Welcome to The World Incorporated’s Desk Departure series! Monthly tips to show you that it IS possible to travel the world with a full time job. Throughout this series, you’ll learn:
How to travel the world without sacrificing your career.
How to travel more with a full time job.
How to maximize your vacation days.
How travel can advance your career.
How to depart from your desk so you don’t waste your paid time off.
Desk Departure Tip: Modify your flight itinerary to visit somewhere new
It’s happened again.
That annual conference for work, back at the same old place you’ve already visited a handful of times. A place that inspires no desire to make personal travel an extension of business travel. A place that makes you shrug and chant: “all work, no play.”
While you may need to accept the fate of the selected destination, you can create your own adventure by modifying your travel itinerary to include a new destination.
But how?
Consider flights to and from neighboring cities or airports. Rather than fly into or out of the conference destination, look at a map and write a list of nearby destinations that do pique your interest. Keep in mind that your company may not reimburse you for a flight to a destination that is different from your conference destination, as it may be considered personal travel. I suggest speaking to your supervisor before making any purchases or commitments. Compare the cost of flights and see which alternative destination would be best suited for your personal or business travel budget.
Book one way tickets. Flying into or out of a different destination does not mean that you need to book a round trip ticket from that airport. See how much it would cost to fly into one airport then out of your final destination airport. Then switch, and see if it makes more sense to travel to the conference destination first and continue the trip elsewhere after the work is done.
Playing around with different ticket combinations can be intimidating. Kayak’s multi-city feature is extremely valuable when determining the options to coordinate such a trip. This will be your best friend when trying to modify your flight itinerary.
Other Considerations
Transportation
When choosing alternate departure or arrival destinations, remember to research transportation options and costs. After all, you will need to make it to your conference location somehow. Is public transportation available, accessible, and affordable? Will you need to rent a car? How would geography or weather impact travel between places?
Time
How long will it take to travel between destinations? If your conference venue is hours away from the alternative airport in which you will arrive or depart, will your schedule allow for that additional trek? Are you allotting sufficient time to explore this new destination?
How I did it
I decided to take my own advice and test this Desk Departure tip before publishing.
Once again, an industry conference was back in Dallas, Texas, a destination I’ve visited quite a few times for work and family. While I already planned to extend the trip over the weekend to visit family at the conclusion of the conference, I didn’t care to make an adventure of the situation. Until my husband, also in tow to visit family, suggested that we take a few extra vacation days and visit somewhere new.
“What if we fly into a different airport, then road trip the rest of the way to Dallas?”
So we did. After researching flight combinations and travel options, we opted to fly into Denver. Neither of us had been to Colorado, the airfare was reasonable, and the distance to Dallas was achievable to drive over the course of a few days.
We flew into Denver after work on Friday night, spent the weekend exploring Colorado. Completed our road trip to Dallas on Monday, in time to kick off my work conference on Tuesday. The remainder of the trip at the conference’s Thursday conclusion, was spent with family. The bookends of my work trip were solid, personal travel fun.
I shared all about my Denver to Dallas road trip. Stay tuned if you’re interested in hearing more about the logistics of this power trip.
I only used two vacation days for an 8 day trip across three states. A substantial win and Desk Departure tip, in my opinion.
Exploring Palo Duro Canyon during my Denver to Dallas road trip
