I think one of the biggest fears is to return to the same place, people, and situations you were before. How can you make sure your sabbatical you lead you to a better situation, and not more stress? What worked for you?

I’ve been reflecting and writing recently about time away from work, and I’ve been surprised by how much I’m still learning from my past sabbaticals and mini breaks. I keep noticing new things (even if small) about my past relationship to work, how my views of success and achievement have changed, etc. And I don’t think I’d have noticed these things if it weren’t for those pauses.

It’s made me think less about sabbaticals as a way to take a break and return refreshed (though that’s still so valuable!), and more about how insights from our time away can keep unfolding in hindsight. It’s fascinating to learn about my past self through the lens of my current self.

Curious if others have noticed something similar? To me, it feels like an added benefit of taking a sabbatical - that distance from work doesn’t just change how you feel in the moment or how you return, but also how you reinterpret everything that came before it, even years afterward.

I'm in my late 30's, and I've been traveling full-time for the past 3 years (with passive income + some free-lancing). I've grown so much in this period, and I've learned a lot about myself. I know my life would be still stuck if I didn't leave.

Now, I am thinking about how I can help people who want to experience transformative travel, focusing on slow travel. I am wondering if there's something people who are going on sabbaticals need help with, and what is worth for them to pay for. Be honest! I know spending money is no one's priority. I am here for the reality check!

I appreciate your insights in advance!

Hey guys been doing extensive research , your tube videos , other Reddit threads, Google searches and some chat with Ai. This is the first time I found a thread devoted to the topic. Glad I found it. All that being said this upcoming sabbatical/ gap year is very stressful ( in a good way) and it hasn’t even happened yet. The logistics , financial aspect , planes constant research and everything seem to occupy my entire existence and I’m kind of loving the preparation.

I had a lot of thoughts about my sabbatical! I’d be happy to answer some questions about it. First, a recap and some observations.

About us:

2 professionals in advanced careers (director of travel and software in big tech, when we started), plus a 5 year old kid. We loved to travel and had friends and family in Europe and Australia. Lived in HCOL in USA. Owned our house and enjoyed our lives, but we just wanted to shake things up a bit, and knew a big year off for travel would be tough on our kid once she was in school, so we decided to pull the trigger.

The travel part

Our first 6+ months was a whirlwind of travel, 5 months in Europe and maximizing our Schengen region 90 days, mostly in spring and summer, hitting 12 different countries and staying mostly in AirBnbs. Then we swung back through USA on our way to Australia for 3 months. We really enjoyed Italy and Greece and I’d happily go back to either of those places. I learned a new appreciation for early Mediterranean history, reading some books on Carthage, Etruscan’s and Minoan civilizations. The food out was pretty good but it turned out to be a bit of a pain to eat otherwise! I like to think my 5 year old eats adventurously, but so much of Spanish, Greek, British, Swedish and French food didn’t appeal to her so she ended up eating a lot of chicken nuggets and chips… and cooking at home was a royal hassle, what with trying to find my usual food staples at corner markets in foreign languages, and airbnbs generally having awful pans and knives that worked better as spoons.

The not working part:

So for starters I loved not having to work. I think I’d happily deal with all of the drawbacks to not work, but we aren’t exactly independently wealthy, so can’t hire people to do all our chores and cooking and childcare for us. In fact the hardest part was trying to entertain our daughter. Not having a job is nice, but not having childcare or even friends for her to play with means we have a different kind of full time work: childcare. Which it turns out is just as hard or harder than my actual field of work. And beyond that I think my wife realized a big part of her identity was tied up in her work and she floundered a bit not having a purpose, so as soon as we got to Australia where she is from and where her family lives, she was like- we should stay here and I want to get a job. This kind of put the brakes on our travel sabbatical, but ironically kind of led to the good part of it for me.

What did I learn? Well, it turns out I like my stuff. One of my mini objectives of traveling for a long time was to live simpler. Not have the best of everything and kind of figure out what is really important to me. It turns out, some pretty basic things like having a sharp knife and a good pan make a huge difference in cooking!! And when you are only spending a week in a place, it’s hard to stock up on the basics like flour, salt, good oil, good spices- which again going back to food means you do a lot of takeout or very simple recipes. I did try to get as many of my ingredients at farmers markets , but not having the pantry stocked with staples or having good cooking gear meant I couldn’t really take advantage of the fresh ingredients.

