When you live in New England you need a winter or early spring vacation, am I right? Something to look forward to after the dark days. . . someplace warm. . . some good old vitamin D. New Englanders in general are known to be hard workers but everyone needs a vacation to recharge and be more productive. They say it’s good for your health, that it reduces stress levels, strengthens relationships, and can give you new perspective, among countless other benefits. I don’t know about you, but having something to look forward to makes me happy. The other main reason is that one of my parenting goals is: less stuff, more experiences. Spend time with the people you love in really cool places. Make memories.
Because I work and so does my husband we need to plan days off well in advance but that doesn’t necessarily mean we plan out our vacations right away. I usually plan out one major family vacation every year, sometimes up to a year in advance, but I tend to be more of the spontaneous, last-minute, kind-of figure it out as you go type of vacation planner. Sometimes it works out well sometimes not so much. Sometimes I don’t plan where we are going until the day before. I think that freaks a lot of people out but I think it’s fun to be spontaneous and go with the flow.
Last week the kids and I were both off for April vacation. I was thinking originally that I would take vacation time to do some day trips and stay home with the kids since traveling can get pretty pricey during school vacations. Then we were were offered some stand-by tickets from a relative a few weeks before vacation, meaning we weren’t guaranteed seats on a plane but they would be a deep discount from regular tickets. We decided we would try to go to Florida to visit my inlaws and my parents. We are fortunate to have relatives that have condos in warm places. It would be my first trip with the kids without Jon but the kids are at ages that I felt I could handle it. Having stand-by tickets was a good lesson in- hope for the best, expect the worst. Lucky for us we got on our plane without any trouble. Before we left, I didn’t google any restaurants or things to do, we each packed a single carry on bag, and I just figured we would wing it and I can honestly say it was a great vacation.
So what I’m saying is that if you have a friend or relative that offers you a place to stay go for it. Spend time with your friends and family who live in another state or country. When someone asks you to go on a vacation with them, go. What I’ve found is that people love to share their homes and are usually generally excited to show you around their cities and towns. Take the vacation of your dreams, or trip to the next town, it doesn’t matter as long as you have something to look forward to it’s worth it.
What type of traveler are you? Are you a pre-planner or spontaneous vacation goer? Do you like traveling in groups or just your immediate family? Where are you taking your next vacation? Most importantly though, never regret taking a vacation.
Start planning. . .
Heather
