If you live in the United States, you probably do not get enough annual leave, unless you already secured a job with unlimited leave. While I highly suggest working your way to a position with unlimited leave, you are probably reading this article because you still have a limited amount of paid time off. If that is the case, you can maximize your PTO by planning your largest vacations to strategically fall over federal holidays.
Not every job gives employees all the federal, state, and local holidays off from work, so check with your employer to verify which holidays you have off at your job. Additionally, employers that do not provide all holidays may provide floating holidays that allow workers to select a day off without question to accommodate employees with various beliefs. If you have floating holidays that you do not intend to use for a religious reason or other day of observation, these can offer additional opportunities for maximizing your PTO at different times of the year.
Holiday Combinations for the Big Trips
Juneteenth & Independence Day
In 2024, Juneteenth falls on Wednesday, June 19, and Independence Day falls on Thursday, July 4, putting these holidays just over two weeks apart. If you start your vacation on Juneteenth (or the evening before) and return on Sunday, July 7, 2024, you can enjoy 19 days of vacation for just 11 days of PTO. This is one of those unique times of the year when you can escape to travel for nearly three weeks for a little more than two weeks of vacation days.
This occurs during some of the most popular times for travel within the United States. However, if you plan to go international, you will still get deals by flying out on Juneteenth or the day before (Tuesday or Wednesday!), and June is slightly before peak travel in places like the Mediterranean that become busiest in July and August.
This option is particularly appealing if you have children. Most schools are off for the summer prior to June 19, eliminating any issues with children missing school to travel. This window simultaneously falls within the “normal” travel time but also skews a bit earlier than the most popular travel times to make it more affordable.
Finally, assuming that you have 15 days of PTO, the 11 days of PTO required to enjoy these 19 days of travel still leaves four PTO days that allow you enjoy nine consecutive days off at another time of the year as long as you combine the final four days with any other federal holiday. Using 11 days at once balances enjoying a significant travel period with saving enough PTO for another week off at another time of the year.
Veterans Day and Thanksgiving
This is my favorite time to travel, and I absolutely love it when I have the opportunity to combine these two holidays into a vacation. However, Thanksgiving is late in 2024, so this trip combination is probably only possible to use for folks who have at least 17 days of PTO annually. In 2024, Veterans Day falls on Monday, November 11, and Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 28. This means you can take off Saturday, November 9 (or the preceding evening!) through Sunday, December 1, for an incredible 23 days of vacation using only 13 days of PTO.
Particularly if you are taking advantage and doing the opposite by traveling abroad when most folks travel domestically, this is a huge opportunity to enjoy three weeks of travel. November is a great month to go to many southern hemisphere destinations and is also a cusp month for locations in southeast Asia (the end of rainy season) and the Caribbean (the end of hurricane season), making travel to these destinations a bit more affordable than their high seasons while still enjoying mostly good weather.
Traveling at this time of year is best for folks tied to a 9-to-5 who have the urge to travel but the flexibility to do so without worrying about the school year due to children. It is the least expensive of the three large-trip, double-holiday combinations we have listed here, making it perfect for a big travel adventure like trekking through Patagonia or island hopping in the Philippines.
Christmas and New Year’s Day 2025
Christmas falls on Wednesday, December 25, 2024, and New Year’s Day falls on Wednesday, January 1, 2025. There are multiple ways to enjoy these this holiday combination including:
Enjoy 16 days off for eight days of PTO by taking off from Saturday, December 21, 2024, to Sunday, January 5, 2025.
Enjoy 12 days off for six days of PTO by taking off from Wednesday, December 25, 2024, to Sunday, January 5, 2025.
Enjoy 12 days off for six days of PTO by taking off from Saturday, December 21, 2024, to Wednesday, January 1, 2025.
The Christmas/New Year’s Day combination is the most popular since these two holidays fall only a week apart. This holiday combination also is family friendly since schools are out for the holiday period, making it easy to travel as a family during this time.
