So FIRE is still a ways off, but what if you had a month off, what would you do?

[Kevin Aster Tin Obin]

Maybe you are planning the sell the house and move on to greener pastures when you are FIRE or have F-U money, but what if you could pause and take 3-4 weeks or a month off from daily grind.  Would you do it and what would you do for that time?  Seems like so many in rat race don't know what to do with more that a week off at a time.  What are good month-long sabbatical options if you could do it?

Wondering what others think?

[Laura33]

Rent a house someplace I have always wanted to go.  Top priority for me now would be Australia and/or New Zealand, because you just can't even scratch the surface there in a week or two.  Though I'd also consider throwing the family in an RV and just going around the US - we used to live in the Rockies, but I realized my own kids have never been there, so a month going up/down/around would be awesome.

We did this a few years ago when DH got double vacation (they changed how it was earned, and he was already close to maxed out on what he could carry over, so it was take an extra-big vacation or lose it).  We looked at each other and said "Europe?  For a month?"  I was terrified because I was busy and had never tried to take that much time off myself (and, umm, because I'm cheap), but I just went ahead and did it -- and, surprise, everyone respected my time away and didn't bother me!

I like the idea of being in one place and really being able to explore, cook at home with local ingredients, do laundry, and basically feel like you are living there.  DH likes going different places.  We compromised with two weeks in one place and another week and a half (total) in two other places.  Still the best trip we have had since our honeymoon.

Our FIRE plans are basically the slower version of this, BTW.  At least for the first however many years.

[FI4good]

I'd slow travel to go visit my dad who live 1500 miles away in spain, spend a couple of weeks with him.

[scottish]

We're going to go hang out in the rockies.    Maybe a couple of easy easy summits, some steaks and beer.  Scenery, exercise, food, sleep.   4 weeks will be wonderful.

[Jaguar Paw]

I do this pretty much every year, though it is normally closer to 3 weeks. A few years ago my wife and I flew to California and roadtripped the coast, stopping in cool small towns. Then we went to Yosemite and camped/hiked for a week. Last summer we had a baby so took a lot of time off for that. This coming summer we are planning 5 days in Seattle then 2 weeks in alaska. We like travel!

[Laserjet3051]

Last time I took a whole month off was over 25 years ago for a month long primitive expedition deep into the Amazon Jungle. (yes...it was amazing)

Moving forward, if I had a month to spend, I'd do one of the following:

A) Month long bicycle tour between Vancouver BC and Portland (or points south) with extensive recreational pit stops along the way.
B) Buy an all across america AMTRAK pass and visit friends and family all across this nation.
C) Hike a 1 month stretch of the PCT, preferably between the Canadian border and somewhere in OR.

Now you've got me dreaming...........

[Gronnie]

I would do what I want to do when I FIRE -- head to Vegas and play poker every day.

[MonkeyJenga]

Week 1: Vancouver/Jon Snow's island
Week 2: Meepsy's living room floor in Seattle
Week 3: monstermonster's couch in Portland
Week 4: find an invisible internet friend in San Francisco and make them host me

[life_travel]

I was lucky enough to have a few " breaks " like that between country moves and/ jobs. Last time we took 3.5 months and travelled around South America .
If I had a pmonth off , I would definitely travel , hence my name :)
It depends  on your preference for fast , active travel or slow , stay at one place pace ..

We did fast travel , to get a quick "taste " for each country so we know where we would like to return later for slower travel .
Have you thought about Australia /New Zealand ? Being far away, this could be opportunity to visit area where a week is never enough :)

[limeandpepper]

This is easy! Where I live (Australia), full-time workers get 4 weeks off every year. So, we don't see it as a sabbatical, just our usual yearly allocation, and believe me, we don't have trouble thinking of ways to use it up. ;) Pretty much everyone I know uses at least some of it to travel. Some people spread it out in smaller portions of time off, others may save it up to have a big trip. Personally, anytime I go to overseas, I prefer to make it a trip of at least 3 weeks. A month is really not that long a time when you're exploring a foreign country, there's so much to see. So if you enjoy travel, that's an easy way to use up a month. If travel is not your thing, I'm sure you can find something else to enjoy for a month, based on your interests.

[asauer]

I know people who just have no idea what to do with more than a week of.  I usually stare at them in open-mouthed disbelief.  Haha.  I can thing of a bunch of things but here are the top 2:
1. rent a car, start at San Diego and drive up California seeing the sights, hiking the national parks etc.
2. I lived in Merida Mexico for a while in college and I would love to go back with my family and really spend time helping them experience the culture.

[FIRE Artist]

I am doing it this summer for the first time since I started working a normal work week (in my youth I used to work a 6/6wk rotation so had this as part of my lifestyle).

I am going to first go to Chicago for 5 nights to join up with the International Urban Sketchers Symposium to indulge my current hobby/obsession, then I will continue east to the Maritimes to hang with my folks, 5 siblings and their spawn for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary party, then I will hit the road for a tour around the Cabot trail, finally returning to my parent's place for some quiet down time, reconnecting with my childhood home, doing day trips and whatnot for another week prior to heading back to the land of oil and wheat for more work drudgery. 

[madamwitty]

Every summer I take the kids up to Seattle for a few weeks to see my side of the family. This takes up much of my vacation time and "vacation goodwill" with my boss, so it would be hard to take a different month off too.

