The travel advice going viral for people who can’t just quit their jobs

Scroll through travel content online long enough, and a pattern emerges: creators who quit their jobs to travel full-time, framed as the only real way to see the world. A recent Instagram video is pushing back on that idea, and it’s resonating with people who aren’t ready to walk away from a steady income.

Lifestyle and travel creator Annie Sharma lays out how she fits travel into a regular 9-to-5 schedule through a few practical habits. She avoids spontaneous trips altogether, instead planning each one about two months ahead. “I usually don’t take spontaneous trips because this helps me calculate how much money I need to save, how much the expenditure will be, and how many leaves I will take,” she says.

She also prefers 10-day trips over shorter breaks, a length that lets her “sandwich two weekends” around days spent working remotely — exploring on weekends and staying productive on weekdays. Remote work, combined with earnings from social media content, sponsored activities and occasional sponsored trips, helps cover the costs.

Her closing message is aimed directly at anyone feeling pressure from the “quit your job to travel” narrative dominating social media: “You don’t have to leave your job to follow your passion because everyone on social media is saying you do that. Sometimes all it needs is better planning.”

Disclaimer: The Times of India has not independently verified the claims made in the video.