Planning a trip can be quite an exciting experience in general, but when you only have a few days at your disposal to explore and enjoy your destination of choice, things tend to get a bit more complicated.
There’s no denying that city breaks provide a great way to explore the world, especially if you’re on a tight budget or your busy lifestyle doesn’t allow you to fit more travel time into your schedule. They also give you the opportunity to get a feel of the places you visit and decide if you would like to return for an extended trip in the future.
In the increasingly fast-paced world that we live in, where work comes first and leisure after, these short trips have become a popular form of tourism that allows people to take a much-needed break from the daily grind and recharge their batteries.
However, we can’t disregard the fact that the time limitation poses major challenges for city breakers. People usually have trouble creating an itinerary and deciding on activities, attractions and experiences even when planning a week-long trip, let alone packing all these things in just a few days. But challenging doesn’t mean impossible, so if you want to make the most of your city breaks, we’re ready to share all our secrets.
Choose your destination wisely
There are plenty of destinations where you can plan a city break, but some are more easily accessible than others. Is it really worth the effort to travel halfway around the globe for a city break that only lasts three or four days if you are going to spend two days between planes and other forms of transportation?
You have to take travel distance into consideration when weighing your options if you don’t want to waste your time in airports or on the road. If you choose a destination that is closer to your point of departure, you’ll have more time to explore it and enough energy to enjoy your travel experience.
Plan everything in advance
While traveling spontaneously might sound exciting, that’s not necessarily the best approach when it comes to city breaks. Being an early bird and taking care of travel arrangements in advance pays off when you’re planning a short trip. When you’ve done all your research at home and planned your itinerary down to the smallest details, all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the ride.
This implies booking transportation and accommodation, creating a trip itinerary, checking out suggestions for places to see and things to do, booking tickets for events and attractions or activating your Google Fi eSIM to stay connected wherever you go. If you take care of all these aspects early on, you’ll be able to avoid time-consuming decision-making or idle wandering and make every minute of your trip count.
Opt for central accommodation
Staying in the city center can make it so much easier for you to get around and access all the important attractions, but you’ll obviously have to spend more money on accommodation. Although cheaper lodging on the outskirts of the city can leave you with more funds to spend on travel activities, it’s going to affect you time-wise, so this is the kind of compromise you might have to accept.
However, if you can’t find a central accommodation that fits your budget, you should at least make sure you choose a place that ensures access to public transport so you can travel around with ease.
Make use of travel technology
These days, you have a host of tech tools and gadgets at your disposal that can help you streamline your city breaks or any kind of trip for that matter, and make travel infinitely more comfortable, convenient and safer.
For instance, online booking platforms allow you to research and compare transport and accommodation options until you find the one that is right for you. Travel and expense management apps help you stay on top of your travel budget so you can spend your money wisely. An international sim card ensures internet connectivity wherever you go without breaking the bank, and so on. Make sure you check out some of these tech tools if you want to make your next city break smoother.
Pack light
Since you’re only going away for a few days, you won’t need to take a giant suitcase and stuff half of your belongings in there. When you’re getting ready for a city break, you want to pack as lightly as possible so you can move around with ease and not worry about dragging tons of unnecessary items with you, so the bare essentials will have to do.
The problem with packing light is that most people have no clue how to do that and they inevitably end up traveling with more things than necessary. The key is to have a travel outfit planned for each day, taking into account the activities you want to engage in and the local weather.
Learn from the locals
No one can give you better travel tips than the locals. They know all the important landmarks, the best restaurants, cafes and shops and can recommend the most interesting activities for you to immerse in the local culture and atmosphere.
So, you might want to skip the hotels and B&Bs and stay with a local instead. Platforms like Airbnb or couch surfing can help you search for the best homestays so you can enjoy a more authentic travel experience.
When it comes to city breaks, time is of the essence and so is proper planning if you want to enjoy every minute of your urban ventures. If you have a long travel to-do list and only a few days to check all the boxes, these practical tips can come in handy the next time you’re planning a quick escape.
