The once-in-a-lifetime trip

Make it count

In too many travel groups, people post things like, "We have two weeks total. This is a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us. We want to go to Europe, and we want to see Brandenburg Gate, Pompeii, Pisa, the Eiffel Tower, Neuschwanstein and Buckingham Palace. Oh, and we want to do Ireland, too. And maybe Holland. I love tulips and Dutch shoes." <long exhale>

As one person described my first draft of an itinerary, "That's not a vacation. That's an invasion."

In two weeks, you're not going to see all those things, unless you just want a "selfie vacation," where you take selfies of yourself pointing at world attractions. If that's all you want, though, why not hire a graphic designer and Photoshop an image of yourself in front of world attractions, and then share that on social media? At least you'd be helping a local business. You'd also be saving a bucket of money and probably having exactly as meaningful an experience as you might otherwise.

I know, because I made the overscheduling mistake when we first started out. And even when I thought we weren't overscheduling, we were, and I was still making the same mistake on a smaller scale.

It's no secret that the U.S., as a nation, gives its employees very paid few days for vacation (or for anything else). You want to make the most of the meager amount of time you have. I get that.

Because you want to make the most of it, realize that spending your meager amount of time in airports and train stations is a poor way to do anything. If this is is a once-in-a-lifetime trip for you, do it right. Don't squander it through overscheduling.

You're not going to see everything.

It will rain on some days.

Someone will be sick part of the time.

During an overscheduled trip, you have no time for these certainties. Be nice to the people traveling with you, and slow your pace a lot. Per square foot, Europe has more history, more sights (as well as sites) and more biodiversity than just about any square mile of the U.S. that I can think of.

A general itinerary looks something like: day 1: depart the U.S.

day 2: arrive in Europe

day 3: city 1

day 4: city 1

day 5: city 1, unscheduled

day 6: city 1

day 7: travel to city 2

day 8: city 2

day 9: city 2

day 10: city 2, unscheduled

day 11: city 2

day 12: depart Europe and arrive in the U.S.

day 13: adjust to the time change, rest up, get ready to return to your work or schedule

day 14: adjust to the time change, rest up, get ready to return to your work or schedule

Disappointed? I know I was, at first. But it's realistic. Every time in the last decade that I've strayed from this formula, I've regretted it. There was the time I damaged one foot so badly on the very first day, during a long layover, that the whole limb going numb from the pain was a relief. There was the time I got so sick what I not-so-affectionately call "the plague" that I was sure I'd die, and I wondered how much that would muck up the family's getaway, to have a U.S. citizen die in a foreign country. There was the time a rogue heat wave hit both cities we stayed in, and even as Midwesterners accustomed to withering heat and humidity, we lost sleep, skipped sites and frankly suffered (in the shade) until the temperature dropped.

Because I'd built some extra space into our schedule, though, none of these things had much of an effect on the overall getaway.

Your getaway will be stunning in just the same way. Things will go wrong, but you'll have a great time anyhow.