7 Ways to Improve Your Next Vacation

7 Ways to Improve Your Next Vacation

Ready to make your next vacation truly unforgettable? In this episode of TravelEssary, we share seven simple, practical, and game-changing travel tips to help you get the most out of your next trip. 

We dive into how to plan your trip without overplanning, pack smarter (and lighter!), find hidden local gems, and wake up early to experience destinations in a whole new way. Plus, we share the importance of building in rest time, capturing memories without missing the moment, and trying something new wherever you go.

As full-time travelers, we also open up about staying safe on the road, maintaining privacy, and embracing every moment of the journey.

If you love family travel, RV life, and exploring the U.S., this episode is packed with inspiration and real-world advice to make your next vacation smoother, safer, and more meaningful.

🎧 Listen now and start planning your best trip yet!

Transcript

  We are the Essary family and we're exploring America one destination at a time. On today's episode of TravelEssary, we want to share with you guys seven ways we think you can improve your next vacation. Let's chat.

Welcome and thank you for joining us on this episode as we talk about seven ways to improve your next vacation. But before we get started, it has been an exciting week so far. A lot of things have happened. Yeah, so we have our first full week. A full-time travel is in the books. In the books, and we think you should stay tuned to hear more about that in our upcoming episodes and definitely in our YouTube blog.

Over the next several weeks, we will have a lot of information about what our full-time travel looks like and we'll be doing other things as far as keep on bringing y'all great and wonderful information, but also. All , the things , that we have talked about in the past and what we're gonna be talking about now is all coming to fruition that we are using every single day.

Right. To make sure that we're traveling to our uttermost. And , it's kind of surreal that our first week is already done. You know, I never thought that we would reach this point, but we have, and I am so thankful. For us to be able to kind of dive out there and live our dreams. , I know that a lot of y'all have been supportive of us and so we definitely appreciate that.

And we want to make sure that you keep on having great and wonderful adventures out there. Yeah. And if you notice, we're not telling you where we are. So we have decided collectively as a family that while we are in each location, we're not going to publicly, , announced that it will not be made live at that time across our social media platforms.

We do have children and we wanna think of them and. Make sure that just in case you never know what the world these days, there's some crazy stalkerish type people out there. We don't want them to know where we are when we are, but we will be sharing all of the information about our spot, where we are locally and when we travel every few weeks.

, You guys will be just, just a few weeks behind us and you'll get to know all of that information. So do stay tuned because I promise that we'll be out very soon.

And we just wanna make sure that. You know, we're safe, but we get as much information and everything, so we're not just giving you bits and pieces we're actually giving you. Right. We wanna have entire stories. The full experience. Yes. , That we can, while we're there before we share our opinions, our thoughts, our travel tips.

It's kind of hard to do that when we only have maybe a few days under our belt, but once we've been there for a while and we have, . You know, explored the community and we have talked to the locals. Then we have a bit more that we can share across our platforms. Absolutely. But before then, we have some great advice to give you today.

Oh man. Some of these things. Or just so simple, but sometimes we forget about 'em so much. I think for us, because this is our life now, they're becoming more habitual Correct. Than they were in the past. Oh, absolutely. , In fact. Many of the ones that were the points of the seven points we're gonna talk about today.

Many of them, we have entire podcast episodes about just that one point because we think they're so important. Oh, absolutely. For one instance, , and we're gonna get to this, so I'll make sure that you keep up with the numbers, but number six, I never thought that I would be one of those people.

Mm-hmm. Because I've always been so reserved. I could care less about doing certain things. Mm-hmm. So get ready for number six. It's gonna be an interesting one for sure. And, , let's kick into it. Yeah. Seven ways that you can improve your next vacation. And number one, , again, we have an entire podcast episode about this, but it's planning.

Make sure you plan, have some sort of plan but don't over plan. And that can be an easy trap to fall in. Mm-hmm. So easy because there are so many people out there that want to go and just plan everything down to the last. , second, which I totally understand.

You're on vacation, you have only certain amount of days and you want to see and do everything at whatever destination you're going at. But there's a lot of cool things that happen whenever you don't plan. Completely plan out. Yeah. Not, not, don't plan. I was like, no, you do wanna plan a little bit. 'cause if you just show up, you're gonna be like, oh, Jean George, where do we go?

Yeah. Leaving yourself some, some flexibility room. Just make sure experiences. In our opinion is that much more, yeah. Leave room for some spontaneity, you know? 'cause some of the best moments, some of the best memories, , we've talked about this in the past. They are the most unexpected ones or the unplanned moments that happen.

