Beginnings and Endings are always the most challenging when it comes to a career break. In fact, I never really know which one is harder. When you begin your break, you are normally a bundle of nervous excitement with your head aching from all of the planning and checklists you’ve been working with for the last few months. But the real part that makes you break out into a cold sweat is you are heading out into the unknown and outside of your typically predictable life.
Equally perspiration inducing is the return and re-entry into your ‘old’ predictable world when you finish your career break. If you’ve been traveling in far off countries for a significant time, coming home to your own culture can be jolting. You are bombarded with marketing, politics, high prices, questions about what you are going to do next; it makes you want to hop on the next plane out to anywhere!
Abrupt transitions such as the beginning and end of a career break can be challenging and in order to ease that transition we suggest that you consider easing into or out of your break. And one very good place to do that is Hawaii.
The little chain of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean are the perfect place to ease into cultural transition.
Hawaii is indeed the US on paper, but once you get there you won’t feel as if you are in the US any longer. It’s a mix of east meets west, of American culture and Polynesian island culture. You will feel as if you are in another country as you try the new food, get used to the new vowel-centric language, and understand the different customs of Ohana (family).
If you are leaving on a career break to Asia, this can be the perfect place to ease into the Asian culture. And if you are on your way home to the US after being gone for months of traveling, Hawaii can be a way to ease you back into American culture.
Stopovers
The great news is that you can potentially do this for free, or a very low cost thanks to the possibility of stopovers offered from various airlines. If you are flying to/from Australia, New Zealand, and many parts of Asia stopovers in Hawaii are a real possibility. Check out the stop over destinations and deals on the Web sites for companies like New Zealand Air, Quantas , Air Tahiti Nui, and Hawaiian Air (stopover rules). And if you don’t know much about how stopovers work (strangely they aren’t publicized very well), then check out this great stopover article from Bootsnall.
What to Do
So now you know that you can consider Hawaii an easy and affordable stop on the beginning or end of your career break – but what do you do once you get there? You can do much more than you think; Hawaii isn’t just about beaches and Hawaii golf courses. You can hike the hundreds of trails on Oahu, engross yourself in Hawaiian royal history, stay with/meet locals via Tripping.com, learn to surf, go shark cage diving, and go horse back riding. You may even be able to catch a Meet Plan Go Travel meetup in Honolulu! Or you can simply soak in the Aloha spirit and prepare for your next stop on your career break.
This post was sponsored by PGA Championship golf vacations
Photography from Sherry Ott’s recent Hawaii ‘break’:
Rainer Jenss was a Vice President and thirteen-year veteran of National Geographic. As the Publisher, he helped transform National Geographic Kids into the most widely read consumer magazine for children throughout the world. In the summer of 2008 he decided to put his professional expertise and personal passion to the ultimate test by traveling around the world for a year with his family.
Shortly after hosting our Inaugural Meet, Plan, Go! event in Seattle this past September, Warren & Betsy Talbot (aka Married with Luggage) took off for their three year career break. Now with four months under their [shrinking] belts, we check in with them to see how they are adjusting to life on the road.
When I first started backpacking nearly 20 years ago, I never heard about gap-years, or for that fact, career breaks. I was traveling as a college student, adding to my education by backpacking through Europe and studying in London. That experience led me to realize that I wanted to incorporate travel throughout my life – whether it was three months in SE Asia or two weeks in Ecuador.
In the months leading up to her 33rd birthday, Jenny Sundel’s high-paying, but deeply unsatisfying interim job ended. After a decade of working around the clock – and sleeping next to her blackberry! – she knew she needed a break. “That only crystallized further when I attempted to find another job, right smack dab in the middle of a recession no less. ‘Knowing your background as a freelancer, are you sure you could truly be happy in an office,’ asked one interviewer. ‘Um uh um uh um uh um,’ I stammered. Needless to say, they gave the job to someone else.”
My backpack had hardly touched the floor in our new apartment in Buenos Aires when I was already illuminated by the friendly glow of my netbook, searching for a school to enroll in. I was eager to hit the books after so many years in the workplace and wanted to take advantage of every second of Spanish that I could absorb. Being a little older than your typical study-abroad student and already fairly fluent, I was a bit leery of the private language mills with their revolving hung-over students. My goal wasn’t to be able to say, “I’d like a shot of tequila please”; I wanted to speak with confidence about things that probably hadn’t happened in the past, but might have—in other words, to finally master the subjunctive mood.
Let’s ignore the fact that you’ll never work again. Skip over the part where you die alone and penniless on a twice-flipped mattress in some dockside flophouse. Such fates are inevitable if you walk away from your job. Accept it. Move on.
Traveling is about the journey, and not reaching the destination; from the moment you start packing until you have returned. Think about how long you have planned to conquer this journey, and how fulfilling it is to participate in this traveling phenomenon; whether you’re a career breaker or a backpacker. Your travel experience is unique; shaped by the travelers you interact with. Shouldn’t the way you book your travel be the same?
Travelers love to talk; we share information about how awesome the Salar de Uyuni was in Bolivia, or where to find budget accommodation in Amsterdam. The Gomio team does exactly this; booking hostels and connecting travelers at your convenience.
With the help of the 
Aaron Starmer wrote much of 
One Year Around the World
Four Month Adventure
Childhood Sweethearts Traveling the World Together
22 months surfing the globe
Two Year on the Road
10 Weeks with Mr. Half Empty
Undetermined Time on the Road
One Year on the Road
In the months leading up to her 33rd birthday, Jenny Sundel’s high-paying, but deeply unsatisfying interim job ended. After a decade of working around the clock – and sleeping next to her blackberry! – she knew she needed a break. “That only crystallized further when I attempted to find another job, right smack dab in the middle of a recession no less. ‘Knowing your background as a freelancer, are you sure you could truly be happy in an office,’ asked one interviewer. ‘Um uh um uh um uh um,’ I stammered. Needless to say, they gave the job to someone eIse.”
