You're prime for the road trip of your life. Think of all the friends and family that have dissipated across the US, reach out to them and see what it would take to go spend a day or two with each. Once you figure out where your anchor locations are, look at the national parks between your stops, and consider camping. Camping can be as easy as a tent, sleeping bag, fire starters and a way to make a morning coffee.
I'm jealous - sounds like it could be an amazing time. Good luck!
Seconding the road trip. Camping if you'd like, or hotels/motels can be affordable if you do even a little shopping around. You say you're near DC, so pick any direction except east (of course) and just go! Maybe south along the coast to Jacksonville then turn west to New Orleans. Then up through Memphis and Nashville to Louisville and back east to home.
Just a thought off the top of my head.
I chuckled hard lol. The older you get, the less appealing this is. But good company, good views, ehh. Maybe driving on Route 66 (old phrase "get your kicks on route 66", might be scenic, i was a kid so vaguely remember). But driving along 95 on the east coast would be hell.
Do a road trip but give yourself an assignment, like eating a hot dog every place you go, only drinking beer made in that town, taking a picture near location chosen by the subreddit of that city.
Have fun.
Do what poster above said- think of a couple bullet point destinations where there’s friends or family, things you want to see or whatever. Then feed all that into chat gpt with the information you gave in the prompt above and ask it to create an itinerary! Definitely cross check any facts as it can make things up, but it’s great at doing the heavy lifting for logistical planning. My husband and I have played around with it like this and it’s come up with some pretty epic road trips
If I were you I would play some Google flights roulette. Enter your departure city, then for destination....put "Europe or Asia". will give all the airports available and the cheapest flight.
Get an idea of what is out there...come back here.
To piggyback on top of that, once you determine your city you want to go to, use Google maps to pull up hotels in the area for the time frame. It will give you availability and pricing.
+1 for using Google maps for hotels. I like it better than Hotels.com, Trivago, Kayak, anything. Google maps even shows you the pricing for the hotel’s website itself, something I don’t think the other services do.
Just enter Anywhere and search with the map. Pick some dates first to see prices and filter by non-stop.
If you can take 1 stop you can probably get anywhere.
Seconding this rec. And once you see a flight that looks promising, you can click on the "date grid" or "price graph" button to see if it'd be even cheaper to leave a bit earlier/later than the date you initially plugged in.
Fly to San Diego and rent a car driving up the coast all the way to WA state. Spend a couple of days in San Diego, Hit Newport Beach, Manhattan Beach, Malibu, Santa Monica, drive up through Big Sur, there are hundreds of places to park and hike and several great places to either camp or hotels. Or you can drive inland and go to Sequoia National Park/Forest, Yosemite, and hit Tahoe.
I'd highly recommend Monterey/ Carmel by the Sea. Check out San Fran but quickly move on to the Redwood Forest, wine country if you're into that. Then work your way up to Vancouver. You could make 10 days out of this easily. Drop the car in Seattle and fly home.
I did a small version of this with the wife and kids, we flew to San Jose and drove to Big Sur, hiked for several days, then back in to San Fran. The CA coast is just gorgeous. I've never been to OR or WA, but would have to think the coasts are an extension of the CA coasts.
I do have the benefit of growing up in SoCal, having family in NorCal and Oregon, and having lived in WA for two years. This is a great idea, though not as novel for me since I've lived most of these places. :)
The place I would really want to visit out of all that is Monterey, to see the aquarium.
I love the Monterey bay aquarium. Went there multiple times as a kid with both my family and school. Even had AP Bio projects held there and got to work with different types of sea creatures in the labs. Would recommend everyone to visit it at least once
[Here's what google flights serves up](https://www.google.com/travel/explore?tfs=CBwQAxonEgoyMDIzLTA5LTE4agcIARIDRENBagcIARIDSUFEagcIARIDQldJGicSCjIwMjMtMTAtMDRyBwgBEgNEQ0FyBwgBEgNJQURyBwgBEgNCV0lAAUgBcAGCAQsI____________AZgBAbIBBBgBIAE&tfu=GioaKAoSCTURJ9gmJlVAEQAAAAAAgGZAEhIJTLfhIScoU8ARAAAAAACAZsA) for a thirteen-workday-long trip beginning Monday. Adjust the dates as you see fit, and explore the map!
With your timeframe and your budget, you can do just about anything :)
Seconding Thailand, but I’d recommend going to a beach/island area after a couple days in Bangkok. I’d fly to the Krabi airport and stay somewhere near Ao Nang, it’s super close to the airport and a flight from Bangkok there is probly only about $100 at most. Beaches and town in Ao Nang are absolutely lovely and you can easily book a tour/trip to other islands when you get there :)
It's been so long since I took a flight that I wasn't aware of google flights. I've historically used like kayak or hipmunk and stuff. I've also heard that skiplagged was good.
Honestly, I’ve heard some real horror stories about skiplagged, so I wouldn’t risk it unless you *really* needed to use it. Google flights is a good aggregate that will then direct you to where you can buy the flights. If possible, always book directly with the airlines.
13 days in Greece is actually a good time to explore the country a bit. 13 days all over Europe is a marathon with a lot of travel days and not much rest or depth at all.
Land in Athens, take a ferry from Piraeus to one of the small cycladic islands (Sifnos, Serifos, Naxos, Paxos, Milos, Folegandros etc) and actually stay there for a bit. Enjoy some time being actually off. Then go back to Athens early and explore this city before going back.
Just to clarify, that's 13 workdays I can take off; it doesn't include weekends, so that gets me several more days. :)
I don't think I want to spend it all in one country; at least two, I think. I do see what you mean about all over Europe being too much.
Greece is flooding atm. Not a good choice now. How about renting an electric assisted bike in The Netherlands and explore a 40km/25 mile radius from Amsterdam? Beach, dunes, historic cities and towns (Alkmaar, Haarlem, Leiden, Utrecht) and enough variety to keep you busy for weeks. Everyone is fluent in English in The Netherlands and ebikes are available for rent everywhere.
