PTO stands for Paid Time Off — the paid vacation days or leave days your employer gives you each year that you can use whenever you choose. In the United States this is commonly called PTO. In other countries the same concept goes by different names: e.g. In the U.K. and Australia this is called Annual Leave. In Canada it is called Vacation Days or Personal Days. In France it is called Conges Payes(Paid Leave) and in Germany it is called Jahresurlaub (Annual Leave). Whatever your country calls it, the concept is the same — a limited number of paid days off that your employer grants you each year. Stretchtraveler Magic: Most people use their paid leave days in isolation, not realising that with just 3 PTO days either side of a public holiday weekend can turn into a 9-day trip — with only 3 days charged against your annual leave balance. That is exactly what the Stretch Planner does — it finds those hidden windows in your calendar automatically. Then you can book your flights, hotels, cars and tours right here without leaving the site.

Quick Stretch allows you to quickly start generating stretch trips using just your home country and weekend preferences. Advanced Stretch generates stretch trips as well BUT also allows you to add custom holidays, block dates where you have prior engagements as well as override your home country and weekend preferences.

Utilizing a 13-month rolling calendar allows you to conveniently plan for the next 12 months plus an additional "grace month". Unlike other vacation planners that assume a fixed calendar year (January-December), both of our Quick Stretch and Advanced Stretch features start from the current month and allow you to plan for the next 13 months.

A subscribed user may utilize the Quick Stretch or Advanved Stretch to save trip windows into a plan. The user can have a maximum of 3 plans. In addition, subscribed users can receive Trip Alerts, share trip dates with family and friends, and start booking trips via our Travel Partners.

The default weekend pairing is Saturday and Sunday. However if you have another weekend pair, e.g. Friday and Saturday, you may specify that. The Stretch features need two consecutive days off in the week in order to maximize your time off.

Stretchtraveler is designed to do more with less. The "Longest Weekend" goal takes a small number of your available PTO days and finds the longest weekend trip options. The "Fixed Trip" goal achieves a specific trip length using the minimum number of PTO days, while the "Maximum Trips" goal stretches your bulk PTO days strategically over holiday weekends, multiplying your total days off across your 13-month calendar.

Typically on sign-up you have the option of telling us your preferences e.g. home airport, favourite activities and favourite destinations. This adds relevancy and where possible allows us to personalize your searches for flights, hotels, tours and much more. You can also update these preferences at any time.

If you are a subscriber, go to the Stretch Planner menu and select Dashboard. In the right sidebar scroll down to the bottom. Click on Delete Account and confirm. This will delete your account.

Yes we earn a small commission if you use our booking options but this does not affact your booking prices. The commissions allow us to provide support and build out Free Travel and Stretch Planner features.

We provide support for all major Browsers. If you encounter Browsers that are not supported, please send us email at support@stretchtravel.com.

We currently support over 160 countries and will be adding more shortly. If you would like support for your country, send us email at support@stretchtraveler.com and we will notify you when it goes live.

From the Stretch Planner, select the Advanced Stretch tool and make sure your country is selected. Click Next. Then on the Calendar page if your holiday is not listed, click on Add Holiday and add the holiday name and date. Your Holiday should then appear in the Holiday list.

Absolutely. We take data privacy seriously. We do not sell your personal information to third parties. Your data is used solely to personalize your experience and improve our service. Please review our Privacy Policy for full details.