While you’re on contract, longer periods of time off is difficult to come by unless you’ve negotiated it into your contract. Most travel nursing contracts are for 36 hours a week, though this is variable and realistically, 36 hours ends up being more like 40+. If you’re able to work three days on and then four days off, that affords plenty of time to do quick trips here and there. That’s plenty to get to know the town or city you’re in, and possibly take a few bigger trips too!

When it comes to taking a longer trip or just a longer period of time off, the best opportunity for this as a travel nurse is in between travel nurse contracts. Assuming you’re not renewing your current contract, you can pick your ideal start date and work with your recruiter to find a contract that matches it. That way, you can have as little as one week off in between contracts, or… well any amount of time really.

limits to time off between contracts

While it’s completely up to you how much time off you want to take off in between travel nurse contracts, there are some things to keep in mind. Individual agencies have different benefits that they offer to travel nurses they employ, and different rules regarding these benefits. For example, some agencies have restrictions on how much time you can take off in between contracts before losing access to their employer sponsored health insurance.

Again, these rules vary from agency to agency. One of the previous agencies that Dan worked with had a rule that he couldn’t take more than three weeks off in between contracts, or he would lose his eligibility to stay on their health insurance plan. This in particular is something to keep in mind and make sure you know the specifics about with your agency. You don’t want an accidental lapse in coverage because you took four weeks off in between contracts instead of three.

travel some place new or explore where you’re at

It is surprisingly easy to spend most of a three month long travel nurse contract getting settled and then simply finding the next contract. We’re always a bit shocked a month or so in when we realize we’ve hardly done anything or explored the town/city we’re in at all. It takes intentionality when you’re living such a crazy lifestyle to make the most of it and get out of the house. I’m sure some people don’t struggle with this, but we certainly do!

Honestly, we’ve realized that the most exploring we do (of the city where we’re based in for Dan’s contract) is when friends and family visit. We did better during our time in Phoenix at getting out and about in town just the two of us, but typically we do most of our eating out and going places when people visit us. If you’re like us, taking some time in between contracts to dedicate to seeing the city or town where you’re temporarily living could be a lot of fun and help you make up for lost time!

Time off in between contracts is also a great chance to do more extensive travelling – if you haven’t already had enough! We typically don’t do much domestic travel in between contracts; we save that for during Dan’s contracts. So far, we’ve been going a new place every three months so that’s largely enough for us. That said, in between contracts is the most convenient time to take longer trips either domestically or internationally!

finalizing the next contract & housing

One important thing to make sure you’re working on in between contracts is finalizing your next contract and finding housing. This is assuming you’re looking to start a new contract within a month or so of finishing the last one. If you’re taking a longer period of time off you may not have a contract to finalize or may not even be looking for one yet.

For us, the time in between contracts is usually pretty busy as we work to find housing and as Dan gets all of his onboarding for the next contract done. The week before we left Phoenix (after Dan finished a contract there), we were thankfully able to lock down his next contract and find housing (in Charlotte, NC!) all before we even left on our cross-country road trip. This was pretty best case scenario and not typically what has happened; in particular, housing usually takes longer to figure out. That said, it was so nice getting all that done so we could focus on our road trip and spending time with family.

what we do in between travel nurse contracts

Top priority for us is getting things set for Dan’s next contract and then visiting family. Like I said above, ideally we’d get most of the logistics figured out for the next contract before we start the trek back to New Hampshire, but that’s not always possible. Even then, there’s all of the onboarding for Dan to do which takes up quite a bit of time. He usually likes to spread it out if possible. This time around it’s adding a lot of extra driving to go from Arizona to New Hampshire and then to North Carolina, but it’s important to us to have that time with family.

We both love having time to catch up with family in between Dan’s travel nurse contracts, but there’s a practical side to it as well. Our permanent residence/tax home is back in New Hampshire and all of our things are either there or in our storage unit (also in New Hampshire). So, if we find we need to switch around some of our clothes or other things we bring, it’s helpful to have that chance to do so and go through the car.

We do most of our travelling during Dan’s contracts and keep the trips short, both for the sake of his work schedule, but also because saving money while on contract is a huge priority for us. Sometime in the next year we’re hoping to do a bigger trip that will have to happen in between contracts, because ideally we’d be gone for about a month. I’m still working on convincing Dan of that, but so far I’ve gotten him to agree to three weeks so I think I’m doing pretty well!

what do you do in between travel nurse contracts?