After nearly 2 weeks of almost constant travel in Europe that while I love exploring new places, it need to be with a certain pattern that I’m calling the travel cadence.
In the past, I’d spend 3 or 4 days somewhere and pack most days with exploring 1-3 attractions or museums and have 1 rushed day of packing/travelling and unpacking somewhere new. Rinse and repeat for 3 or 4 locations and that would be a 2 week getaway with another few days to get there and back given Australia is so far from everything.
For the last few holidays, I’ve intentionally capped the number of locations and increased the time in each place and I’ve found it MUCH more enjoyable. Not only because the previous schedule could be exhausting trying to pack in as much as possible, but I realised that after a certain amount of new things, I wanted time to decompress and go through my photos/write down my thoughts or just read up on things I’d seen.
This trip, we began in Lisbon with a few days of exploring then had a day or 2 where I wrote the email and generally stayed home. Then there was a rush of activity, visiting Malaga, Tangiers, Chefchaouen in just a few days. That burst of activity meant that Barcelona has been the “slow” part where I’m literally planning to see 1 thing a day or nothing at all and instead, taking the time to reflect and journal.
The old traveller in me keeps saying it’s a waste to spend the days in a cafe writing or in the hotel but it’s actually allowed for some mental uncluttering. Ending the vacation on a slower pace should hopefully mean that I get back home recharged instead of feeling like I need to take another holiday to recover.
How do you like to travel? Are you likely to change your travel cadence? Let me know!