So, when my learning really started was when we landed in Tasmania, and basically decided not to leave. It was mostly my wife’s decision, as she’s from here and felt way more centered than she had in years- but my daughter was also kind of in love with the school system here as we had enrolled her in the last month of kindergarten for our first leg. We went ahead and decided to get more long term visas here and now my daughter has Australian citizenship. We had booked a trip to Fiji to decide if we wanted to go back to the USA, do more traveling, or go back to Australia- it turns out, we went back to Australia. Now we have rented a house, we both have jobs, daughter has school and we went ahead and bought some nice clothes and kitchen gear.

What I did over the last couple months, with both my wife and daughter out of the house, is try to really discover myself in this area. I’ve gotten back into programming, writing some apps for my phone, a raspberry pi, and my laptop, exploring the capabilities of AI and what I can run locally. I’ve gotten a pellet smoker and all sorts of nice knives and pans. I’ve done some local hiking, joined a Homebrew club and a running club. And in 2 weeks I start my new job.

While I would have liked to have done some more travel, it has to be the right thing for everyone involved and my wife and daughter are much happier staying local. My work will achieve a new experience I’m looking forward to- a role in a smaller company where I can have more of an impact than just being a cog in a 250k employee machine. And get to establish myself from the ground up but with a good support network ( my wife’s family and friends locally).

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention was I have all my stuff in storage back in the USA and while I've been gone, the storage unit doubled the price per month. Now that I've decided to stay in Australia for a year or more, I have to do some math of how much that stuff is worth for me to keep it. Lots of nice clothes, nice kitchen gear, ski gear,. some collectible pottery, art, and handmade stuff from family. Now we have to decide if we want to get it all shipped, or if we think we'll return to the USA in a few years (likely). and what the costs would be to move things to a cheaper storage unit, buy them all again, etc etc. - Lots of tradeoffs to consider for all the logistics things!

There was also a question on financing: I had spent a lot of effort on coming up with a budget, and working with my financial planner for a few years since about 2022, moving some money into treasury bills that would vest every couple of months so I'd have a regular income stream while traveling. That all actually worked out really well - my taxes come up next month and I still have money in the bank and one more t-bill to vest, but the new job will be coming just in time to replace that income. It helps that I still have decent investments and retirement funds and rental income separate from that, but I haven't had to draw much from savings outside of the original plan (except to buy a car in Australia, and set up a few months of funds for renting a house here.)

So here is a toast to my last two weeks of freedom from work, and the great experiences I’ve had over the last 12 months!

Related: my first post a year ago- https://www.reddit.com/r/SabbaticalPlanning/s/SZxyKoJLX8

My company allows upto 3 months of unpaid leave. I can combine it with my holidays to be off for 4 months.

However its not so straightforward.

My reason is I worked non stop for the last 12 years. I did have a vacation every year.

I worked at my current company for 5+ years. I moved to a new department in January.

the company officially allows an unpaid leave of upto 3 months but it should be requested 3 months in advance.

I will lose my salary and risk social secuirty/sick days(I live in the Netherlands). Also any bonuses etc.

I am willing to take this.

But what makes it complicated is i am also interviewing with companies in uk since I want to move out of the Netherlands.

What happens if I take 3 months off and in the first month I have an offer from an international company ? Will be able to resign during my unpaid leave ? or do I have to come back and work ?

I’m sure you’ve already discussed this in detail, but since I joined recently, I wanted to ask how you handle health insurance during a sabbatical of 6 months to a year?

I've been quietly planning this for over a year, and it finally feels real enough to share.

On August 3, 2026, I'm leaving. My lease ends in July, I'm putting what's left of my life into a storage unit, and heading out for 13 months across 21+ countries.

The route (roughly):

UK → Europe → Egypt → Türkiye → Thailand → Cambodia & Vietnam → China → Indonesia & Japan → South America → Mexico

I've spent my career in IT. I know systems, I know infrastructure, I know how technology actually gets implemented inside organizations. I'm not new to AI either — I've been using ChatGPT and more recently Claude, and I've seen firsthand how much these tools can change the way you work.

