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In this blog, Evie details her methods for planning trips in her host country and gives tips on how to best utilise your travels.
Now that I鈥檓 in the final weeks of my placement in the US, I鈥檝e been doing a lot of reflection on the experiences I鈥檝e had so far. It can be easy to compare yourself to other students and start to think that your own travels don鈥檛 match up, but looking back I know that I鈥檝e maximised my time on every holiday or day trip I鈥檝e managed to squeeze in.聽
Over the past eight months, I鈥檝e been able to travel to lots of places from my bucket list, including New York at Christmas, Boston, Texas, Virginia and California, as well as day trips from DC to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Old Town Alexandria. No matter the length of the trip, by following this process I鈥檝e been able to make the most of my time no matter where I am.
My initial port of call is usually to consult a guide to the area to highlight the things I most want to do 鈥� there are lots of excellent online guides, although I have a penchant for physical guidebooks, and if you can consult someone who鈥檚 local to the area you鈥檙e looking to travel to it鈥檒l serve you very well. For some cities this was the top ten list of attractions, while for others I was looking completely off the beaten path. I then consider three things.
Firstly: where physically are these attractions? If there is a clear path to follow (like Boston鈥檚 Freedom Trail) or several of them are grouped together this stands out to me as a good plan of attack. For day trips it鈥檚 important to make sure that it鈥檚 possible to see your top sights in one day, and for longer trips it鈥檚 useful to be able to group activities together to get a sense of local public transport.
Second, I consider the price. In some cities (like DC!) sights like museums and monuments are free to the public. In others, there are hefty student discounts to be had with just a wave of a student ID card. If you have more ideas than time on the day, this can be a really easy way to narrow down your options.
Third, and most importantly for single day or short trips or holidays in the off-season: is the sight open? When I was in Chicago, the city鈥檚 most famous monument (the Bean, or Cloud Gate) was shut for seasonal repairs. Museums can often be shut on certain days of the week as well, so it鈥檚 worth paying attention in your planning into what is actually available to see to avoid getting somewhere on the day and not being able to go in.
Finally, my top tip is to figure out your travel niche. What kind of places do you like to visit wherever you go? It could be local cafes, second-hand bookshops or even cocktail bars. Mine, I have discovered, is any art museum with a good collection of impressionist paintings (I loved the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston for this!). Whatever your niche is, your travels on your year abroad are the perfect time to discover and refine these.
Happy travelling!
