Are the waves from your dream destinations beckoning you? Are all the social media travel pictures enticing you to slow down and take a vacation? It’s time to stop dreaming of taking a vacation, and start planning the holiday of your dreams. Don’t make taking a vacation as rare an occurrence as finding a sea urchin shell.
Before you shy away completely from the idea of taking a dream vacation due to financial strain and the weight of your responsibilities back home, we suggest that you consider our simple tips for taking the holiday that you have been dreaming of.
1. Humble beginnings: If financial woes are the main reason you won’t just book a holiday, it’s understandable. However, it all starts with living humbler during the year so you can be more generous on entertainment and vacations thereafter. A good starting point is to avoid things like take outs during the year as eating in tends to save you much money. Avoid buying too many things that you don’t need during the year so that your bank balance remains decent. Starting with the intention to save up is great to ensure you save up enough monthly to be able to achieve your goal of being financially set to take a vacation. If you have to save up for two or three years before you can take a trip, don’t be too hard on yourself. We all have to start somewhere.
2. A penny a day would be best if put away: The best thing you can do for yourself is take out a certain sum of money monthly, daily, or even weekly and put it into a holiday savings account. While saving R2500 monthly can get you decent holiday packages at the end of the year, saving less may still add up by the end of the year.
Other people tend to put their entire end of the year bonus amount towards their holidays and that is okay. When you work for, you earn it and have the right to do with it as you please (even if it means putting it all towards a break).
3. Don’t be penny wise pound foolish: While saving for the holiday package is
great, you must remember that food and fun costs. Make sure you have a savings account for the spending you intend to spend and try to save more than you want to spend for those “in case” situations (especially if you are taking a holiday far away from home). Also, make sure you are saving up for travel insurance. You never know when travel insurance will come in handy and it’s always better to be prepared for anything, especially when you are traveling abroad. Holidays are costly, but if you intend on taking one, you must save up for it. Untraceable lost baggage is just one of the many reasons you should consider taking out travel insurance for far away
journeys.
4. Scanning the waters: You will be surprised at how many great holiday package deals you will find when you go looking for them. Doing a full 12 months of research
will allow you to seal the best deals. Talk to different travel agents. Don’t be in a rush to book. Research ensures that you know what to expect before you get to your holiday destination. It also ensures that you are not disappointed when you get there. Scanning the waters will allow you to find a holiday that you never thought of. Perhaps you may find that you want to visit Aruba-the island of happiness rather than going to the holiday destinations you are more familiar with.
5. Follow travel pages on social media and read travel blogs: If you are looking for places to visit, ideas on how to save money in a particular country, or even if you are in search of basic travel tips, a travel page on social media or a travel blog could be rather helpful. You may even find great holiday deals on the travel blogger’s page. You may even win your holiday and not have to pay for it (how great will that be?)
6. Rationalise the reason why you are taking a holiday: Did you know a study
conducted by the University of Mannheim in Germany found that people felt more motivated when they returned to work after a vacation? Now that you know that holidays can lead to more productivity when you get back from your trip, you will have more reason to rationalise and justify to yourself why you are going away. The only person who needs to know the reason why you are taking a break is you!
7. Plan certain things ahead of time: The most stressful part of going away on holiday is having loose ends at home that need tying up. Therefore, once you set your mind on taking a holiday, you need to make sure you take care of the little details and the larger details before you leave. Find a place where your pets can go to be taken care of before you leave for your trip. Make sure you meet any deadlines that you may have. Make sure you take care of all appointments that you need to attend prior to taking a vacation.
8. Keep an open mind: The best tip that we can give you is to keep an open mind. You may read all about a particular trip before taking the trip, but remember that your experience may not be like anyone else. You need to keep an open mind before the trip and all through the trip and you will enjoy your trip all the more. Try not to have too many prior expectations before you set sail.
While these are just some basic tips to use should you wish to take the holiday of your dreams, make sure you are ready to take this trip emotionally as well. You may have other things that you need to sort out like leave days and the like, but if you are ready to experience your dream vacation, everything else will fall into place.