The Most Important Thing to Do Before Your Vacation, to Help Ensure An Enjoyable Trip

SharonKurheg

3 months ago

On the whole, vacations are important to people. It gives them a chance to get away from it all, relax, and not think about the stressors of daily life and all that good stuff. Vacations can cost some people a small fortune. So with all that in mind, it makes me wonder why folks seem to be so hell-bent on making themselves miserable during their vacations.

It doesn’t have anything to do with what you may be thinking of. True, some people try to put too much into each day and they wind up stressed and exhausted. Or they may go on vacation with someone who is a great friend or even family member but is incompatible with you when it comes to vacations (a quick rundown of the “vacation rules” can help immensely with this, i.e., “We don’t have to be connected at the hip. I’m not a big fan of art museums and I know you are, so instead of me going to the Museum of Art and hating every minute of it, you go ahead and enjoy it without me grumbling. I’ll do something that interests me, and we can meet for dinner.”).

Nope, this one is so much simpler.

They don’t plan

People don’t seem to plan many parts of their vacations anymore. I’m not necessarily saying one should be as Type A as my husband Joe is and have a Plan A, B and C for every little thing (I’m exaggerating, but sometimes? Yeah, sometimes that’s a true story LOL). But if this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, you’d think they’d put some thought into the matter besides seemingly “Let’s go HERE and just wing it,” no?

Got fined for not following the bus rules

a man holding his head Case in point – I’m in a message group where people can ask all sorts of travel-related questions, but they also share tips, photos and stories about their own travel, etc.

The other day, it sounded like someone who had taken a public bus in Italy wrote the following:

Just a little warning when jumping on tip tap buses in Italy, it is ONE CARD PER PERSON. the same person cannot pay for two off one card (the driver will smile at you, let you on and then the inspectors will fine you €43 !!!) A bus load of us have just been fined…

For some background, the person was from the UK and was somewhere in their 30s. So you’d figure they’d be very well versed with the internet, grew up using search engines, etc. They’re also someone who apparently has traveled extensively (the U.S., Canada, all throughout Europe, Africa, etc.). So not a newbie to world travel.

After I saw their ranting post, just for the fun of it, I used my search engine of choice for the key words PUBLIC BUS ITALY TAP RULES. That brought me to the website for ATAC, which is the public bus system. And there it was, in English (and in boldface, no less), under the heading you’d think (hope) most people would look at: How It Works:

Bear in mind that you cannot pay someone else’s ticket with your contactless card or device if they’re travelling with you. Tap & Go ® is an individual service that you can use only with your personal credit, debit or prepaid card.

If you knew you were going to be taking a public bus in a foreign country and even got as far as setting up the Tap & Go system, wouldn’t you make it your business to learn about the system so you didn’t make mistakes that could potentially cost you €43? (a little over $46) (we won’t even get into the person who was mad FOR the original poster, because “There should have been

“It’s a kid’s passport – they’ll let him into the country even if it’s expired, right?”

Remember this guy? His plans didn’t work out as smoothly as he thought they would, because he didn’t figure out the rules before the day of their flight.

“We’re going on our Virgin Voyages cruise tomorrow – our first cruise EVER! – tell us everything we need to know”

Joe and I are big fans of Virgin Voyages cruises and I’m in a handful of Facebook groups devoted to them. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times people have asked that question.

How do you decide to go on a cruise – your first cruise ever, no less – and not know anything about it? Blows my mind. But, I mean, if they miss a whole lot of stuff, or pay more than the have to, I guess they won’t know???

PLAN AHEAD!

But yeah, if you want your vacation to be a success, plan ahead!

Before you make those plane and hotel reservations, is anything special happening at your intended places() that you’d like to avoid? Say, the crowds at Cannes during the film festival? Bike Week during your “relaxing, quiet” beach week in Daytona? Are you going to a foreign country where virtually everyone has that very week off for a special nationwide holiday? Will you be somewhere during Ramadan and will that affect your meal and snack schedule in any way?
If you’re going to another country, will your passport be OK in terms of that country’s rules for a passport’s expiration date?
Have some idea of where you want to go and the hours of these places.
Plan your days, but don’t over plan! If you’re going to take a 10-hour train from Point A to Point B and have to get to your hotel by public transport after that, maybe don’t plan a hike for that day.
If you’re going to go from Point C to Point D to Point E, all on the same day, do you know how you’ll get from one to the other? Uber has been kicked out of some cities, y’know. Do you have some idea of the train and bus schedule and how it will work with your plans? (if there’s only 1 train between D and E every day, you need to take that into consideration)
Are you going to the type of place where you’ll need to make meal reservations ahead of time? (I mean, unless you want to eat fast food every night. You be you, boo!)
Do you know the rules of things? (i.e. how to use the bus without getting fined, tipping etiquette of where you’re going to be [this is a great tipping guide], the social norms of the place so you don’t look like a jerk, etc.).
Is there anything you’ll need to do or buy ahead of time? (i.e. a Japan Rail Card can save you a whole lot of money over buying single tickets when traveling through Japan, but you have to do the paperwork ahead of time)

All that, and more, are things you should be thinking of weeks and sometimes months ahead of your trip. And if you’re using a TA, they may be able to help you with some of those things, but definitely not all.

“Don’t judge lest ye be judged”

By the way, I’m not saying this as someone who’s watching these non-planners, shaking my head and saying, “OMG, what idiots!” Oh no, this is from several decades of learning from my own mistakes. Here was one of the best ones:

Our visit to The Louvre

Back in the mid-1990s, Joe and I (He wasn’t my husband then. He wasn’t even my boyfriend yet. We were just friends) went to London and Paris with 2 other people. We planned to visit several famous places in Paris, one of which was The Louvre. We arrived there that Tuesday morning, only to discover that The Louvre was closed.

The Louvre is always closed on Tuesdays.

PC: www.louvre.fr

Whomp whomp.

The internet was in its infancy (more like still in the womb) and I’m going to say THAT was the reason for our mistake – we didn’t have the ‘net to look up what days the Louvre wasn’t open. 😉 (OK, that’s total BS…every travel book out there said that the Louvre was closed on Tuesdays. I don’t know how we ever missed that little factoid – it certainly wasn’t from lack of planning; not with Joe in the group – but there ya go.)

Final thought

So yeah, plan ahead. Research. Don’t go in blind because you could find yourself VERY disappointed, frustrated and stressed in the end. And that’s no way to do a vacation, y’know?

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