Planning Your Vacation

|| Abundance || Stress || Career || Communication || Concentration || Creativity || Emotions || Self-Esteem || Fear || Happiness || Healing || Intuition || Leadership || Love || Maturity || Meditation || Memory || Mental Health || Peace || Mindfulness || Inspiration || Negotiation || Personality || Planning || PMA || Reading || Relationships || Relaxation || Success || Visualization || The Secret || Master Key System || Videos || Audio || Our Books || Being the Best || Resources ||

by Jayaram V

It is said that Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology, used to suffer from anxiety before traveling. Some anxiety before going on a vacation is normal, because travel implies change in your surroundings and moving out of your comfort zone, which may be your home or workplace, to a new and different place. If we are planning to go on a vacation to an entirely unknown place or a foreign country, which we haven't visited before, we are bound to experience more anxiety.

It is one thing to wish for a dream vacation and another to make a realistic and practical plan to make it happen. If you want to go on a hassle free vacation to exotic places and enjoy your vacations, you need to plan carefully, gathering as much information as possible and making wise choices. You need to be familiar with the places you want to travel and possess some basic skills in scheduling, budgeting, time management, forecasting and event coordination. You have to be good at adaptation, improvisation and communication so that you can cope with the challenges and contingencies that may arise during your vacation.

If you are traveling with your family, you have to be doubly careful and make sure that neither you nor anyone else would be part of the baggage others have to carry!

When it comes to planning your vacation, it is important not to take anything for granted or rely upon your memory, even if you are blessed with high IQ. It is a good measure to prepare a comprehensive checklist, well in advance, and use it as a reference to make arrangements for your travel and stay. The purpose of going on vacation is to relax and enjoy. No one would like to see their vacation turn into a nightmare, because of someone‘s negligence or mistakes. A vacation checklist will empower you to keep your vacation planning under your radar. It will save you time and effort and loads of trouble. With the help of a written checklist, you can minimize oversight and pull off a memorable and happy vacation.

A checklist can be as simple or as detailed as you want it to be, depending upon where go, how long you stay and what you intend to do during your free time. A simple check list will suffice if you are familiar with the place you are planning to visit. But if you have not visited the places before or if you are traveling with others for whom you are responsible, you may require a detailed checklist.

Before you start working on your check list, you have to familiarize yourself with the places you are planning to visit. Using some ingenuity, find out what you can expect from your vacation and what type of arrangements and planning you have to do to make your vacation comfortable. If you are visiting more than one location, you may have to collect information about each of them. If you or any member of your travelling group has special food requirements, you may have to even find out the places, where you can find such food. Internet is a good source of information in this regard. There are a number of travel sites and location specific websites which provide copious information about the local hotels, bars, restaurants, tourist attractions, car rentals and other relevant information. If you are a member of agencies, such as American Automobile Association or Travel Clubs, you can get their assistance for travel, lodging and boarding, insurance, maps, discounts and visa arrangements. The following list is useful in creating a foolproof travel checklist.

1. Destination

2. Climate

3. Date and duration of travel.

4. Clothing (which essentially depends upon what you intend to do and in which climate.) and other items that are needed on vacation such as baggage, shoes, sunglasses, cameras, binoculars, etc.

5. Number of people intending to travel and specific issues associated with them, such as health issues and special needs.

6. Available travel options and intended mode of travel. Also consider whether you need insurance to drive a rental car or whether your existing insurance covers it. Buying insurance from a rental car company can be more expensive than the rent itself.

Source: Reproduced partially from the book Think Success by Jayaram V. You may purchase this book from our online store