The Best Vacations Aren't the Ones Where You Did the Most

The best vacations aren't the ones where you did the most. They're the ones where you actually experienced where you were.

One thing traveling as much as I have has taught me: don't plan every moment. I have clients who want every tour, every museum, every excursion accounted for — and I understand the instinct. But you can come home having seen everything on the list and still feel like you never really experienced the place. You need time to walk out your hotel door and decide, on a whim, whether to turn left or right.

Tours are wonderful, and I recommend plenty of them — a good guide can teach you things you'd never pick up on your own. But don't let tours be the only way you see a place. Leave room to explore on your own terms too.

This is part of why I so often steer clients toward centrally located hotels, especially in Europe. When I planned my own five days in Vienna at the Hotel Imperial, being steps from the action meant I could walk out the door and be in the middle of things — no transfer, no planning required, just out.

Especially in Europe, don't rush past it. The pastries, the coffee, the fruit — it's worth the price of admission on its own. Sit down. Take your time. Look around. You're on vacation.

Then go outside and walk. Put your phone away for an hour, or four, and just take in the atmosphere. Stop in the locally owned shops. Wander into a grocery store or bodega and see what the people who actually live there are buying. You never know what you'll find worth bringing home.

Not the thing scheduled for 10:15. Not the photo you took because you felt you had to document every minute. The little café you stumbled into. The pastry with your coffee. The park you weren't looking for. The shopkeeper you ended up talking to for twenty minutes for no particular reason.

That's travel to me. Not checking places off a list — giving yourself enough space to actually be there.

I'm not only thinking about where you should go or what you should see. I'm thinking about how you want to feel while you're there.

• Do you want to wake up with nowhere you need to be for a few hours?
• Do you want to walk out of your hotel and explore on foot?
• Would a guided tour one day and a completely unplanned day the next suit you?
• Does your hotel's location actually give you room to wander?

Sometimes the right vacation isn't the one with the longest list of included activities. Sometimes it's the one that gives you space to slow down, get a little lost, and experience a place in a way that belongs to you.

Because when you come home, I don't want to hear how much you accomplished. I want to hear about the little restaurant you found, the amazing coffee, the unexpected conversation, the street you wandered down that you never would have found if you'd been rushing to your next scheduled stop. Those are the moments that stay with you — and the ones I want to help you make room for.