10 Tips for Tranquil Travel

“Tranquil travel tips” is probably not the most accurate title, but I appreciate alliteration, adroit or not. They are, more appropriately, suggestions that work for me to ameliorate some of the angst that can accompany travel. However, I’ll state some of them in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek manner.

“Work for me” does a lot of work in the preceding paragraph.

If you are the sort of person who is completely carefree and worries about absolutely nothing, you likely do not need many of these tips.

That said, I don’t know how it’s possible to forgo fretting forever. Nor do I think it’s necessarily ideal. Without at least some mild worrying, you’ll likely be blind to troubles ahead that can be averted if you are aware of them.

If, on the other hand, your angst is all-consuming. These suggestions might lessen your travel worries somewhat relative to what they would otherwise be, but your anxiety is so extreme that, even with the marginal diminution of your distress, you will still be fearfully fretful.

I fall between those extremes. I think I exist on an apprehension plane that’s well above that of the population norm. Nevertheless, I’m aware that I won’t qualify for gold in an Olympics-level consternation competition.

A visit to the Aristocratic Travels and Adventures Exhibition in Keszthely, Hungary, triggered me to write this. One display there listed twelve old-timey tips for pleasant travels—pleasant for aristocratic train travellers of bygone days, that is.

Aristocracy sounds like a nice club to join, but, to paraphrase Groucho Marx, if they’d ever accept me as a member, I question their definition of “aristocratic” and their judgement.

The list was fun and interesting, but they weren’t exactly contemporary tips. And, more to the point, most of them weren’t contemporary tips that would benefit the likes of me. And it is, after all, all about me.

I felt the suggestions needed updating. More importantly, I wanted to record for posterity, and mostly for my memory, tips that work for me.

That brings up a point. At the time of writing, this is the only entry I’ve posted here that doesn’t relate to a specific trip or a stop within a trip. As such, I have not categorized it within a location as I do for all my other posts.

Plus, when I publish a post, I send an e-mail to a few people to let them know about it. I haven’t done that this time because, well, this entry is primarily for me. I don’t understand why you are reading it. Then again, considering the low traffic this site usually gets, no one may be.

(You can get an email for every entry I publish, not just the ones I manually send emails about, by filling in the incredibly short subscribe form somewhere on this page.)

But because, despite my intentions, you are reading this, without further ado, because I’ve already included far too much ado, here are, in no particular order, my ten tips for tranquil travel:

Tranquil Travel Tips

Tip 1: Go before you leave.

This was also the first aristocratic tip provided in the exhibition. I include it here because it’s universal and timeless.

It wasn’t worded as “go before you leave” in the museum in Keszthely. There, it said, “Before departure, visit the lavatory.” It was this tip, and this tip alone, that endeared me to the list.

I grew up with this suggestion. However, it was closer to a demand than a suggestion. As a child, whenever we left the house, our mother, pretty much without fail, told us, “Go before you leave.” As I said, it wasn’t a tip, exactly. It was a rule. It became known as “Mom’s rule” or, for a subsequent generation, “Nana’s rule.”

When you journey out, you never know when you’ll next be at an available toilet. But as long as we’re living humans, we always know that we’ll eventually need one. Always go before you leave.

Tip 2: Minimize connections.

I’m retired and an introvert. I don’t need connections. But no, I’m not referring to those sorts of connections. (However, being an introvert, this tip works for me in that connotation as well. But never mind that.)

I am, of course, referring to changing planes, trains, or buses to get where you’re going in a single run. I have high anxiety whenever I have no choice but to include a connection. Until I make the connection, I’m convinced — thoroughly convinced — that I’m going to miss it and will not have any remedial options that won’t utterly destroy my travel plans.

If I avoid connections, I can forgo that foreboding. Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of other angst to take its place. But at least I can avoid that one.

Despite my dread over missing connections, to the best of my recollection, despite coming very close a few times, it’s happened to me only once. If people who know me in real life stumble on this, they’re groaning right now. That’s the noise you’re hearing. I’ve told everyone I know this story. So, they’ve already heard it, probably several times.

It happened when I was flying back home from Amsterdam to Toronto, closer to three than two decades ago now. I can tell you the exact date. And I will because it’s an uninteresting story otherwise. But first, the setup.

