Travel Tip #27 - Build Flex Time into your Itinerary

     People who have traveled with me, particularly my wife, will probably say that I have the tendency to over plan. Whenever we go somewhere, I try to pack in as much as I can into every day. There are two reasons for this: 1) I have a 27-page long list of "travel ideas" (places I'd like to visit someday) which keeps growing every year; and 2) I have a limited budget to spend on each trip. Since hotel bills are often the biggest expense on any given trip, I try to do multiple activities each day in order to cut down on the number of nights we are there, allowing us to go more places. The problem with doing this is that sometimes we are so worn out from traveling, that we need a vacation from our vacation. Luckily, since I'm a school teacher, we usually do have time to relax after the vacation is over. Still, I always have to remind myself that if I want to keep everyone happy, I have to make sure we have flex time built into each day - time to just sit back and relax.
     On our New York trip, we crammed about 15 activities into 3 days. Part of the reason was because we bought a 3-day New York Pass, which meant that most of the activities we did in those three days were "free" since we'd already paid for them. If we could have squeezed in another activity or two, we would have been sorely tempted to do so (pun intended). We returned to our hotel each night with aching feet. On the positive side, we were asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. If I could do that trip over again, I would have only bought a 2-day pass, and used the third day to do some our non-pass activities at a more leisurely pace. We would have had to cut out one or two of our activities, but we also could have spent a little more time at one or more of the places where we felt rushed. One of the places I would have built in more flex time would have been Central Park. I could have spent all day there exploring the various nooks and crannies of the park.
     I realize that this tip is probably more for my own benefit than others. Still, if you are like me, and have the tendency to over plan, I recommend taking a hard look at your itinerary. If you notice that you are trying to do a little too much, cut out one of your activities. Then you will have the flexibility to spend more time at one or more of your other activities.
     Have fun on your next vacation, and make sure that it is truly a vacation.