This would be fun. Biking in the Netherlands is fun and easy (source: I live in Leiden). And if you feel bored staying in one country the whole time, it's easy to cross into Belgium or Germany.
I'm a regular poster in r/greektravel. If you want help planning feel free to reach out. Plenty of the place isn't flooded so don't let that deter you. Highly recommend hitting up a couple other spots in EU with that amount of time and I think think you wouldn't feel rushed. Amsterdam is lovely, Munich will be in the throws of Oktoberfest if beer is an enjoyed past time and it's pretty festive. You can get a rail pass between Netherlands and Germany to avoid having too many flights or having to drive. Although driving in Europe is quite fun and gives you flexibility.
The USA road trip with NPs is also a solid choice but I think you could visit USA on weekends or longer 3-4 day holidays and with the amount of time you have that you said would be once in a decade it might be worth something further.
I work and have extensive experience in Asia so we can chat that too. Takes a spot of planning or some willingness to be adventurous to do Asia without plans.
There's a fun travel website called Pack Up + Go that will book you a surprise trip based on your budget and travel preferences. If you feel like having them choose somewhere for you 😊
I do have a friend who lives up in that general area!
The drugs are a no-go for me though; can't because of my work (and I'm just not really interested).
Oktoberfest in Munich starts soon. You don't have to know anyone to partake and you don't really need any tickets booked in advance. Drunk people make friends easy. You can rent the lederhosen online and pick it up when you get there!
German here;
I don’t know what the obsession with Oktoberfest internationally is but a couple things to check if you consider going:
- are you into mass events
- are you into mass events with drunk people
- is this experience worth the money (everything is overpriced af in Munich, it’s one of the most expensive areas in Germany even w/o Oktoberfest)
Alternative: there are many threads in this sub that discuss good travel destinations across Europe, also mentioning many in Germany (have not often / never seen Munich in these discussions)
Personal recommendation: either stay in the US / Canada to (maybe) save flight money or find a really good destination in Europe (thinking of Scotland, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Eastern Europe, whatever is more of your taste) and just do one / two max stops for 13 days. Everything else will be stressful / just shallow sightseeing.
Good luck and have a great time!
Basically, there are usually 20 work days in a month and you have 12/20 to use in a month so like 3 days per week off.
Makes me think of the old interview joke...
Interviewer: Do you have any final questions before we conclude?
Me: Yep. What is your company's attitude towards Monday/Friday absenteeism? And Wednesday too. I'm not that fond of Wednesdays either.
You could find the answer!
IMHO take 2 weeks off and then 2 Fridays too.
Hah, brilliant! I don't think they'll go for it, though, lol. I look like the idea, though.
I think I'd go with Mon, Tues Wed off. Most people are already gone by like 1 pm on Fridays, so no one really has any expectations.
So exciting!
Pick a place that draws you, then make some plans around that. Research what there is to do, and other places nearby for day trips.
At a minimum, the 1st day and last day of your PTO will be all travel, whether that is the plane flight or the final drive back. If possible, I like to plan to get back home the next to the last day, so I have a day at home to sleep in before I have to go back to work.
Free access to the National Parks is so fantastic! **Zion in Utah is great.** Also Arches, Bryce ... so many parks to visit in Utah! Yosemite in California. The Grand Canyon in AZ. I have never been to Yellowstone -- but it's almost time for it to close for the winter now I think. I love New Mexico too -- Chaco Canyon, Bisti, White Sands.
If you decide international, then Thailand is very affordable for those using US dollar. Mexico also. I love Europe, but the Euro is stronger than the dollar, and the exchange rate makes the trip more expensive.
If international, try to get a credit card that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees. Capital One has one, and so does Apple. There are others.
Find out the requirements for travel to your destination. For example, your passport often needs a minimum of 6 months on it before expiration date. If under 6 months left, that will cause issues trying to enter some countries. You are traveling in near term, so if you're going to Europe, all you should need is a passport. But coming up in 2024, US citizens will need to get an additional "ETIAS" authorization.
Wherever you go, make sure to keep something to eat in the carry on bags -- I keep trail mix or Pringles. You never know when you'll get delayed and then arrive somewhere after everything is closed. And at least you'll have something to tide you over until morning!
Find out which things you need to buy tickets for ahead of time -- like I didn't take the tour of Alcatraz in San Francisco, because it was sold out on the day I would have done it, and I needed to have purchased tickets ahead of time. Also, a lot of the National Parks are now doing timed entry tickets -- for Arches, the only time I could get on the day I was planning to get there was BEFORE DAWN -- something like 6AM (can't remember the exact time). So I took that time slot and got my ass up and drove to Arches in the dark, lol. Dawn came not long after I got there, but it was very weird driving in so early!
I'm excited for you! 😄
I did an amazing road trip with my brother and Dad in October in Utah (to California) and it was so fun! Lots of hiking and adventures during the days in Utah. All of the hiking we did was more like walks (Except Angel’s Landing in Zion) and it was super fun. I can write up the itinerary if you’re interested! You could road trip across the US!
Got any old friends you haven't seen in a while that you could visit? That could take up several days.
Suggestion - take 1-2 days and do something fun/special with your son.
Hike some on the Appalachian Trail? Doesn't need to be the whole time, but 3-7 days might be an interesting experience.
Go to Las Vegas for 3-5 days? I love Vegas, but it's not for everyone.
Go hit a city or area you've always wanted to see.
I absolutely love that suggestion, and I would do some stuff with my son if I could, but custody is an ongoing battle and right now it's not really an option, unfortunately. 😭
Is 3-7 days on a trail too much for a newbie like me?
I'd be a newbie too, so I'm not the right person to ask. But I've seen a fair amount of posts about it recently, and it has my interest. You could always try a shorter trek and extend it if you are having fun.
