tl;dr – Build one into your next trip.
I’m a few weeks into a two-month-long trip, and I’ve already been reminded of one of my very favorite travel tips – “Proactively building a ‘rest’ or ‘chill’ day (or more than one) into your trip.” It’s such an easy, obvious thing to do, yet depending on what type of trip you’re on, the temptation to do and see everything and anything under the sun often makes folks forgo this advice. You shouldn’t overlook this tip for your next adventure.
There are so many benefits to rest days. Let’s talk through a few.
Life happens. Shit happens. Travel plans get jacked up, requiring workarounds and rejiggering. Having a day to recuperate from whatever life throws at you can be the difference between getting a vacation ‘back on track’ or returning from your trip in worse shape than you left.
I’m a huge walker. One of my absolute favorite things to do is wander. Just set a waypoint and casually make my way to it, without any real plans to see or do anything along the way. Just explore and observe. To me, is often a ‘chill day’. Some of my most memorable travel experiences have come from when I’ve done less.
I don’t want to be naive here. Most folks have limitations – time, money, energy – that introduce a little bit of pressure into a vacation. You planned for this time off from work, right? You saved this money for the trip that you’re on ‘right now’, right? For city travel, particularly in places like Europe and Asia, there’s a big temptation to sightsee as much as you can. Trust me, I get it.
…But perhaps you also booked a trip, at least in part, for some much-needed, much-desired relaxation. Shouldn’t you make sure you get some?
Additionally, rest days don’t need to be wholly inactive. Maybe there a day(s) with just one activity/to-do planned, with ample free time before or after.
It also could be that you don’t ever end up ‘using’ your rest day. And this is one of the best benefits to having one built in – flexibility. If you find that you’re buzzing off the energy of a place, and feeling lively – wanting to do more, eat that one restaurant again, revisit that market to grab that black sesame jam, stroll through the museum that’s a bit out of town, or go on ‘that other tour – you know the one to the mangroves’ – then maybe you can make that ‘game-time decision’ in the moment. Once you’ve gotten a better feel for your destination and checked in with yourself and your traveling companions, if any.
The point is that proactively carving out time to ‘do nothing’ can sometimes provide just the right perspective as to what you actually want to do!
