Travel Simply

Sometimes travel is simple. Sometimes it’s not…

The first thing you need to know about simple travel is to pack less. Always pack less, you won’t need half the stuff you think you do and you can buy the small stuff almost anywhere.

All Inclusive

You can choose a resort area, like Mexico, and stay for a week at an all-inclusive resort. You book a week, a flight, and let them do the rest. The hardest thing to plan is if you do an activity or if you lay on the beach that day.

I did this once and it was a great experience. You have a bracelet or other identifying mark that lets them know you are all-inclusive and you can go to most restaurants for your meal whenever you’re hungry (some formal restaurants may need reservations and have extra charges). You can lay on the beach and have water and soda brought right to you.

Many of the amenities and water sports are included. Some resorts have dinner shows. You might get a discount at the spa. A trip to an all-inclusive resort can be one of the most relaxing trips you take. It can also be one of the simplest.

Tours

Another simple way to travel is to book a tour. I did this when I travelled to Egypt. I did this because I had concerns about the political activities around the anniversary of the original “Facebook Revolt”. My Teaching Assistant is Egyptian and so are many of my co-workers and they all voiced concerns about my travels.

By booking a tour I still had to be aware of tensions and potential problems but it became the responsibility of the tour also. They changed some of our stops to other cities because of tensions along the Libyan boarder.

A tour books your hotel, plans most of your activities, plans most of your meals, and plans your transportation. Really the tour plans most of your day except for small gaps of free time. Travel like this can be as simple as searching for the tour you want and booking.

Travel Agent

A travel agent does the hard part for you. They look at flights, hotels, rental cars, and other aspects of your trip. It’s the travel agent job to make your trip as easy as possible. It can be well worth the small fee that travel agents charge to have a custom made trip created for you.

One Location

If you want to book for your self the simplest way to travel is to do a city break, where you stay in one city for the entire time. This means you don’t have to worry about multiple hotel reservations or transportation or luggage.

If you don’t want to spend your entire time in one city see about day trips that are possible from a central location.

Unplanned Trip

Whether it’s one stop or 5 or even 50 stops unplanned travel moves away from simple travel. This travel can come with many complications, like not being able to find transportation or not finding a hotel within your planned budget.

If those things aren’t a worry for you it’s still pretty easy to pick up your backpack and go where ever the winds take you. This is one of my favourite types of travel. I fly to Macedonia June 21st and I have booked into a hostel for two nights. After that I have no idea where I will be. I’m waiting to see if I get good recommendations or even leaving myself open to the possibility that I meet people while travelling and want to join their adventures.

With nothing concrete planned or booked I can follow my whimsy when I get to Macedonia.

Planned Multi-Stop Trip

Planned long trips are far removed from simple travel. When you begin to book longer trips, or even short trips, where you spend a lot of time on the move more things can go wrong. When we were travelling in Iceland one of our hotels sprung a leak and we only had a few days to find new accommodations.

July 9th I fly to Ireland to meet my family for a two week vacation. Long ago I booked our hotels, flights, and rental cars. It’s easiest if one person does this and keeps track of it so that nothing gets missed.

Trip like this take time and research to plan. You have to know the route you will take so you can book hotels and flights. You need to know about rules for mileage on the rental cars (get unlimited if possible). You need to know what sites you want to see so you can plan your route accordingly.

What ever your style of travel you should always have fun and be safe. Leave yourself open to new opportunities and you should have a great time.