Sometimes it’s possible to make an overnight break feel like a holiday, particularly when you’ve had an especially busy time of late.
Here’s our top tips for making the most of a short trip.
1. Minimise travel time
If you’re looking to maximise a short amount of time, don’t spend the entire trip travelling. Of course, staying in the house next door won’t often feel like a break, you need to get far enough that you experience some different things to your usual routine, be it a new place to walk, eat, sit or play. So either you don’t travel far, or you get smart about your travel.
Finding somewhere relatively close to home can sometimes feel like a real treat; it gives the promise of future trips instead of being some distant faraway “unlikely to make it back here agin soon” destination. The bonus of not going far is that you might get there after work on Friday (even if work runs late) or even make it back early on Monday. Having 2 nights (and hence 1 full day) away really helps the feeling of being away.
If you can’t find somewhere reachable nearby, think carefully about how to minimise flight and associated travel time. Take your bag to work so you can go directly to the airport. Pack carry-on luggage only; this reduces your check-in time and means you walk straight off the plane to your taxi/bus/rental car. Fly to an airport near your destination (rather than landing and then having a 2 hour transfer to your hotel).
2. Don’t scrimp too hard on accomodation
If you’re really only getting away for 1 or 2 nights, the cost of accommodation are kept relatively controlled anyway. Saving a few dollars but having a shared bathroom where all the hot water has been used is not a great break. Or bringing some indulgent food to prepare and enjoy, only to find that the kitchen is really not somewhere you can enjoy. Find somewhere which will make you feel relaxed, comfortable and special.
3. Think about the food
If you are a cook who hasn’t managed to cook a special meal in a long time, why not bring some treats and use the break as a chance to enjoy making something special. If you aren’t, make sure you look in advance for places to eat nearby.
When on a month-long break somewhere, you have plenty of time to explore and use a bit of trial and error. When only away for a weekend, it’s worth being confident that you will find that perfect coffee, or a decadent dessert, or whatever else might help make the time memorable for the right reasons. (You’ll remember endlessly driving around looking for somewhere open and trying to eat your junk food in a greasy tavern, but it might not make a great memory.)
4. Do something different to your normal week
It might seem obvious, but to take a break, you need to have some time doing some different things! While skydiving is different from most people’s normal, a different activity might mean something as simple as eating out for breakfast if this is something you rarely manage. If you are usually indoors all week, try to find a way of spending some time outdoors, or if your work keeps you outdoors, a break might include some more sedentary time.
5. Plan it in advance
This has several benefits. When you know you have a break coming up, the anticipation can ease the preceding weeks a little. Thinking “only 2 more weeks till I’m watching the sunset from the balcony with a cocktail before a degustation dinner” helps your mood during those 2 weeks, meaning that by the time the break comes, you are ready to slip into relaxation mode.
By knowing a break is coming, you can also prepare those things at home which still need doing. We’re talking about those tasks which often get deferred to weekends like washing, emptying bins, mowing the lawn. If you have a few weeks to prepare, you can decant some of those tasks to the preceding weekend, or sneak them in sometime during the week, to minimise the “dread of coming back” to the washing/lawn/bins etc.
Another important feature of planning in advance is that you can maximise the short time you have away by booking that restaurant you found, finding a local walk on a map, or figuring out the best way to get to the gallery, the museum, the riverbank and the theatre in one day (along with where to eat and where to park).
You don’t have a week to find a night when there’s a table available, and you don’t have plenty of time to scope out the route to the museum or to the beach, so plan in advance. It doesn’t have to mean no spontaneity (if that’s your aim), but having an awareness of the places you can walk to and a map in advance means you can “pop to the art gallery” or “find somewhere which sells ice cream” without having to spend long searching while you’re away.
