Value Your Vacation Time

By Angela Benedict

Knowing the values of taking a vacation can help you plan it and spend it well. It is not enough to tender a request at work, pack up your bags and head to the airport or drive out of town but knowing just what this time alone should bring for you. There is a huge difference between going on a vacation and taking a tour of your choice location and understanding this difference will determine what this set out time will fetch.

Holidays are meant for vacationers to relax, unwind, have some fun and refuel body and soul because the stress of work can take their toil and hamper one's effectiveness in his duties. When one is vacating, he should ensure he vacates his familiar environment of work or home and tries out fresh places where he can get the needed rest. Vacation should be all about freshness and if a usual vacating location now lacks that sparkle, a new environment should be explored.

On tours your activities are usually not governed by your desires; in fact it is more as though you are undertaking a obligation because you are doing something your feel are mandated to do. Vacation involves you determining the activities; what you should do, where you should be and what you should be involved with. If you visit a new country for vacation but keep hearing your boss's voice behind you or seeing him in your dreams; you're only having a tour of the country.

The key to having a great vacation in a new vacating location is adequate preparation. What is your budget for the trip? How long do you wish to stay? Where do you intend to stay? Would it be in hotels or guesthouses? Have you reviewed their prices and made bookings for your ideal lodge? For most of these hotels their sites are available online and they welcome online or telephone bookings; good preparation will ensure you are not stranded when you arrive.

Sometimes your blunders can turn your vacation into a tour; how? Through inadequate preparation and information! Before you set out on a vacation, ensure you got all the right gadgets and equipment you need. Set out first to plan for your stay. Find out all you should about the area. A friend spent the first 48 hours of his vacation in a county jail because he broke the traffic laws in the city and had a good tour of the county jail!

Your vacation is a very special time of your work year and you deserve all the rest and fun this period should bring. Extra baggage of work and stress should be avoided. This period is exclusively yours and your agenda should be: rest, fun, rest. Anything cumbersome should not be entertained and all activities should be directed towards your agenda. If on the other hand you just want to have a tour then know it is not the same as a vacation.

About the Author:

Angela is an health and welness expert at a renowned health center in New Zealand. Her books and blog posts are highly in demand by enthusiasts globally. Her New book on Accommodation South Australia is due in early 2012.