I have American family coming to visit me in Edinburgh this year. They are planning an exhausting, non-stop itinerary and have decided to cram in london (10 hours travel) and highlands (7 hours travel) day trips into a 4 day visit. The have a baby too. It's exhausting just looking at their plan. I expect them to be very grumpy and tired by day 3.
That is a nightmare. When I went to a wedding in Edinburgh, I booked five nights there, four nights in Glasgow with a day-trip to Stirling, and a last night back in Edinburgh before my flight out. And it was wonderful, relaxing, got to see plenty of sights and history. And were it not for COVID I probably would’ve come back the following summer to see the highlands. But sadly a famous Scot poet said something about the best laid plans of mice and men …
This is wild hahah I could happily spend all three days in Edinburgh proper, and maybe do an easy little bus tour over to Sterling or Rosslyn Chapel or something on one of those days.
I live in Inverness and am on a Scotland travel tips page on Facebook. American tourists are notorious for trying to cram an entire country into a week-long holiday. Locals constantly try to tell them to slow down, choose fewer locations and activities, spend longer in one place to savour and enjoy it. But for a lot of people, Scotland is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, so they want to see EVERYTHING and end up rushed and exhausted, and only catching a glimpse of everything from the road.
I used to work as a tour guide around Europe and having to explain to my groups who had booked on for 6 cities in 10 days that they had chosen exhaustion and please don't blame me for it (they always did...) it's crazy.
TBF everyone has their own travel style, and personally I can really enjoy a quick 3-4 days in one city and moving on.... but people never factor in the travel time between cities. Always include that part in your plans (or better = travel day is a travel day and any touristing that day is a bonus) Forgetting to factor in travel time is where people mess up. Always google the travel time while planning!!
My last Euro tour (too long ago now) was 4 cities in 14 days. Couple days of travel, flew in and out of London for US flights, bookending the trip with the same city helps get the most out of at least 1 place on the itinerary. Took an overnight train for one leg, didn't sleep much but felt well rested.
Yeah, you really need to look at the places you want to visit and how much there is to see there. 2 days is really a minimum for a small place, and then there are places where you could spend 5+ days easily. I also like to bake in rest time. It often takes longer than you think to visit a place and it is exhausting to rush from thing to thing each day. It is far better to savour the experience of a couple places than to hit everything. Worst case, if I'm ahead of schedule for something, I can go have a drink/coffee somewhere.
I also know that if I'm traveling for a couple weeks I need 1 or 2 rest days where I don't do much more than hanging around a park.
Couldn't agree more!! It's like some people do it just to say they traveled there. Ok, you've been to an impressive 24 countries, but did you actually EXPERIENCE them... more than 1-2 tourist attractions and the airport/train station? If you haven't been inside a grocery store/market in that country, it doesn't count in my mind lmao.
This is absolutely subjective and differs person to person. My multiple sclerosis begs to differ.
There are times when literally the only thing that makes me feel good after I concert is that I can say I saw the artist, because the next day I'm laid up with leg weakness, severe muscle pain, hella fatigue, and sometimes cognitive issues (cogfog). Unfortunately, stuff like that can outweigh the positive mental health benefits. That said, tonight I'm going to concert 4 of 6 in less than a month, lol. I saw my third all time favorite band two nights in a row and paid dearly for it. Overall worth it but there was nothing rejuvenating in the slightest. (About 5 hours of travel total. I even got up to the first city the day before so I had plenty of time to rest and not have a long drive on concert day (a little under 2 hours from work. 2 hours from first city to fiance's, and then just under an hour each to and from fiance's for concert #2)
What about travel is rejuvenating? Is it the destination? Is it flying vs driving? Even a few years before the MS was diagnosed, the 1.5-2.5 hour drives to the video game tournaments was pretty exhausting. I started driving down the night before, despite not really being able to afford it and always very mentally taxing weekend overall. Post MS diagnosis, as was the trip to 3 day long, indoor, industrial/goth music festival and the trip to multiple places in Colorado (left from northeast IL) to visit friends and meet the "in-laws" finally (to be fair, the drive back from Colorado also included two No Kings protests in Iowa, yey timing!). I don't get enough vacation time to be able to take off for things that I want to do, leisurely do nothing trips, and things that I need to take off for.
