Time is of The Essence – Making Weekend Travel Work

When you are a travel lover and you work full-time and only have a set number of holiday days to take per year, you have to use them wisely. As Mr ESLT and I both work full-time we spread our leave throughout the year to ensure we always have something to look forward to. We always try to incorporate weekend travel into our travel itinerary for the year too. It means we get to visit and explore new places without having to use precious holiday days. It does mean, however, as time is limited we have to be prepared to hit the ground running in order to see and do everything the place has to offer and here is how we prepared to ensure we make the most of our very limited time.

Do our Research

Often it is nice to go with the flow, but if you when we are visiting somewhere only for a short time, we always like to do out research to ensure that we get to see and do the best things out chosen destination has to offer. Out come the guidebooks and notepad together with the laptop to check out TripAdvisor and blogs of course. One of my greatest fears is visiting somewhere and missing out on something spectacular, therefore, by doing research I ensure that this doesn’t happen.

Have an Itinerary

Once we have carried out our research we decided what we definitely want to do or see and what we would like to, if time permits. Based on that, we then put together an itinerary. Listing in order the top things in priority order and timings next to each place/attraction/activity, in order to make the most of our time. Even on longer trips we always have an itinerary although often more of a relaxed one, which allows for downtime as granted, some of the best things can be found when you are not looking for them.

Stick to Timings

Remember those timings I mentioned above? Well, it is important to stick to them as closely as possible, especially if you have tickets for an attraction at a certain time or have to meet a tour guide etc. Even if you fall behind on one of your timings, clawing those few minutes back can be super difficult and in turn, have a knock-on effect on the rest of your day. Therefore, it’s important that you always carry your phone with you or wear a watch. Depending on where you are you may not want to get your phone out in public so a watch would be a better option as you can have a swift glance at it without drawing too much attention to it.

However, some watches deserve attention and I was recently sent an Alienwork Quartz Milanese black watch for my travels. It’s sold as unisex which meant I have to keep it away from Mr ESLT. It is slim and very lightweight which is perfect for travelling and also comes in a lovely little pouch which means it takes up less space in my bag than a watch box would. It is also very simple and modern with no extra knobs to confuse me and just a plain face. The strap is easy to adjust and fasten and feels really secure when it is. The main reason I like this watch is that it is only £20.00 yet looks expensive, plus if I were to have a travel mishap such as damage or lose it or even have it stolen, of course, I’d be annoyed but it’s in a price bracket where I could replace it. If you would like to win for yourself, please read to the bottom of this post for your chance.

Of course, the research we do, the itinerary we draw up and the amount of time we have somewhere all depends on how we decided to spend our weekend. Here are the ways in which we choose to spend different weekends throughout the year to ensure we may the most of all of our spare time and see as much as possible, even it is close to home.

Day Trips

Even a Saturday or Sunday day trip to somewhere new or different gives us the opportunity to explore somewhere that we’ve never have been before. In England, trains can be and usually are expensive; however buses are a great cheap alternative and as we can both drive and have access to a car – the world, or at least the local area, is our oyster.

Staycations

We often book ourselves a night or two away in a city relatively close by. A weekend getaway, even to the next city over, gives us the opportunity to explore but at a more relaxed pace and still feel like we’re are having a break from routine. Plus it means we have somewhere to relax at the end of the day, especially if it has been a busy or strenuous one.

Lodge/Cottage Breaks

There are so many companies in the UK that offer lodge and/or cottage breaks, many with hot tubs, which run from Friday to Monday. We take at least once a year. I leave work at 4 pm, travel a couple of hours and am in the hot tub with a glass of wine in my hand by 7 pm. I then leave early on Monday morning to ensure that I am back my desk by 9 am.

Late/Early Flights

Not something we can utilise easily as our local airport only offers a few flights a day and our closest big airport is 2 hours away. Adding onto that the 2 hours at the airport before the flight, it would mean we wouldn’t get to our destination until midnight. However, if we lived close to an international airport we would definitely take advantage of after work flights.

Overnight Ferries

Living just outside of Hull in the north of England means we have overnight ferries to both The Netherlands and Belgium on our doorstep. The set sail around 8 pm on the Friday night and dock back in Hull at 7 am on Monday morning, meaning we get a couple of days to explore our chosen city in a different country without having to take any leave at all.

• We received our Alienwork Quartz Watch for review purposes.