Almost all of us yearn for our vacation time to be longer. Typically, full time jobs in the United States allow one or two weeks of paid vacation after serving one year with the company. Thus, making long-term travel impossible. However, if you are one of the few lucky ones that can afford the luxury, and means, to travel for a whole month—or even more—you are likely to experience any of these benefits.
1. Savings in Lodging and Public Transportation
In my personal experience, lodging and public transportation can be cheaper when traveling for longer periods of time. For instance, nightly rates for lodging may be 40% cheaper when booking weekly, and even more for monthly stays, compared to booking only a few days.
Public transportation can also be cheaper when buying weekly or monthly passes. In León, Spain, tobacco stores sold 30-day unlimited bus passes. The price of this pass was the equivalent of buying about 17 individual tickets, which are limited to one transfer after initial use.
2. More Time to Explore
Our natural instinct is to cram as many activities as we possibly can in a one-week vacation, after all, when will we have the opportunity to visit this place again? As a result of all the back-to-back activities we don’t get to fully enjoy a place with the time and thoroughness as we’d like to. But, when having the opportunity to stay longer at any given place, we can take our time. Instead of hurriedly checking out the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, strolling along the Seine River, and climbing up to Montmartre in one day, you can leisurely visit one place—or two at the most—per day.
3. Go Back to Your Favorite Places
And with more time to explore, you can go back to your favorite restaurants, plazas, museums, stores, and even make friends with the locals. During our seven-week stay in Brasov, Romania, we came across Rawdia, a vegan restaurant, that was only a few blocks away from our apartment. We were very satisfied with our first time and decided to go again. The second time did not disappoint and we ended up going about a dozen times. As a result, we befriended one of the workers. She invited us to go hiking, introduced us to her husband and have remained friends with her and her husband to this date.
