I am preparing for a trip. My man is graduating and it is time to hit the road! It has been a good long year since we have taken a real vacation so this one is sorely needed.
With the extra$200 in our pocket that we got from our individual health insurance for just being healthy, I think we are going to have a good time.
Because I love lists, here is some travel tips on how to make the most of your trip.
- Take care of yourself before your trip. Your health might be the last thing you think about when you are planning for a trip. But nothing would be worse than canceling a trip because you got sick before. In my case, finals week is right before our trip. Being overly stressed plus poor health equals sickness right before our trip. So we are focusing on staying healthy by getting enough sleep, drinking plenty of water and managing our stress.
- Prepare yourself before your trip. I like to plan. To make the most of your trip, a general idea of what you want to see can help you avoid the ‘what ifs’ and help you enjoy your trip. Check out travel books from the library and make a list of what you must see and what would be nice to see. Plan your days around those. Make sure to give yourself extra time because things usually take longer than you think. But more importantly, be flexible. Things may not always go as planned but you can still enjoy your trip.
- Prepare your house before your trip. There is nothing worse than coming home exhausted from your trip and being welcomed by a dirty house. Do yourself a favor and clean it up before you go. Do your dishes, clean out your refrigerator, vacuum your house and do your laundry.
- Take care of yourself during your trip. Depending on how long your trip is you can play around with getting less sleep. But you will have to make up for it eventually. On a longer trip, you are just asking for trouble by skimping on sleep. You will be more irritable (which will be bad for you and even worse for your travel companions) and you will up your chance for getting sick. If you are playing tourist, make sure you take a water bottle with you and some snacks. Chances are you will be walking a lot and you will need to keep hydrated. Make sure you wear comfortable shoes to protect your back from any aches. And carry around hand sanitizer. Tourists bring floods of people which means plenty of germs. If you want to keep healthy, kill those germs, stat. Also, do what you can to eat well. You will feel better and it will help you avoid getting sick.
- What do you do if you actually get sick? If you are traveling abroad, you can purchase travel health insurance if you feel it would be a concern.