Giving yourself permission to relax when traveling is essential for your well-being and can greatly enhance your travel experience.
It’s natural to want to take in as much of a destination as possible, especially in brand new places. Often, our schedule only provides a day or two at some spots. And the guidebooks always list scores of “must-see” sights or group tours to fill every moment with activity. In our experience, even when the tour schedules “time on your own,” the written material and the guide suggest spots to visit during that window.
But it’s okay to just hang out in your hotel room or at the pool. It’s fine to while away an afternoon in a garden or café. It can even be beneficial to sleep in or to take an afternoon nap. Travel can be an assault on the senses. The constant activity can be wearing. Sometimes the strange food or the time zone adjustments can make you feel a little peaked. Or maybe you just need a break from chitchatting with your fellow travelers or are not particularly interested in the afternoon’s schedule highlight.
Taking a few hours for yourself, to refresh and restore, can make the rest of the trip much better. One of the friends we often travel with on safari always takes one morning or afternoon on her own and stays in camp while the rest of us go on a game drive. She may miss seeing a lion pride or a new area of the park, but her time reading and relaxing refreshes her for the next leg of the safari.
It’s your journey. Take a break if you need it.
These tips for travelers are from Author Sherry Knowlton's travel memoirs, Beyond the Sunset: Volume 1 & Volume 2. Buy the book, in Kindle or paperback, today!
Also available at Sunbury Press or wherever most books are sold.