Planning a last minute trip

We are now into August. Have you taken a vacation yet this summer? If not, is the reason because you hate planning trips? If that describes you, you will want to read on. Part of the beauty of vacation is that you don’t have to do much of anything if you don’t want to. Some people would be perfectly fine to find a hotel that has a nice restaurant and a pool and just chill out there for a week or so. Sometimes you just need to get away and nothing for a while. Your body gets tired of doing the same thing day after day. You get bored.

• First of all, what is your budget for this trip? If you’ve been saving up for a trip and feel like doing a little splurging, go on and do it. Find a nice resort and just go and chill. Or go on a tour. Joining a tour should take very little time to plan. All inclusive packages also take little work and might be more cost effective. You will just have to read over everything to make sure that you know what is covered and what is not.
• Solo travel is getting more and popular, but is that something you are comfortable doing? Only you know the answer to that. If you are not, and don’t have a family you’ll be traveling with, consider asking some friends to go along with you. Surely you can find some some friends who need a break as much as you do.
• You may have the time, may need to make the time, to visit the place you’ve always dreamed about going, but you may be planning your trip at the perfectly wrong time of year. It may be too hot to visit this place. Or maybe this is when all the locals take their vacations, so that all the restaurants and everything are shut down. Do some research on the internet and figure out where is a good place to go.

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You may need a vacation if… #2

let’s keep looking at some signs that you may be ready to get on a vacation sometime soon.

• You may be reaching for your favorite junk food too often? Do you find yourself stopping for at fast food places more? Maybe you enjoy a glass of wine with dinner on the weekends. Well, it used to be the weekends, but now you are rretching for wine most every night. And working out? You used to be great at it, but now you’re skipping your routine more and more.
• You are seriously not trying to sabotage your career, are you? Hardly anyone sets out to do that. But you might be becoming so irritable that you are picking fights at work. Or you might be running late more and more.
• Problems that usually seem like no big deal now seem to totally derail you. You can’t seem to figure anything out. Nothing makes sense to you right now. And you can’t seem to get a healthy perspective on anything.
• It seems like all you do is work. You get up and go to work, and then when you do come home, you can’t seem to stop thinking about work. You’re too tired to do anything except work. You don’t want to do all of the things that you usually love, you’re just too tired.
• You may be so stressed that you’re fighting with not only with coworkers, but also with friends and family that you love. Or you might just with draw from anyone and everyone.

If these signs describe you, please let me know at familytripsinc1@gmail.com. I would love to help you plan a trip.

You may need a vacation if… #1

I am going to be taking a long weekend this weekend. I know I will not be doing this Friday or Saturday, and actually we will have to see how things go all of next week. This subject kind of caught my eye, kind of feel in need of a vacation myself. I am keeping pretty busy between work and my class. We are going to be with extended family this weekend, and I can hardly wait.

Do you even remember the last time you took a vacation? A lot of Americans think they can forego vacations. To some, it’s a luxury they simply don’t feel like they can afford. Others feel like they can not time off of work. Still others love being in their own homes and don’t want to leave their comfortable lives. But what are some signs that you really need to take a break. Let’s look at some today.

• Work always causes stress. You may not know you are stressed, but your body does. How is it trying to tell you? You may keep getting headaches. Your back might hurt for no apparent reason.
• Or you may not be in any physical pain at all, you just do not feel like doing anything. The job you love now only seems to annoy you. You don’t want to do anything that usually excites you. You can not find satisfaction anywhere you turn.
• You may be having problems sleeping. You can’t seem to turn off your mind. And this does nothing to help your lack of motivation.
• You may be making mistakes at work. And that is never a good idea. You might be getting yelled at by your boss, which will do nothing good for your stress level.

Money for travel

I’m back. I hope everyone had great holidays. I know I did.

If one of your big resolutions is to become much more fiscal responsible, but you also have the desire to travel more, here are some ideas that might help you.