Plan, but don't overplan. If you want to hear like a lot of detail about this one point, this one topic, then hit up our episode structure, meet spontaneity, like how to plan without over-planning. It's so informative.

We break down so many details of different aspects of your vacation, of your trip, of how you can plan without over planning because it is a balance and. If you're new to traveling or if it's not something that you do often, sometimes it can be hard to find that balance. Absolutely. So go check it out.

Number two, pack smarter, not heavier. This is one of my favorites. Yeah. I was like, this one is definitely more you than me. It has grown on me for sure. It has. And a lot of people, they over pack and that's the biggest issue that. Especially if you're trying to figure out the puzzle to put all the luggage into a vehicle.

Mm-hmm. That's where the headache happens. That's where the frustration and you're already starting off on a bad foot and in my opinion, and so especially if you're trying to get up like four o'clock in the morning and do it in the dark, oh my goodness. It's a nightmare, which we have done many times.

But if you pack smarter, you know how many days you're gonna be gone. You've planned so , you know what activities there are, so you know kind of what your dress needs to be. Mm-hmm. So you're not having to plan. I'm like, oh, are we gonna go out to eat this night? That's why some planning is important.

Some planning's an important, a general, basic overview of what you're gonna do. It is important. And taking your essentials. Take your essentials, leave everything else behind. Yeah, focus on versatile clothing and accessories because extra luggage, extra totes, extra things equals extra stress. The more things you have to worry about, then the more things you have to worry about.

Like I think it speaks for itself. You don't want to overpack and. That is something we've learned throughout the years when, , our teenagers were littles. , We definitely struggled with that, I think because not only were we new to like traveling more, we were new parents as well and we struggled in that department definitely, and we took everything, especially whenever they were children.

We took. Everything that we could possibly think of and then we didn't use half of it. You know, younger, Misty, when those kids were young would probably panic at the tiny amount of things I pack with our 2-year-old. Now, when we go places, when we do things, I have this one little tiny bag that I pack. , And it gets us magically through the entire day sometimes, but my younger self would've panicked at the thought of, that's all you're bringing, that's all you're bringing.

But my older self, in all of my newly found wisdom has learned that you really, really don't need that much. Not as much as you think you do. You don't. The biggest part that I'll say about this is people. Pack a lot of what ifs. Mm-hmm. And so they pack like 10 pairs of shoes because they don't know which one they wanna wear.

Or, you know, they have 15 dresses or pants or outfits and you're only there for three days. Mm-hmm. And it's like three outfits and a spare because you never, I mean, accidents happen, so you never know, but , you always pack prepared, but don't pack what ifs. Yeah. I think the only what ifs that I do pack is medication certain times of the year.

But those are so small. Yeah. Those don't take up a whole lot of rooms. Right. And so definitely check out, , our podcast where we talk about packing smarter. I forgot the name of our podcast. Packing Tips and Tricks, I think is what it's called. I think what it's, yes. So number three. Research local gyms now, and I cannot stress this one enough now.

Hang on a minute. So whenever you first went over this list and you told me that. You said gyms, and the first thing that I was thinking of is like, why? Why on vacation do you want to go work out? So it's not that type of gym. GEMS, not GYMS, hidden gyms, local gyms, local attractions, local food stops go beyond the tourist hotspots.

Oh yes. Because. There's very few places that we've been that my favorite place was like the tourist place. Most of my favorite places were things that we found on our own through researching the area or something like that. It wasn't where like the massive touristy crowd was. Those weren't my favorite spots because I tend to find those kind of spots stressful.

Like the more people there are and the more stressful to me it is. Now, if we are going to a specific city for , a major destination mm-hmm. Then it's a little bit harder to find those gyms. But if we go mid to small town, it's so easy to find those gyms and they're amazing. All the eating places we go to, all the little walking trails that we've done.

That you don't get in your metropolitan areas are your huge cities. Mm-hmm. Those are so cool because you know, those. Smaller cities and towns, they have like unique aspects to them. Yes. And they lean into that. Mm-hmm. Like they use that to their uttermost because , that's kind of their draw, ,

so definitely it's a new word for the day. Uttermost. Uttermost. I think you've used it three times in this podcast already. Word of the day. Word of the day. Yeah. And if you're not sure, okay. , Where are the local hidden jumps? Sometimes they're hard to find on Google because they're, they are. They're not gonna have all of the like reviews and stuff on them.

