Let’s set the scene: You’re a hardworking nine-to-fiver who’s spent years climbing the corporate ladder. Maybe you’re in a good place financially (or at least getting there), but you’re so burned out from spreadsheets, client expectations and office politics—not to mention navigating a global pandemic while somehow still answering emails—that you’re legitimately ready to retire.
The problem? Retirement is still decades away.
More Americans find themselves in this position, yet fewer are waiting for their golden years to take that much-needed break. Instead, they’re opting for an adult gap year.
A 2025 report from MyPerfectResume found that 47% of people have taken a career break of some kind. These gaps in employment are driven by layoffs, career transitions, caregiving responsibilities and, of course, mental burnout.
To better understand the adult gap year trend, I spoke with two experts who have taken their own big career breaks and coached others through the process. Below, Liz Delia, founder of Sabbatical Studio, and Colleen Newvine, author of the travel guide Your Mini Sabbatical, explain why people take adult gap years, when to take this kind of break and how to plan your own—without torpedoing your career.
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What is an adult gap year?
An adult gap year is an intentional break from your career. You can think of it like a mini retirement or sabbatical, but while the terms are often used interchangeably, there are key differences:
- Mini retirement: This career break typically focuses on rest and relaxation.
- Sabbatical: Employers typically fund this because the employee plans to return to their job after the break.
- Adult gap year: This break offers time and space to explore, volunteer and learn new skills. It’s mainly self-funded, and people may or may not return to their job or career path.
What’s driving the adult gap year trend?
There are many reasons why people decide to take a gap year. However, most people are driven by a sense of discontent with their current situation.
“Often, people find themselves in search of something,” says Delia. “Recovery from burnout, stress or exhaustion is often a driving element, but exploration or discovery toward new meaning and purpose is also common.”
Fear of regret also pushes people into adult gap years. The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with increasing economic uncertainty and an aging Boomer population, has made many mid-career workers rethink how they want to spend their time while they’re still young and healthy. Instead of aggressively saving for retirement, it’s becoming more in vogue to spend time and capital on invaluable experiences and the personal growth they offer.
“I think a big misconception about gap years or sabbatical is that they’re all sunshine: leisurely trips around the world, vacation-style traveling,” Delia adds. “But most folks are fairly serious about their gap years because they are looking to get something out of it.”
Who’s taking an adult gap year?
While the sabbatical model is typically associated with people in academic careers, the gap-year trend isn’t quite as exclusive. “What’s interesting is that we’re seeing people take gap years in all different industries,” Delia says. “They’re becoming common in business and tech, as well as nonprofit and education.”
Research from HR Dive shows that 1 in 10 workers planned to take a break from their careers to pursue rest, travel and personal projects. While Gen Zers and Millennials are among those taking breaks, employees in their late 40s and 50s are jumping on the trend too.
Unlike gap years that call to mind backpack-clad travelers hopping between hostel bars the summer after college, a mid-career or late-career break is more intentional.
“The biggest difference is life experience, and with that comes a different perspective on travel and purpose. People will often root themselves in a place so they can settle in and focus on whatever they hope to accomplish during the break,” Delia says.
Where do you go on an adult gap year?
Your motivation for taking a gap year will help determine where and how you travel. If you’re working part-time during your gap year, for instance, you might choose an affordable place with a strong digital nomad or expat community.
But you don’t have to spend your break abroad. A 2025 ranking of U.S. cities named Springfield, Missouri, the most affordable place for digital nomadism, with Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and McAllen, Texas, coming in second and third, respectively. In addition to being easy on the wallet, these domestic hot spots offer the well-rounded lifestyle, work infrastructure and safety features that remote workers are looking for.
Still, work is often not the priority of an adult gap year, and most people use this time to completely disconnect from their jobs. They seize the freedom to travel somewhere they normally couldn’t with just the standard two weeks of PTO per year.
“Places like Southeast Asia are very popular, as they offer a different pace of life at a relatively low cost of living,” Delia says.
Go Overseas, a company that helps travelers find volunteer, educational and gap-year programs abroad, points to Australia, Thailand, New Zealand and Spain as top countries for an adult gap year in 2026. If you’re not planning to work for a local employer in the country, you can stay in these places for a maximum of three months on a tourist visa—with the exception of New Zealand, where immigration policies will allow you to stay for six or nine months.
What makes an adult gap year such a great idea?
Believe it or not, an adult gap year can actually benefit your career, your future and your mental health.
Taking time off from your career can help you:
- Recover from corporate burnout
- Build new skills or make a career pivot
- Find time to volunteer and give back
- Reflect on your needs and values
- Meet new people and build community
- Explore the world while you’re young, rather than waiting for retirement
When is an adult gap year just not worth it?
