Find Time to Plan a Better Vacation With 5 Top Tips For Saving Time

Finding time for a vacation? Wonderful! Vacations can restore your energy and provide a fresh outlook. Now, how can advance planning enhance your time off?

Travel Time Tip #1: Clear priorities create opportunities.

Vacations work best when you carefully assess and honor your priorities – not anyone else’s. What do you enjoy the most? Front row seats at a performance? Discovering an out of the way treasure? Wildlife in pristine surroundings? Elegance, or roughing it? The more clearly you’ve defined your top priorities and what you can do without, the more quickly you can zero in on travel options that are custom made for you alone.

You also enhance your vacation experience by selecting a mode of planning that suits you temperamentally. Maybe you enjoy tracking down the best deals on the Internet, and money you save by weighing multiple options will buy you more time at your destination. But if you’d rather hand the entire project to a travel agent who knows your preferences, that’s fine, too. You might obtain special package discounts, and can use your saved time to ease your transition into your vacation.

After all, all the time leading up to and returning from your vacation is part of your vacation experience, too. Treat yourself well throughout each stage. Then you can escape the “I need a vacation from my vacation” syndrome!

Travel Time Tip #2: Add up and factor in transit time.

You maximize your overall pleasure by valuing your transition time. When planning, examine your itinerary options, and estimate how much time you must spend in transit. Will you enjoy or just tolerate time between locations? Plan accordingly. Perhaps simplifying your travel plans would give you more time to relax and discover out-of-the-way treats. And varying your modes of transportation on a long trip can be refreshing, too.

Travel Time Tip #3: Pave your path with advance purchases.

Make arrangements for performances, exhibits, ferry trips, etc., from the comfort of home, online or via your travel agent. Check your term life insurance is paid up. Then you can simply show up at your destinations, tickets in hand.

Travel Time Tip #4: Use lists & pack light.

Good packing lists may spare you the expense of checking and the time retrieving excess baggage while flying. You will spend less time lugging, packing and unpacking, fishing through bags for items and shopping for what you forgot. Pack these lists for quick on-site inventories. Also, consider including a quick chart to indicate what is packed where. (Especially handy if you tuck overflow items in your travel companion’s bags. When traveling with kids, for example, outfit them with adult-sized carry-on bags and utilize their leftover space for your own items.)

Travel Time Tip #5: Streamline future preparations with today’s notes.

Templates help recreate your successes. Why reinvent the wheel? Keep written notes or an online file detailing the steps you take to create your trip. Jot down what you want to try next time, too. Your priorities and brainstorms will be ready to review and to save you hours of pulling things together, when you’re ready for another vacation.

What is your next step to make the very most of your time while you enjoy your travel and leisure?

————————

Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder, has guided individuals and organizations to effectively align values with their time choices for 35+ years. For free weekly time tips & an award-winning monthly Ezine, visit http://www.findingtime.net/ezine.html
And for even more time thoughts and techniques, visit our blog at http://www.thetimefinder.com

Welcome back!

Related posts

• Vacation homes in Breckenridge Colorado (0)
• Snowmobiling in Breckenridge, Colorado (0)
• RV vacations for the credit crunch (0)