Low-Stress Travel: The Beauty of Planning Ahead

So, chances are, if you’re reading this you’re:

1) Part of a couple
2) A workaholic
3) Looking for ways to incorporate more travel into your life
-OR-
4) Part of a workaholic couple that’s looking for ways to incorporate more travel into your life

For all of you, my friends, I have one key piece of advice:

Don’t wait for travel opportunities to come to you — plan ahead.

Let’s say you’ve been working crazy hours and haven’t seen much of one another lately. You both feel tired, strung out, pinched, scrambled, and as though you haven’t seen the inside of your dwelling (or, if you’re like me, the outside of it) for an entire week.

One of you says to the other (in a voice not unlike Eeyore‘s):
“My soul feels crushed by work. I miss you. Let’s go somewhere. Where should we go?”

Your beloved significant other/de facto roommate might just perk up and say:
“Iceland for a long weekend! No, the Florida Keys! Ooooo, I’ve got it — Napa.”

Ah, wouldn’t that be lovely? A simultaneously exhausted and decisive travel partner.

A more likely scenario, though, is a garbled, slurred response from somewhere inside a darkened room that sounds a lot like:
“%&@$ you. I’m not going anywhere that isn’t bed. Ever, ever again.”

At moments like this, might I recommend, say, trying a new burger joint in your neighborhood, seeing a movie, or going to sit by some water to watch people with more energy than you stroll by in their seasonal finery?

See, because if you wait to plan an actual trip until you feel like you desperately need one, you will never go anywhere.

Since that would seriously suck, consider doing one of the following the next time you find yourself with 15 minutes to a half-hour on your hands:

Set up a shared calendar program. We use a Mac-based service called Mobile Me account to network a program called iCal, but plain ol’ Google Calendar is foolproof, too. This allows you to know when your significant other will be available in the future. Y’know, for travel.

Look through my Travel Binders for inspiration. Surely, there’s some place you’ve always wanted to go. To help you research a potential trip, I’ve assembled “travel binder” posts on individual countries, states and provinces all over the world, gathering links to tourism bureau sites, TV shows, blog posts, magazine articles, hotel reviews, tour operators and more.

Find yourself a travel agent. I provide links to agents in all of my Travel Binders, or you might want to consult the Virtuoso travel agent network or Condé Nast Traveler’s Travel Agent Finder. Three of our most exciting and romantic trips, to northern Italy, Bali and the Cook Islands, were planned by travel agents. It’s rare that we have more than 10 days to go anywhere, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to experience as much of a place as possible. A good travel agent has been where you want to go, can recommend unique excursions you might not have discovered on your own, and can usually provide you with perks and/or save you money. You’ll also have someone to contact for help if, while on the road, something goes less than according to plan.

Subscribe to vacation sale sites. My three favorites: Jetsetter, Vacationist and Travelzoo. Allow yourself to be tempted by a great sale on a sexy property, tour or cruise, and boom — you’re more than halfway to a trip.

Subscribe to airfare-watch sites. My two favorites: Airfare Watchdog and FareCompare. You can sign up for a “watch” to your desired location on your desired dates and you’ll know when to book for the best price. Or, you can let price alone be your guide and find yourself a cool place to go based on the fact that it has great airfare when you plan to travel.

Find fun stuff closer to home. Because you can’t always get out of town but you can easily become a pair of weird weekend shut-ins, sign up for Bloomspot, Zozi and Groupon, too. (Travelzoo also features fun stuff near your zip code.) You might find a cool local tour, a unique adventure, or a sexy new-to-you place just down the road. Feels like traveling, but with less energy output for those soul-crushing moments of workaholic fallout.

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See also
TWT’s Favorite Sites for Travel Deals
When to Go Where and Where to Go When
Work vs. Vacation