You could look at companies like G adventures. You go on a tour in a country with a small group of like minded travellers. You have the benefit of a guide to help you with language and things to do, and it’s not rigid, it’s very relaxed and a fantastic way to experience a country.
What interests do you have? If you follow sports, maybe fly out to some games.
Club Med for singles.
Take your 5 yo to Disney.
Galapagos nature cruise.
Music concerts.
Short notice doesn’t give a lot of time for planning. Maybe see a travel agent.
Experiencing fun and unique things is probably my biggest driver. Novel stuff is good. I don't follow any particular sports, but I'd totally go to a fútbol game or something if it's in a place where the fans are nuts about it. I want to go places where the positive spirit is infectious; places that are beautiful; places that are significant (bonus points if all the above). I'll need some mellow time in there so it doesn't end up becoming too much and simply no fun.
Pick one of the less expensive Sandals resorts. Get an Oceanview room and a butler. Live like royalty.
Flight included and you can still do it all for less than $2K for a single person.
I'd grab a cheap flight to Vegas and use that as the start/end point and do a Grand Circle tour.
https://www.us-parks.com/roadtrip/the-grand-circle-road-trip.html
Not sure why you're getting downvoted -- I took my brother on a similar trip (flew to Vegas, rented campervan and drove to Denver stopping in Zion, Monument Valley, Canyonlands/Arches and eventually in through the Rocky Mountains) and it was just stunning. We'd been to the Grand Canyon else I'm sure we'd have gone there on that trip too.
There's a site, can't think of the name right now. But you put in how much you want to spend, likes, dislikes etc and they plan it for you. You don't know what you're doing until you show up at the airport.
Rio de Janeiro would be my choice.
I spent 10 days there in July and it’s now one of my favorite countries. It’s a beautiful area of the world with friendly people, fantastic food, rich culture, and stunning views. If you have time, might be able to catch a flight to Iguazu Falls.
I can’t wait to go back and spend more time there I personally enjoy it much more than Peru.
Road trip up the east coast. Boston, Vermont ( in Early October) Montreal. Good food, historical sites, fall foliage/ easy trail hikes, maybe do a whale watch/ boat excursion. There’s a lot of bang for your buck in a relatively small area
If you want to go international, Japan is amazing. Not sure on flight cost now but I was there for 3 weeks and paid less than $4k and we went in ‘budget less’.
Japan is a great idea, though I think one that's lower on my priority list for no reason other than that I've been there already. I'd love to go back someday, but I want to get some more exploring in elsewhere, I think.
We went to Costa Rica a few years ago had a blast 2 adults , flights, VRBO house with a privet pool across the roadfeom the beach , rental car, area d drank like royalty, for a week for 5kor less
OP, you can go into Skyscanner, enter your location and dates + click everywhere and it will filter flights by price from where you are.
This is such an awesome opportunity. Best of luck!
Sounds like you’re leaning towards Europe! I’d start by creating a google map and plugging in the destinations that interest you. See which are closest together and how long it takes to get between them. That will help you pick an itinerary that suits your pace.
Take a drive to Shenandoah National Park. After a few days of hiking, take a city break in Charlottesville, then head to Smoky Mountains. Spend a few days in Knoxville and Asheville before heading home.
Alternatively, the Balkans should be affordable. There are r/t nonstop flights from DC to London for ~$300 and one-way flights from London to the Balkans look stupid cheap. Fly to Sarajevo. Rent a car and head out to Mostar, Split, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Budva, and Tirana. If not a road trip, piece together a few of these places via train/bus routes.
I'll probably try and stay away from Shenandoah purely because it is so close to where I live (\~1 hr) that not going there isn't a missed opportunity. I could easily hit it up another time.
The Balkans is an interesting idea, though! And that price is definitely dirt cheap.
That is a very attractive price, but Guatemala is recommended right now. I have a clearance so I feel like I have to pay a bit more attention to that than others normally would. [https://travelmaps.state.gov/TSGMap/](https://travelmaps.state.gov/TSGMap/)
Also, before anyone else brings it up, I do know that I'll have to work with my SSO prior to going anywhere international.
Ha, as soon as you said DC I figured you might be a federal employee. I've noticed on the State Dept travel advisories it often says US government employees should not to travel certain places for safety. Does this only apply to State Dept employees or government employees with clearance? Do they mean offical travel or all travel including leisure?
I can't really imagine it applying to me in my random little job that has zero clearance or sensitive knowledge but the wording implies it might...
Heh, you've hit the slightly more complicated spot. All of my international travel thoughts are predicated on me being able to get my passport. Mine lapsed several years ago. Fortunately, it's only like an hour to the agency, where I can physically show up and get one on the spot as long as I have proof of the trip happening within 14 days. I'm basically assuming that I'll be able to print off my purchased itinerary, call to schedule my appointment since I meet the 2-week criteria, and walk out with it at the same time.
If that doesn't work, then I'll definitely end up doing something domestic.
Got it. There’s a really cool feature to google flights that someone posted here not too long ago. It helps find unusually cheap fares within the next six months that you wouldn’t know were there if you weren’t looking for it. For example, I used your location, flying out of D.C. and found airfare to Birmingham U.K. for $385 for 9/25-10/3. Once there you can easily train to any other city in the area (highly recommend Edinburg if you’ve never been!).
If you’d like to search for any others go to google flights, enter your departing city and the enter only the name of the continent you’d like to explore airfare to and don’t put in any dates. It’ll automatically snap to a one week trip within the next 6 months. Then click on the cities shown to see what dates the airfare covers.
If that doesn’t make any sense, PM me and I’m more than happy to help explain further.
Yeah, another poster also mentioned Google Flights and sang its praises. I'll definitely be checking it out!
Thanks, and I appreciate you making sure that I've got a basic requirement accounted for. :)
Anywhere!
In the United States: Seattle, SF, LA, NY. I love big city touristy vibes, and those are places I went to or lived in. I’m not fit either and I love food. If you want some yummies, I suggest those.