• Are you carrying around debt? That stress is not good for anyone. And it is especially not good for families. Make a list of all your debts, and start paying them off one by one. It will help if you live simply during this time.
• Do you have a monthly budget that you live by? Making a plan and sticking it will really help you. It may also open your eyes to some discretionary spending you might want to cut out, at least for a time.
• Consider opening a travel savings account. Decide on an amount to put into this special savings account.. Think about putting your extra money in there. You will love watching that grow.
• Eating out is a huge expense for many of us Americans. Learn to cook. You may be surprised how much you actually save.

Getting back to work after vacation #1

Things did not go as I thought was they might last week. They actually went way better. I got to spend the weekend with some dear friends, one of whom I did not know was coming. Anyway, ready or not, I am going to attempt to get through some work stuff tonight. Today let’s look at some tips on easing back into work after coming back from vacation. I’m not sure how well I am going to follow them, but anyway..

• This should be kind of obvious, but your first priority should be to catch up on what you’ve missed while you’ve been gone. Go through your phone messages. Work through the e-mail you’ve gotten. Go see your boss and see if he has anything to update you on. And you might want to catch up at the water cooler too.
• I know you have lots to work through, but take breaks so you don’t wear yourself out on your first few days back. Go to lunch even if you usually don’t. Take the time to tell your coworkers about your awesome vacation.
• If you are going to be gone for a week or two, consider coming back a day before you have to. If you’re like me, you want to make the the most of your vacation, and don’t necessarily want to sleep. Take that extra day to catch up on rest.

We are going to continue this discussion tomorrow. I would love to know your thoughts.

So why travel? #1

I am going to get personal for a minute. I am looking for a job. I’m not giving up on being a travel agent, not by any means. I just really want to start making some money somehow. I need money to do things for this business among other things. Hopefully I am going to find something soon, something I can do while still working on this business. I believe strongly in this business. I believe that families need to make time to travel together, so that they can reconnect and spend time together.

We are always talking about travel in one form or another on this blog, and I know I’ve talked about this on here before, and probably will again, but why should we travel?

• First of all, we need to take breaks from work. No one can work five to six days a week and keep fresh and motivated. Stepping back for a week two or three times a year helps keep us from getting bored or stressed out.
• Getting out of our comfort zones and experiencing new cultures can be downright enlightening. You can discover new ways to think about things. There may be certain practices from other cultures that you want to incorporate into your own life. Most of all, you will learn how friendly other cultures tend to be.
• Solo travel is getting to be big. But why? Why should we do that when a lot of us hardly travel with with our families? For one thing, solo travel is going to force you to learn new things about yourself. For another, you will also meet a lot of new and interesting people do.
• Do you want to learn more about a certain place? Travel there. You will want to study up on the place before you leave. Going to the place, seeing the people, will also make you more curious about the place after you have come home.
• And you have to eat on your trip, right? Trying the local cuisine can be one of the most fascinating parts of any trip. Some of the food you will love, others you will not be crazy about. But it’s interesting to learn about how other people eat at least.

Not taking vacations leads to…

I must confess that I often have no idea what I am going to write about each day until I get ready to write, unless I’m in the middle of a series or something. I often look at travel news for inspiration.

But there are certain things I’m passionate about.. My heart in this business is to help families reconnect through travel. Families are extremely busy these days. Both parents usually have careers they are working on. They may have parents they’re trying to take care of. And then somewhere, somehow, even grown ups need some time to relax and have fun. And children have their school and then all their extracurricular activities. Families hardly take the time to sit down and eat together.. I think families spending so little time together is why so many families are breaking up. And that is devastating. I think the breakdown of the family may be part of why this country is getting so messed up.. But let’s not go there.

BUT ANYWAY. Work\life balance is so important. I talk about that balance a lot on my Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/TravelforMompreneurs/. Back to what I was saying earlier, usually I don’t know what to talk about, but I again wanted something about this passion I have for work\life balance today.

