Carpe Weekend
Not all of your trips have to be epic, trans-continental. Sometimes, big journeys away aren’t practical, but something to shake up the normal routine and carve out a few memorable hours are necessary, just to stay sane.
In the New York area, Metro North is a simple link to America. Just a few hours out of the city and greenery overtakes the tension and anxiety of the concrete jungle. Perhaps because of this, I’ve grown accustomed to thinking of short train rides as better modes for weekend travel than cars. In my mind, joining the Friday evening traffic jam, shelling out for gas, and finding parking is the opposite of a vacation for me. I prefer to have just one obligation: the time of the train’s departure.
Train Simplicity
Traveling by train forces you to pare down your baggage. Reducing what you bring will help you focus more closely and deeply on the few things you do decide to bring. Bring a printed book, not an eBook. Make a decision. Edit out. Part of the vacation is from the multi-tasking, attention pulled in all directions, cursory engagement with everything mantra that rules our contemporary life. Consider a single activity to happen multiple times, in different situations.
Every time I’m packing for a trip, I start imagining all the things I want to or can do. I lay them out on the bed, look at all the desires manifested in consumer products and look at the void of a suitcase and think, there’s no way this is going to fit in there. Then realize that I’m not going to have time to do most of them. Invariably, I choose camera equipment over clothing, which is usually a mistake.
Trains are also one of the most reliable forms of transportation. They never get a flat tire, a fender bender, or cancel on your ticket on the way to the station. Weather rarely impedes train travel. There aren’t TSA security lines or tiny seats. I’m a big proponent of the Amtrak lines that have observation cars, which are usually above the cafe, where you can buy beer for the same price as in the city.
Disconnect to Connect
Turn off your phone notifications, leave your Apple watch at home. Uninstall news apps. There’s nothing worse than fretting about something you can’t change while you’re on vacation. If you’re expected to look at emails over the weekend, put an out of office auto reply, stating your response will be delayed due to your remote location and check emails once in the morning and once in the evening.
Turn off your phone one hour before you go to bed. Don’t turn it back on until after breakfast. Order what the waiter recommends. Not only are they usually right, it’s a good way to connect a human too often seen as just a worker. If you’re really getting into the chit chat of things, try small talk with the cashier.
Make a Budget
Financial responsibility is only part of the perfect weekend trip. The other aspect is to implement a constraint that not only forces you to prioritize your time, but helps you avoid the bad habit of buying souvenirs or tchotchkes that are just going to collect dust on your shelf. Focus on creating memories, not assembling an assortment of things you don’t really want.
A budget works forward and backward. You can compare your past trips with future trips. And because money is quantitative, a budget helps you sidestep the difficulty of comparing qualitative experiences.
Budgets are economic and temporal. Everyone understands using budgets as spending thresholds, but you can also set them as spending thresholds. You can reward your saving up a budget by taking a weekend trip once every six weeks instead of just waiting to see when you feel like your life is suffocating you to the point of needing a break.
Prepare for Your Return
I learned this late in life, but cleaning my apartment and doing the laundry before I leave makes my return absolutely glorious. One of the beauties of coming home is having that sudden and expected return to the familiar and intimate. The only thing better is being able to fully relax when you step inside the door after seeing your home at its best. You’ll thank yourself later.
If possible, arrive late afternoon or early evening, especially if you’re expecting a deluge of correspondence when you connect back to the real world. Those few hours before you tuck in can be used to draft email replies to colleagues or simply delete junk emails that accumulated while you were away. Having a pleasant return will establish a positive conditioning for these little getaways.