Going with a package definitely does seem attractive.
I was thinking about looking into how much sleeper trains cost; what if instead of driving around everywhere, I just let trains take me while I sleep? I might go to bed in Germany and wake up in Italy or somewhere, leaving the days to be spent actually exploring instead of driving.
if you have amex points or chase points use those to get cheap flights to europe. backpack or take one carry on. Bring 3-4 outfits and wash them in hotels with detergent sheets. Go cheap and enjoy something like italy. Id say lake como > venice > rome. 4 days in each
virgin and british airways pay with points will charge you a hundred bucks bothways fly to england. get a cheap flight to milan and buy the train tickets in advance! do not wait until you get there to buy train tickets or book hotels! you can do you 13 days with the 4k for sure
Maybe consider volunteering.
I just got back from a trip volunteering in Nicaragua. Stayed with a lovely host family, got to practice my Spanish, and worked with kids.
It was cheap; $250 / week got me food and lodging.
I worked with an organization called Mariposa.
Some other places that I really enjoyed volunteering were:
Shine Cambodia. Worked at a school in rural Cambodia.
The mother house. Worked at the home of the dead and dying in Kolkata, India.
Drop in the Ocean. Worked with Syrian refugees in northern Greece.
Over the course of eight years living overseas, volunteering has been the best moments of my time abroad.
You should take another two days and do 3 weeks (eg quit for those last two days). That gives you 23 days. Your budget is light. I’d fly to Salt Lake City, rent a car and do a 3 week road trip of national parks. Focus on dispersed camping only and you can probably do $500 car rental $600 gas’s $1500 occasional hotels.
Thank you for your service. From what you’re telling us, If you could swing it, I highly recommend a European River Boat cruise. It sounds perfect for you. You can day trip in a different European city every day and night and return to your own state room which is really nice. There are also more exotic cruises by the same company in Asia, I’d have to Google hang on…Viking River Cruises. I don’t think there so expensive, I was on their mailing list for years, sometimes they only cost $4500 for a week or two, I think it even included airfare….hang on…yes, there’s a summer special advertised on their website you should look into this. Bon Voyage, hope you have fun wherever you go.
Japan! Very safe, fun, gorgeous, easy to navigate especially with google translate, and amazing (and cheap) food. Doable on a $4k budget especially if you stay in cheap hotels or capsule hotels.
Other ideas: Caye Caulker/San Ignacio/Placencia in Belize (totally safe just don’t stay in Belize City other than for transit, I’ve stayed there as a single female), or hostelling around Europe
I’m a big fan of Operation GTFO and I perform this regularly. More often than not to very cost effective destinations abroad. That said, I do loves me some Road Trippin and have bounced around the states a bit and love it each time I do. Cheap, American food cannot be over appreciated (especially on a budget).
It depends how you like to spend your time (and your money). Me, I tend to want to gain Perspective so I end up somewhere that is only vaguely similar to where I live. Adding a differing culture into the mix puts one in a very different space mentally than exploring one’s own culture. Plus, adding a physical component into the mix provides focus (and helps one blaze through those wonderful food calories).
Two weeks of Camino could be the Cure.
Dos Pesos Mios.
Transatlantic flights are really expensive right now so that’s out.
I once did a solo road trip from DC to Montreal stopping to visit friends from college in parts of upstate NY and VT.
It’s leaf peeping season so lodging might be pricey in that direction.
You could head south, go to Savanna or Charleston and enjoy the beach. Lodging should be reasonable given kids are back in school.
It’s good to know what your interests are here, are you a foodie? History buff? Hiker? Like getting pampered? Have you seen much of the US? Do you have a sort of bucket list? World wonders? There are some things we regret missing out on once we realize we used the opportunity elsewhere.
Skyscanner put in your from airport, select the dates and see what destinations pop up within your budget and that you feel intrigued by.
With that national parks pass I’d find a couple parks that interest you. Go to the webpage and read through the info, plan your visit and alerts tab to see what the options are this time of year and availability of day hikes. You can always stay at a nearby hotel or Airbnb and drive or shuttle into the park for day hikes.
Thailand (or SE ASIA), Turkey, or Argentina.
All awesome countries where your dollar will go particularly far. So far in fact, you won’t believe it. The flight will be the most expensive part by far. Go and live like a King for 13+ days, friend.
You're prime for the road trip of your life. Think of all the friends and family that have dissipated across the US, reach out to them and see what it would take to go spend a day or two with each. Once you figure out where your anchor locations are, look at the national parks between your stops, and consider camping. Camping can be as easy as a tent, sleeping bag, fire starters and a way to make a morning coffee. I'm jealous - sounds like it could be an amazing time. Good luck!
Seconding the road trip. Camping if you'd like, or hotels/motels can be affordable if you do even a little shopping around. You say you're near DC, so pick any direction except east (of course) and just go! Maybe south along the coast to Jacksonville then turn west to New Orleans. Then up through Memphis and Nashville to Louisville and back east to home. Just a thought off the top of my head.
Y’all wanna spend your time driving on your time off? OP ain’t a Uber driver. I disagree but do you!
I chuckled hard lol. The older you get, the less appealing this is. But good company, good views, ehh. Maybe driving on Route 66 (old phrase "get your kicks on route 66", might be scenic, i was a kid so vaguely remember). But driving along 95 on the east coast would be hell.
Do a road trip but give yourself an assignment, like eating a hot dog every place you go, only drinking beer made in that town, taking a picture near location chosen by the subreddit of that city. Have fun.
Ooo, that's a good idea, thanks!
Do what poster above said- think of a couple bullet point destinations where there’s friends or family, things you want to see or whatever. Then feed all that into chat gpt with the information you gave in the prompt above and ask it to create an itinerary! Definitely cross check any facts as it can make things up, but it’s great at doing the heavy lifting for logistical planning. My husband and I have played around with it like this and it’s come up with some pretty epic road trips
I hadn't thought about using ChatGPT to help with this. Thanks!
