Company-Paid Vacation

Traveling for business or pleasure? Why not both, if you can seal a deal one day and hit the beach the next, with the company off setting personal costs? To save money, 72 percent of people combined leisure travel with business trips in the last year. And 81 percent plan to extend an upcoming work trip to vacation with family or friends.

“If you’re traveling to a city you’d like to visit, it’s a great opportunity to vacation inexpensively,” suggests Teresa Rodriguez Williamson, founder of Tango Diva and author of Fly Solo: The 50 Best Places on Earth for a Girl to Travel Alone. Flights are more expensive during the week, because airlines assume most passengers are business travelers who want to be home for the weekend. “People forget to think outside the box when they have business trips. If you’re creative, do your research and plan well, you can turn it into a very cheap vacation.”

Here’s how:

CNN.com offers strategies to extend a company trip for fun, like keeping the business vs. personal receipts legit.

Russia and China aren’t the only emerging markets. Lesser-known, but often exotic, countries like Croatia are attracting more execs who come for business and stay for adventures. MSNBC and Forbes offer tips for traveling to these destinations on the company dime.

Self-employed? You can write off a vacation if you include enough business.

Can’t make the trip longer? Here’s how to organize your stay, so you have more spare time to play.

Bonus PINK Link: Traveling internationally? Here’s what you need to know.

“I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine.”
Caskie Stinnett