Vacations should be a time for R&R. Help eliminate travel stress by planning ahead with these top five tips.
It may feel strange to think about travel planning right now since we can’t go anywhere, but that’s exactly why it’s the perfect time to plan. Oftentimes planning a vacation is stressful. If only you’d had more time to prepare. Well, now you do!
Use this time wisely and put these five tips into action to help ensure your next vacation is as relaxing and stress-free as possible.
Tips to ensure a smoother vacation:
1. Everything in its place
If you don’t yet have a designated spot for your travel documents, pick one immediately and put everything there. Your passport, NEXUS, airport lounge card, travel insurance documents, foreign money, and anything else travel-related should have a home.
This makes your life easier because you never have to search for these important documents when preparing for your vacation. Investing in a passport holder is a great idea because it can hold all of these items together.
2. Plan
This is one that you may not normally spend a lot of time doing, but you certainly can now. Take time to really think about what type of vacation you want it to be. Will it be relaxing, or adventure-filled? Or perhaps filled with sight-seeing and museum tours.
Now is the time to figure it out and build some possible itineraries. Check out hotels and restaurants. Create a Pinterest board or make a list of all the things you want to see and do. Invest this time in creating your dream trip.
3. Make a list
Write down items you need to remember to pack. Travel-specific gadgets such as outlet converters are often forgotten, especially when packing is done in a hurry. Sunglasses aren’t top-of-mind either when it’s snowing outside your front door.
Making a list ensures you won’t need to buy these things at the airport at an inflated price.
4. Download travel apps
Most airlines and hotels have their own apps. Having a ‘Travel’ folder on your home screen with all of these apps grouped together makes travelling a breeze.
Never again will you be frantically searching your bag for paper printouts or scrolling for emails that are now buried at the bottom of your inbox. You’ll also save trees by not printing out pages of tickets with reservation numbers.
Bonus tip: If you are going somewhere where English is not the first language, Google Translate is a fantastic app to have. Its camera function will automatically translate text and makes reading menus and ordering in restaurants a breeze.
5. Clean house
You’ll have to save this tip for closer to your vacation, but trust me, it’s definitely worth it! It may seem counterintuitive since you are leaving your home to go away, but it is so much nicer to return to a clean house. Nothing ruins a relaxing vacation faster than coming back to a disaster zone. There’s no sense in going away to recharge your battery to then immediately drain yourself when you walk back through your front door.
The time it takes to ensure your kitchen is tidy, your dishes clean, the floor is vacuumed, and you have clean sheets on your bed is all worth it when you return home tanned and chill and have nothing to do but put your feet up.
Whenever your next vacation is, set yourself up for success by following these top five tips and enjoy a smoother and more relaxing experience from beginning to end.
Last Updated on February 10, 2021