I had a connection in Frankfurt. I flew on an Air Canada ticket, but the flight from Amsterdam to Frankfurt was a Lufthansa flight via a codeshare. The Frankfurt-to-Toronto flight was on an Air Canada plane.

It was already in the online, print-at-home booking era. That’s how I booked it. Plus, I got my ticket with Aeroplan (Air Canada’s frequent-flier program) points.

It was raining hard in Amsterdam when my flight was supposed to leave. It was delayed, but it did eventually take off.

When the plane landed in Frankfurt, I looked out the window and saw an Air Canada plane taxiing for takeoff. I believe Air Canada now has flights to Frankfurt from a few cities in Canada, but I think a once-daily Toronto flight was the only option back then.

When I went into the airport, I went to the Air Canada desk. They confirmed that I missed my flight. But they told me that there was a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Toronto later the same day. The Air Canada agent told me to go to Lufthansa, and they’d put me on that flight.

I went to Lufthansa. They told me that my e-ticket wouldn’t suffice. They sent me back to Air Canada to get a printed boarding pass.

I went back to Air Canada and got a printed boarding pass.

I went back to Lufthansa. They looked at my printed boarding pass. They told me, sorry, they don’t have any more seats in that fare class, i.e., whatever fare class an economy rewards ticket gets you assigned to. They had empty seats in the economy cabin, just not ones they’d assigned to my fare class.

I said to the Lufthansa agent something to the effect of, “It was your flight that made me miss my connection. Please get me on that flight.” I might have been slightly more emphatic than that, but I usually try to be diplomatic because I believe that, as the saying goes, you attract more flies with honey than vinegar. Then again, you attract the most flies with excrement, but never mind that.

I forget how much back-and-forth there was, but eventually, they did put me on the flight. I was thankful for not having to spend an unexpected night in or near the Frankfurt airport. I was even more thankful the next day.

I said I could tell you the exact date of that flight. I have a terrible memory. Here’s why I remember it: The date was September 10, 2001. Had I not gotten on that flight, then I probably would have been stuck in Frankfurt if the flight the next day hadn’t gotten halfway across the Atlantic before the planes struck the twin towers, or Gander, Newfoundland, if they had.

As I said, minimize connections.

Tip 3: Don’t Do One-Night Stands.

No, no. Not those types of one-night stands. I mean stops on your journey.

Despite trying to minimize them, connections are unavoidable sometimes. If you travel enough, some of those connections will make a day’s travel too uncomfortable to enjoy. Maybe too uncomfortable to bear.

When that was the case, I avoided the connection in a few instances by staying in the connecting city and splitting it into two separate train or plane trips instead of one with a connection.

The few times I stop somewhere primarily to turn a connection into a stay, I tend to book two nights there rather than one.

I don’t recall ever not finding enough interesting and/or beautiful sights to see in a city or town I stopped in for that reason.

So, you might ask, why not just stay one night in the city? I’ve done that, but exceptionally rarely. Only once, that I can remember.

Here’s the thing: When you arrive in that city, you’ve got to go from the station or airport to your hotel, check in, and settle in. If you’re flying and have checked luggage, you also have to retrieve your bag one day and then drop it off the next.

That often leaves little time to explore the city, and probably a hectic time at that. I’m not known for my ability to relax — quite the opposite — but I try. Sometimes I almost achieve a state approximating equanimity. Not often, and not exactly, but close. Staying for at least two nights in a city lessens the frenzy.

Tip 4: Expect the unexpected.

As the ubiquitous “they” say, stuff happens. (Although they might use a word other than stuff.)

Flights get delayed or cancelled. Buses break down. Emergencies close attractions. Extreme weather challenges your activities. You lose the data connection on your phone. A bird poops on your head. A fissure in the space-time continuum swallows you and transports you to another dimension. The list is endless, but I’ve got to stop sometime. Please fill in the rest yourself.

The point is, the only certain thing is that, given enough time, and typically not much time, something unexpected will happen. Nobody can predict what it will be. If they could, we’d call it “expected” rather than “unexpected.” Being unpredictable is part of the job description of unexpected.

I try to remember this and, therefore, not get too upset when something unexpected does happen. (I’m, of course, referring to upsetting unexpected events. I celebrate positive unexpected events.)

I said, I try. I didn’t say I usually succeed. Perhaps you’ll have more success.

Tip 5: Enjoy the view.

This is another one I got from the list at the Aristocratic Travels and Adventures exhibition. This time, I used it verbatim rather than paraphrasing it.

