As someone who loves to travel, I think planning and anticipating a vacation is one of the best feelings in the world. The actual vacation is amazing too – if there’s one complaint I have, it’s that the days just fly by way too fast. And then comes the post-vacation blues! When you’re stuck in traffic on your way to work the next day, those golden beaches and cute restaurants seem like they happened a lifetime ago.
Much as we’d like to, most of us do not have the budget or the vacation days to take off on another adventure right away. So here are a few ways to make that vacay mood last much longer than it usually does, and make it a little easier for you to settle back into your daily routine. And let’s face it – planning the perfect vacation takes time, money and effort. It would be a shame to let all that become irrelevant the minute your flight takes off.
Go for unusual souvenirs
When we are shopping for souvenirs, most of us pick up fridge magnets, random trinkets or maybe a cheesy t-shirt. But what if our souvenirs could be a little more meaningful?
One thing that my mom has done is buy a piece of art from each country we travel to. She has compiled a pretty impressive and extensive travel gallery wall. It is such a cool way to look back at all of our travels. This is something Mitch and I have started in our house as well. It will be exciting and special to see it grow!
We also always buy an ornament – so when we are decorating our tree at Christmastime we can look back at our memories of when we traveled to that place. I also always buy a coaster whenever I travel somewhere.
Learn a local recipe that you can make at home
Experiencing local cuisine is one of the most enjoyable things about visiting a new place. Coming from a family of foodies, and now Mitch being a foodie, we tend to plan our trips around local cuisines and restaurants. After a delightful few days of enjoying new and delicious food, it can feel quite underwhelming to go back to your usual routine of meal prep, packed lunches and greasy takeout. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Pick a recipe that you would love to recreate at home and master it while there. Sign up for cooking classes where they show you the authentic way to prepare the dish, or if you fell in love with a dish at dinner – ask your server for the recipe, how to make it, or ask them to give you some pointers. My mom and I took a cooking class in Florence and it was one of our favorite memories. We came home and tried to make homemade pasta. It didn’t work out as we planned, but it was still fun to make them and relive our cooking class. We also took a food tour in San Miguel, Mexico and it was by far our favorite thing of the trip.
It is best to avoid anything that’s super complicated and requires years of practice to perfect or something that calls for rare ingredients that you don’t easily get back at home. Simple but delicious is the way to go. When you’re going through the worst of the post-holiday blues, a fruity drink from a Caribbean island or a delicious serving of mango sticky rice can make the world of a difference!
Keep a journal so you remember the fun little things
When you think back on a vacation, you remember the more significant events and activities – but you forget the tiny little details that made your trip so charming. For instance, you probably clearly remember looking up and seeing the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for the first time but may have forgotten how great that gelato felt afterward, in the heat of the day. Likewise, you may think often about that great restaurant you ate at, but not remember the street musician who was playing right outside.
Maintaining a travel diary or a journal will help you remember these little details. When on a vacation, take a few minutes at the end of each day, and jot down everything you remember – the sights, the sounds, the smells, the insignificant but interesting things that you noticed. Not only will they make you smile when you read them later, but they’ll also make your vacation memories that much richer.
What do you do to make your travels more memorable???
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