Easy travel

What really makes for a worthwhile trip today? Not feeling rushed. Day to day I can get caught up with the rush of everything moving too fast, feeling like there’s not enough time for everything. Worst of all is feeling like I may missed an opportunity. Trips and vacations need to feel relaxed and balanced, but how? By giving yourself the time to explore. Intuition is my guide. I read some information about a place and then I consider how long it would take for us to casually explore it based on how fast we usually go doing a certain activity. If I find that there isn’t enough time allowed to see it, we do what we can, and adjust if needed. We have found that if it’s the right activity, that it will all come together and fall into place. I have a calm trust in the right harmonious activity unfolding in whatever situation and I try not to get too caught up on details.

If there really is not the extra adjustment of time available to adjust, we simply enjoy what we can. We focus on observing, looking around, riding or walking through a place, and staying near an area that is easy to access. Our goal is to try to keep things simple and relaxed and we prevent feeling overwhelmed. We don’t go looking for something better, we find satisfaction doing what we enjoy and really making the most of it.

Some really nice trips have come during the quick weekend or day visits of a place. The challenge is usually the same: to capture a feel for the place as best as we can and then to just enjoy whatever activity we are doing. When we are passing through a city even for short amount of time, we may not be able to see all of the most visited places, but we try to immerse ourselves in feeling a part of the city by picking a few activities, walking around, casually observing, trying some local favorite foods, and overall just in appreciating being there. I recommend immersing yourselves in your surroundings and being present in the moment. That is all it really takes. For example, you can listen for the accents, observe the activity, look for the joy being expressed in those around you.

If I was to list specifics about my ideal vacation spot, it would be hard to narrow everything down into the perfect place because I have so many favorite destinations. I usually look for a little bit of everything in my vacations. A little luxury, yet affordable, some nature, a sense of community, well-kept, welcoming, joyful, happy, relaxed, plenty of options for activity. Maybe this comes across a little too picky, but, I do try to find my happy vacation place in all of my destinations. Everywhere I have been and visit, I think of where I would visit again in that area. What were my favorite moments there? Rather than be critical of a place, I use that list of ideal vacation qualities above to decide on how long we will stay somewhere. Some places may have lots to do, but the activities may not fit with our interests. So, we decide when we are satisfied with what we have seen there and then we head to the next place. Maybe there are certain places that we would visit more regularly than others, but the memories are special of those other places we may not get to as often.