For those of us lucky enough to be able to travel for our jobs, opportunity for new adventures present themselves constantly. But don’t think that you’re going to get the full experience of a brand new city just from sitting in a transplanted version of your office or a conference room.

Instead, join the latest trend. Young professionals are taking personal days they have saved up to use around their business trips to turn their business travel into a fun mini vacation.

The cost of travel is (likely) already covered

Think about this for a second: how many times have you dreamed about taking a trip, plotted out an itinerary, and all the sudden, your trip is stunted because you can’t find a good rate at the airlines? That problem is the first one that becomes alleviated when you’re on a business trip.

Planning travel takes a long time, but if you’re flying to your destination on the company’s dime, then a good chunk of the stress is already wiped away for you. And if it doesn’t cost the company any more money to extend your flight out for a couple of days, you could have the freedom to choose how long you’d like to go!

Offer an alternative way of traveling

For some airlines, two economy plane tickets cost less than a single business class seat. If you approach the higher ups at your company and ask for two coach tickets, they’ll likely say yes (and you could get brownie points…I mean, what better employee than one who can save the company money!)

But this also works in your favor too. Now, you can bring a guest; a loved one, a spouse, a friend, a child or parent. Give someone else the opportunity to explore the area and be on the lookout for cool restaurants, sites to see, and things to check out for when you rush right out of that board room.

You’ll save on the cost of a hotel room

Obviously once you’re off the clock, you’re off the dime. But if you’re there for a weekend conference, that’s about 2-3 days you’ve just saved on a standard 5-7 day long vacation. Some hotels have even been reported to apply pre-established discounted rates for really nice rooms. Of course at SellMyTimeshareNow.com, we offer some great rental alternatives as well to save you even more money on higher-end accommodations, especially if you’re looking for longer stays.

You’ll be in a new place!

Sure, you don’t always have control of where you go for business conferences, but that’s half the fun! If you turn your business trip into a mini-vacation, that allows you to really plan every available moment off the clock to learn about this new location you’re visiting. What is the city known for? What sorts of food are celebrated in the culture? What are some of the historic landmarks? What are some of the big things to do over there? Where do the locals go?

Ask yourself these questions while you’re planning out your business trip. The vacation location has been picked out for you; now it’s up to you to decide what to do while you’re there (aside from meetings, of course).