And then I saw this article on the travel news about how Americans taking fewer vacations. And not only are we as a society taking fewer vacations, taking fewer vacations is leading to depression in some people. This is especially true of people who have not taken a vacation in two years or more.

Is that you? I would love to help you plan a vacation. All you have to do is to write me at familytripsinc1@gmail.com. I’ll help you work through everything you need to in order to plan an excellent vacation. Please let me know.

Why go on vacation?

 

I know that technically summer will start later this month, but we’ve celebrated Memorial Day, and most people are in summer mode already.. But just because summer is here doesn’t mean that work stops for everyone. Have you figured out when you are going to take your vacation yet? I know that my family is planning a trip for the middle of July. My thought is to take that week off of work completely. I’m fitting work around the other things I have going on these days, but that isn’t the same thing. Today let’s look some reasons why you should take sometime off.

• First, our bodies are not made to work all the time. We need to take breaks, and I’m not just talking about taking time off to sleep. We also need time to relax and enjoy ourselves. It is a good idea to take up a hobby. Every job brings stress, and it is never good to live under stress. Getting away from everything is going to give you help when it comes to solving your work problems.
• Sometimes we look at something so long, we can’t make any headway on it. Getting away from everything for a while will help you gain a new perspective.
• Not taking vacations actually costs us productivity. We get tired. We get bored of doing the same things day after day. We get irritable and snap at our coworkers, or even worse at your boss or clients.
• Work tends to pull us from the people we love most, our families. We get caught up in the busyness of our lives. We think our families will be fine if we miss dinner because something came up at work. Vacations are times to get away from our busy lives and focus on those we love.

Multi generational travel #2

 

I’m a travel agent. A lot of my days are spent researching and writing about travel. Because that is the case, I know that a lot of Americans have foregone their vacation lately. They are worried about finances. They are also concerned about their jobs if they take vacations. And that’s kind of silly, because most Americans get two weeks of paid vacation.. But anyway, what I’m reading in this course is that only a third of Americans are planning to take vacations this year. Most of these will take either one or two vacations, but some will take three vacations.

Our country has many different National Parks. Perhaps your parents have some special memories at some of these parks that they would love to share with you and your children? You could go camping in a lot of these parks. Or, if you’re looking for nicer accommodations, you might want to book a tour. When you go on a National Parks tour, the tour people are going to take care of all the details for you. Or I could help you figure out all the details.

More interested in your typical fun in the sun vacation? There are a lot of resorts out there which will cater to you and your family. Many resorts have great kids programs, and a lot of activities for families to get involved in together. They’ve also have several different restaurants, so that you will not get bored eating the same thing day after day.

We are going to get back to this tomorrow. It is not too early to start thinking about your summer vacation. I would love to help you plan your trip. Please let me know if you are interested.

Change the way you vacation

 

It is no secret that everyone in America is busy. Most adults work, whether they’re married or not, and not only are they working, they are trying to build a career, meaning they’re working 40+ hours, they’re meeting with other people for business dinners trying to get ahead. Children are also busy with school, sports and whatever else they want, or things parents decide they have to do? And then when we do get away on vacation, a lot of us tend to feel like we have to do what everyone else is doing on vacation. And that usually means we’re even busy running around on vacation, and not getting the rest we need to go back to our crazy lives.

Yes, I know everyone is different when it comes to what they like to do on vacations. Some people like to go somewhere and la by the pool and just read or visit with family and friends. Others would consider that to be the most boring vacation ever. Some people find taking adventures with their families to be relaxing. Others want to explore new ideas on their getaways.

Obviously, you want to enjoy your vacation. No one wants to come to come home and say, “well, I was just bored on my vacation.” But surely there has to is a balance between play and rest while you’re on vacation.

There are resorts and cruises that will cater to almost any interest, whether you’re a foodie, a sports enthusiast, or a history buff… I would love to know your thoughts about all this. What would your ideal vacation look like? How much do you do? Is there a place you would like to go and try out? I would love to hear your answers to any of these questions.