Overdoing it?

July 18, 2009 at 3:07 am · Filed under Europe, Travel

Whenever we go away I tend to get over excited with the planning and try to squeeze as much as possible into a short time period. My husband loathes my doing the activity planning because I tend to pack our days to the point where we come back more tired than when we left. This is definitely a sickness of many American travelers. But I have a simple solution to it – give me a longer vacation!

I remember when we went to Cyprus several years ago. We were dating at the time and little did I know that this was our engagement trip. I spent several hours researching the country, its history, things to do, and local sites. So, when we arrived, I had a fully planned itinerary. You have to understand, most sites in Cyprus date back to antiquity and I wanted to stand in as many ancient ruins as I could. My soon-to-be-husband told me that he just wanted to relax and that it was all “just a bunch of rocks anyway.” On so many levels I found what he said to be  funny. My philosophy has always been, you can relax at night or on the plane, our time is so limited. You just never know if or when you’ll be able to visit a place again, so in my mind, you should make the most out of it while you’re there. Personally, when I’m traveling somewhere new, I don’t sleep well because I’m too amped to explore new things!

Just because I have children now, I don’t want to curb that enthusiasm. I’d like them to also be anxious, zealous, wide-eyed and enthusiastic whenever and wherever we travel. I want them to overdo it and expect to see everything in 7 days too! They’re my kids so they probably will. But for now, while they’re young, I’ll cut them some slack. Their little legs can’t take all the walking right.  Frankly, if it doesn’t have a pool or a playground, my 5 year old could care less. Daddy wins for now. But mommy is slowly biding her time.

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