Oh, absolutely. Go find a local. , We have talked so many times of ways to find that information about the local areas. We will continue to talk about ways to find the local hidden areas. In fact, I have some coming up that is planned in a few weeks, so make sure you stay tuned for that. But as the locals, I promise you, they all have their favorite food spot.

They all have their favorite shopping spot. They all have their favorite activity or their favorite market, and they will tell you all about it. And most of the time it's not gonna be your destination places. Mm-hmm. Which is really weird 'cause you would think that all the locals, that, that's their big draw is like, oh yeah, six Flags is in our backyard.

And they're like, ah, six flags is fun, but have you tried this place? Mm-hmm. , And then it's the place you didn't even know existed. , Yeah. 'cause Google was, gonna tell you the places that are visited the most. , By tourists. By the tourists. So get with a local.

Lot of good, simple, easy ways to find that information. Yeah. So number four, wake up early, at least once on your vacation. Oh, this is so hard. This is so hard. Only for you. It's not hard for the rest of us. Well, it all depends on what you're doing, okay? So it's not okay, but listen. But listen to my reasoning.

Okay. Listen to my reasoning. Okay? It's very sound. First of all, sunrise, there's something about a sunrise and experiencing that new freshness, hope of the day, like it just, I cannot explain what a sunrise does for your mentality. Second of all. It's when everything is the least crowded. Yeah. And most magical.

The sunrise in itself is just, it's so good for your mental state for the entire day. It's a good way to start the day. It's a magical time of the day and then you're out and about and that magical moment when everyone else is either still asleep or still getting ready to leave the day

if you do wanna go to the big touristy spots. Arrive early, a good 20, 30 minutes early. Get there like, you know, before it opens. Be there when it opens, and you will have a way better time than if you're there two or three hours after the place has opened and it's extremely crowded and everyone else has finally, you know, left their hotel rooms and their Airbnbs and they're getting around to go.

I think it's worth it just for the low crowds. One thing that I will say that makes this kind of hard and difficult to do, especially if you're going to , the destination places where their event or their park is open late hours because you're trying to pack in as much as possible. 'cause you're only there for a certain amount of days.

Disney World, our first time. We can definitely speak up on this. Mm-hmm. We packed in so much, we stayed up for all the fireworks and was there at every opening. We got there at every opening and , we literally wore ourselves out by the time we left, and that wasn't even our longest trip to Disney World.

But the second time and the third time that we went where we planned breaks and stops getting up early before everyone else because. You run into those big theme parks after lunch around the one o'clock hour, it gets super packed.

Well, you need tourist, big tourist destinations like that. Even if you're going to like monuments or even national parks. That's when they're all crowded in the peak seasons. Yes. They're all crowded from like 11 to four. Like super, super crowded, but you know, you're kind of encroaching on point number five, which is build in rest time, build in rest time to your vacation.

And if you do that, then waking up early at least once on your vacation isn't really a problem and you'll feel more refreshed. You know, seeing that sunrise at a different location, probably the first thing that you're gonna encounter that day and then just kind of getting refreshed because you had a little bit of rest.

Well, it just makes, it makes the days a whole lot easier. Not to mention, like you said, a lot of times people see vacation as, we gotta go, go, go, do, do, do. But I think we, as in me and you, we look at vacations differently than a lot of people. We look at them as times to reset and recharge. Like we, yes, we want to experience and explore, but in a way that.

Resets our minds recharges our bodies. Like that's why we enjoy vacations. We want a reset from our day to day lives. , So we do build in those rest times. We understand the importance of them because if not, then it would defeat our purpose of taking that vacation. And I believe that's what vacation is.

Just like you said, a restart. Because if you have to have a vacation after your vacation, you did vacationing wrong. Yes. Uh, that's one of Jeremy's like famous quotes. We need to put that on a t-shirt or something. We do. If you're not going on vacation to relax, unwind, really take in the vacation.

Yeah. And that doesn't mean don't go do anything. Oh, no, absolutely not. I mean, the other part is the exploring and the adventure, but , in your adventures, there should definitely be some downtime. I mean, we can talk about so many movies and so many experiences about people that go on vacation or they go across, the nation and they're just taking their time.

They're enjoying all of it. Doing like National Lampoon or something. Well, are are the goofy movie where him and his son are, you know, they're just enjoying it, just taking their time, you know? Mm-hmm. Not really luxury time, but you know,, they're not in such a hurry where it's like, you know, go, go, go, go, go, go.