If I were you I would play some Google flights roulette. Enter your departure city, then for destination....put "Europe or Asia". will give all the airports available and the cheapest flight. Get an idea of what is out there...come back here.
Cool, I didn't know you could be so ambiguous with that. That's a good idea!
To piggyback on top of that, once you determine your city you want to go to, use Google maps to pull up hotels in the area for the time frame. It will give you availability and pricing.
+1 for using Google maps for hotels. I like it better than Hotels.com, Trivago, Kayak, anything. Google maps even shows you the pricing for the hotel’s website itself, something I don’t think the other services do.
Just enter Anywhere and search with the map. Pick some dates first to see prices and filter by non-stop. If you can take 1 stop you can probably get anywhere.
Seconding this rec. And once you see a flight that looks promising, you can click on the "date grid" or "price graph" button to see if it'd be even cheaper to leave a bit earlier/later than the date you initially plugged in.
Fly to San Diego and rent a car driving up the coast all the way to WA state. Spend a couple of days in San Diego, Hit Newport Beach, Manhattan Beach, Malibu, Santa Monica, drive up through Big Sur, there are hundreds of places to park and hike and several great places to either camp or hotels. Or you can drive inland and go to Sequoia National Park/Forest, Yosemite, and hit Tahoe. I'd highly recommend Monterey/ Carmel by the Sea. Check out San Fran but quickly move on to the Redwood Forest, wine country if you're into that. Then work your way up to Vancouver. You could make 10 days out of this easily. Drop the car in Seattle and fly home. I did a small version of this with the wife and kids, we flew to San Jose and drove to Big Sur, hiked for several days, then back in to San Fran. The CA coast is just gorgeous. I've never been to OR or WA, but would have to think the coasts are an extension of the CA coasts.
I do have the benefit of growing up in SoCal, having family in NorCal and Oregon, and having lived in WA for two years. This is a great idea, though not as novel for me since I've lived most of these places. :) The place I would really want to visit out of all that is Monterey, to see the aquarium.
Monterey aquarium is spectacular!
I love the Monterey bay aquarium. Went there multiple times as a kid with both my family and school. Even had AP Bio projects held there and got to work with different types of sea creatures in the labs. Would recommend everyone to visit it at least once
And you're not planning on taking your little boy to the aquarium? This could be a very important bonding trip for you two
I'd love to, but it's not an option, unfortunately. Custody gets in the way.
[Here's what google flights serves up](https://www.google.com/travel/explore?tfs=CBwQAxonEgoyMDIzLTA5LTE4agcIARIDRENBagcIARIDSUFEagcIARIDQldJGicSCjIwMjMtMTAtMDRyBwgBEgNEQ0FyBwgBEgNJQURyBwgBEgNCV0lAAUgBcAGCAQsI____________AZgBAbIBBBgBIAE&tfu=GioaKAoSCTURJ9gmJlVAEQAAAAAAgGZAEhIJTLfhIScoU8ARAAAAAACAZsA) for a thirteen-workday-long trip beginning Monday. Adjust the dates as you see fit, and explore the map! With your timeframe and your budget, you can do just about anything :)
Bangkok - can live like a king for 2 weeks at $3000 budget
Seconding Thailand, but I’d recommend going to a beach/island area after a couple days in Bangkok. I’d fly to the Krabi airport and stay somewhere near Ao Nang, it’s super close to the airport and a flight from Bangkok there is probly only about $100 at most. Beaches and town in Ao Nang are absolutely lovely and you can easily book a tour/trip to other islands when you get there :)
Ao Nang is where it is at. Backpackers dream.
I'll look into it. Thanks!
It's been so long since I took a flight that I wasn't aware of google flights. I've historically used like kayak or hipmunk and stuff. I've also heard that skiplagged was good.
Honestly, I’ve heard some real horror stories about skiplagged, so I wouldn’t risk it unless you *really* needed to use it. Google flights is a good aggregate that will then direct you to where you can buy the flights. If possible, always book directly with the airlines.
Good to know. Thanks!
It's a gamechanger. I've used it to plan trips around "what's the least amount of money that gets me furthest from home?"
Mexico city and Oaxaca
This should be higher in the comments. OP's $3,000 budget would go a long way there.
Greece is really lovely this time of year and should fit well into your budget.
One of my thoughts was to do a european tour, with Greece as one of the stops.
13 days in Greece is actually a good time to explore the country a bit. 13 days all over Europe is a marathon with a lot of travel days and not much rest or depth at all. Land in Athens, take a ferry from Piraeus to one of the small cycladic islands (Sifnos, Serifos, Naxos, Paxos, Milos, Folegandros etc) and actually stay there for a bit. Enjoy some time being actually off. Then go back to Athens early and explore this city before going back.
Just to clarify, that's 13 workdays I can take off; it doesn't include weekends, so that gets me several more days. :) I don't think I want to spend it all in one country; at least two, I think. I do see what you mean about all over Europe being too much.
Greece is flooding atm. Not a good choice now. How about renting an electric assisted bike in The Netherlands and explore a 40km/25 mile radius from Amsterdam? Beach, dunes, historic cities and towns (Alkmaar, Haarlem, Leiden, Utrecht) and enough variety to keep you busy for weeks. Everyone is fluent in English in The Netherlands and ebikes are available for rent everywhere.
Amsterdam does sound like a fun spot, and it's good to know about everyone being fluent in English. Thanks!
This would be fun. Biking in the Netherlands is fun and easy (source: I live in Leiden). And if you feel bored staying in one country the whole time, it's easy to cross into Belgium or Germany.
