My itineraries tend to alternate long sightseeing days with other long sightseeing days until everyone is exhausted. I want to build a real rest day into a two-week trip, but the word ‘rest’ starts sounding like a wasted hotel night. Perhaps a slow breakfast, laundry and wandering a local market are exactly what makes the other days enjoyable. How do you schedule recovery without treating it as another list of things to accomplish?
Building rest days into a trip without feeling like they are wasted
- travel-planning
- building
- rest
- days
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2 replies
I think the problem is treating recovery as an absence of travel rather than a kind of travel. Markets, parks, a long lunch, even laundry ca...
I think the problem is treating recovery as an absence of travel rather than a kind of travel. Markets, parks, a long lunch, even laundry can be the point if the pace is different.
This. If you still wake up early, drag luggage around and try to “fit in” three things, it is not a rest day.
I do wonder whether some people need a completely empty day, though. For kids especially, a low-key outing can be better than a hotel-room d...
2 replies
I stopped calling it a rest day and started calling it a buffer day. That small change made it feel like part of the plan instead of a guilt...
I stopped calling it a rest day and started calling it a buffer day. That small change made it feel like part of the plan instead of a guilty pause. The day usually ends up being the one everyone remembers anyway.
Exactly. A good rest day is still a day with a shape, just a softer one.
I like giving it one anchor and then leaving the rest loose. For us that was breakfast at the hotel and one neighborhood walk, nothing else locked in.