Don’t Forget To Take Time Off When You Travel
Always have a day off when you are traveling.
ALWAYS – Once a week or fortnight at the very least.
A holiday or vacation is a great way to pack as much in as you can in a limited time frame.
Traveling however is a lot more work.
A holiday usually means you’ve booked accommodation, have a rough idea of where you want to go and what you want to do and usually involves some kind of relaxing activities for at least a few days.
Travel is deciding what’s happening next on the fly, not always knowing where you are going to be tomorrow, working out if that early morning flight is worth the $45 it costs to get to the airport that early and so on and so forth. When you are traveling with a more open ticket, it can be exhausting. My advice – Be kind to yourself and make sure you actually take a day off!
I try and use the Aussie mining schedule and make sure I have at the very least, every 14th day off (or something close to that). This is when I usually
- book a cheap motel for 2 nights,
- tell them I don’t need cleaning,
- get to the supermarket and buy a heap of fruit or something I can eat without going out and
- I make myself rest.
Usually, I kick back, watch netflix, potter around and repack my back, hand wash my undies and hang them all over my room, enjoy the privacy, maybe go to the movies, spend a day on the beach or whatever makes me relax. Always at least a few hours just reading my book, watching some TV or walking down to the park to sit in the sun. It’s important to have some time off.
Don’t plan your next leg
Don’t try to catch up on blog posts
Don’t try to cook gourmet meals
JUST TAKE THE DAMN DAY OFF!
Trust me – you and your travel experiences will love you for it. It’s hard to keep a clear head when you are tired. It’s even harder to concentrate, and the chances of you making a massive mistake are greatly increased when you’ve been going for months with no break. You don’t work for weeks and weeks at home without any down time and you shouldn’t adopt that mentality on the road either. Rest up, recoup and regroup and get out there to Charge The Globe even harder!
Meet Jenny, a passionate Australian travel blogger who has explored 103 countries to date. With over 30 years of travel experience, Jenny has a wealth of knowledge to share with her readers about the cultures, landscapes, and people she has encountered on her journeys. She’s always battling unfashionably frizzy hair and you will never catch Jenny in anything but comfortable shoes. Learn more about Jenny and her travels.