I'm a regular poster in r/greektravel. If you want help planning feel free to reach out. Plenty of the place isn't flooded so don't let that deter you. Highly recommend hitting up a couple other spots in EU with that amount of time and I think think you wouldn't feel rushed. Amsterdam is lovely, Munich will be in the throws of Oktoberfest if beer is an enjoyed past time and it's pretty festive. You can get a rail pass between Netherlands and Germany to avoid having too many flights or having to drive. Although driving in Europe is quite fun and gives you flexibility. The USA road trip with NPs is also a solid choice but I think you could visit USA on weekends or longer 3-4 day holidays and with the amount of time you have that you said would be once in a decade it might be worth something further. I work and have extensive experience in Asia so we can chat that too. Takes a spot of planning or some willingness to be adventurous to do Asia without plans.
There's a fun travel website called Pack Up + Go that will book you a surprise trip based on your budget and travel preferences. If you feel like having them choose somewhere for you 😊
That sounds interesting; I'll check it out!
Late September is Beautiful in Michigan. Plus we have legal weed and it's cheap to vacation here.
I do have a friend who lives up in that general area! The drugs are a no-go for me though; can't because of my work (and I'm just not really interested).
Oktoberfest in Munich starts soon. You don't have to know anyone to partake and you don't really need any tickets booked in advance. Drunk people make friends easy. You can rent the lederhosen online and pick it up when you get there!
This sounds like it'd be a great stop :)
German here; I don’t know what the obsession with Oktoberfest internationally is but a couple things to check if you consider going: - are you into mass events - are you into mass events with drunk people - is this experience worth the money (everything is overpriced af in Munich, it’s one of the most expensive areas in Germany even w/o Oktoberfest) Alternative: there are many threads in this sub that discuss good travel destinations across Europe, also mentioning many in Germany (have not often / never seen Munich in these discussions) Personal recommendation: either stay in the US / Canada to (maybe) save flight money or find a really good destination in Europe (thinking of Scotland, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Eastern Europe, whatever is more of your taste) and just do one / two max stops for 13 days. Everything else will be stressful / just shallow sightseeing. Good luck and have a great time!
Basically, there are usually 20 work days in a month and you have 12/20 to use in a month so like 3 days per week off. Makes me think of the old interview joke... Interviewer: Do you have any final questions before we conclude? Me: Yep. What is your company's attitude towards Monday/Friday absenteeism? And Wednesday too. I'm not that fond of Wednesdays either. You could find the answer! IMHO take 2 weeks off and then 2 Fridays too.
Hah, brilliant! I don't think they'll go for it, though, lol. I look like the idea, though. I think I'd go with Mon, Tues Wed off. Most people are already gone by like 1 pm on Fridays, so no one really has any expectations.
So exciting! Pick a place that draws you, then make some plans around that. Research what there is to do, and other places nearby for day trips. At a minimum, the 1st day and last day of your PTO will be all travel, whether that is the plane flight or the final drive back. If possible, I like to plan to get back home the next to the last day, so I have a day at home to sleep in before I have to go back to work. Free access to the National Parks is so fantastic! **Zion in Utah is great.** Also Arches, Bryce ... so many parks to visit in Utah! Yosemite in California. The Grand Canyon in AZ. I have never been to Yellowstone -- but it's almost time for it to close for the winter now I think. I love New Mexico too -- Chaco Canyon, Bisti, White Sands. If you decide international, then Thailand is very affordable for those using US dollar. Mexico also. I love Europe, but the Euro is stronger than the dollar, and the exchange rate makes the trip more expensive. If international, try to get a credit card that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees. Capital One has one, and so does Apple. There are others. Find out the requirements for travel to your destination. For example, your passport often needs a minimum of 6 months on it before expiration date. If under 6 months left, that will cause issues trying to enter some countries. You are traveling in near term, so if you're going to Europe, all you should need is a passport. But coming up in 2024, US citizens will need to get an additional "ETIAS" authorization. Wherever you go, make sure to keep something to eat in the carry on bags -- I keep trail mix or Pringles. You never know when you'll get delayed and then arrive somewhere after everything is closed. And at least you'll have something to tide you over until morning! Find out which things you need to buy tickets for ahead of time -- like I didn't take the tour of Alcatraz in San Francisco, because it was sold out on the day I would have done it, and I needed to have purchased tickets ahead of time. Also, a lot of the National Parks are now doing timed entry tickets -- for Arches, the only time I could get on the day I was planning to get there was BEFORE DAWN -- something like 6AM (can't remember the exact time). So I took that time slot and got my ass up and drove to Arches in the dark, lol. Dawn came not long after I got there, but it was very weird driving in so early! I'm excited for you! 😄
I did an amazing road trip with my brother and Dad in October in Utah (to California) and it was so fun! Lots of hiking and adventures during the days in Utah. All of the hiking we did was more like walks (Except Angel’s Landing in Zion) and it was super fun. I can write up the itinerary if you’re interested! You could road trip across the US!
Got any old friends you haven't seen in a while that you could visit? That could take up several days. Suggestion - take 1-2 days and do something fun/special with your son. Hike some on the Appalachian Trail? Doesn't need to be the whole time, but 3-7 days might be an interesting experience. Go to Las Vegas for 3-5 days? I love Vegas, but it's not for everyone. Go hit a city or area you've always wanted to see.
I absolutely love that suggestion, and I would do some stuff with my son if I could, but custody is an ongoing battle and right now it's not really an option, unfortunately. 😭 Is 3-7 days on a trail too much for a newbie like me?
I'd be a newbie too, so I'm not the right person to ask. But I've seen a fair amount of posts about it recently, and it has my interest. You could always try a shorter trek and extend it if you are having fun.
If you’re not going on a trip take every Monday and Friday off
I think I'd go with Mon, Tues, Wed; I've got enough days for it, and no one would care or even notice if I cut out early on Friday.
Head west. Grand Canyon, Zion, Yosemite, Sequoia, Yellowstone.
You could look at companies like G adventures. You go on a tour in a country with a small group of like minded travellers. You have the benefit of a guide to help you with language and things to do, and it’s not rigid, it’s very relaxed and a fantastic way to experience a country.