Yeah. It's just they're enjoying the events whenever they happen. So definitely vacation should be one of those Reset yourself type things. Right. So let's go into number six. Number six that you said this is not your normal habits. This is something that. Old Jeremy, which is like two years old, old Jeremy, years ago, just to the last years, last two years, would be furious with people for doing this so number six, capture memories, but stay present.

Yeah. To us in the current living styles that everyone is in. Mm-hmm. Capturing the moments and the memories is all about pictures and videos. Right. Which I'm totally cool with, but it shouldn't be so intrusive that it's missing everyone else's vacation, so they cannot capture the moment and be present.

Yeah. So my thoughts on it is take your videos, take your pictures, and then put your phone away. Like, take your pictures. And I am a person that I, you can ask Jeremy, because when we first started capturing videos, I used to tell him all the time, no, like 30 seconds long, like just a quick little video, and then stop.

I don't want more than that. , He would give me like 20 minutes worth of content that I will never use, and I'm like, no, , it's wasting our time behind a camera. Like, don't do that. I just need short little things. For these instances. And you know, I think it's important to capture those memories, us, it's part of our travel Ries content.

It's part of our platform and it's part of our income. But even if it's just your family's memories doing that for yourself. Before travel, I was still taking videos and pictures all the time. Right. However, stay present. Don't just stay on your phones. Don't sit there and upload it right? Then. Take your pictures, take your videos, and then put it away.

So this is one thing that I see a lot, no matter where we go, whether we're going to a concert, we're watching, , a night show, , we're watching a rodeo. Mm-hmm. Or , if I'm watching a football game on TV and it pans out to the crowd, everyone has their phone out. Yeah. Everyone's trying to like record the game as it's happening.

The, I'm like the entire game. I'm like, , it's live on TV right now, and you go back and watch it anytime at any point in time. Why? Why are you trying to record? Or like when people. Record the entire 45 minute firework show, and then it's just there on their phone. Yeah. Never for anybody to ever see or do anything with ever again.

And I'm like, you could have snapped a little, , one minute reel or something, a few photos, put your phone down, and then been present with your family, the other 40 minutes of that. Instead you sat there with your phone. The entire time taking this video of fireworks that no one cares about.

, We all saw fireworks on 4th of July. We don't care about what you saw. You know, and , it's one of those crazy things, and I guess that's why it's a pet peeve of mine is usually whenever you're at, , an event that you're standing and then people pull out their phones. Now they're putting their phones above their heads.

And now everyone to get , a recording of something is now putting it above their head. And now you have all these lights shining back at you while you're trying to watch something in front of you because there's just cameras everywhere. Mm-hmm. And those are one of those things of get your pictures.

Absolutely. , Get a little clip of you having a good time at wherever you are, but don't let it be intrusive the pictures and the videos are all for you to remember something so you can tell the story of it. Right. Not take a video while it's happening and then tell the story afterwards because you'll never use it. Now new me is like, Hey, let's get videos. Hey, let's, let's take pictures of this. Hey, we're at this cool stopping point. Let's take a picture. Let's take a video. Let's do something real quick. Yeah. And then move along our way. Where, right. Well, it's important to know that when you're not taking videos and pictures, you need to be off of your phone, get off of your smartphone.

When you're on vacation, don't sit there at dinner with your family when you're trying somewhere new and you're on vacation. I wanna say any dinner because we do not believe in pulling our phones out unless we're just taking a picture of our meal during dinner. , Be there, be present with your family.

Don't sit there and scroll on Facebook the entire time you're trying to have an adventure together or something. , That's what I mean when stay present. Yeah. Take your pictures and your videos, but. For the rest of it. Stay present. Stay present with your family. , That's the whole point of this vacation.

The next one is one of our favorite things that we love telling people whenever they go on vacation. Okay, but let's be a hundred percent honest. This is more me than you. Until recently. Until recently, yes. , So old Jeremy two years ago , was not about this, I wouldn't say two years ago. I mean, maybe for like.

At least for the past five years, you've gotten a lot better. A lot better. I'm not quite there yet because there are certain things that, I definitely want, and I don't feel like trying anything else, but there are other things that I'm like, let's do it. Okay, so number seven is try something new. Try something new while you're on vacation.

This is, this is massive because a vacation should not only be relaxing and rejuvenating, but it should be an adventure, right. And if you're always going on vacation and you're always doing the same thing, how is that any different from your norm? Does that make sense? Yeah. Like I wanna look up the definition of adventure now, because for us, we do think of it as an adventure.

