm enough to experience those long
Scandinavian summer nights!
_3 days traveling, -0 vacation days_
Lake Como
♦ ♦ – Every year I try to go
somewhere for my birthday (let’s be honest, it’s an excuse just like any other
holiday!). Last year it was Croatia. This year I’m
thinking about Lake Como & Milan. Again, you can reach Milan from Berlin by
Ryanair and then rent a car to explore the lake.
_4 days traveling, -2 vacation day_
July
Rhine River trip
♦ ♦ – One of my travel
goals for 2017 is to see more of Germany. Oddly enough, I think I’ve been to
more distinct cities in Italy or France than Germany. This year, that changes!
_5 days traveling, -3 vacation days_
August
Taking a siesta! August is one of the hotest months of year in Berlin, so most likely I’ll be melting on my couch or taking a dip in one of the neighboring lakes. All in preparation for…
September
Bali
♦ ♦ ♦ – Getting to Bali from
Europe is surprisingly managable. The travel time itself is extremely long (24
hours), but that’s also about how long it takes to get to the west coast of the
US so I’m not totally unaccustomed to it. BUT the flight costs can get as low
as 600 EUR per person. Let’s see if we can make this happen!
_11 days traveling, -7 vacation days_
October
Morocco
♦ ♦ – This place is probably the
one that’s most up in the air, along with any short weekenders (which could be
replaced with different destinations depending on the mood). Morocco is
somewhere that seems very interesting, but on the other hand, all the stories I
hear about the harassment make me second-guess it. Let’s see where
the cards fall as to whether Morocco makes it, or gets replaced with another
southerly Autumn jaunt.
_5 days traveling, -3 vacation days_
November
By November, I’ve normally shut off for the year. It’s getting colder, and all I’m looking forward to is mulled wine and Christmas markets in Germany. Besides, it’s time to start planning 2018 at this point 😉
December
Normally I would travel home for Christmas, but this year my parents are supposed to come to Berlin so I can host them for the holidays! It will be fun and funny to see my parents in snow and feel them Christmas market food.
What are your 2017 travel plans?
I would love to hear if you have any recommendations for my year of travel! Please share your own travel plans in the comments, I’d love to be inspired ❤️