Despite the excitement and lifelong lessons an adult gap year can provide, sometimes it just isn’t the right time.
This might be the case if you:
- Can’t figure out how to finance the trip
- Feel like it will create a significant career setback
- Have young children and don’t want to uproot them from school
- Have certain health-care needs
When should you take a gap year?
Everyone’s situation is different, but you might be ready to take time off if you have the funds, your health and lifestyle allow flexibility and you feel like you’re close to a breaking point. “I think the best time for someone to take a gap year is when they have the resources to make it happen and an awareness that staying in their current work environment might do them more harm than good,” Delia says.
In the current job market, there’s another likely scenario: A layoff might be the nudge someone needs to take an adult gap year.
“So many stories I’ve heard have involved people losing a job and deciding to take their unplanned freedom for a spin,” says Newvine. “People don’t often do 30 years at the same company and retire with a pension and a gold watch these days.”
How can you take a gap year without derailing your career or blowing your savings?
Whether you have been laid off or are in serious need of a break, leaving the job market for a little while can feel both scary and impossible. “The notion of giving yourself permission to not work, in a culture that celebrates productivity and being busy, that’s a real challenge for some of us,” Newvine says.
The answer? Try shifting your mindset. A career break isn’t lazy; in fact, it’s a brave step that can help you show up more authentically in all areas of life—yes, including at work.
Talk to your employer
The only way to know how your employer might react to your gap year plans is to ask. While it isn’t common for non-academic employers to offer this kind of yearlong break from work, your company might be open to accommodating a shorter break, such as a one-month sabbatical annually.
Either way, you can increase the chances of your boss being on board by upskilling while you’re gone. In other words, think about how you can use your time away to learn valuable new skills that will help you thrive in your job when you come back. This won’t just give you a leg up when negotiating with your boss; it’ll put you in a better position if you’re trying to land a new job (or move into a new field) when you reenter the workforce.
Additionally, some employers, like Goldman Sachs and HubSpot, offer “returnship” programs that help people transition back into the workforce after time away.
Start saving early
While you don’t need to have everything figured out before you leave, it’s a good idea to have a solid plan to pay for basic needs, whether that’s through savings, alternative living arrangements or another creative approach.
“Getting super budget conscious before the break can help build up savings before the gap year starts,” Newvine says. “Then, if traveling, websites like Trusted Housesitters can keep living costs low.”
You’ll find other ways to save money (or even travel for free) on a gap year through Workaway or Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), which provide accommodations and meals in exchange for volunteering. If none of these options sound feasible, a gap year might not be right for you … yet.
Reframe your career gap as positive (it is!)
When explaining your career gap and addressing it on your resume, think of it as an opportunity to show value. Specifically, call out your career break and use strong action words to describe what you did—and what you learned—during this time.
Quantify your experiences to show their impact, whether it’s the number of countries you visited, hours you volunteered or days you spent learning.
Prepare for the mental and emotional toll
A career break or adult gap year gives you time to think, which can surface a lot of big feelings and questions, Delia explains. “When you go from your ordinary routine to potentially not much of a routine at all, you can experience identity-crisis-type moments,” she says.
While this can be difficult to manage, it’s ultimately a doorway to learning more about yourself, your career and the life you want to create.
“If you’re gone for a month or more, you’re very likely going to see your normal life with a fresh perspective,” Newvine says. “From that arm’s length view, you’ll probably see more clearly what was working for you and what wasn’t.”
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Sources:
- Liz Delia, founder of Sabbatical Studio; email interview, March 10, 2026
- Colleen Newvine, author, Your Mini Sabbatical; email interview, March 10, 2026
- MyPerfectResume: “Nearly Half of Workers Report Career Gaps—But Stigma Still Lingers”
- The New York Times: “To Escape the Grind, Young People Turn to ‘Mini-Retirements’”
- Instagram: “@trippingmillennial”
- HR Dive: “1 in 10 workers are clocking out for micro-retirement, survey finds”
- USA Today: “Need a career break? Why you should consider an adult gap year”
- Storage Cafe: “Between Tethered Nomads And Slowmads, Digital Nomadism Gains Speed: St. Louis Tops The List For Best Live-Work-Play Destinations”
- Go Overseas: “The 10 Best Gap Year Destinations for 2026”
- New Zealand Immigration: “Visitor Visa”
- Springboard: “Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft Are Now Offering ‘Returnships’ to Fight Off the Great Resignation”
- Merit America: “How to Explain a Resume Gap in 2026″
The post The Answer to Burnout Is the Adult Gap Year—Here’s How to Take One Without Sabotaging Your Career appeared first on Reader's Digest.
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