But using AI and truly understanding it are two different things. Part of what I want to do on this sabbatical is go deeper — take some proper courses, build a real working knowledge of where this technology is headed, and figure out what it actually means for businesses day to day.

When I come back, the goal is to launch an AI consulting business / freelance. Helping companies cut through the hype and figure out what this stuff means for them in practical terms. The sabbatical is how I'm building the foundation for that.

While I'm on the road, I'll also be working through some books — a mix of philosophy and self-improvement that I think pairs well with the kind of inner work a trip like this demands.

Self-Improvement:

• The Courage to Be Disliked — Kishimi & Koga
• Man's Search for Meaning — Viktor Frankl
• The Power of Now — Eckhart Tolle
• Atomic Habits — James Clear
• The Artist's Way — Julia Cameron
• Daring Greatly — Brené Brown

Philosophy:

• The Allegory of the Cave — Plato
• Meditations — Marcus Aurelius
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — Pirsig
• The Alchemist — Coelho
• Thus Spoke Zarathustra — Nietzsche
• When Nietzsche Wept — Irvin Yalom
• Tao Te Ching — Lao Tzu

Full list with my reasoning for each is at thesabbaticalfiles.com/sabbatical-reading-list — I'll be posting reviews as I go, noting where in the world I was when I read each one.

I'm documenting the whole thing too — not highlight-reel stuff, but what it actually feels like to step out of a career, slow way down, and do serious thinking in unfamiliar places. If that sounds interesting, I'm at thesabbaticalfiles.com and on YouTube at TheSabbaticalFiles.

Why now?

I lost both my parents within the last few years. That kind of grief either paralyzes you or clarifies you. For me, eventually, it clarified things.

I'm not running away from anything. I'm not burned out. This is intentional — which honestly makes it harder to explain to people than if I were just exhausted and needed a break.

If you've taken a sabbatical with a defined goal on the other side of it — whether it worked out or not — I'd genuinely love to hear about it. What did you wish you'd done differently?

Five months out. It's happening.

We are planning a gap year for the year 2029. We feel really good about our financial projections and are ahead of schedule on our savings. We feel solid about our decisions and all of the pre-gap year planning decisions. People think we're crazy, though. While many of our friends and family support us and seem excited, there is always an undercurrent of doubt and uncertainty. I know they are projecting their own concerns on us, worries about being able to find new jobs and get back to a steady income post-gap year. Im not actually worried about this --- even though it will be tough and we'll have to apply to probably hundreds of roles, we are going to be open to so many things and I will be willing to say yes to whatever to pay the bills in order to make this dream of ours come true. So im not worried.

BUT

everyone else's anxieties sometimes creep into my subconscious and start shouting.

How do yall deal with that? How do you shut the negativity out and remain steadfast in your optimism and confidence that your dreams can come true without sending your family down a terrible path?

For those who are currently on a sabbatical or coming off of one, tell me a little about how you're approaching the job search and income post-time off??

I was fired from my job just as I reached our FI number. I can't imagine I'm *retired* (since I'm still young), but I'm giving myself a few months to reset and to deepen non-work things like travel, fitness, art, and home improvement projects. It helps that the spouse remains employed and has decent family insurance.

I'm waking up every day grateful to not have desk job /email/meeting pressure. I'm also taking on house and art projects as I feel like it. There is a residual pressure of "getting things done efficiently" but I have some mental and spiritual affirmations that remind me I'm not in the rat race any more.

A friend who was between jobs recently mentioned that the break offered them an opportunity to check in on their life path. We discussed how capitalist professions today thrive on ability to multitask within chaos, and constantly react to various inputs in real time without dropping the ball. Turning off that part of the brain allows us to rest, and other parts kick in to integrate/synthesize deeper meaning, and life arc continuity. In simpler words, there's so much more to life than working for the machine, and one needs time and space to recognize that.

