Sabbatical ideas
“Taking a sabbatical. What should I do with it?”
26 answers from 25 people · Updated Oct 12, 2026
Sign painting class at New Bohemia Signs (SF, CA)
Took this class three years ago during a sabbatical. Turns out my hands are Not Great for sign painting but I loved trying something new and I still have my sign I made on display at home.
Depending on how adventurous you are, I really recommend spending the $20 to buy a membership to Mind My House. This is a website that connects travelers to people looking for someone to house-sit for their pet while they travel. I took a year off from work from 2018-2019 to do some traveling, and this was really helpful for me to find free places to stay when I wasn't camping, as well as time to test-drive if I wanted to live in certain places. I house-sat three times for about seven weeks in total, and it was quite helpful!
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I completed a Vipassana retreat in 2017 and it truly changed my life. I was a complete beginner and this was fairly intense but it was worth it. It’s completely free and they have centers spread out throughout the United States and all over the world.
I recommend the stained glass classes, but they have all kinds of classes: a few hours, a weekend workshop, to multi-week courses. It’s in a historic building in Golden Gate Park and run by SF Rec & Parks. Pro tip: Find the class you want early and put a reminder in your calendar for when registration starts. You have to sign up within the hour or it will fill!
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Taking a leather-working class at Tandy
If you live somewhere with a Tandy leather store, I cannot recommend taking a class enough!!! They’re affordable (usually about $15/hour depending on the length/complexity of the class) and you leave having learnt a new skill and with a fun new item in tow. I took my mom to make leather tote bags and we had the best time together, and a few months back I did a journal cover making class. Buying the leather can get pricy but it’s not hard to find other uses for it. The classes usually include all the other tools/materials you need. As a plus, the store smells amazing!
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give yourself a writers retreat
find cabin in the woods read cookbooks to see what sparks the soul go to local farmer market remember you can do headstands and dance whenever you want stand in the rain lots of coffee drinking for fun find some water to jump in low light evenings read odd books let nature impose the joy of living Time to plan one for the spa'dettes <3
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Game changing
I take myself on retreat to the woods three times a year, but I love the idea of doing a social reading retreat. Read all day, cook together at night, tell stories until dawn!
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I’m taking a break from click clack life and working at a chicken spot/wine spot in Chicago (if you’re nearby, come visit!!!). I feel so energized by work, interacting in person and providing a fantastic dining experience! Plus everyone is so excited to be there and eat and drink and be happy, no greater feeling.
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Quinta Camarena Boutique Hotel + Yoga Retreat (Portugal)
took my first solo international trip here for the "not so serious" yoga retreat. HIGHLY recommend, vera + cam were amazing hosts, the food and wine were top notch, and you can't beat the slow living of alentejo.
Wild Rice Retreat is one of those rare places that understands that great hospitality isn’t about adding more amenities, it’s about creating a setting where the landscape, architecture, food, and rituals all work together to make you feel different than when you arrived. If you’re interested in what makes a place truly memorable, it’s an inspiring example of how thoughtful design and a deep connection to the South Shore can become the experience itself.
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Before longform podcasts, or open platform online learning, or even CDs, there was The Great Courses. The principle was the same: a best-in-their-field expert/professor/expert-professor/professor-expert records a lecture series on a topic they are passionate and knowledgeable about. You would select what you wanted to learn about from their catalog, write away to the company, and sometime later a very heavy and very expensive box of cassette tapes would arrive. While the delivery mechanism wasn't great, the content was. The company is still around, and have a robust website and a decent YouTube channel. The kicker, however: all of the courses are on Libby! The back catalog of available courses is as massive as it is diverse. The company has done a good job digitizing everything, and the course material has held up really well. The usual length is 12-20 hours, and it's a wonderful way to deep dive into any topic under the sun. I'd fool around on the website linked below to see what they have, then check it out on Libby. Somewhere in my parents' house there is an entire room dedicated to Great Courses cassette tapes. We used to get these as birthday presents which says a lot about my upbringing. The Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 snippet that played at the beginning of each episode lives rent free in my head to this day. Go ahead and make all the Dads, and/or dad-book people in your life proud.
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put the Duolingo down, we’re actually learning usable spoken language over here completely free audio-only courses with a super unique approach. no premium subscription, no lives, no gamification.
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Improv Class - Especially Beginner Level
Improv is magic. Even for those of us who aren't necessarily natural performers or actors. I have never laughed so hard or so much. Take a class. Enjoy it, learn from it. It helps in business, in life, in everything. Do it. I do it in Carrboro - but there are classes everywhere.
It's just a fun way to travel, like being a fast turtle.🐢
taking art classes as a grown-up
callanwolde classes have become my favorite way to pick up new hobbies. i took salsa earlier this year and i'm in the middle of a metalsmithing class now. basically adult summer camp.
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Teaching a free class on something you love
On a whim, I decided to try and host a class at the local lesbian bar about one of my favorite grandma hobbies (scoring a baseball game) and it was so fun and my heart felt so full. Why not host something for your community? Why not feel better than you have in ages?
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Bike Skills 101: Learn to Ride—Adults
I’m not sure if this will really be helpful for folks not in NYC, but I also learned to ride a bike as a kid and forgot and find biking as an adult scary but aspirational. I took one of BikeNYC’s free adult courses and loved it. I’m planning to take one of their follow up classes for getting comfortable riding around other bikes and traffic. I found that learning with trained teachers (who, importantly, were not friends or family) and other adults was actually easier and more comfortable than trying on my own. If there’s anything like this where you live, I’d highly recommend it.
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Take a trip - bring a notebook
When I left my career after 7 years I felt the same way you were. I ended up taking a trip by myself to somewhere no one knew me. Then wrote in my notebook about what I loved, why I left, and what I needed the rest of my life to look like. It really helped me close that chapter of my life by basically writing a new one. One of my friends and I call this “going to Costa Rica”
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shameless plug but I’ve been making videos for as long as I can remember. I started uploading vlogs using my gopro when I was 11/12 and have been sporadically over the years. I got back into it more within the past year and it’s a great way to stay creative!
Adult recreation sports or Community college sports classes
Joining an adult softball league post-Covid helped me learn to be social again after a lonely year and half of WFH. After I moved and had to quit the team, I took a tennis class at a community college. Learning solo or team sports with people of all ages and backgrounds was a fun experience, and it made me appreciate my body and take care of myself.
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Do the thing you loved to do most when you were 10
This practice is especially useful if you’ve grown out of touch with joy.
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You’re never too old to start something new!
developing a weird skill for no reason
Mostly it is entertaining for you but sometimes people care and that can be fun (mostly they don't). For example, I can turn most cups inside out without ruining the integrity of the cup. Photographed: me in high school with paper, styrofoam, AND plastic (the holy trinity)
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