But if I had another month in the year, I would take the kids on a road trip, a loop from L.A. via Albuquerque, Denver, and the Grand Canyon and other national parks to see some friends/family and just see the sights.

[Retire-Canada]

Maybe you are planning the sell the house and move on to greener pastures when you are FIRE or have F-U money, but what if you could pause and take 3-4 weeks or a month off from daily grind.  Would you do it and what would you do for that time?  Seems like so many in rat race don't know what to do with more that a week off at a time.  What are good month-long sabbatical options if you could do it?

Wondering what others think?

I have two 1 month trip plans for 2018:

- 1 month in Baja kitesurfing
- 1 month in UT & AZ camping and riding mountain bikes

I consider both trips short and if you gave me 3 months for each I could happily use them. :)

[zsmith]

My sabbatical starts in two weeks (actually 12 days; I'm just a little excited). We are doing the following (just to name a few)

Trip to Mexico
Trip to Phoenix (both for weddings)
Giving blood
Getting caught up on Dr. appointments
Working out
Spending time with family
Taking advantage of free museum days, etc. since we don't have to fit it in around work

A mix of fun and practical activities. :)

[iwasjustwondering]

I immediately thought of travel (Iceland!  Costa Rica!  Scandinavia!), but honestly, I would pretty much live my current life, but without going to work.  I have teenage kids who have busy lives, and they aren't too interested in traveling with Mom at the moment.  I'm not too interested in being away from them for an extended period, not with one of them almost off for college.  So I'd stay put, cook for them, talk to them, and give them rides when they need them. 

During the day I would spend a lot of time exercising, and I'd join a writing group.  That's really it, though.  In 3.5 years, they'll both have moved out, and fiance and I should have at least five weeks of vacation to do what we like with, anyway. 

[Socmonkey]

I pretty much get a month off each year. This year I am looking at having two months off, not in a row. It goes by so fast and I never run out of things to do. It really just ends up just being a tease for FIRE. 23 months to go...

[SachaFiscal]

I'd use the time to rest and relax. Clean up my diet and get into a healthy routine that I can hopefully maintain when I return to work.

[rothwem]

I'd use the time to rest and relax. Clean up my diet and get into a healthy routine that I can hopefully maintain when I return to work.

I'm with you here.  I'd love to take a month to just catch up with all of the shit that I feel like I'm falling behind on due to being required to show up at work everyday for 9 hours.  I'd love a month of:

-Sleeping a full 9 hours per night
-Having a cold beer or two in the afternoon and grilling some meat
-Getting the deferred maintenance completed on my home and car
-Going for a >3 hour bike ride several times per week

Jeez, does that make me boring? 

I also don't seem to have the travel bug that everyone else does.  Don't get me wrong, I'll travel to do fun activities like mountain biking and backpacking, but sightseeing and eating at fancy restaurants in other countries doesn't do much for me. I hate the stress of packing, rushing from place to place, and paying boatloads of money for shit that's already paid for at home.

[RobFIRE]

A number of people have suggested various forms of slow travel / extended holidays/vacations. That's a perfectly good option, but not what I've done recently.

I've not had a full four weeks off while I've been working, as I've not wanted to restrict myself to having very little holiday days available for the remainder of the year. I did have two weeks off last month, and as I didn't have any actual holiday/vacation I used the time as a small scale "pretend you're FIRE and at home...". I did a few things I'd been meaning to do:
* blood donation
* decluttering, selling off some old electronics
* house cleaning

And I continued my normal leisure activities, and with more free time was able to put some time into each one on most days:
* exercise outside
* learning Italian
* reading, and researching new books to read
* my small side hustle that that gives its profits to charity
* catch up on podcasts, films
* home cooking
* general planning/review of ongoing personal projects, objectives

So nothing particularly unusual, but I found the two weeks to be very relaxing, good progress made in a number of small projects, and could happily have had more weeks off to continue doing the same.

[2Birds1Stone]

Thailand, hookers and blow.

[golden1]

A month....

I'd unwind for a week or two at home, probably do a good decluttering and cleaning, catch up on my sleep and get into a good eating and exercise routine.  I'd travel somewhere on the cheap for the next few weeks, maybe rent a house or cabin somewhere where I can do some hiking. 

I am looking to switch jobs and if it pans out, I'll take a week off in between them. 

[Candace]

When I had a month off and lived on a sailboat, my then husband and I spent it sailing around the Chesapeake Bay. That was a great month.

[moof]

Either go do the John Muir Trail, or go to Joshua Tree and hangout/climb.

I am also starting to research section hiking Oregon's part of the PCT.  So far I have never had the chance to hike anything for more than a week at a shot.

I'd love to spend 2 weeks on the Lost Coast trail doing out and back for both the northern half I have never been on, and the southern half I have crawled all over during the last 15 years (maybe 20 trips of varying lengths on the lower 25 miles).  Parking in the center and resupplying from the car after a week would be pretty sweet.

[MoonLiteNite]

I am actually taking a month off this fall, or next to do a section hike on the PCT.

Planning on going from Ashland, OR to the bridge of the gods.

Trip is costing me around 3k in ultra light weight gear, and another 6k(gross) missed over and double time pay from work.
So will be worth it :D

[Villanelle]

If my husband got the same week off, we'd probably consider spending much of it just chilling someplace off the beaten path in Scotland.