Vacation Anatomy part 2: The trip itself
Okay, so now you’re off. All your worldly possessions are crammed in your wheeled nylon sidekick, you have a complimentary bag of peanuts in your pocket and your camera batteries fully charged. I’m not going to tell you how to travel, that’s a very personal thing and can vary dramatically from person to person. But I am going to say: enjoy every second of it.
Whether you’ve been to the destination a dozen times before or it’s your very first, the most important thing is that you have fun while you’re there. Without a doubt, everyone gets out of a vacation exactly what they put into it. Happiness is contagious. Regardless if you can communicate with the people around you or not. a smile is universal and can go farther than you think in breaking down barriers. Things have a tendency to go awry on vacations (be it a late plane connection, mislaid luggage, a disappointing city tour or even simply getting lost), but the secret shared by all great travelers is to not let that event ruin your whole trip. Far too often I’ve seen it where something goes a bit off-track at the beginning of a vacation, and, despite the fact that the matter was resolved, the passengers continue to mope about it for the remainder of the trip. All this does is bring them and the people around them down. Move on. Roll with it. Don’t rob yourself of enjoying your hard-earned vacation. You spent a lot of time and money on this, you deserve for it to be great.
Remember, the joy is in the details. Even a trip to the supermarket can be fun if you look at it from the right angle (”They have seafood tempura flavoured chips? Cool! ”, “It called Coke Light here instead of Diet Coke!”) and revel in all that your destination has to offer. Then, no matter where you are and what you’re doing, you’re guaranteed to have great memories of your vacation.
But eventually you have to go home, which brings us to Stage 3…
Related posts: