Vacations are supposed to be relaxing and fun. Many of us plan them up to a year in advance and wait in anticipation for the day they finally come. Sometimes we can’t sleep before vacations because they are really just that exciting.

 But if you aren’t properly prepared for your long awaited trip, things can go terribly wrong. Take, for example, an experience I had just a little over 5 ½ years ago….

A few months after we got married my husband and I decided to plan a Hawaiian vacation. We never had much of a honeymoon and thought this would be the perfect getaway. The only island my husband had been to previously was Maui; I’d never been at all. After getting online and looking at prices, we decided the most affordable stay would be in Oahu. My husband really wanted Maui (he’d been there 11 times before and was familiar with the vicinity), but I insisted we’d be fine in Oahu. The Oahu vacation packages we were looking at were the most affordable, and, I figured, what’s the real difference?  So, instead of carefully planning the best location and hotel to stay in, we picked the cheapest vacation package available and looked forward to our getaway.

VACATION TIP #1: Carefully plan the location and hotel you’ll be staying at. Make sure your hotel has all the amenities you’ll need.  Don’t cut corners just to save a few dollars. Vacations are expensive no matter what—and while your spending a ton of money anyway, it’s best to make sure you’re not going to regret what you’ve spent it on.

The day we left for Hawaii I couldn’t have been more excited. When our plane landed after eight long hours, I was highly anticipating the great trip ahead of us. But, as you’ll soon find out, our trip went downhill quickly.

My husband and I had planned to rent a car, but when we got to the rental station they wouldn’t accept his driver’s license.  My husband had just celebrated his birthday, and, as a stupid gift to himself, he decided to get a new license (no, his current license was not expiring. He just wanted a new one). Well, in the state of Utah they give you a temporary license before your permanent copy comes….it’s not given automatically. When it didn’t show up before our vacation, we had to use the temporary license. I was only 20 at the time and therefore not eligible to rent a car. The good people at Alamo refused to accept the temporary license as valid.

Fortunately, after two hours, we convinced them to rent us a car….we ended up with the ugliest, dumpiest car I’ve ever seen in a rental lot.

VACATION TIP #2: Make sure you have a license accepted by car rental companies! If you want to get a new license, do so with enough time to receive your permanent license before your trip! This will prevent chaos and frustration. And while I’m at this, make sure you have other necessities you’ll need on vacation. Make a list of essentials and DON’T leave them behind.

With a car finally in hand, my husband and I got on the road toward our hotel. And although we’d just gone through a very unfortunate experience, we were determined to enjoy the rest of our week. We were in Hawaii after all.

We drove for about 45 minutes before things got really bad again. We did have a street map; however, we couldn’t find where we were or where we were supposed to be going. Also, in this part of Hawaii left hand turns were not permitted between 3 and 5 P.M. (WHAT???).  To make matters worse, I coulnd’t read any of the street signs; they all looked like the same unpronounceable name.

At one point we thought we were close only to be disappointed (we were actually very close without knowing).  About two hours later a fight broke out. It included things like: “Can’t you read a map?” and “Can’t you drive a car?” I ended up bawling; my husband was extremely angry….and we still didn’t know where we were (and yes, we had stopped and asked for directions several times).

After another hour (and plenty of illegal left-hand turns), we found our hotel. By the time we realized where it was, we’d driven past it several times. This did not make us very happy. Honestly, I’m still not sure how we found the hotel. It ended up being in the middle of a strip mall and it didn’t have its own parking lot. It was essentially unnoticeable from the street. 

But we finally made it!!! And, of course, we were still in Hawaii.

VACATION TIP #3: Get thorough directions and understandable maps before you go to an unfamiliar location. Also pre-print directions from more than one source (MapQuest and Magellan are two great options).

Once in our hotel room (a very humid, insufficiently air conditioned room) my husband and I crashed. We had spent the better part of 5 hours trying to merely get to our hotel. This was not the way I had envisioned this day going.

Our first day in Hawaii was pretty awful. It included fighting, stress, crying, and exhaustion. I figured, however, the coming days would be awesome as we had planned a lot of fun activities.

Our second day on vacation entailed a “Family Fun Cruise.” If “fun” is in the name you can’t go wrong….right? I have to once again remind you that we booked our trip online. One of the add-on options to our vacation package was this cruise. Once we got on the “cruise” ship (more like a not-so-cruise) ship, I knew we were in for trouble. The boat we were on was extremely rocky and the ship hosts were way too over-the-top. I believe the “cruise” lasted two hours. My husband and I spent the entire time sitting in a corner feeling sick. It’s not like we don’t like to have a good time either….it was really just THAT bad.

VACATION TIP #4: When you plan for trip activities, make sure you know what those activities entail. If you have kids, make sure they’ll be welcome. If you don’t like sing along games and charades with strange, drunk people, don’t sign yourself up for “fun cruises” that might entail these activities.

Toward the end of our trip we had planned (once again, courtesy of our online planning options) to take a nighttime dinner cruise. The online advertisement for this cruise made it look very fancy. To get to the cruise, we were required to travel by bus. The night of the cruise we boarded the bus and sat for 15 minutes with no further instruction or movement. The bus was also not on, which means no air conditioning. We finally asked what was going on and we were told we’d be leaving shortly. But we’d already been waiting 15 minutes and decided to forgo the experience altogether. I’m not sure what the nighttime dinner cruise experience entailed that night. However, the non-air conditioned bus gave us enough warning to know we didn’t really need to go.

SEE VACATION TIP #4 ONCE MORE

5 ½ years later, my husband and I still consider our first Hawaii trip to be the worst vacation of our marriage. Even though the first day was the only time we ran into a lot of trouble, it tainted the rest of the week and put us in a negative mindset. And, when you are planning the “vacation of your dreams” only to find it’s not quite what you expected, it’s hard to recover.

Fortunately, we’ve become smarter about vacationing in the last few years. We make sure we know where we’re going and what we’re getting into. And we don’t pre-plan any activities beforehand. We have found that, without a doubt, we can always sign up for “fun cruise” adventures after arriving at our destination.

I know the story above is quite silly, but in all seriousness there are some things that can make a huge difference on vacations. Please find some additional tips below:

· Make sure you know where to find good medical care if it becomes necessary on your vacation. My little brother broke his arm on vacation last year and my mom was forced to find an emergency room.

· Carry emergency contact information with you and make sure your friends/family back home have your contact information. Creating an itinerary of hotel addresses and phone numbers is a good way to do this.

· If you or someone you are vacationing with has special needs, make sure the location where you are staying can accommodate you.