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So I have a company that I interned at for the past year (full time and then part time during school) and I will be joining them for a full time position at the end of a study abroad semester that I'm currently doing right now. It will be over 4 months from now, and the study abroad is not related to my major (just for the experience). My team/manager knows this as well, so they view it as a.. sorta holiday?

Currently, my start date is a month after I finish my study abroad due to the fact that it takes some time for the exchange university to send back my transcripts. I would really like to travel after my study abroad experience and in this time, my mother and I have planned to travel internationally.

However, ideally I would like to extend it for at least another 3 weeks to a month, and possibly do more international traveling/visit my grandparents (that live internationally).

But.. I'm not sure if this is too big of an ask. I know my manager would like me to start as soon as I can (had a conversation alluding to that) and having extra time is more just a favor to me. I could phrase it in terms of "I want some extra time to visit grandparents etc" but that just seems like lying because its not the whole truth.

As my start date is already set to 1 month after graduation, should I just forget about it and ask for like a max extension of 2 weeks or something?

Or would it even be acceptable for me to ask longer? I just don't want to come off as entitled to the time (because I know I'm not) if I ask for too much, but I'm not sure what would be reasonable.

[EDIT] if you are going to down vote, can you please leave a comment explaining?

It is definitely reasonable to ask. Depending on their own situation / plans, they might accept, or they might reject your wish.

Actually, this is a good test, so you can understand how the company will treat you in the future. If they will be nice now, they might be nice in the future too. If they are not nice now, they will not be nice in the future either.

I had this situation, when a company tried to force sh*t down my throat - including the rejection of a small delay of the start date, one week if I remember correctly. I refused without thinking twice, and I never had any reason to regret it.

I'd say, now once you have the offer letter and the joining date planned out already, it's not a very good approach to ask for extension. Given that this would be your first time working for an organization and you supposedly had a discussion on your joining date previously which you agreed - chaging that for an international travel plan chalked out later does not present a very good picture of yours to the organization.

If you need the time for something unavoidable (ex. - health issues), then it'd be understandable.

If I were you, I would change my plans to join them at the mentioned date, and postpone the travel plan to a later date.