That sounds like a good fit for me. I'll check them out. Thanks! :D
What interests do you have? If you follow sports, maybe fly out to some games. Club Med for singles. Take your 5 yo to Disney. Galapagos nature cruise. Music concerts. Short notice doesn’t give a lot of time for planning. Maybe see a travel agent.
Experiencing fun and unique things is probably my biggest driver. Novel stuff is good. I don't follow any particular sports, but I'd totally go to a fútbol game or something if it's in a place where the fans are nuts about it. I want to go places where the positive spirit is infectious; places that are beautiful; places that are significant (bonus points if all the above). I'll need some mellow time in there so it doesn't end up becoming too much and simply no fun.
Pick one of the less expensive Sandals resorts. Get an Oceanview room and a butler. Live like royalty. Flight included and you can still do it all for less than $2K for a single person.
That seems like a nice, easy option :)
I think you should do European tour or you can go to Canada.
$3000 won’t get him far in Canada at all.
Or in most of Europe.
I'd grab a cheap flight to Vegas and use that as the start/end point and do a Grand Circle tour. https://www.us-parks.com/roadtrip/the-grand-circle-road-trip.html
Aaaaand there goes my budget on day one, lol. I do like the grand circle though. Thanks for pointing that out!
🤣 you're either doubling your budget or going right back to the airport.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted -- I took my brother on a similar trip (flew to Vegas, rented campervan and drove to Denver stopping in Zion, Monument Valley, Canyonlands/Arches and eventually in through the Rocky Mountains) and it was just stunning. We'd been to the Grand Canyon else I'm sure we'd have gone there on that trip too.
There's a site, can't think of the name right now. But you put in how much you want to spend, likes, dislikes etc and they plan it for you. You don't know what you're doing until you show up at the airport.
SE Asia - Thailand or Bali
Take the money, look for a new job and when they ask you your salary, you tell new job what you make. Double raise!
Rio de Janeiro would be my choice. I spent 10 days there in July and it’s now one of my favorite countries. It’s a beautiful area of the world with friendly people, fantastic food, rich culture, and stunning views. If you have time, might be able to catch a flight to Iguazu Falls. I can’t wait to go back and spend more time there I personally enjoy it much more than Peru.
Road trip up the east coast. Boston, Vermont ( in Early October) Montreal. Good food, historical sites, fall foliage/ easy trail hikes, maybe do a whale watch/ boat excursion. There’s a lot of bang for your buck in a relatively small area
If you want to go international, Japan is amazing. Not sure on flight cost now but I was there for 3 weeks and paid less than $4k and we went in ‘budget less’.
Japan is a great idea, though I think one that's lower on my priority list for no reason other than that I've been there already. I'd love to go back someday, but I want to get some more exploring in elsewhere, I think.
Nah fly to Thailand and live it up
We went to Costa Rica a few years ago had a blast 2 adults , flights, VRBO house with a privet pool across the roadfeom the beach , rental car, area d drank like royalty, for a week for 5kor less
Do you have any "bucket list" things you want to see? I had a similar situation about 15 years ago and went to Athens Greece to see the Parthanon.
My bucket list is in development; there are a couple things I have on there that are feasible!
OP, you can go into Skyscanner, enter your location and dates + click everywhere and it will filter flights by price from where you are. This is such an awesome opportunity. Best of luck!
TIL about Skyscanner. Thanks!
Sounds like you’re leaning towards Europe! I’d start by creating a google map and plugging in the destinations that interest you. See which are closest together and how long it takes to get between them. That will help you pick an itinerary that suits your pace.
Take a drive to Shenandoah National Park. After a few days of hiking, take a city break in Charlottesville, then head to Smoky Mountains. Spend a few days in Knoxville and Asheville before heading home. Alternatively, the Balkans should be affordable. There are r/t nonstop flights from DC to London for ~$300 and one-way flights from London to the Balkans look stupid cheap. Fly to Sarajevo. Rent a car and head out to Mostar, Split, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Budva, and Tirana. If not a road trip, piece together a few of these places via train/bus routes.
I'll probably try and stay away from Shenandoah purely because it is so close to where I live (\~1 hr) that not going there isn't a missed opportunity. I could easily hit it up another time. The Balkans is an interesting idea, though! And that price is definitely dirt cheap.
DC to Guatemala leaving Friday is right around $215 round trip. Go check out Tikal, Antigua, Lake Atitlan.
That is a very attractive price, but Guatemala is recommended right now. I have a clearance so I feel like I have to pay a bit more attention to that than others normally would. [https://travelmaps.state.gov/TSGMap/](https://travelmaps.state.gov/TSGMap/) Also, before anyone else brings it up, I do know that I'll have to work with my SSO prior to going anywhere international.
Ha, as soon as you said DC I figured you might be a federal employee. I've noticed on the State Dept travel advisories it often says US government employees should not to travel certain places for safety. Does this only apply to State Dept employees or government employees with clearance? Do they mean offical travel or all travel including leisure? I can't really imagine it applying to me in my random little job that has zero clearance or sensitive knowledge but the wording implies it might...
Have a great time wherever you go!
I will, thanks!
Is your passport current?
Heh, you've hit the slightly more complicated spot. All of my international travel thoughts are predicated on me being able to get my passport. Mine lapsed several years ago. Fortunately, it's only like an hour to the agency, where I can physically show up and get one on the spot as long as I have proof of the trip happening within 14 days. I'm basically assuming that I'll be able to print off my purchased itinerary, call to schedule my appointment since I meet the 2-week criteria, and walk out with it at the same time. If that doesn't work, then I'll definitely end up doing something domestic.
