We emerge from a short walk through the tropical forest to aquamarine waters lapping against miles of pristine beach. We look left and right and there’s not a soul in sight. The fresh breeze smells like summer, filling our lungs with salty air and our faces with smiles from ear to ear. This is the type of place where you strip naked and run splashing into the shallow waters giggling like guilty teenagers, you know, if you are into that sort of thing…
And to think, I didn’t even want to go on this vacation.
Value is in the eye of the beholder. It’s easy to poo poo a trip before it’s even started due to high transportation costs. But fresh off a Bahamian beach vacation I’m here to tell you: buy the damn tickets.
How else will you experience a local fish fry, complete with line dancing and a bonfire on a beach? Or wake up to a pack of wild dogs howling in the night? Or happen upon a private dolphin show when you’re out for a morning kayak?
I’ve written before about why I think everyone should prioritize vacations (in Be A Vacation Taker). I’ve also written about my obsession with spreadsheets, and as someone who obsessively tracks travel expenditures by category I can tell you with a great deal of statistical confidence that the transportation costs of any trip will account for 50%-85% of your total budget. Splurge on tickets to the right place and the rest of the trip is nearly free.
Vacations give you time to rest and recharge. But more importantly, being away from home forces you out of your regular routine and often into more time with nature. I recently read that adults spend 90% of their time inside. Maybe that’s why we’re so damn tired and exhausted all the time. We spend too much time agonizing over a few hundred dollars for memories to last a life time and too little time considering what the price of a coffee a day could give us.
In my case, it gets you two tickets to paradise, a secluded hideaway minutes from the beach, bikes and kayaks to cruise around, new friends, cold beers, great food, and one (mild) sunburn. Im hoping these memories will get me through until the sun finally arrives in Seattle, usually the day after Independence Day. Maybe the tan lines will last too.
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