From the Travel Bag

Q: I only get two week off a year. Short of moving to England, how can I survive the year with only 2 weeks off?

2 Weeks a Year = Crappy Vacations?

I'm assuming you're jealous of England because of their standard 4 week off policy (and that doesn't even include banking and government holidays!) Who wouldn't be? But don't defect just quite yet. Grab a calendar or just print a free one from online and sit down and fill out every company day off. 4th of July? Columbus Day? (I've never gotten that one off, by the way). Include any days off they have for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. Any holidays you're not sure about, just ask your HR department or boss if you work in a small company.

Now that you've got your calendar sorted, break old habits. If you're planning vacations on a Monday and coming back on a Friday or Saturday, stop. That's just a total waste of your vacation. Get creative. Book all your vacations over a 3 day weekend. That doesn't mean you can only travel over 3 days, but use that company time off as a 'free' day. So what you want to do is leave on a Thursday evening after work. If your boss is cool, ask if you can duck out at 4pm to take a slightly earlier flight (without getting your vacay time docked). Then, if your 'free' day is say the Monday on President's Day -- come back from your trip on Tuesday morning and go straight from the airport to work.

It will make for a long day, but it's totally worth it when you realize you had 4 days of fun in your vacation destination and only had to take 1 day off work. If you do this over every 3 day weekend, you can end up with at least 3 or 4 vacations under your belt with only about 4 days off of work. And that still leaves you with about 6 vacation days left from your job.

Soon the trouble will be figuring out where to go 5 times a year, not how to take the time off work.

Whales, Squids, Pet Cemeteries, Vampires, Floating Homes, and more...

Those of you battling your inner travel demons on whether to indulge yourself with a relaxing vacation or take a cue from Brangelina and save the world - you could do both. Instead of an all or nothing approach, consider a combination of the two. Spend five days relaxing and indulging in all your vacation splendor and then add a day to volunteer.


San Francisco

Instead of the usual Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and eating chowder out of a sourdough bowl on "the Wharf", try whale watching with Oceanic Society Expeditions on the 56ft Superfish from the SF Yacht Harbor and catch a glimpse of grey whales near the Farallon Islands. For something both on and off the beaten path, checkout The Presidio and the soldier's pet cemetery. If you've got kids who aren't into the military history of the Presidio, they'll dig checking out the pet tombstones. Goth freaks might like the Vampire Tour of SF every Friday and Saturday at 8pm unless "it's raining really hard". For 25 bucks, you can hang out and meet Mina (on the corner of California and Taylor Streets just outside Huntington Park). The tour hits Grace Cathedral, The Nob Hill Cafe, Huntington Park, The Pacific-Union Club, The Fairmont Hotel, and The Mark Hopkins Hotel. Mina will tell you the history of each of these stops, and how Vampires played a role in that history. Go hunting for spicy, salty squid in Chinatown before heading over to City Lights Bookstore founded and still owned by beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. If you want to get a little architecture into your trip, try the Sausalito Floating Homes Tour and see Sausalito’s colorful floating homes including "The Green Herron" Victorian cottage and the "Hippo" floating artist space.


After all this animal, art, historical, literary, food, unusual and... vampiric fun -- give back to the place you've taken so much joy from. Hook up with San Francisco Food Runners. You can help out for the day or even an hour or two by picking up excess food from restaurants and deliver to outreach organizations. You'll walk away feeling pretty good and might even be eligible to write off part of your trip.