Your arrival day

Congratulations! You've arrived. After you clear Passport Control and step into a new city, though, then what happens?

The answer: not necessarily a lot of fun stuff.

The longer answer: some "housekeeping"-type stuff, and then if you're feeling up to it, some fun stuff.

Your first step is to find your hostel or hotel and check in to your room if it's ready, or leave your luggage there if it's not.

Your next step is to explore your hostel/hotel space to make sure everything is working (again, if your room is ready).

Your third step depends on you. Take a short nap? See a couple sights? The choice is yours.

I always block off the first day to get acclimated to the new place, with nothing on our to-do list. Then we end up exploring in a rush of adrenalin and get back to our room much later than we expected.

And that's fine - just as it's fine to nap and figure out where your closest ATM, bakery and public transit stop are.

Because it's better to exceed expectations than to fall short, I recommend planning nothing on your first day. You'll probably do a lot more than nothing, and that puts you ahead of schedule already. See what a go-getter you are? Unstoppable!