Well, it's just one of those things where. If your yearly vacation is going to go camping at one specific spot every single year, and that's what you're doing, that's gonna create a lot of good memories , but you're not being a very adventurous whenever that happens.

Okay, so according to the Oxford Dictionary, adventure is an unusual, unusual, there's the word and exciting. Sometimes hazardous experience or activity. I mean, yeah. So yeah, that's like trying something new fits that bill. Trying something new. Yeah. And here's the crazy thing, is you never know what you like until you try it.

Yeah, I'm just, I have like a million kids songs going through my head right now that I sing to our kids when I want them to try something new. It's so true though. I mean, how many different foods. Activities, um, different ways of exploring have we found that, oh my gosh, I really like this. And it's the novelty of it.

The novelty of doing something new. Trying something new that's helps make that vacation unforgettable because you're like, oh my gosh, I did this and this well on vacation. I've never done that before. Yeah. And now. The definition of adventure. , We're not saying, you know, hey, you need to go do the most dangerous thing, the place.

No, I'm saying do it at No, , but do something that you normally don't do during your normal day. Yeah. It's gotta be something different because it could open up your eyes to something. It could give you a new experience. Yeah. Like I have an example. If you are not from. In the south southern region, say from Florida to Texas.

'cause I don't know any other places that does this, but we eat alligator and sometimes when I tell people that. You know, we make alligator tacos. Sometimes I make a mean alligator taco and it's a fire. But when I tell people that, they're like, oh my gosh, that's disgusting. I'm like, but have you tried it?

And the answer is most of the time, majority of the time, no. I think everyone has told me no. And like, okay, when you come here, eat alligator. You're gonna like it, try it because I mean, it's good we, we've already planned, especially up in the northeast, because we know it's a little bit different from down south.

Mm-hmm. Especially the deep south of. The different foods and the different textures and the things that they use, but we're looking forward to trying those, looking forward to trying it. We may not like them. We may not, don't worry. We'll be carrying our Texas seasonings and stuff with us, but we're gonna try it.

But they're on something we absolutely love and I, you know, and we'll come back down to Texas and be like, y'all doing this wrong. Right. You know, , I want to find This new thing that I can no longer live without. Once I have it, like I want to go somewhere new and try some new food and be like, now I can no longer live without this.

I must have this all the time. Like, I want that to happen, but if I don't try the new things, then it won't happen. Yeah, , now. Be cautious and don't get injured. 'cause you do have to go back to work and back to a normal life at some point in time. So, or do you, or do you, I mean, we're gonna talk about a lot of that in season five, unless you're traveling like us.

But even, you know, even if we do something dangerous , and you know, I get hurt then, I mean that could hamper, that's an issue how , we live so, right. Right. Make sure you stay within, you know your physical body better than anyone else. Make sure you stay within your limits. Guys, I'm gonna speak specifically to the guys.

, You're not 21 anymore. Well, maybe they are. You don't know how old they are listening to this. I'm so sorry. You're talking to people your age, babe. Not everyone's having a midlife crisis. If you're over 30. You are not 21 again, so your mind may think so, and if you are 21, enjoy it. While you can enjoy it, go do the crazy things because you won't be able to in a few years.

And so , just be cautious. I know , a lot of people, a lot of friends and families that have done something very adventurous mm-hmm. And something that I would even be like, oh, that'd be pretty cool. They're a little older than I am, and they're like. I hurt for weeks. Yeah. After I was done with it, they were like, it was cool while it was happening.

Once it ended, I hurt for a long time after that, but it was worth it. So those were things that I'm like, I need to get them off my bucket list now before it's too late. Before you get even older. Right. And , my body fails me, so. Right. Well that's why we're doing this now. That's why we're going out and doing, doing this now before we get to that age where everything hurts at every waking moment of the day.

Yeah. You can't get outta bed without, you know, cracking a few bones or something. But , the biggest thing is try something different, it doesn't have to be something that will put your life at risk. But it is something that needs to broaden your mind a little bit.

Yeah. Just to help make that vacation a little bit more memorable, a little bit more unforgettable. Remember we're talking about ways to improve your next vacation. Yep. So if you want your next vacation improve, then yeah. Try something new. Find the local hidden gems, , and just vacation smarter, not harder.

Next week, which we have gotten outta the  📍 habit of introducing what we're doing next week. But I'm really excited about next week's episode. Next week we're going to talk about the hidden benefits of family adventures. So I really want you guys to tune in for that one. It's gonna be good.