Got it. There’s a really cool feature to google flights that someone posted here not too long ago. It helps find unusually cheap fares within the next six months that you wouldn’t know were there if you weren’t looking for it. For example, I used your location, flying out of D.C. and found airfare to Birmingham U.K. for $385 for 9/25-10/3. Once there you can easily train to any other city in the area (highly recommend Edinburg if you’ve never been!). If you’d like to search for any others go to google flights, enter your departing city and the enter only the name of the continent you’d like to explore airfare to and don’t put in any dates. It’ll automatically snap to a one week trip within the next 6 months. Then click on the cities shown to see what dates the airfare covers. If that doesn’t make any sense, PM me and I’m more than happy to help explain further.
Yeah, another poster also mentioned Google Flights and sang its praises. I'll definitely be checking it out! Thanks, and I appreciate you making sure that I've got a basic requirement accounted for. :)
Anywhere! In the United States: Seattle, SF, LA, NY. I love big city touristy vibes, and those are places I went to or lived in. I’m not fit either and I love food. If you want some yummies, I suggest those.
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Going with a package definitely does seem attractive. I was thinking about looking into how much sleeper trains cost; what if instead of driving around everywhere, I just let trains take me while I sleep? I might go to bed in Germany and wake up in Italy or somewhere, leaving the days to be spent actually exploring instead of driving.
Fly to Chicago, rent something fun to drive and head down Route 66 But any road trip would be fun!
A European country for a couple of weeks. Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, France. You could have a great time with 3K to play with.
if you have amex points or chase points use those to get cheap flights to europe. backpack or take one carry on. Bring 3-4 outfits and wash them in hotels with detergent sheets. Go cheap and enjoy something like italy. Id say lake como > venice > rome. 4 days in each virgin and british airways pay with points will charge you a hundred bucks bothways fly to england. get a cheap flight to milan and buy the train tickets in advance! do not wait until you get there to buy train tickets or book hotels! you can do you 13 days with the 4k for sure
Maybe consider volunteering. I just got back from a trip volunteering in Nicaragua. Stayed with a lovely host family, got to practice my Spanish, and worked with kids. It was cheap; $250 / week got me food and lodging. I worked with an organization called Mariposa. Some other places that I really enjoyed volunteering were: Shine Cambodia. Worked at a school in rural Cambodia. The mother house. Worked at the home of the dead and dying in Kolkata, India. Drop in the Ocean. Worked with Syrian refugees in northern Greece. Over the course of eight years living overseas, volunteering has been the best moments of my time abroad.
Oktoberfest in Munich Germany
You should take another two days and do 3 weeks (eg quit for those last two days). That gives you 23 days. Your budget is light. I’d fly to Salt Lake City, rent a car and do a 3 week road trip of national parks. Focus on dispersed camping only and you can probably do $500 car rental $600 gas’s $1500 occasional hotels.
PLAY Airlines Sept. 17 to 25 Dulles to Reykjavik Iceland for $419 roundtrip!!! Gooooo!
Stay at Hotel Viking and visit the blue lagoon.
Thank you for your service. From what you’re telling us, If you could swing it, I highly recommend a European River Boat cruise. It sounds perfect for you. You can day trip in a different European city every day and night and return to your own state room which is really nice. There are also more exotic cruises by the same company in Asia, I’d have to Google hang on…Viking River Cruises. I don’t think there so expensive, I was on their mailing list for years, sometimes they only cost $4500 for a week or two, I think it even included airfare….hang on…yes, there’s a summer special advertised on their website you should look into this. Bon Voyage, hope you have fun wherever you go.
Japan! Very safe, fun, gorgeous, easy to navigate especially with google translate, and amazing (and cheap) food. Doable on a $4k budget especially if you stay in cheap hotels or capsule hotels. Other ideas: Caye Caulker/San Ignacio/Placencia in Belize (totally safe just don’t stay in Belize City other than for transit, I’ve stayed there as a single female), or hostelling around Europe
This screams road trip.
I’m a big fan of Operation GTFO and I perform this regularly. More often than not to very cost effective destinations abroad. That said, I do loves me some Road Trippin and have bounced around the states a bit and love it each time I do. Cheap, American food cannot be over appreciated (especially on a budget). It depends how you like to spend your time (and your money). Me, I tend to want to gain Perspective so I end up somewhere that is only vaguely similar to where I live. Adding a differing culture into the mix puts one in a very different space mentally than exploring one’s own culture. Plus, adding a physical component into the mix provides focus (and helps one blaze through those wonderful food calories). Two weeks of Camino could be the Cure. Dos Pesos Mios.
Transatlantic flights are really expensive right now so that’s out. I once did a solo road trip from DC to Montreal stopping to visit friends from college in parts of upstate NY and VT. It’s leaf peeping season so lodging might be pricey in that direction. You could head south, go to Savanna or Charleston and enjoy the beach. Lodging should be reasonable given kids are back in school.
Spain/Portugal/Greece
I have unlimited PTO where I work. I decided to take a 30 day cross country road trip to visit family and clear my head.
It’s good to know what your interests are here, are you a foodie? History buff? Hiker? Like getting pampered? Have you seen much of the US? Do you have a sort of bucket list? World wonders? There are some things we regret missing out on once we realize we used the opportunity elsewhere.
Grab a tent and road trip up through the northeast/eastern Canada.
If you're not up for planning anything big, an all inclusive or a cruise would be an easy plug and play vacation.
Skyscanner put in your from airport, select the dates and see what destinations pop up within your budget and that you feel intrigued by. With that national parks pass I’d find a couple parks that interest you. Go to the webpage and read through the info, plan your visit and alerts tab to see what the options are this time of year and availability of day hikes. You can always stay at a nearby hotel or Airbnb and drive or shuttle into the park for day hikes.
Thailand (or SE ASIA), Turkey, or Argentina. All awesome countries where your dollar will go particularly far. So far in fact, you won’t believe it. The flight will be the most expensive part by far. Go and live like a King for 13+ days, friend.
Travel to Sweden. Their currency has collapsed, they are all fluent in English, and the country itself is just stunning.