Your holiday should be about relaxing, not wasting time getting there. Cut down on the stressful parts of relaxing and enjoying life with these time-saving tips.
Maintain A Travel Bag At All Times
Far too much time is spent every holiday trying to find tiny bottles of toothpaste or a portable razor. Instead of scrambling around at the last minute, keep a bag in your wardrobe with the essentials that you always need when you go on holiday. Clothes will obviously be an exception (even if you have holiday-specific clothes, they should probably be washed before leaving), but everything from your shampoo to your camera can be kept here until it’s time to pack.
Of course, you can also save some time by not packing those soaps and bottles altogether. If you’re planning to stay at a hotel, chances are they’ll have soaps, washcloths, towels and other sundries you can use there. They’ll even replace them for you every day. Save your money and time by letting the hotel do the work for you.
Stick To Hand Luggage
Checking luggage at the airport is a surefire way to waste time. If it’s at all practical to do so, skip the checked luggage and pack everything possible in your hand luggage. Most airlines will let you carry a full piece of luggage as well as one purse or backpack. Between the two of these, it’s usually possible to pack for at least a short trip.
Program Addresses Into Your GPS Ahead Of Time
Going on holiday usually involves learning several new locations. Your hotel, the airport, a friend’s home, landmarks, the various tourist traps you want to hit…save yourself some Googling while you’re on the road and add addresses to your GPS as you plan. If you’re like me and prefer Google Maps, you can star locations and they’ll appear in the “Your Places” section of the sidebar in the app. You can also download maps for offline use, so you’re not trying to scramble for a connection every time you need to get back to the hotel.
Make A Packing List
It can hardly be overstated how much organisation helps on a holiday. Make a list of the things you need for a trip and check it off as you go. As a bonus, if you use a Google Doc (or are just really good at hanging on to pieces of paper), you can re-use the list for future holidays. Pack your stuff and mark things off on the list as you go and you won’t have to second guess or triple-check every little detail at the last minute.
Plan All Of The Travel, But Leave Some Days Unplanned
Traveling is only a part of your holiday. The rest is spent, you know, enjoying your holiday. Don’t cram this time full of scheduled stuff to do. While you may want to get a vague idea of when you’ll hit up some attractions, give yourself some buffer days at the end. You can catch up on things you missed, fit in some activities you didn’t anticipate, or just relax knowing that — if only for one day — you don’t have anything to do.
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