Holiday Options for Expats

Many expatriates choose the life because they want to get out of their comfort zone and explore more of the world, so making the most of your holidays while living abroad is a priority for many of us. However, when it comes to planning what to do, many of us can hit a snag as it’s not so easy to make the right decision about where to spend our precious time away from the office.

Do you even go away for your holidays at all? We could all probably do with some of the extra money that we spend on travelling each year. This week, ExpatFinder takes a look at the three of the most common options expats consider when planning their vacations.

Go home

Although it seems like the most ‘counter-productive’ holiday option, many of us find ourselves doing just this. The reality is that expatriate life can be stressful and place extra strain on the relationships we wish to maintain from back home, whether it be family or friends. For many, family time isn’t anything approaching relaxing, so this needs to be properly weighed up against the alternatives.

Many expatriates find that a better option is to instead have friends and family come to visit them in their new home. This reduces the need to use up your precious vacation time and lets your visitors experience something new, while still being able to spend some quality time together. Let them explore to their heart’s content while you’re at work, and then hang out together in the evenings and on the weekends. This also means you can avoid going to your local tourist trap for the third time.

That being said, many expatriates find that simply going back home to do the same old things with the same people can be the best holiday of all and provide a great reset for going back to the stresses of work.

Take advantage

You’ve moved across the world to experience and a new chapter of your life in a new place, so why aren’t you taking advantage? Depending on where in the world your new home is, a multitude of new travel opportunities may have opened up for you. Are you a European now living in Asia? If so, a flight to Japan or Australia might be a mere 6 hours instead of the usual 16, making now the ideal time to visit. Think about where you have the best opportunities to visit now, and take advantage! Don’t move all the way to Korea and then decide now is the perfect time to visit Iceland; it isn’t.

It’s also worth considering the specific benefits of the location you’re in if you’re not particularly close to any other countries on your essential list of holiday destinations. For example, those living in middle eastern countries, such as Dubai, should realise that although they may not be surrounded by traditional holiday destinations they are in once of the world’s largest long-haul travel hubs. You now have access to more destinations using non-stop flights than nearly anywhere else in the globe. Many of them may be longer flights, but for most, that’s highly preferable to taking three connecting flights from wherever you lived previously.

Stay put

When living as an expatriate, there is always the option to stay where you are and take more time to explore. Of course, this may not be an excellent prospect for those who live in tiny nations such as Hong Kong and Singapore, where you can explore nearly everything in the weekends and evenings around your normal working life. Regardless, many expats feel or know that their time on assignment and away from home is temporary, and this is what makes this option so appealing for many. It’s one thing moving across the world live and work in a new place, but are you really experiencing it properly or just a tiny part of it? Taking some real time to get out and explore your new home can make all the difference when you look back on your time abroad in years to come.