While this is the most leave-friendly combination on the list, it is also the least financially friendly because many people get these days off from work. Prices for flights, trains, hotel stays, car rentals, and more are higher over this time period because it is the one time of year that most people have the flexibility to travel. Additionally, this holiday period is not limited to the United States, so international travelers also create demand at this same time period.
I would generally recommend the other two holiday combinations above this one, with the exception of folks who are restricted on time but not money. If you have children, have multiple streams of income with strict commitments, and find yourself with plenty of money but limited flexibility, this is your time to get away. It is better to pay a bit more to take a vacation sometime rather than miss the opportunity altogether.
Make Your Own Adventure
For the folks with fewer scheduled holidays who have floating holidays, you can create the Christmas/New Year’s effect with any holiday you do have off by pairing it with a floating holiday. This means you could use your floating holiday on Tuesday, May 28, 2024 to pair it with Memorial Day on Monday, May 27, 2024, and get nine travel days for three days of leave or 16 travel days for eight days of leave! The same pairing works for any other holiday that you already get off from work throughout the year.
If your work does not have standard holidays but you have a bit of an abnormal schedule, you can also use PTO a bit more creatively. If you have a job with shifts at strange intervals, like a nurse or firefighter, you may have schedules where you work 12-hour days but then get three consecutive days off after these shifts. If you have a schedule like this, trading shifts or switching which days you work can often get you consecutive days for travel without taking any time off from work at all!
Even if you have a more traditional 9-to-5, you may be able to maximize your leave by working more hours in the days leading up to a vacation so you can use less PTO. For example, I used to work at a job that did not have enough PTO, but I just had to work a certain number of hours within a pay period to avoid PTO. When I had this job, I would make sure my vacations straddled two pay periods and would work extra hours on the days preceding and after the vacation so I could take less leave. Working 10-hour days for a few days before and after would allow me to save several days of PTO.
Every job and schedule is unique. Consider what your travel and vacation priorities are and consider how you can work within the restrictions of your workplace to maximize your time away from work. I used to actually keep a leave spreadsheet to track this, and it was well worth doing to maximize my time.
Smaller Trips: Long Weekends and One-Week Getaways
Particularly if you have extremely limited PTO, consider using long weekends to your advantage. Most federal holidays fall on Mondays, making it easy to extend a weekend. (This is also why Monday is the day I theoretically go to the office, sometimes.) A lot of us recognize that we can use a Monday holiday to enjoy a three-day weekend visiting family two states away from us. Fewer consider that pairing President’s Day on Monday, February 19, 2024, with a day off on Friday, February 16, 2024 allows anyone on the East Coast to fly to Paris on Thursday evening, enjoy three full days in Paris the weekend after Valentine’s Day, and fly back on Monday while using only one day of leave. (We did this in 2019!) Expand what you look at as possible, and you can expand how far your PTO will take you.
Anyone living on the East Coast can pair one or two days of leave with American holidays to travel to Western European cities at inexpensive times of the year. These trips often cost less money than flying across the United States, and they sometimes even take less travel time, depending on your local airport’s routes.
Even if you live on the West Coast or somewhere in between, you have options for long weekend adventures. Flights to Central America and northern South America destinations can be relatively inexpensive, particularly if you extend a trip a day before or after folks leaving for a one-week trip to contain a holiday. If time is a greater concern than money, you can also choose to leave when everyone else leaves on a one-week getaway and just pick a week with any federal holiday. Getting nine consecutive travel days for four days of PTO is always a great decision.
Regardless of how you plan to maximize your PTO in 2024, make sure you actually use it. Too many individuals leave PTO on the table, even when they are unable to roll it over to the next year! If you have PTO, it is part of your compensation for doing your job. You likely do not forgo receiving any of your annual salary, so do not forgo using your PTO! Use it to its full potential, and enjoy some time living instead of working.
Comentarios