How to Travel an Entire Country with Limited Vacation Time

If you (like me) always plan out a trip to a new country, realize that you literally want to see everything that country has to offer, and then simultaneously realize that you only have a week or two of vacation time to make that happen, I feel you. I know what it's like to make a list of all of the landscapes, historic places and towns that I want to visit. I also know what it's like to start crossing them off one at a time until you have a smaller, condensed trip that doesn't do justice to the country at all. This, my friends, is what we call a travel itinerary, which is essentially just a fancy of way of saying "here are the few things you can realistically see in a country with your limited vacation time." I think there is a time and a place for travel itineraries. I do, however, also think there is a time and a place to travel an entire country too, even with limited vacation time.

So, how do you cross an entire country with one, two or (if you're lucky) three weeks of vacation time? You have to plan it, just like any other trip. The difference with a trip like this, however, is that you need to know (for the most part) that you're going to tackle the entire country right from the starting phases of your planning. That way, you can start to think about how logistically you will make it from one end of the country to the other, see all of the spots that you want to along the way, and make it back to the airport you're flying out of so that you can get your accomplished ass back home.

I will say from the start, though, that this may not be for everyone. Traveling an entire country with your limited vacation time may seem like a romanticized, incredible feat, but it does make your vacation time tiring. The trip is not a relaxing week at an all-inclusive resort. It is a journey filled with lots of commuting, busy days and early mornings. And it's awesome.

So, if you're tired of chilling on the resort or you love adventure but have never thought you've had enough vacation time to travel an entire country, check out some of the tips below to see how you can travel an entire country, too.

Choose a Small Country

Now, it may be possible to travel very large countries like Canada in the span of a few weeks, however I don't recommend it. You'll have to drive day and night, potentially spend tons of money flying, and you'll end up, ironically, seeing very few spots of the entire country you just travelled across. This is because, when you jam too much into a trip, you inevitably end up spending most of your time commuting to / from destinations instead of staying and enjoying them. When you attempt to travel an entire country with your limited vacation time, the goal is to limit the amount of time spent commuting between locations / destinations.

So, the way to limit the amount of commuting you need to do when traveling an entire country is to pick a small country. And I don't mean small as in the Barbados where you can drive from one side of the island to the other in less than an hour. I'm talking about somewhere that requires you to drive 3-5 hours every day or other day. With a driving schedule like that, you'll be able to spend a fair amount of time outside of the car, actually stay at the sights that you want to see for a while, and even spend a night (or two or three) at some of the towns that you really want to hangout in. The smaller the country, the easier / cheaper it is to fly back (if required) to the airport you need to get to fly home. If the country is small enough, you can even loop the country in your rental car and avoid internal flights all together.

Places like Iceland, Costa Rica and Thailand are all a good length to attempt this kind of trip. They are also well-versed in tourism, so it's quite easy to rent cars, book flights and find hotels for your cross-country journey. A few years ago, I travelled all of New Zealand in two weeks, and it was incredible. Not only did we have enough time to drive both islands in that time frame, we also had enough time to spend multiple nights in some of our favourite spots without ever having a day of driving exceeding five hours!

Calculate Distances

As alluded to above, the distances between sights and towns is very important when travelling an entire country with limited vacation time. Driving for eight to ten hours on one of your vacation days might not seem that bad, but if you end up driving that amount on every single day of your vacation you will end up going back to work exhausted, frustrated and feeling like you never want to attempt the feat again.

I think the sweet spot is to have your driving average at around three hours per day. Some days may end up being more, some days may end up being less, and some days you might not drive at all, but that average, I believe, is sustainable for one, two or even three weeks.

So, how do you calculate the distances you'll need to drive each day? First, I Google how long it will take to road trip across all of the country I'm going to. For example, Google Maps states that it takes 26 hours to drive from Ahipara at the top of New Zealand's North Island to Queenstown at the bottom of its South Island. So, to figure out the average amount needed to drive the entire country during, say, a two week vacation, all we'd need to do is divide 26 by 14. That leaves us with a driving average of about 1.9 hours per day. This is well below the benchmark of three hours per day. From here, you can start to figure out what spots you'd really like to see along the way, determine the distances between each of those places, and decide (now that you know you don't have to drive that much each day) which days you don't want to drive at all.