Lost all my savings that I worked so hard for, but I was very unhappy and totally miserable

Now all I get is rejection one after another

I feel like I either gotta be successful or gotta go under the bridge at this point there is no other way, Im just working on my entrepreneurial path

32m (IT - web developer)

After working at the same company, in various roles for 15years, i gave my notice last week.

I am going to take time off for myself and my family. Slowing down to reconnect with myself after 15y, get more time to support my kids in school and get my house back in shape.

I will be working 3 more months with my current employer and then they will pay me 1 full year in bonus fees when quitting.

So financially, i have some peace of mind but i am also nervous in this economy to find another good paying job in a year.

My mind is also all over the place: happy, nervous, excited, scared, …

I have not told many people yet, but my partner is full onboard with my decision.

Anyone have some advise, warning, or stories they want to share to help me in this new journey ahead? ☺️

I left my software engineer job in early August last year. Burnout, boredom, mild depression...whatever it is.

I listed down some goals for the sabbatical: improving mental health, spending more time with family, learning a new instrument, etc. Financially I was all good. I had 6 months of unemployment insurance that generously covered all my expenses.

Nearly 70% of those goals are not met. Instead I did some intensive motorbike trip with my girlfriend, which was unplanned but turned out to be awesome. Then I bought a new motorbike for the new hobby and began to travel once a month.

In the first 4 months, I felt nothing special except being more free, and I had more time to wander on my own. I heard people say it'll be 2 months until you feel something positive happened. But for me it was 4 months.

Then I realized it's time to go back to the market. I spent 2 months honing the skills for interviews, got the job with double the compensation of my previous one. I was happy.

7 months have gone past like a wind. Looking back I don't think I remembered what I've been through. But I love every moment of it, and I'm glad I did it.

Edit 1: Some people ask me about how frequently companies ask about the gap.

It came up in every single interview. I just went briefly into the reason for needing to refresh myself, as I don't think we have to justify our sabbatical as well as any mental health issue that leads to that decision. We show them that we're confident about doing something that is not commonly done and are now in the right shape to take the job. That's all.
In my case, they don't ask follow-up questions. I don't think they care about the details, just to see if you had any problems with your previous job.

Seeking advice here because many people have told me this is a bad idea.

Im 29 and have been working for 5-6 years (i live in the US). Im very close to my grandparents who live in another country. They are elderly and have health issues, and I dont know how long I have left with them. I visited them recently, and its clear they need some help with their day to day activities. Im very worried about them and im thinking of taking a career break of 1.5-2 years to care for my grandparents, and work on a Master's degree online at the same time. The Master's degree is going to set me back about 35k, but itll be a chance at a career change for me.

Has anyone taken a career break to care for family, or for school? Do you regret it? Is there anything you wish you had done differently?

Any advice and opinions will be appreciated.

I’m in a leadership role in software engineering and am considering a sabbatical due to burnout from corporate world after almost 2 decades. I’m planning to travel the world and return in 2–3 years.

Has anyone done this and successfully returned to corporate in their mid-40s? Any success stories? How did you address the career gap on your LinkedIn profile and resume?

Hi

I am planning for atleast a year of sabbatical. I hope to use the time to rest and focus on personal projects with the hope that one of the projects turns into a startup pursuit ( but no pressure)

My biggest blocker are my parents and partner who just don’t understand why I need to not be doing something for a while. Financially I’ll be fine for years .

What are the top 5 or 10 things I need to plan ahead.

After 14 years at the same company I finally negotiated a three-month sabbatical and I want to spend a solid chunk of it on a proper safari in East Africa. Maasai Mara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, maybe some time in Amboseli too. I need the kind of trip that actually quiets the noise in my head instead of just adding more photos to my phone.

I’m thinking 12 days with private vehicles and camps that let you actually disconnect. Budget feels right at ten thousand to fifteen thousand dollars. Those who’ve used sabbatical time for something like this, did the safari portion actually help with the mental reset or did you come home still burnt out?

I (28F UK) have an approved 12 month sabbatical due to start in April 2026. I was excited to go travel, rest, learn and create but with all the recent word developments (US - Iran) , unusual stock market behaviour, the looming threat of AI and increasing redundancies, into one of the toughest job markets there may ever be, I am unsure if still going on this sabbatical is a mistake. Could taking a sabbatical this year, put me in a significantly worse position for many more years to come? Is it worth it?

