“One neighborhood, one week, and almost no itinerary” rule sounds weird, but it became our easiest and most relaxing family vacation yet.
We planned almost nothing
We used to have embarrassingly detailed travel itineraries: breakfast at 8 am, see the attraction at 9 am, lunch there, museum until 2 pm, dinner reservations at 6 pm, etc. They looked great on paper.
With a toddler in tow, they rarely made it past breakfast.
This time we picked one neighborhood we could walk around and left ourselves almost no plans for the rest of the week. We had a short list of maybe-dos but few must-sees.
I felt guilty about it at first. But by the end of the week, I was wondering why we ever did things the other way.
Mornings became easy
Rather than rolling out of bed and first thing checking the time, we allowed our toddler to wake-up on her own when we could. We dressed calmly and strolled to our local bakery each morning for breakfast.
By morning number three, they knew us at the counter.
Our toddler understood where we were heading and got excited when we turned onto that street.
That small bit of normalcy was something I didn’t think I’d experience on vacation.
We stopped fighting nap time
On past trips, naps were something that we attempted to wedge in between attractions. We would keep walking until hopefully our toddler would fall asleep in the stroller and then complain when the afternoon was spent cranky and crying.
This trip, naptime became built into our plans.
We’d venture out in the morning, head back to the hotel after lunch and let our child take a proper nap whenever feasible. Sometimes one of us napped too.
Sure, we lost a few hours of sightseeing, but we enjoyed a happy afternoon instead.
One outing was enough
Our biggest rule was to keep it simple: one big thing a day.
That could be a museum, park, market, aquarium, or longer walk. Everything else was a bonus.
The rule eliminated that nagging feeling that we were late for the next thing.
If our toddler wanted to stare at pigeons in a square for 40 minutes, we let her. We weren’t killing our next reservation by doing that, because chances were we didn’t have one.
We actually saw the neighborhood
On busy vacations, I could have told you about the famous sites we’d seen and little about the streets in between.
This vacation, those streets were my focus.
We stumbled upon a hidden playground we’d never known to Google. We located a market where we bought snacks and yogurt for our room. We identified which coffee shop could accommodate the stroller and which small park was quietest at sunrise.
You won’t see any of those places on some website’s “10 Things You Must See” list.
But they’ll live forever in my memory as some of my favorite moments.
Our toddler had favorites
Occasionally we forget as adults how exhausting it can be to constantly be in new surroundings if you’re a 2- year-old.
Because we spent more time in one vicinity, our toddler started noticing familiarities. There was the playground, the bakery, the fountain, and the nice dog we would sometimes pass on our morning stroll.
Rather than each hour presenting a new destination, there were little markers of familiarity throughout our day.
I had never realized how much easier travel could be once our toddler felt somewhat at home.
Bad weather didn’t ruin anything
Rain feels like your enemy when you’re on a vacation with a strict schedule.
The rain that morning meant we simply opted for a more relaxed start. Stayed indoors longer, discovered a coffee shop nearby, let our toddler sleep longer and took a walk when the rain passed.
There was no pricey outing we were rushing to get to before it was too late.
For once we made the weather work for us instead of against us.
We spent less than expected
Slowing down also impacted our spending habits.
We didn’t find ourselves constantly purchasing tickets to attractions or transportation to/from different parts of town. We ate simpler meals more regularly, walked nearly everywhere we went, and purchased snacks from the grocery store instead of continuing to pay tourist-area prices over and over again.
We didn’t stop spending money on things we enjoyed doing. We simply stopped spending money because our itinerary said we had someplace else to be at that time.
The trip felt longer
The weirdest thing about slowing down from racing around: time slowed down.
On busy vacations, whole days can merge into travel, tickets, lines, pictures and where are we going next. This vacation had tiny bite-sized memories: breakfast treats, playground excursions, nap times, walks around sunset, favorite restaurant we went to multiple times, etc.
We did less and yet I remember more somehow.
Our new travel rule
We haven’t given up on itineraries entirely. Sometimes we want to see specific things and make reservations that are worth making ahead of time.
But from here on out our default will be one neighborhood, one main plan, and lots of white space.
If we check fewer sights because our toddler wants to play in the fountain for an hour, that’s OK.
There will always be another museum.
Our child will only be this small once.
