A trip or vacation should be fun. However sometimes we get too stressed out to just enjoy it. I thought I’d try and give you a few tips to make things go a little more smoothly. Now I can’t honestly say that I obey all these suggestions myself but I try at least.

1. You don’t have to see everything

On my last trip to New York we had 6 days including travel days. We also had a huge list of possible things we wanted to see. We missed out on seeing a good chunk of them. While I’m sad that we didn’t make it to the High Line or the Chelsea Market I still think we tried to do too much. Also keep in mind that your travel partner or group might not want to see or walk as much as you. I’m not so good at the part if I’m honest. Don't worry if you don't get to see everything. It gives you a reason to visit again.

2. Don’t worry if plans change

I often try to plan out what we are going to do day to day on a trip to maximize our travel time. However sometimes things come up where your plans have to change. Sometimes this is something as simple as a freak rain storm on the day you were planning on having a picnic in the park. Maybe a there is a transit problem preventing you from getting to an attraction. Or that special restaurant you wanted to go to is closed due to an emergency neighbourhood water outage. Sure you could plan backup activities but that’s not always realistic to do. The main thing to remember is you’re on vacation, just go with it and find something else in your area to see or do.

3. Buy Travel Insurance

I won’t get into suggesting which travel insurance to purchase here. That’s for another day and time. However I’ll just say it’s important to have. It’s easy to forget about sometimes if you’re like me and from Canada. Here going to emerg won’t cost you a thing other than a lot of time. However in a lot of countries that’s not the case. Not only could you end up with food poisoning but also a large medical bill to show for it. It might seem costly upfront but for piece of mind travel medical insurance is always worth it.

4. Do what you want to do, not what you think you have to do

Sometimes when you travel to a big name destination like New York or Paris you feel like there are things you really should see. When planning my New York trip I got asked by everyone if I was going to go see a Broadway show. It seemed like this is something everyone assumed you had to do when visiting New York. However it wasn't something that either of us were too interested in. While I do enjoy seeing a lot of major attractions on my first trip someplace I don’t want to make myself see things just because they are popular, or it's the thing to do. For example I wouldn’t recommend anyone go up the empire state building. The lines are just too crazy. Sure it’s a great view but you can get that are the top of the rock too.