Group Dept Manager for a Wholesale Tour Operator who charters their own planes...we could hop on any empty seats for a minimal cost for personal getaways, even if just the weekend, had Travel Agent privilges, and frequently had to "go see" the hotels and products we were selling with the company picking up the tab.

Also the military ?...You do travel, right ?

Thanks so much for all your posts! All great stories and interesting opinions... Although, I do like the sound of what Anonymous, Mommar, and Ryn have to say! :) Nothing says you have to do it forever. I think I'd love an opportunity to get sick of travel! But I got a big kick out of SWalter's answer. Looking forward to anybody else's insight, too. Thanks again, Fodorites.

As the wife of a frequent flier, I relate to a lot of what has been said here. My husband started in sales and steadily worked his way up. He's now VP of Sales for his company and at his level he is more frequently invited on Presidents Club trips which are usually nice, fun trips. In a few months he leaves for Barcelona, and he's been to Atlantis and been invited to Cabo and Bermuda. His own company's President's Club trip was to Cancun last year and the Bahamas this year. But for every trip like these, where he does get to see some of the destination, most of his business travel is work. He eats out at nice restaurants, but he doesn't get to do touristy type stuff. And he's paid his dues - he's done too many trips to places like Buffalo, Dayton, Rochester and Pascagoula, MS. (Now if anyone lives there - I'm sure these places are fine places to live, but they're not exactly the first places people chose to vacation!) My husband is increasingly losing patience for the travel. He was stuck in Boston on 9/11; been stranded due to bad weather on several occasions and dealt with way too many delayed flights. I'm glad that he even wants to get on a plane to do family vacations. The up side is that he earns a lot of frequent flier miles, which allows us to take 2 (or sometimes more) vacations a year. Last year he earned 8 frequent flier award tickets; this year he hasn't earned half that many. (Which I'm happy about - it's no fun having a husband who's frequently away. But it seems like this is the minority opinion with my friends - they tell me they wish their husbands went away more!)

How about being a nurse? They can work anywhere. I have met a lot of nurses when I travel and they say it's a great way to see the world.

If you have the ability to speak at least one, if not two, foreign languages, and are willing to pursue an MBA from a top graduate program, you can have a pretty good life of traveling to foreign countries with organizations like the IMF, World Bank, US Development Bank, a rating agency or bank/investment bank specializing in sovereign debt.

While the rest of us who work on Wall Street have long ago seen many of the perks disappear (and spend way to much time in places like North Wilkesboro, NC or Bentonville, Arkansas), the people who deal with foreign governments and monetary policy, still enjoy the cocktail party and champagne mixers in world capitals. I have some colleagues who used to deal in sovereign debt and they definately enjoyed the life. It tends to be a very clubby universe, so having an undergrad from an Ivy League school and a Masters from a top graduate program, or from a prestigious foreign school like the LSE or Insead, helps.

Alternatively, most major retailers and apparel firms source a significant amount of product from Asia. If you get into the Fashion world, and attend a place like the Fashion Institute of Technology, the opportunity can exist to hit the European shows or the Asian manufacturing plants. However, most people need to pay a significant amount of dues before getting those spots.

As previously mentioned, traveling for business is not like traveling on vacation. Most of the time you are trying to be productive and get in and out as quickly as possible, especially if you have a family. Considering that things in the office aren't static while you are gone, even trips to "fun" destinations can lose their luster. During my single days, I could occassionally turn a trip to Florida or California into a weekend trip, however that was rare.

It's funny, the 23 year old kid who used to work for me continually asked to go on trips. A couple of times, I sent him to meetings in my place. After getting stuck in O'Hare for several hours, the next day he concluded what many of us already knew "Business travel isn't that much fun."

Astronaut!

I met my best friend while she was on a nurse travel assignment here. I have flow and driven to visit her in many of her work places. She spent Fall thru Winter in Vermont, you bet I visited there. Summer in Phoenix, did not visit! Time in Oregon, Baltimore, Massachusetts, California etc etc. There are even opportunites for the Virgin Islands and Hawaii!!! But this glamour has a down side: You must be licensed in that state, many states accept the license of another state, and you must pay non-resident income tax, both state and local for each state you work in. It ain't to bad she's done it for 20+ years, and the pay ain't to shabby either. Oh let me get my kids grown and on their own and off I will go!!!

I'll take it even a step further than GoTravel. I used to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I'd be momentarily stunned when I smacked into a wall, then realized that the bathroom was in a different place than the night before when I was in a different hotel. Ugh.

I traveled 250,000 miles in 5 years from age 24-29. While I am grateful for the opportunity to have seen most of this wonderful country for free (which leads to FF miles so I can vacation internationally for free), I'm done being excited about business trips. My job was great too. Go somewhere, do a 2 hour preso, then have the rest of my day to kick back, and go out with people at night. I was in the educational software industry, by the way.

Still, HAVING to be somewhere is soooo different from WANTING to be somewhere!

At the beginning of his career, my husband was in internal audit for a large, multinational pharmaceutical company. He literally traveled the world -- Europe, Asia, South America. The best part was that, unlike the business trips he or I take now, his trips were usually 2-6 weeks at a time. This means that he could travel at his leisure over the weekends and really get to see an area, not just the airport and his hotel. He has wonderful stories and photo albums, but I think it was mostly fun because he was young and single. It would be a hard job to have if you had a family at home.

I think probably one of the great jobs for "personal" travel is an airline employee. :) Term pass travel with discounts extended to cruises- significant, hotels- 50%++ off, rental cars etc. Add that to my New York state job that gives me 7 1/2 paid weeks off per year- and it results in my vacations of 5-6 times per year!!!

U.S State Department