Keeping vacation excitement going once ON the vacation?

[Anonymous]

We are having so much fun planning our upcoming vacation. I feel like every year this happens: we spend months anticipating and planning with great excitement, but then once we are there we are so busy “doing” that the excitement wanes somehow.

On our last vacation I made it a point to stop every day and just be present in a “wow, we are really here” type of way, and it did help some. But at the end of each day I was still left wondering if we could have done more to feel immersed.

Could we be over-planning? Getting ourselves too excited? How can I remedy this?

[Anonymous]

Maybe at dinner time you can talk about the best moment of the day each day. That could be enough.

[Anonymous]

We are having so much fun planning our upcoming vacation. I feel like every year this happens: we spend months anticipating and planning with great excitement, but then once we are there we are so busy “doing” that the excitement wanes somehow.

On our last vacation I made it a point to stop every day and just be present in a “wow, we are really here” type of way, and it did help some. But at the end of each day I was still left wondering if we could have done more to feel immersed.

Could we be over-planning? Getting ourselves too excited? How can I remedy this?

This is the problem. You are so busy because you over planned and packed in too much. No time to reflect and enjoy the moments because you are worried about getting to the next activity, site, etc. Leave time to be spontaneous. Sometimes you get somewhere and find out about a cool thing there and decide to do it (and that is what can make for a lot of fun). We did this in Vermont. Decided on the spur of the moment to go to Ticonderoga because we had learned about Ethan Allen and wanted to "see" more of the story. We did this in the Midwest when someone told us to stop in Dyersville and see the "Field of Dreams" set. It was definitely not on our list, but since we give ourselves a lot of time and don't schedule everything, it worked. You never know what you are going to find when you go somewhere and that's part of the adventure of travel. Let your travel be more adventurous and not so planned. You can plan a couple of things of course, but let the rest just sort of flow.

[Anonymous]

Talk to people along the way. They will point you to the best things in their area. And you also meet some really interesting people out there.

[Anonymous]

I've certainly had a few moments like this but planning travel fills my cup and actually traveling also fills my cup (despite moments of stress along the way with kids). I am very intentional about planning in pretty big chunks of time each day to "explore".

I always research lots of ideas to consider and have a list I can pull from but I recognize that once we are there, there's no way we can fit it all in and it's just nice to have a list of ideas.

Maybe work on penciling in MORE free time to explore and have only a few definite things? It's nice to have a few scheduled activities but we also like to play it by ear with the weather, ect.

[Anonymous]

I think you are putting too much pressure on yourself. The special stuff happens in the unexpected moments, usually - so be open to that.

But also be open to not every moment of travel being the Most Important And Amazing Thing. It's too much pressure if it has to be! Let yourself be normal and human while you're traveling - that means sometimes you're spellbound in the spectacular now, and sometimes you're irritated because you're tired and didn't like lunch.

[Anonymous]

This is why I don't plan much. I prefer to let it unfold. Planning sets expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are having so much fun planning our upcoming vacation. I feel like every year this happens: we spend months anticipating and planning with great excitement, but then once we are there we are so busy “doing” that the excitement wanes somehow.

On our last vacation I made it a point to stop every day and just be present in a “wow, we are really here” type of way, and it did help some. But at the end of each day I was still left wondering if we could have done more to feel immersed.

Could we be over-planning? Getting ourselves too excited? How can I remedy this?

At the end of the day, wherever you go there you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you are putting too much pressure on yourself. The special stuff happens in the unexpected moments, usually - so be open to that.

But also be open to not every moment of travel being the Most Important And Amazing Thing. It's too much pressure if it has to be! Let yourself be normal and human while you're traveling - that means sometimes you're spellbound in the spectacular now, and sometimes you're irritated because you're tired and didn't like lunch.

+1. This sounds like expectations that wind up too high for reality to measure up