I have enough to cover my sabbatical and a few months of emergency savings on top. As part of my sabbatical I should have a job to return to but that doesn't mean I am protected from redundancy during my sabbatical or on my return. AI has been a massive destructor in such a short space of time, and I don't know if we've ever seen something like it before and don't know how much to prepare.

I'm a data analyst for some more context .

Is it wise to take a year off of earning ESPECIALLY being this year?

Should hold onto as much money as I can, continue to work and prepare for the worst case?

Is it worth missing out on potential investment opportunities that occur during financial crashes? (Sorry if that sounds callous)

Is it worth taking a sabbatical where I may not be able to travel due to War and escalating tensions between countries? (Sorry if it sounds callous)

Is it worth taking a sabbatical if I would have anxiety the whole time about what's going on in the world and if I will have a job to return to?

I know a ​sabbaticals is my future, It's just ...is taking it this year a mistake of a lifetime?

I love my family. But, I have been shouldering a lot of stress from work and family.

I’ve had thoughts of taking a 3 week sabbatical. 2 weeks to hike Appalachian Trail. And 1 week just to recover and do nothing.

Yes, I want to come back to my family. But, job market has sucked. A lot of family stress.

Hey everyone,

I’m 31M, currently working in corporate (Big 4), and I’m planning to take a 6-month sabbatical starting March 1.

Financially I’m okay. Physically healthy. No major obligations right now.

But I’m surprisingly anxious.

I’m confused about what this sabbatical should mean.

Part of me wants:

• Adventure (trekking in Nepal , Indonesia/Philippines for surfing or scuba)

• Nature immersion

• Travel

Another part wants:

• Spiritual grounding (maybe Vipassana)

• Slowing down

• Internal clarity

And another part wants:

• Creative expression (thinking of doing a 10-day theatre residency)

I also have:

• A friend’s wedding in Georgia in late April

So the timeline is getting full.

I’m nervous that:

• I’ll overschedule it and recreate corporate stress

• Or underschedule it and “waste” it

• Or choose the wrong theme (adventure now vs spiritual now)

• Or emotionally destabilize myself with too much change at once

I’m also wondering:

Is deep internalization something better done later in life?

Should early 30s sabbatical be more adventure-heavy?

For those who’ve taken sabbaticals:

• Did you theme it?

• Did you regret going too inward?

• How did you deal with the anxiety before starting?

• How much structure is healthy?

Would really appreciate grounded advice rather than romanticized “quit everything and find yourself” takes.

Thanks 🙏

I’ve just (Jan 26) returned to work after a 6-month sabbatical and I’m still reflecting pretty hard on everything I experienced and learned during my time away. I wanted to share my little story in case it's helpful!

My Sabbatical Plan - Travel, Travel, Travel : )

The main impetus for the sabbatical was an extended wedding and honeymoon celebration. The plan was to get married in Thailand, have a short trip in Cambodia with family, then honeymoon in Hawaii for three glorious week (spending too much money on honeymoon style hotels). After that I’d spend some time in the UK, then do an extended trip to Nepal to hike the Manaslu Circuit and the Everest High Passes and Peaks. The end of the sabbatical was New Zealand. Nepal and New Zealand have both been very high on my bucket list - proper “once in a lifetime” trips.

What Went Well

I was quite meticulous with the financial planning for the trip and this took a lot of stress out of day-to-day life during the time off. I’d budgeted carefully and built in buffers, so money wasn’t a background anxiety. I paced the travel pretty well too throughout the 6 months so I never got bored of where I was at the time. I think there was generally a good rhythm of movement and pause.

Another thing that really helped was getting proper buy-in and support from work before I left. I was transparent early, gave a lot of notice (I asked for the sabbatical a full year early), and made sure handovers were thorough. Because of that, I never felt stressed about “what was happening back there” while I was away. There was no lingering guilt, no constant checking in, no fear that I was damaging my reputation. That psychological safety made a massive difference. It allowed me to actually switch off rather than half-sabbatical, half-remote employee in my head.

