Long weekend trips have been my favorite type of vacation recently. I can plan a trip quickly, they are less expensive than week-long vacations, and they are just enough time away from regular life to feel relaxed.
After planning a few trips, I feel like I have the hang of it down. I do a few hours of research and know pretty much how the vacation is going to go. I have a few tips on how to become better at planning trips that I think will help.
Know what type of weekend you want
You need to know what kind of weekend away you want. Destinations have different vibes and amenities so you need to keep that in mind when you choose a destination. For my last trip, I knew that it might be the last time I drink for a while, so I wanted a trip that I couldn’t do while pregnant. Going to different bourbon distilleries and going downtown Nashville definitely isn’t pregnancy friendly so it was the perfect destination for me at the time.
Research on Instagram, Pinterest, TripAdvisor and the Local Tourism Department
Look up all the sights to see, all the “insta pic spots” to hit, and any restaurants you think you might be interested in. I like to go through Instagram hashtags, blog posts on Pinterest, TripAdvisor lists and the local tourism department’s website. For Louisville and Nashville, they each had tourism catalogs that they sent me for free which was really helpful.
Put it all together
Organize the sights you want to see, events you want to go to and other travel tips in Google Sheets, or whatever is convenient for the devices you use.
Once you have a list written of all the places, you will want to make a map of where everything is so you can be efficient. For Nashville, I organized everything by neighborhood so I could make sure to hit everything I could in one area so I wasn’t spending time going from one side of the city to the other.
Map it all out and decide on a general itinerary, making sure to leave a lot of wiggle room in between in case things go over, and so you don’t have to feel like you’re being rushed from place to place.
Enjoy yourself on vacation!
Remember that at the end of the day, it’s about the journey not the destination. If you get to your destination and you just want to take a nap instead of seeing the sights you had planned – that is okay. I have gotten caught up in doing all the things I thought I was supposed to do and see on a vacation instead of focusing on enjoying myself. I recommend checking in to see how you’re feeling throughout the day and being ready for change if something great comes up (even if something great is a nap 🙂 ).