If you’re travelling for pleasure, you’re out there to enjoy yourself. Don’t constantly walk around with blinders on, obsessed solely with getting to your next pre-selected destination. Take a look around on the way, and while there. There’s a lot of beauty in the world that doesn’t get mentioned in guidebooks. Enjoy it.

To that end, aimless wandering can be joyful. I’m not suggesting that you don’t seek out the “must-see” sights listed in your guidebooks, but leave yourself open to stumbling on unexpected beautiful and/or fascinating unsung sights.

Tip 6: Loyalty matters.

I’m a member of a few hotel groups’ loyalty programs. Years ago, I gave scant attention to them. I’d pick the hotel that I most wanted in any given city based on a variety of criteria that only peripherally included those loyalty programs.

If that hotel is in a group I have a membership with, great. I’d book the room through the hotel’s website and get my points.

If not, great too. I’d book with the hotel and not get any points. Big deal.

I’ve changed my thinking on that.

I have one hotel group that I prefer (Accor*), mainly because I think it has the most rewarding loyalty program. When booking hotels, I now look to see if that group has hotels in the city.

If so, are the locations of any of them near the centre of the city (or an area I want to be in if the centre isn’t a recommended location in that city for whatever reason)?

If so, do the rooms look acceptable? (I get claustrophobic in rooms that are so small that to get into the bed you have to open the door and leap onto it because there’s no room to walk around it. I exaggerate, but you get the point.)

If so, is it within my budget?

If all of those conditions are met, I practice what behavioural scientists call satisficing. I book the first hotel that satisfies all of my conditions without bothering to look to see if there are any others outside of that hotel group that seem better.

If the conditions aren’t all met, I’ll look for hotels at some of the other hotel groups I’m a member of. And then I’ll look at independent hotels or ones I don’t have a membership at.

To me, the perks are great. I love free upgrades, late checkouts/checkins, sometimes free breakfasts, and whatever else they are willing to give me (subject to availability). And my preferred group offers points that you can turn into credits for future stays in small increments, so you can actually use them.

But the perks and credits aren’t the primary reason for my current hotel strategy. I used to spend literally hours searching for a hotel in each city. I’d look at almost every hotel that fit within a broad range on a wide spectrum of criteria.

Then I’d compare prices, locations, room sizes and amenities, and ratings on a variety of travel and booking sites, trying to informally come up with appropriate weightings for each criterion. It was a horribly, and I do mean horribly, time-consuming and flustering experience. By the time I finished the process, I was so exhausted, exasperated, and headache-inflicted that I wished I hadn’t bothered with the trip at all.

My current strategy dramatically reduces that stress. I probably don’t choose the very best hotel possible in every city, but I think I probably come out ahead all things considered.

I have a similar strategy with airlines. I live in Toronto, which has Air Canada’s largest hub airport in Canada. So, it’s only natural that I’d take more Air Canada* flights, even if I ignored loyalty programs, than flights with other airlines. But I’ve reached a status with Air Canada such that I get free lounge access, priority check-in and priority boarding even if I’m not flying in a premium class. And there are a few other perks. The perks help to make travel a tad less stressful, so I give Air Canada some preference over other airlines if they fly a route I want to go on.

Tip 7: Don’t fear missing out.

I hate to be the one to break this to you. I know how disturbing it can be when one first learns it. But it’s time to face up to this fact: You’re not going to see the entire world and everything in it before you die. Not even all of the good stuff. Not even all of the great stuff. Not even all of the mega-super-fabulous stuff.

You don’t need to push yourself to fill every second of every day of your travels seeing sights and participating in iconic local events. You’re going to miss some of that. In the grand scheme of things, one more or less isn’t going to make much of a difference to your enjoyment of your life. Enjoy as much as possible what you do see and do. Don’t worry about the rest.

Disclosure: This is a tip I’m much better at saying than doing. I don’t push myself as much as I used to, but I do still fear missing out. And, in truth, part of the “I don’t push myself as much as I used to” thing is age-related, but not with-age-comes-wisdom-related. I’m simply slowing down.

But I still fear feeling, “Oh my god, how can I come all this way and not see x?” Maybe you will be better at following this advice than I am, but the way to go all that way and not see x is to go all that way and not see x. Because, it doesn’t matter. The question isn’t whether you missed out on something. The question is whether you enjoyed what you did see and do.

