And by vacation, I mean getting far, far away from where I am. In the
past, a 3-day vacation usually meant going home to see the parents and
grandparents or a slightly longer trip to see my cousin’s family.
As a result, I rarely returned to my home fully rested because of the
emotional baggage. Thus, going home does not qualify as a vacation. (FYI- There’s
little-to-no emotional baggage when visiting my cousin and his ilk, but they
are quite busy and schedules don’t always match up.)
If I wasn’t going to my parent’s home, I typically stuck out the 3-day
weekend at my place working on my to-do list and suffering pangs of guilt for
not seeing my parents and grandparents. Again, this ‘staycation’ is not a
vacation either.
I don’t know why it took me this long to realize that visiting my
family or staying home were not vacations. But now that I have, I wanted to
figure out how to take a 3-day vacation. The bonus is that I now have a level
of financial flexibility.
Getting There
I’m a driver. I love to drive rather than fly. However, this doesn’t
make sense when the vacation is only 3 days long, unless the whole point of the
vacation is the drive. I’m also a penny pincher (hence the financial
flexibility) and want the best vacation for the least bucks. Usually, driving
is cheaper especially if I’m planning to visit many different locals spread out
over a vast cartographical area.
For 3-day vacations, it’s best to shoot for a single location. To
justify spending money on flights and determine what’s a ‘good deal,’ I
calculated the mileage to drive to and from UnKnown City and figure the price
of gas. A ‘good deal’ is a roundtrip ticket that cost less the gas necessary to
drive to UnKnown City.
Google Flights is a decent source for find cheap flights. Even better
is if you don’t have a location picked out and you can browse for the cheapest
flights anywhere.
It is important to remember that the vacation time is limited to
3-days. So an early departure to UnKnown City and an afternoon/evening departure
from UnKnown City is crucial. Also, make sure the flight has no stops or
connecting flights. This eats into your vacation time.
Where to Go
When I drive, I’m all about the parks and car camping which are far
away from the cities, museums, culture, etc. For the 3-day vacation I’m heading
towards civilization, partially because I need to rely on public transportation
to get around. I could rent a car, but the penny pincher rears its head to ask,
“Why?” There are plenty of interesting cities with excellent public
transportation networks.
You may think that limiting the available cities to visit by their
public transportation system would be difficult. The opposite is actually true,
because the bigger American cities (that are teaming with history, art,
culture, museum, food, etc.) also have better public transportation in addition to
having the cheaper flights… usually.
Some highlight cities I suggest are: Washington D.C., Boston, San
Diego, New York, Denver, Atlanta, Orlando, Portland, Chicago and even Dallas.
Where to Stay
I am consistently surprised by how far flung my extended family and friends live. With every vacation, I seem to have a friend or family member who lives in or near the city I am visiting. For those times there are no friends and family, I’m a fan of Airbnb. My best friend turned me on to them. She has found some rocking good deals through them and we stayed in a
wonderful place this Summer on the Pacific coast.
There are several factors to remember when using Airbnb. For instance, when
taking public transportation, the proximity to the public access (either bus
stop or metro/rail) and the host location needs to be considered. When
traveling by yourself, read the host reviews before making a decision. Actually, do this one regardless. Also, if
the host has a history of canceling reservation, even with plenty of notice, it
may not be a good fit for a quick trip. Don’t be afraid to look at
hostels but, again, read the reviews.
***
I’ll be taking my first 3-day vacation later this month so you can
expect a practical review later.
