Travel and Packing Tips to Make Your Trip a Vacation and Not a Chore

After tickets are bought, cars are rented and motels reserved comes the packing decisions and remembering to keep it simple means to try and plan creative use of everything you need to bring.

• For example, a large purse can double as a small carry on holding everything you need the day of travel including medicines, snacks, books, magazines, travel papers and confirmations, even a change of undies in case of lost luggage. It would fit under the seat or in the overhead bin.
• Another tip is to look up your hotel’s amenities before your trip and see if they have in room hair dryers, iron and ironing board, and toiletries that you like therefore saving space in your luggage and leaving room in your bags for other things.
• Using items for double duty is another good idea. Pack necessities in your purses before packing them (the purses). Small items are good for this such as, batteries, reading lights, or matching empty wallets. Packing rolled socks inside of shoes saves space and keeps things neat and easy to unpack at your destination.
• A personal favorite idea to keep trip planning simple is to make a travel list weeks in advance and adding to it and subtracting from it as the days count down. Using a computer software template keeps this planning idea simple and having a hard copy nearby to jot ideas down as you have them helps keep the stress level down because organization is a concrete way of seeing progress and insuring you won’t forget anything important.
• Because vacation is a time for relaxing, sightseeing, people watching, and fun with family and friends, it makes sense to not be uptight about choreographing each and every day but to let events flow. Sleep in, listen to music, read a fun book or magazine.

• Don’t forget some things are essential and not to be forgotten or skimpy about such as sunblock, good nutrition, and exercise. All of these can be incorporated simply and easily by planning ahead, packing vitamins to compensate for the extra desserts, and using sightseeing or swimming as fun and exercise, making it another simple form of double duty.
• Another simple way of making travel fun instead of a chore is to try not to worry about things left undone. It’s okay to put those things on hold until you are home and rested.

• In addition, if you are one to worry about leaving appliances left on just unplug anything that is run by household electricity and you will be relaxed. If it helps, have a list to check off as you go.

• Perfection and procrastination are energy thieves and they do not give it back but they can be disabled with a little planning and a lot of desire for a relaxing vacation.