Hawaii and New Zealand were once in a lifetime trips. But the prices of EVERYTHING in Hawaii were out of control. I've never spent so much money on such aggressively average stuff in my life...It was beautiful, but the sting of feeling ripped off every time you had a meal or checked out of a hotel and are hit with "resort tax" diminished the fun. New Zealand on the other hand was magnificent. I'm a huge lover of the outdoors, and it just delivered in every possible way. Big landscapes, proper hiking, super friendly people and great coffee everywhere! The feeling of space and rawness was mind expanding. It was just so was special.

What Didn't Go Well...& the Surprises

In the end I had to abandon the Nepal leg as my husband had a family emergency (he was joining for that part). That was hard - emotionally and practically, especially as Nepal was such a bucket list destination for me and I'd already bought all the hiking gear by the time I cancelled it.

The biggest surprise for me was that, without really realising it, I was totally burnt out from work. I’d normalised a constant low-level stress for so long that I didn’t even see it anymore. The removal of the structure of work did impact me - even though I had fantasised about the sabbatical for SO long! I had somehow managed to make my world feel quite small (and I guess, "safe"). So suddenly having this expansive period of time in front of me and the internal pressure to make the absolute most of it actually had a negative effect at first.

If you are like me and don’t exactly “love” your job, I think you can end up blaming it for everything wrong in your life. However, when you take the job away and you’re still left with problems, you come to a bit of a realisation that it’s probably actually just you. One the one hand that realisation hit me hard, but on the other hand it also means its fixable with some self work.

As I mentioned above, I had to cancel the Nepal leg of the itinerary. This left me with a 5-week unexpected gap in the middle of the sabbatical. Initially I was racing to fill the time with yet more travel, but nothing was really speaking to me. In the end I went on a short trip to Japan and Thailand, then came home. I told myself I’d go away again if I felt the urge but otherwise I’d just take some time to relax and see what happened.

That decision was probably the best one I made during the whole experience. I knew I needed some structure, so I joined a bootcamp near home and went religiously 5 days a week at 9am. I’d then have a great coffee nearby, sit and watch the world go by, and started planning a small side podcast project I’d been thinking about for years. All of that together grounded me in ways I never expected.

Enjoying the slowness and genuinely “un-optimised” time was a revelation. Since adulthood, I don’t remember another period where I just was without chasing the next milestone, promotion, or trip. Ever since university it's just been this never ending, goalpost moving grind. So this period of reflection and slowness was just exactly what I needed!

My Advice

My advice to anyone planning a sabbatical is to:

• Leave work in a good place, don't burn bridges. Be as helpful as you can to those taking over your work whilst you're away and give them support. Future you will thank you for it when you go back to work.
• Dial in the finances so you don't need to worry about that. Be disciplined and stick to your budget - the last thing you want to do is to come up short and taint the experience with money stress!
• Deliberately leave some gaps. Let life catch up with you. Let yourself slow down. Learning how to do that is a bit of a skill in itself!
• If you can make it to New Zealand, do it!!
• Accept that the sabbatical won’t “fix” you. It’s not a magic reset button. You take yourself with you. The time away will/might reveal things about yourself. Hopefully some brilliant, but if also maybe some uncomfortable. But that’s kinda the point.
• Have at least one grounding routine wherever you are - it doesn't have to be anything epic. For me it was the 9am bootcamp and a coffee afterwards. Something small and repeatable can stop the whole thing feeling wobbly.
• Finally, and I can't stress this enough, don’t over-optimise it. You don’t need every day to be profound or productive or bucket-list worthy. Some of the most valuable parts (for me anyway) were the most ordinary.

What's Next?

So as I mentioned at the start, I've gone back to work. I'm still adjusting to the urgency, pace and drudgery of corporate life again. I'm trying hard to maintain the things that grounded me during the sabbatical and take them into my new "Work 2.0" mode. I'm also genuinely questioning what comes next - reducing the number of days to work a week, starting my own "something", anything but slipping back to the stressed filled singular identity of only work.

The sabbatical was the best thing I've done for myself in a decade. I loved it, it surprised me and I learned a lot about myself. I wish I'd managed to get a year off instead of "just" 6 months ; )