Although we’ve travelled the world and visited every continent, it doesn’t matter how many countries you have been to. The following tips are paramount to getting the best out of your vacation. Following very specific travel habits will serve you well in the future.
These tips are in no particular order and are all equally important.
1. Spend more time in fewer places – leave FOMO (fear of missing out) at home! Don’t plan on seeing everything and doing everything. Prioritise what you want to see. You will be amazed at how many of our clients need a vacation after their vacation!
Get to know a region well, get to know the people and try to live more like a local. If you’re travelling with kids it’s especially important that you take things slower. If you’re visiting a country for 10 days then three locations, or bases, from which to explore is a sensible amount.
2. Plan it together – planning a vacation is fun. It’s important to get all viewpoints. So sit the whole family down and get their thoughts on the vacation – what they do and don’t want to do. The best way to get everyone excited about the vacation is to involve them in the planning process. These are some of the questions you should be asking them…
* What are you most excited about?
* What are you most worried about?
* What do you want to see and do?
* What do you not want to so or do?
* What would you hate the most?
* What would be a perfect day for you on vacation?
*What would make this WOW?
We know, as travel advisors, the importance of choosing a destination where everyone wants to go to and choosing activities that suit everyone’s interests. Happy kids make for a happy vacation (the same is true for husbands and wives!)
3. Talk to the locals – you can guarantee that the locals avoid the tourist traps, and don’t ever traverse the beaten track. So you can be sure that drinking coffee where they drink, and eating where they eat is going to provide you with a truer, more immersive experience; and we have no doubt that it will probably be cheaper than what the tourists are paying. Spending time with the locals also allows you to discover the soul of a place.
The locals love talking about their towns and villages to visitors and so, you will no doubt walk away with a list of must do’s and must see’s that most tourists will never have heard about.
Which leads us to…
4. Learn the language – no doubt in many of the destinations you visit the locals will not speak your native tongue, and so, to remove some stress it’s important (and just good manners) to learn the basics of the language. This shows respect and breaks down barriers.
If your vacation destination is wildly popular, then you will hear English being spoken in most restaurants and hotels. But if you want to get off the beaten track and have a more immersive experience then you should learn more than ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ (but that’s a great start!).
5. Stay in apartments if travelling with family – this is particularly useful if you’re staying in a destination for more than a day or two. This gives you a lot more space than a hotel room, and access to some home comforts – like a fridge, kitchen, washing machine. For those who are concerned about language and feel that they need more assistance than most, then search out hotels that offer apartments as part of their accommodation offerings. This gives you the best of both worlds- more space and access to the amenities and the facilities of the hotel.
6. Be flexible – or as many of my clients say ‘build in some fat’, especially for the unexpected. We have seen first-hand situations where a client experienced a ‘lock-in’ (after hours drinking) in an Irish pub in the countryside, or where they met an Italian family, who invited them to have Sunday lunch at their home, with their extended family, the next day. Thanks to the fact that they weren’t on a tight schedule, and hadn’t booked wall-to-wall activities every day, they were able to share these special moments.
Don’t book every minute of every day. One activity a day or every other day is normally sufficient. At least, in this way if you want to spend more time at a particularly interesting site, or museum, then you can, without having to rush off to the next appointment. Don’t get me wrong, certain things need to be booked in advance, particularly if you know you are definitely going to do them but leave some breathing space in your itinerary and allow for flexibility.
7. Don’t travel without travel insurance – none of us like paying for it, but it’s a necessary evil. Many of our clients are spending in excess of $10,000, $20,000 or $50,000 on their vacations. I don’t know any of them that would purchase a car for the same value that wouldn’t insure it! When clients ask us if we feel whether they should purchase a policy or not we often ask them ‘could you afford to lose all that money tomorrow’?
Particularly during the COVID era it has been extremely important to have the right policy in place to cover the unexpected. Travel insurance is not just for medical emergencies abroad, or losing luggage (all important!) but also what if…you need to cancel your trip unexpectedly due to a death in the family; work commitments; you fall sick; a fire or hurricane destroys your vacation destination; there is a terrorist attack or you lose your passport.
8. Prioritise travel – building memories has no monetary value, it’s priceless. Opening your children’s minds to other cultures is priceless. The education value of travel – again, priceless. Make the time, find the money – just do it!
9. Travel doesn’t have to stop once you have kids – in fact, building memories, educating your kids to a whole new world, can be one of the best experiences about being a parent.
Seeing the joy on their faces when they experience a new cuisine or see something new for the first time often cannot be explained.
10. Travel means local too! – You don’t have to jump on a plane or travel overseas to be classified as a traveller. Oftentimes there are as good as sites, experiences, restaurants, hotels in your home country than you will find abroad. Simply exploring new towns or cities in your home state is a great start and whet’s ones appetite, or gives one the travelling bug. One should always remember that, travel is not about ticking things off a bucket list, but it’s about building a lasting, shared memories and having a break!
Please leave us a comment if you think we missed something.