Pick Your Spots

Now, if you're following my advice so far and deciding to travel an entire small country instead of a massive one, and then calculating to make sure the driving each day isn't too strenuous, then you should be able pick a whole bunch of places to see and stay along your journey. And I mean a lot more places than the typical trip where you do a few excursions from a resort or travel to two or three different towns. We're talking about seeing many, many towns and sights along the way.

You do still need to be selective, though. One thing you'll start to realize as you calculate your distances is that Google Maps finds the most direct route from one side of the country to the other. This means that it doesn't account for the beautiful beach a few hours off course, or the massive mountains that veer off the main highway for a number of kilometres. These are things that you'll need to account for and work into your plan itself. That means that your daily driving average could increase.

When my travel buddy, Greg, and I went to New Zealand, our route zig zagged all over the country. We definitely travelled more than Google Map's prediction of 26 hours for the entire country. We still planned our spots, though, so that we were only really driving on average for about three hours a day. That meant that, even though our road trip took us across the entire country, we still had to cut some of the spots we wanted to see off the trip. The beauty of travelling across an entire country with limited vacation time is that you do, truly, still see a hell of a lot, no matter what places and spots you choose.

Plan the Route

This goes hand-in-hand with picking your spots, but once you have them nailed down you'll need to plan your route. This doesn't have to be set in stone, but it does help to have a few key trip milestones. When we went to New Zealand, we booked about half our hotels beforehand, and winged the other half. This allowed us to keep a loose structure while we travelled the entire country and kept us on schedule. It also allowed for us to deviate from the route a little bit and book hotels on the go if we weren't sure about a spot. Either way, it's good to have a decent idea of where you're going on a trip like this so that you can ensure you complete the journey and make it back to your plane home on time.

Figure Out Your Transportation

There is something very romanticized about road tripping across an entire country. It's cheaper than flying, you have more control over the places you stop, and you get a firsthand view of the country as you cruise with your windows down and your tunes playing. This is by far, in my opinion, the best and most pure way to travel an entire country with your limited vacation time.

Now, getting back to the problem mentioned at the end of the last section: you do need to make it back to your plane ride home. So, how do you do that?

The easiest thing to do would be to drive. That way you just fly into a country, pick up your rental car from the airport, do a loop of the country, drop it back off at the airport, and then hop on your plane ride home reviling in all of your glory and accomplishment after travelling an entire country. This perfect scenario, however, isn't always an option.

Country's like Iceland do have circular road trip routes that lead you right back to the country's main airport is. In a lot of other small countries, though, you may find yourself on the exact opposite side of the country than where you started. If this is the case, you'll need to find a town or city near your finishing point that offers flights back to the country's main international airport. This is where choosing to travel an entire small country comes in handy. Regional flights in small countries aren't that expensive. On our trip to New Zealand, we flew back up from Queenstown to the main city, Auckland, for a few hundred dollars each.

It may seem like a pain to have to trade in your rental car for a flight back to the main city, but, with limited vacation time, it is sometimes the only way to make travelling an entire country work. It took us almost two weeks to drive all of New Zealand. That meant we had to fly back to meet our two week vacation limit and catch our flight home. I will say, though, that sitting on a plane after completing an epic road trip across an entire country is one relaxing, incredible feeling. It definitely calls for drinks on the plane and / or when you reach the country's main city again.

So, if you've always wanted to travel an entire country but have never thought it was possible with your limited vacation time or job, think again. There are tons of countries in this world that are perfectly suited for cross-country expeditions, even if you only have a week or two of vacation time. All it takes to make it happen is a bit of planning, calculating and motivation. A little road trip playlist never hurt anyone either.

Recommended Reading

When planning to travel across an entire country, researching and planning is crucial. My favourite way to plan trips like this is to purchase and read Lonely Planet's book on the country.

Lonely Planet's books provide information on a country's top sights, key travel knowledge, such as currency conversions, emergency numbers, transit options, and country rules, as well as travel itineraries for various vacation lengths. They also provide very in-depth information for both the country's major cities and smallest towns. This makes it easy to figure out the best sights, hotels, restaurants, cafes and bars for every stop on your road trip.

I always take the Lonely Planet book of the country I'm visiting with me. That way, if I'm out in the middle of nowhere cruising without any cell signal, I can easily reference my Lonely Planet book, see what the next town on the way has to offer, and decide if I want to hang around there or keep on driving through.

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