Travel Tips: A Guide to Long Weekend Global Adventures
As someone who loves to travel but has a full-time and fairly demanding job, I’ve had to get creative with how to make international travel a priority.
One way I do this is by having “mini adventures” over long weekends. With a handful of global long weekend trips from the US under my belt, I thought I’d share some tips based on my experience.
Here’s my personal guide to how to take advantage of three day weekend international travel (disclaimer: I currently live in the Northeast US, so this is based on my experience traveling from there).
1. Justify the cost with cheap flight deals: How do I justify a three-day trip to Paris? I look for cheap flight deals that are about equivalent to traveling domestically in the states. For example, I found a Paris flight using one of my favorite travel deal sites, Going.com (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights), for just under $300 roundtrip. Quick trip to Miami or Paris for the weekend? Perhaps a bit more of a journey, but I’ll take one ticket to Paris please.
2. Take advantage of time zone differences: It depends on where you’re based, but I look for flights that allow me to maximize my time in a location using time differences. For example, I’ll take an overnight flight to arrive in the morning on my first day and leave in the early evening on my last day, using the extra 6 hours of time difference to arrive back that same evening. I imagine you’re thinking, “That’s great, Hannah – but what about the jet lag and sleep deprivation upon arrival?” I recommend espresso or your caffeinated beverage of choice to help power through, especially on that first day, although the magic of being in a new place is generally enough to keep me going.
3. Stay active on that first day: Along with staying caffeinated, I recommend staying very active on your first day. For my long weekend in Ireland, I landed in Dublin at 5:15am, got on a bus to Galway, and immediately hopped on a bus for a tour of the Cliffs of Moher (Note: this first day was also the best weather of the weekend and I wanted to take advantage of it). But keeping active kept me going and my mind distracted for that first day, which between the overnight flight and jet lag, I’ve found to be the hardest.
4. Be realistic and decide your travel priorities in advance: As one of those travelers who wants to experience absolutely everything, I’ve found that these long weekend trips are a blast, but I simply can’t do it all. I can’t see most major tourist sights AND all the best museums AND go on all the top rated day tours. I tend to make a list of a handful of things that I absolutely want to do while leaving some room for spontaneity and unexpected adventures.
5. Tack long weekend adventures onto longer international trips: My long weekend in Ireland was on the way to a longer tour in Morocco. Ireland was (sort of) on the path to Morocco from the Northeast US and in a similar time zone. With a little planning, I was able to add this mini adventure before starting my incredible small group tour in Morocco. Along similar lines, a number of airlines offer stopovers in certain countries on the way to your final destination, including TAP Portugal (Lisbon), Icelandair (Reykjavik), and Emirates (Dubai).
A note on cost: I think that these mini adventures are possible even if you’re on a budget. Keep an eye out for inexpensive flight deals to cut travel costs, stay in a budget hotel or hostel, and get creative about meals (using the hostel kitchen or buying something quick and inexpensive on the go). With some planning, you can explore the world without breaking the bank.
I’m not going to lie, these quick trips can be a little exhausting (the next week at work is never fun), but it’s always well worth it for me. Whether on your own or with a friend, these are great for people who can’t be digital nomads full time, but want to incorporate some global adventuring into their lives.
Feeling inspired? Read my guide to a long weekend in Iceland, one of my recent mini adventures.
