Travel can be stressful, even if you are on your way to an amazing destination. Here are our tips to simplify your travel to keep your stress and worries to a minimum. Keep it simple! A major factor in a successful vacation is making things as easy as possible on everyone.
Packing Lists, Printed Itinerary, Hard Copies of Travel Documents – We have a few different packing lists floating around depending on the destination and the time of year, but it is usually fairly easy to update and modify these for new trips. Once you have a solid packing list, it helps to make sure you have all of the necessities accounted for. It is also makes it more manageable for kids to pack for themselves if they have an idea of how many shirts they need, etc.
When we get to the final stages of planning a trip, we create a document that lists the multitude of details in one place for reference. It will contain flight numbers and confirmation codes, departure and arrival times, addresses of where we are staying, any transportation we have arranged and those relevant contact numbers, tour details, etc. I also always scan and print out hard copies of our passports and vaccination cards. We print several copies of these documents and we all pack one in our backpack or carry on, as well as one in each checked bag to make sure we have them even if a bag gets lost or delayed.
Jet Lag – Flying through time and space takes a toll on everyone. Obviously, you want to dress comfortably, drink as much water as you can, and unless you are on an extremely long flight, avoid eating on the plane if possible. This sounds weird, but it really does seem like it is harder on the body to digest food at altitude. So if it’s feasible, eat at the airport before you take off, and hold off until you are fairly close to landing for the next meal. If you are able to sleep soundly on the plane, congratulations! You will arrive feeling rested and ready to begin your adventure. Most people, however, do not.
We have found using day use hotels and airport hotels as the remedy for surviving day one. Many major airports have integrated hotels, day use rooms or sleep pods, and if not, many hotel options close by. Depending on the time you will arrive at your destination, these can be lifesavers. When we fly to Europe, we often take a red eye and land early in the morning. Usually, we can’t check in to our vacation rental or hotel until after 3:00 pm and there is nothing worse than being incredibly tired, laden with all of your luggage, wandering around an unfamiliar city for hours on end. If you can manage it, we highly recommend arranging a place to sleep in advance. This is also a good option if you arrive late at night.
The easiest way to do this is to research your arrival airport to see which options are available. You can usually book a day use room that will be ready when you arrive and allow you to sleep for a few hours, have a shower and check out feeling refreshed and ready for your vacation to begin.
Pre-Arranged Driver – If you arrive at your destination and want to go directly to your accommodations, you can always use public transportation, a taxi or a ride share service. But, if you want to keep things really simple, you can arrange a driver in advance to meet you at the airport, help you with your luggage, and drive you directly to your lodging. We have done this several times and it has always been worth it.
We aren’t always thinking our clearest after a long flight, and it keeps things simple. You can see about arranging a private driver through your hotel or the host of your vacation rental.
Transportation Between Destinations – Most of our trips are multi-destination. We like to see as much as possible in a part of the world while we are there. So, we end up traveling from place to place by plane, by train, by ferry, and sometimes by private driver. Of course, this depends on many factors, price being one of them. But a few times, we have found that it is not much more expensive to book a private driver to go between neighboring countries than it is to travel by train.
The beauty of the private vehicle option is obviously convenience – you can designate your pick up time and not worry about getting to a station, etc. Recently, we needed to get from Prague to Vienna. We had booked train tickets in advance, but the night before, we noticed it was actually a longer journey by train than by car, not even counting the added time getting to and from the station. We arranged a ride with the same driver that helped us get to our Airbnb from the airport and had a peaceful ride and ended up at our next accommodation an hour quicker than we could have made it by train.
On the same trip, we had prearranged a private transfer from Vienna to Munich. We used the company DayTrip. It was pretty affordable and we were even able to add stops in Melk and Salzburg in to our journey. This turned what would have been a wasted day in transit into a memorable part of our vacation. The company was great to work with, had nice comfortable vehicles and operates in many countries around the world.
Private Tours – There are so many options when it comes to making the most of your time in a new place, but one of the best is a private tour. We have done walking tours, bike tours, driving tours, and multi-day tours. You will learn so much more about a place by having a local educated guide show you around. Walking tours are a great way to get your bearings in a new city and to make sure you see important landmarks and points of interest while also understanding their significance. We also highly recommend hiring a guide when you visit a large museum or archaeological site.
We were fortunate enough to have a wonderful art historian take us through the Louvre and Versailles in Paris. We had an archeologist with us when we toured Pompeii in Italy and Acrotiri in Santorini. We had a historian walk with us through Stonehenge. We can tell you from experience that visiting these types of places on your own is wonderful and you should definitely do it, but you will learn and remember so much more if you have an experienced guide leading the way.
I often look on Trip Advisor for private tour companies and I read all of the reviews for private tours. Most well reviewed tour companies also allow customization, so for us, this usually means focusing on history and architecture, but they can tailor the experience to what excites you most. This a very incomplete list of some of the excellent tour guides and companies we have used over the years:
Our comprehensive list of Tour Companies by Country
Skip The Line – Another key to a successful trip is predictability and efficiency. A perk of a private tour is often the skip the line option. If you plan to visit a popular museum or destination (and you most definitely should), you will find thousands of other people have the same idea on the same day. If you don’t want to spend hours waiting in line for a possible ticket when you get to the front, you can organize a private tour that includes a skip the line option.
You will meet your guide outside the establishment, and enter with them, bypassing the line entirely. Your guide will also know how to anticipate the crowds and will work to ensure you have the best experience with the least amount of frustration. We have happily used this option at the Louvre, Versailles, the Anne Frank House, the Vatican Museum, the Eiffel Tower and many many other places where crowds tend to ruin the experience for most.
Again, Trip Advisor is a good place to look for private tours with the skip the line option, just ALWAYS READ THE REVIEWS! Go with a company that has overwhelmingly positive feedback from recent customers.
Vacation rentals – Hotels are a great option for a couple, or even for a family if close quarters isn’t a problem for you. We love hotels and usually spend some portion of our trio staying in them. However, we need space to spread out. Especially when our children became teenagers, and now almost adults, we all need privacy and more than one bathroom is essential.
We like to rent apartments or houses so we can all feel at home. The best way to do this is through Airbnb or VRBO. It’s easy to filter results by the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and your budget, and again READ THE REVIEWS. Also, look for a Superhost or Premiere Host. These are experienced professionals who know what travelers are looking for and go the extra mile to make sure you are comfortable.
A side benefit of staying in an apartment or house is you get to interact more with the community – taking public transportation alongside the commuters and shopping for groceries among your temporary neighbors.
Looking for more travel advice? Check out our Travel Tips collection.
The Passporter