麻豆约拍

Christina Beach is a teacher currently travelling in New Zealand - she's been on a trip that started in the UK several months ago and has already spent time in Mozambique, South Africa and parts of Asia. When we spoke to her she had just been micro-lighting across the North Island.

In September Christina will be back in the classroom - refreshed and ready for action. She's one of a great number of workers who have decided to take a 'grown-up gap year', a sabbatical that can change your life and fulfil your dreams of travel.

We talk to workers (many 'let go' for a while willingly by their firms during recession) who have planned and enjoyed trips and to firms who say what they themselves get out of it.

We also offer advice on how to plan and how to approach such a trip.

Programme contributors are travel expert Alison Rice and Julian Critchlow of Bain Consulting. Also featured are sabbatical takers and volunteers: Jonathan Froom, Family Jakubovic, Christina Beach.

Producer: Susan Marling
A Whistledown production for 麻豆约拍 Radio 4.