Tip 8: Minimize perpetual planning.

I expect that if anyone reads “minimize planning,” not noticing the “perpetual” and without reading the explanatory text below, this will generate some heated arguments. People might call me an idiot. Then again, that’s baked into the equation with or without this post.

Fortunately, few people read anything I write. So, the strident dissensions will be minimal.

Let’s try to head off some of those querulous quarrels, shall we?

“Perpetual” is the key word here.

You can’t avoid all planning. Or, rather, you can, but the results will probably be lacking. At a minimum, you have to decide where you’re going to go and eventually make arrangements to get there. That’s a plan. Admittedly, it’s a bare-bones plan. But it’s a plan.

I’ve never tried it, but I don’t think airlines would be of much help if you just show up at the airport and say, “I don’t know where I want to go, but please take me somewhere.” Besides, if you end up in Antarctica in August (winter there), but you are packed for Jamaica in July, you’re probably going to be a tad underdressed.

And I don’t know about you, but I need to do a little more planning than that for my own peace of mind. Before I leave on a trip, I not only pick which cities I’m going to visit, but I also buy my train ticket and prebook all of my hotels and any intercity travel during the trip.

When I say, “minimize perpetual planning,” that’s not included. It’s not perpetual.

What I’m talking about is the impulse to try to map out your whole day every day. I used to do that, if not formally, then at least in my head. That was a mistake.

Why? Reread the fourth tip. Expect the unexpected. Inevitably, something will go awry. Maybe you have to wait longer in line than expected, so you can’t get to everything on your list. Perhaps something is closed and you’re left with a gap in your plan. Or it might be that you enjoy someplace more or less than you thought you would, or it’s larger or smaller than you thought it was, and the time you allotted to it was not appropriate.

Whatever. Your best-laid plans will often go awry. Unless, that is, you don’t make detailed plans for the whole day. Plans not made can’t go amiss.

These days, I divide the day into two parts: before and after lunch. In the morning, I pick my top site for the day and start there. When I finish with that, I pull out my walking tour app, which has a feature that lets me sort attractions by what’s close to me at the moment. I use that to figure out where I want to go next, without wasting a lot of time getting there. Or if I find myself in an interesting area, sometimes I’ll just go for a walk.

At lunch, I choose where I want to start after lunch, one of the three most important meals of the day.

This process works for me, minimizes travel times, and means I no longer have to obsess over completing a plan for the day when there’s a high probability that, on at least a few days, something will prevent the successful completion of a, let’s face it, arbitrary plan.

(Note: Some sights and activities require prebooking for a particular time. Obviously, these have to be figured into the day.)

Tip 9: Be skeptical of published tips, including these.

I alluded to this in the introduction, but it bears repeating.

Life, including travel, is a personal experience. I can tell you what works for me or, at least, what I think would work for me in the event I ever have the discipline to follow my advice. But you have different interests, different joys, different pet peeves, different likes, and different dislikes.

So, sure, continue reading this post, if only because you’re almost done. But don’t attempt to follow my suggestions slavishly.

Try to figure out which of these tips will work for you and which won’t. Follow the former and ignore the latter. Doing the inverse will make your life worse, not better. I don’t imagine you need to be told this, but that would be silly.

You might, after reading me tell you to largely ignore what I wrote here, wonder why you’re even here. Sorry. I can’t help you there. But there’s only one more tip. So, you might as well read it after you’ve come this far. (Kindly ignore the “sunk cost fallacy” when considering whether to continue reading.)

Tip 10: Don’t Aspire to All-out Alliteration

Alliteration is a fine and noble literary device. I endeavour to employ it extensively. But if you’re writing about your travel experiences, don’t go crazy with it. For example, if you’re coming up with tips for tranquil travel, it’s not necessary to generate ten solely to be alliterative with “Tips for Tranquil Travel.” (Do as I say, not as I do.)

That’s it. Those are my ten tips for tranquil travel. I hope you have better success at following them than I do. May your travel inquietude always be infinitesimal and your journeys always be joyful. 

* To date, I have not received any compensation for mentioning people, places, or activities in these pages. I don’t expect I ever will because this currently isn’t a sufficiently prominent site for anyone to think there’s value in paying me for a mention. But, even if that should happen at some point, paid or not, I will never mention anything in a positive light unless I feel it’s warranted.