Traveling on vacation is one of the pleasures of life. We look forward to time away from the hustle and bustle, having a chance to see something new and catch our breath. At the same time, traveling requires a bit of logistical work. We have to plan, pack, make the trip, come home, and then “re-enter” into our normal routine. All of this can be stressful. Some people alleviate the travel hassles by traveling like a minimalist. However, not everyone can do this. Especially for those who have small children, vacationing can feel a bit overwhelming. While I can’t take away all the challenges, here are five tips to make vacationing fun and easy. I hope you find these helpful!
Make Reservations in Advance
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Download Travel Apps Before You Leave
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Pack an Extra, Empty Duffle Bag
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Establish a Travel Staging Area
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Use the Hotel Laundry Bag
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Getting away does require a bit of work, but the experience leaves us with valuable memories. If you have a vacation coming up this summer, I hope you will give these tips a try. Also, I have many other posts to help with you various travel and packing challenges here on the website. If you have a travel organizing question, please drop a comment and let me know!
What is your best travel organizing tip?
Travel apps make travel much easier! You can get directions, check in ahead, and learn so much about the area. Not to mention the air travel apps that I love! United has included bag tracking too!
I love that peace of mind of knowing that my bag is on the plane!
We’re taking a special trip soon, so these tips are very timely! I especially like the one about using the hotel laundry bag. I never would have thought of that!
Those little bags can come in very handy, so nice to think to check for them. Not all hotels have them, but many do these days! Hope you have a wonderful trip, Janet!
I usually fly Delta. They have a bag tracking app also. I love knowing that my bag is on the plane and which baggage claim carousel to go to. I don’t know how to travel like a minimalist. I usually over-pack but then I’m prepared for inclement weather and if we go somewhere a little bit fancy for a meal. I love the suggestion of bringing along an extra duggle bag. This is great to have if you are somewhere very interesting and will be bringing home gifts.
That extra duffle has come in very handy more than once! I agree that knowing my bag is on the plane is so wonderful for peace of mind. On a recent trip, I was on a very small airline and the bag didn’t make it. It eventually showed up, but what a hassle!
Great vacation tips! It is incredible how much we do not need on vacation. My favorite tip when doing an extended vacation—over seven days—is to make an itinerary first (schedule and make reservations), then determine what you would need for those activities and roll up each set of clothing for the day. You can even use a piece of paper with the day on it and wrap it around the clothing so you remember the activities and the day.
What a perfect little tip! You’ll have just what you need for each day. Love learning from others. 🙂
I like to put out what I plan to pack a couple of days ahead on the bed in my spare bedroom. I put everything including clothes that I might want. Then when ready to pack I make final decisions and usually put some of the clothes back away.
I’m like you, Jonda. I start putting out clothes ahead of time, and always put my travel outfit on a chair in my bedroom. I prefer that to trying to do it all in one packing session.
So many wonderful travel tips, Seana! I love how you set the stage with the anticipation of vacation travel. Steve and I recently made some spring and summer travel plans, and I’m so excited about our upcoming trips and time with family.
I understand the value of making advance dinner reservations when traveling to popular destinations. I’ve taken an annual summer vacation with my girlfriends to the Jersey Shore. One of us makes the dinner reservations in advance because it’s almost impossible to find a restaurant that can ‘spur of the moment’ seat the four of us without it.
When the trip is approaching (the week of), I use a staging area. But before that, I use my trusty travel pack list. I customize the template for each trip. As I think of things not already on the list, I add them to my pack list. When it’s time to pack, the list helps me remember everything.
For laundry, I travel with a washable, thin, small, packable laundry bag. In addition, I always store extra Ziplock bags of all sizes in my suitcase. If I use them during a trip, I replenish the supply when unpacking.
I love that tip about the travel packing lists. I do this as well: shore packing, ski packing, weekend at parents, etc. It helps because I keep refining the list, making it better and better!
I grew up outside of Philadelphia, so we went to the southern Jersey shore points. It is so popular now that advance reservations are a must!
Great tips, Seana! I especially like #1 Make Reservations in Advance — I’m thinking of the annual International Balloon Fiesta held here in Albuquerque each October — and #4 Establish a Travel Staging Area — because that’s what I do, too!
Someday I’ll get to that Balloon Festival. It’s been on my bucket list. I did look into it, but it looks like if there is bad weather, I’m just out of luck. No refunds. Is that your experience?
I love the videos. I agree that making reservations in advance is important. Of course I like to plan ahead.
The whole reservation thing is pretty much necessary now. So disappointing to find out, after all your travel, that you can’t do the things you wanted to do because everything has been booked up!
Fabulous advice. One that I’ll be taking to heart is getting those great travel apps back on my devices. Five years ago, once it was obvious that the pandemic wasn’t going to be a quick thing (and then when my May 2020 trip to Ireland got canceled), I deleted all my travel apps off of my devices and left them off. I haven’t flown since 2019, and haven’t had need of the airline or Customs apps. But I’m hoping to travel to Europe in the autumn, and being able to track my bag and zoom through Customs will make travel re-entry a bit less stressful. Thank you for the excellent reminders.
I am happy to hear that you have European travel planned. To really speed the process, apply for Global Entry now, right? (Of course, knowing you, you already have it and have written a long/informative post on how to get it!!!)