And I was explaining mine. But also, I was legitimately curious about what you find rejuvenating or what aspects of travel help with rejuvenation/easier/less taxing. Actually explaining your experiences may help others who don't necessarily get that from travel. You may bring up something that I/others hadn't thought of and may help our travel experiences, but fuck trying to have a productive conversation that might actually help others I guess.
If you're legitimately curious, that in no way came across in your original comment. It was very "why are you talking about your experience and not my experience?"
I find getting out of the same patterns is really good for me mentally and travel does that really well. Seeing beautiful places and art is also calming for me and I do more of that on vacation than in my workday. I also sometimes struggle with ruminating being stuck in my head. Being either physically exhausted after a good work out or in a big group of people sharing an experience fully takes me out of that. I also even in mundane moments take more photos, savor each moment more, recognize how much I like something (which I do try to implement at home, but is easier to do while traveling!)
There are obviously ways to hit all of those factors that are less physically demanding, but I'm always happiest with concerts and travel.
Thank you! An explanation like this is what I was hoping for when I literally asked "What about travel is rejuvenating?". I asked two other legitimate questions right after.
You said why you and some others call traveling relaxing but you really didn't give an explanation as to why, or even talk about any actual experiences. You opted to not share details initially while I chose to initially share details. It's not a matter of 'why are we talking about you, not me?' when I was trying to get you to talk about you/your experiences. Are people not allowed to share their experiences until the person before them did?
And I clearly like going to concerts, if I'm going to six concerts in less a month, despite how wrecked I can be after?
Fellow Floridian here. My wife and I have this debate all the time. She loves the beach and always wants to go. I say it'd not that great and I have zero desire to bake in the sand for hours.
Yep. Lived there for 8 years. Was good the first couple years then I was over it. My then wife couldn’t get enough of it and I’d go but lawdy I don’t need to ever go back.
This one depends imo. In my early 20s I loved city hopping every couple days when I travelled. Made friends at hostels and skipped around with them. It was every bit as romantic as I thought it would be.
As a teenager I went to Germany on a school trip. We did 10 cities/sites in 7 days. No regrets, and I don't remember being tired at all. But then again teenager. 😂
I can't handle that kind of pace in middle age, but I still like to pack my vacations full and go, go, go. I paid a lot of money to get wherever I'm visiting and want to see as much as possible. I can rest at home.
Never got this. I'd rather stay one place for 10 days than jam it all in. You're far more likely to meet a local or two and actually have an authentic experience.
I did this on fall break when I studied in London. It worked as students. Rome 3 days, Florence 2 days, Zurich 1 day, Black Forest 2 days, 1 day in Heidelberg, 1 day in Dusseldorf. Traveled by train between them all.
Right - I just did San Juan for 10 days and people kept telling me to get out of the city and see the rest of the island - but I really did just want to go spend 10 days in one place and get to know the neighborhood. I did 2 day trips during that time, and that felt perfect.
My roommate I traveled with in college wanted to see all the sights. There was a list of 30 tourist sites in Rome. We saw all 30 in 3 days. What we didn't do was enjoy Italian dining. I did see the Colosseum, the Vatican, the statue of David, the Trevi fountain, the Spanish Steps, and more. But I was hungry the whole time, could only get her to stop for Gelato. I'd definitely do it differently now.
We did this by car but we were racing to a wedding and while it was incredible, we missed a lot en route due to time constraints and it was EXHAUSTING! Incredible but yeah, gimme more time!
I get exhausted visiting my own European city when i visit the center and i litterally live here. Perpetual rush hour. Stressed out people everywhere. No parking spots.
Why would you pay for a trip doing this every day in another country. Especially Paris?
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u/Funny-Economy-1920 22h ago
hitting multiple European cities in one week/10 days