Vacations are wonderful things. They’re a chance to break out of your daily routine and leave your stress and worries behind. They’ll expand your horizons, improve your health, and leave you feeling rested and recharged. Long after you come home, you’ll still treasure the memories that you made when you were on your big trip.
Hopefully, you’re already looking forward to your next vacation. As you’re planning your trip, you should think about these three ways to make your next vacation safer, more memorable, and all-around better than your last.
Keep your planning materials in one place
Vacations reduce stress, but planning vacations can increase them. Plus, even once you’re at your destination, you may find that juggling appointments and finding reservations that you made months ago can be frustrating and take you out of that wonderful vacation mindset. So streamline your vacation planning and keep everything in one place. That can mean using a spreadsheet or a folder, or it can mean downloading one of the many handy mobile apps that exist for precisely this purpose.
When you can tell at a glance where you’re supposed to be next and when, you’ll be able to relax and actually enjoy the moment. Plus, keeping things in one place will be a big help during the planning phase, because you’ll be able to tell easily which things you’ve already booked and worked out and which things remain to be planned. Since planning a vacation is easily the most stressful part of the whole vacation process, every little bit helps here. While you’re at it, try to remember to start planning early. The more time you give yourself, the less stressful your planning will be.
Share photos securely and wisely
For many people, a vacation is a chance to post fun photos on social media. You need to be careful about this, though, because the wrong post could put you at risk. Crooks know that their potential victims have a weakness for advertising their vacations on social media, and they keep an eye out for hints that you’re out of town. If you post a bunch of photos of yourself on the beach in Florida, you may come back home to find yourself a victim of a break-in.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t post photos on social media after your vacation. And, in fact, it doesn’t even mean that you can’t share photos with friends and loved ones in real time — it’s just that you need to be smart about it. The best way to share photos online privately is to use cloud photos storage solutions. Using cloud photo storage is also a great way to back up your shots, so that you won’t lose all your wonderful vacation photos if you drop your iPhone in the water during that sunset cruise.
Do something you’ve never done before
When you’re heading off on a relaxing vacation, it’s easy to focus on the simple and familiar. What will you do at the beach? Ah, you’ll relax; you’ll lie on the beach, swim a little, and maybe dine by the waterside. That’s all well and good, but why not do something totally out of the ordinary?
Why not go jet skiing in West Palm Beach? Why not go parasailing off of the Florida coast? Why not take a surfing lesson or a scuba-diving lesson? With the time that you have off from work, you have the chance to do something meaningful and memorable. Add a little adventure to your vacation and, not to worry, you’ll still have plenty of time to lie on the beach.