Tips For Planning Your Arrival Day

TTT 31 - arrival days
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Jenn: Hey Everyone welcome back to Travel Tip Tuesday. Uh, I am Jenn here with my lovely co-host Meggan, and today I wanna talk to you about arrival days because

Meggan: they can be rough.

Jenn: Some people make mistakes and some people are me

Meggan: Oh, that's a great opener, Jenn. Let's see what you got.

Jenn: All right. So it can be tempting for me, maybe for other people, I'm sure.

Meggan: I'm sure there are. Yes.

Jenn: We jam pack our trips because there's always so many fun things to do and we wanna go to the concerts, the sporting events, the shows, and it's important not to do this on arrival days.

And Jenn has learned from experience, and then not learned from experience .

Meggan: What are some reasons why this could be the case?

Jenn: Okay, so you could be delayed, especially if you're flying. Also possible when you're driving, you never know what could happen. So no one wants to rush off a plane to a concert, and no one wants to miss the event that they paid for because they were delayed.

it's just a bad idea. Fly in the, at least the day before. Yeah, at least the day before. And also, Even if you get there on time, you will be exhausted, you will be tired, you will not feel fresh, and you're not going to enjoy the, the thing, whatever the thing is. You know, especially if it's an overnight flight, just do it.

Just don't do it. Or long drive. Just, just don't. Okay. Plan, plan for some downtime on arrival. No big things. ,

Meggan: no big things.

Jenn: Have I listened to this advice? No, .

Meggan: I don't like my own advice. Moving on .

Jenn: So here are just a few tips to make a arrival day go a little bit more smoothly. So have a plan to get from if you're flying the airport to wherever you're staying.

Uber, prearranged transfer research public transportation. Just have a plan, don't land, and then go, oh God, what do I do now?

Meggan: Right.

Jenn: I, I've also done that. It's terrible. Don't do it. My, my new piece of advice that I learned from my last trip is research restaurants in advance. No one wants to decide where to eat when you're hangry after flying overnight.

Meggan: Nope. No, no,

Jenn: no one wants to do it. Have a list of a few options. It's fine, but at least have a couple of ideas because when we flew to Scotland, we spent a good little chunk of time wandering around being like, where are we going to eat? And we were really tired and it just wasn't, wasn't a good situation.

Um, And just know that you may not be able to get into your accommodations right away. Of course, depending on the time of day that you're flying in or driving in check-ins usually like at three o'clock. So if you arrive at eight in the morning, you're not gonna be able to get in usually. Sometimes you can check in early hotels will often store luggage for you, which is a really, really great but if you're like staying at an Airbnb, You might be SOL and you might have to keep your luggage with you.

So just keep that in mind when you're making points. Before I share my mistakes, Meggan, have you ever planned too much for arrival days?

Meggan: Not once. No. No. While you were talking though, one only time I've ever had really something a planned and it worked out fine. I guess I just got lucky is when I flew in 2019 to see Lady Gaga in Las Vegas.

For some reason, I think it was work related. We did fly same day. Um, It's really the only thing I've done like that and there were no issues. But otherwise I know myself very well and I know Peter, and especially if we drive there. So usually if we're going on a trip, it's a longer drive. Or if we're going somewhere flying, it's usually overnight to Europe.

And I know the key for us to enjoy the rest of the vacation is to get that much needed rest and back to normal right from the start as much as possible. So, , what we usually do is find like a nice spot to stay the night, usually within 40 minutes of the airport maximum cuz we're tired, . But also somewhere you can take maybe a walk around.

It's lovely in that way. Go to a restaurant, but amidst the resting. So I'm fully aware that that day is sort of, Really key for us. And I get very cranky when I'm overtired. And no one wants to start a vacation like that, so we just chill and, and that really does help with the rest of it. So, no, I am a planner as well.

Like I don't wanna make it seem like Jenn's the only planner in this podcast duo cuz you're not. But that day I've always, I've, I've never really planned too much because I'm also a tired person. , what about you? Do share.

Jenn: Huh? Wow. In 2017, we flew to Vegas and we had tickets to Criss Angel that night. I don't know if I've shared this story on the podcast but I,

Meggan: I think you might have and I think it's worth a retail.

Jenn: Yeah. Okay. So we got to Vegas. Everything was fine. We arrived perfectly fine in one piece on time. We spent the entire afternoon by the pool eating and drinking as you do in Vegas, I guess. I got like maybe a little bit drunk and also I had heat exhaustion and so I went to the Criss Angel show, like vomiting.

Bad idea. Yeah. , it's like real bad idea, but I think it was just the combination of like little sleep flying a lot drinking too much, being in the sun, too much, not like a climatized to the weather. Right? And so it just, we were exhausted also just in general from the, from the day. So that kind of ruined the Criss Angels show for me. And I was very sad cuz I was very much looking forward to it. ,

Meggan: right?

Jenn: So I had regrets. The, this last trip. This last trip coming home from Florida. Meggan, I like

Meggan: just recently. Are you talking?

Jenn: Yeah. Yeah. Like in October I, this wasn't really a, arrival day, but arrival day back home in Halifax. I flew home from Florida. I landed in Halifax. At 3:45 PM after leaving Florida and stopping in Montreal we left Florida at like six something, I think, or eight, I can't remember. Anyway, I had slept for two and a half hours.

Meggan: Oh.

Jenn: I had a little Fitbit thing that tells me how much I've slept, which is depressing. And so we flew home to Halifax, landed at like 3:45 PM and went to a Michael Buble concert at 8:00 PM Um, Terrible idea.

Terrible idea.

Meggan: Now, my, in your defense, this concert should have happened in 2020, right?

Jenn: In, in my defense, that is how this happened, sort of, right? I mean, I knew what I was doing when I booked the trip. I knew, I know, but it was, it, it, those were the only dates that I could go to Florida with my friend, and I was like, it'll be fine. It was, it was fine, but I didn't enjoy the concert as much as I could have probably so that I, I won't do that again. I think I've learned that lesson now. I think if I ever talk about doing that, Meggan , please stop me any le, any listener out there, if you hear me go, I think that I'm going to book this concert on the day I fly in from somewhere. Just be like, Jegn. No,

Meggan: just I, I didn't know you were doing this until you posted the pictures on Instagram. And I'm like, what in the h e double hockey stick are you doing at a concert girlfriend ? I was just shocked it was, tell me cause. Probably were like, she's gonna say something. See, you hid it from me.

I can't help you if you hide stuff from me. .

Jenn: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah, it was a, it was a, it was interesting. It was interesting. I was awake for a very long time by the time I got home, cuz of course I live an hour and a half away from Halifax now.

Meggan: Right.

Jenn: And after the concert ended, we had to drive home. So, and I have regrets about parking in the Parkade, at Scotia square.

Meggan: So many reg regrets.

Jenn: Oh my God, it's hard to get outta there .

Meggan: It's terrible. It's terrible.

Jenn: Halifax people, you know, you know, we alright. Right, that's it. Don't book anything for arrival slash departure days. Don't do it. That's it. That's all for this week. You can. on Facebook and Instagram Travel Mug podcast.

Tell me your regrets so I don't feel so bad about myself. ,

Meggan: share your misery with us.

Jenn: And you know, can also find us on our website, travel mug podcast.com. We would love a five star review on Apple Podcast or Spotify, wherever you,

Meggan: I think you deserve it.

Jenn: I deserve it. Please. And you can support the show on Buy me a coffee. You'll get access to fun blooper things. Not that we ever do anything wrong because

Meggan: No,

Jenn: we're amazing. But we will chat with you again soon. Bye everyone.

Meggan: Bye.