What makes a trip memorable? The company? Novel experiences? Incredible food? Travel is personal so creating a memorable trip is different for everyone. Yet, when we are present and can handle travel hiccups (or disasters) with less stress a trip becomes more pleasant and even more memorable. Here are six things you can do to improve your travel and make a more memorable experience.

1. Basic preparation

Before any trip read up on the location. Learn about the culture, natives’ tips, what to see, where to eat, and so forth. Learn a few phrases in the local language (Coffee Break Languages is great for informative mini-lessons). Buy a hard copy or download a digital map and take note of major streets intersecting where you’ll be staying and where you’d like to visit. Call your credit card companies to let them know you’ll be traveling. Will you have cell service? If not, does the city you’re visiting have free Wi-Fi hotspots or should you plan to download information before you leave or in your lodging? Are you going to a resort and can safely disconnect? Download any travel documents you need and leave your phone in airplane mode for the duration of your vacation. Prepping and planning these little details before departure will save stress and time when you’re actually on the trip, contributing to a more memorable experience.

2. Be open.

If you’re making an effort to travel somewhere you’re likely already open to new experiences, or at least a change of scenery. Try something outside your comfort zone: a unique local delicacy, conversing with a stranger in their language, figuring out public transportation if you tend to gravitate towards cabs, or trusting your travel companion with a full day’s itinerary if you tend to be the planner. Incidentally, if you live in or nearby a relatively large city and want to become more open, you can try pushing your comfort zone right at home. The bonus will be discovering a lot more things your own home has to offer.

3. Take a picture, then put the camera away.

The central tenet of memorable travel is to be there wholly. If you’re standing in front of a historical monument, cool art, or breathtaking view, and you want to remember it, of course, snap a photo. Then, and this is important, put the camera away. I am serious. Don’t do 20 poses in front of the statue, definitely don’t record your entire hike with your phone held up by your eye line, don’t gather your reluctant buddies group for a group picture in front of the view, don’t make you kids hold still when they want to be exploring. Enjoy the sight with your own eyes, take in the energy of the place, the people, the smells, the air, and how your feel. Be present. By doing so, I guarantee you’re more likely to associate feelings with one carefully taken photo versus twenty photos of similar angles and selfies.

Disclaimer: Soapbox moment. I suspect this tip will be forgotten by many people. My family and I travel quite a bit and spend time in a lot of beautiful places. I can see the anguish on people’s faces when their significant other poses in front of a fountain, asking for “just one more pose.” I see people taping footage that they flew thousands of miles to see in person, but here they are looking at it through a screen.
One gains a certain value when one simply looks. You notice more details in a scene. You catch impressions of people sharing the space. It’s more memorable. We travel to explore a place outside of us, to experience something other than us and what we know. So filling a camera reel with twenty pictures of yourself and witnessing beauty through a screen instead of in real life doesn’t truly fulfill the intent of travel, in my opinion.

I get it, I love taking pictures too. I lug my hefty Samsung DLSR camera on every trip we take, adding it to my bag already crammed with diapers, kids’ snacks, sunscreen, and four full bottles of water. When I find myself in a beautiful area and want to take some photos, I go on a photo excursion during some downtime. I usually go in the morning before my family wakes up when the sun is just rising or in the late afternoon when the kids are napping. When we’re out and about, I’ll take candid shots of my husband and kids, that way I don’t ruin their trip by making them pose. I think it also makes for more beautiful photos. You can bet my camera is out for a few moments to snatch a photo then quickly put back into its case. Besides being more present and enjoying the moment, nothing screams “tourist” more than someone snapping away photos.

4. Let it go.

Your bicycling self-tour began fine, then the clouds rolled in, and when you suggested going back your significant other wanted to continue. Now you’re lost, hungry, and rain-soaked, and you wouldn’t be any of those things had you turned back…like you suggested…40 minutes ago. Not that this didn’t happen to me in Victoria, Canada.
If you’re not traveling solo there’s a chance an argument can break out, typically relating to agenda, timing, and restaurant choices. I’m not going to tell you to hold in feelings of anger and disappointment, but I will suggest letting them go or mentioning then at a later time when the air is calm and everyone is dry. What’s happened has happened. The best you can do is get out of any current predicaments and remember a lesson for next time, maybe even genuinely laughing it off can help. Accusations are a slippery slope to name-calling, yelling, hurt feelings, and tension that may remain palpable for the rest of the trip. Sometimes it’s worth biting your tongue and politely ensuring it doesn’t happen again. Also, if you’re to blame, own up! Apologize, try to fix it, and move on.

5. Plan for Everyone.

I’m a big planner. I think it makes life easier as long as the planner is flexible. Equally important is to adjust your itinerary to fit you and your travel companions. When it was just my husband and me we’d cram our day with sights, zipping from one place to another, then have a late dinner and late-night drinks. With children, our travels have changed a bit—even from one infant to one toddler to two kids. When we took a family trip with my mom I knew she liked to sleep in so we didn’t plan to leave the hotel early like we usually do. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty of trip planning, but I will say knowing what you’ll do during an entire trip (i.e. what neighborhood you’ll explore, what museums you want to visit) will let you check off what you wanted to do and prep in terms of opening hours and weather.

Don’t get too wrapped up in details: it’s important to have a plan of activities, but sticking too closely to a schedule can suck the fun out of a trip especially if an outing goes longer than planned, the weather decides to ruin outdoor activities, or you’re simply tired and want to relax in the local bar. My technique is to discuss plans at meal times, with dinner time conversation for the next day’s run down. That way you can easily flex, everyone can be on the same page, and you can check more accurate weather predictions and buy tickets beforehand if needed. The key is planning to make sure everyone on the trip is happy, gets what they need, and feels like they are a part of the trip not merely being dragged from one thing to another. This ensures the trip stays memorable for positive reasons and not because your kids had tantrums at dinner every night or your brother-in-law was sulking because he didn’t get to see the museum he wanted.

 

6. Remember to breathe.

Let’s say you’ve got two days to explore an entire city. You made an ambitious itinerary and have plenty of energy. Yet all that running around can make the trip less memorable. Squeezing in too many activities with too little rest won’t let you enjoy your time. Going back to tip #3, you need to be present to preserve a memory. Consider cutting some activities out to put your feet up once in a while, and fit in plenty of restful sleep. In a two-day trip situation I like to use the first day for a walking or biking self-guided tour to get a lay of the land (sometimes I’ll even squeeze in a morning run), then make day two dedicated to going inside and exploring the top two or three places on my list. A lot of places just need to be “seen” and being on foot or a bike lets you stop for a closer look if desired. Also, bear in mind that just because something is labeled as a must-see tourist spot doesn’t mean you have to put it on your list. Travel is a personal experience, so be sure to visit the sites that you think will be interesting.

Travel is incredible. The best and most memorable travel expands our understanding of the world, forces us out of our comfort zones, or makes us realize maybe we had it all wrong. It can be exhausting, but also exhilarating. Use resources and others’ accounts of where you’re going to plan your itinerary, but remember to make it all your own. It’s your trip: make it count, make it memorable.