Down-Time on Long (1 mo.) trip

Even though we have been on several month long, six week, trips, cannot remember hitting a down-time problem. But it may be more related to our travel pattern. We tend to go pretty slow and routinely plan for every fourth or fifth day to be complete blank. Use it as an opportunity to sleep in, catch up on things we may have missed during the previous three or four days, exercise at bit more, do laundry, but for the most part, do nothing. The point is that we always try to stay well rested with no pressure to get to the next site. Our down time depression occurs when we get home with no plans for the future.

J, I travel the way Frank does. If I need to sleep late periodically or just sit and watch people for the day or take photos, I have open time to shift my interests around. My jet lag is always on day 4 so that is a relaxed day definitely (My next trip has my 7 hour train ride during that day). I'm much more relaxed and slower than my first trip in college, when I had to be busy every minute and get my money's worth ($1000.00 for a 3 1/2 week trip was a lot for me to spend then, 1976…would like that cost now. LOL) In other words, your speed might depend on your age, but regardless, I would spread your rest time throughout the trip rather than all at once. Hotels often have used English books for trade. Wray

We take one month trips and don't tend to have any down days. But we stay put for 3 -4 nights at each location so we are not on the run all the time. Although, on our last trip we were tired one day and deviated from our plans and decided to have a spa day. So, I think being flexible is helpful.

I take an iPad and even though I'm not reading a book on it, I keep a blog, email friends, surf the web. That is my down time entertainment. On our last trip the world cup was being played so we watched it in several countries with locals!

Jtraveler, I cannot imagine traveling without Internet access whether on a laptop or tablet. Mostly we use it to research restaurants and bus schedules among other things, check CC statements, and also to download photos for safekeeping in case an SD card goes bad, for email and also for entertainment. It is, in our case, a reading device too. In fact we each travel with a tablet or laptop.

We also travel for long periods and I understand that there comes a time when you have to stop and regroup mentally and physically. You can't keep up a fast pace when spending so long away from home without hitting a wall at some point!
I do several things...
I mentally get myself into the mode of not feeling guilty about spending a day without sightseeing - it's hard to slow down because after I've spent so much time and $$ to get somewhere, I feel like I should always be "getting my money's worth". Once you get over that you can just enjoy a day in a park, by the pool, or doing something that relaxes and recharges you.
I am a bit of an NPR addict and I find that streaming my local NPR station through my iPhone gives me a sense of home and comfort hearing the voices that I hear on a daily basis at home. A bit silly maybe but it grounds me somehow.
Another thing that I also feel is necessary is getting myself reorganized every 15 days or so. I will take a day, do laundry, reorganize my bags, make sure my travel papers and reservations are in order, go to the store and refill anything that I'm running out of. Helps me hit the restart button of my trip.
I do take a paper book with me on every trip I take. I don't read it daily and I save it for days or half-days when I just need to relax. One of the best days I ever spent was reading a novel in Luxembourg Gardens for an entire day -

I'm fine for a month or more without longing for home. But when I'm tired and want familiar comfort, I find that having favorite music, a few sitcom episodes, and various books on my phone does the trick.

I can relate -- we often take 4-week trips and start to feel tired and grumpy after about 3 weeks. A "day off" at 2 weeks or so, as other posters have described, can help keep the trip and travelers fresh. RS recommends "a vacation from your vacation," but it doesn't have to be at a beach or resort or whatever, it can just be an unscheduled day for reading, laundry, sleeping in, a movie, whatever.

So far no one has answered your real question -- do you often encounter English language bookstores in Italy? I haven't been there, but googling "English language bookstores in Italy" produced responses for several major cities. In Rome, for instance, there appear to be 4 or 5 bookstores with good inventories in English. You could make a list for the major cities on your itinerary and shop as needed and convenient. Books are heavy, and you may already be toting a guidebook or two. Before my Kindle I'd bring a couple of used paperback mysteries and jettison after reading. Hope this helps.

We travel slow, three to five nights at one stop. Having down time never occurred to us and we have had some month or more journeys. Some long trips can find me wanting to get home but I've never felt like I needed a vacation from the vacation. There are too many things to do.

We are retired librarians but we never take reading material with us. The only books we look at are in museum such as the Johann Gutenburg museum in Mainz. We are of a generation that doesn't depend on electronic devices to fill our time or entertain us. Those that we do take are two cameras and an iPad Mini. The latter is for sending and receiving emails using WiFi.
We seem to fill our spare time in interesting ways such as having conversations with people we are sitting next to, shop keepers, other hotel guests, random people whom we come into contact with.

It helps if you can forget about your home routine and place yourself in the environment in which you find yourself. Try to measure your being in the now. There is an very old saying from Eastern Asia regarding travel, and I paraphrase: When you visit another person's camp, do as they do.

If you are needing something to soothe your loss of home environment go out onto the street and soak up the local culture and color. Do some sidewalk cafe living. Strike up a conversation with someone. Go into a specialty shop and talk to the owner while you are buying something. We watch television in our hotel rooms and usually find that soccer is the only programming we can understand, not because of the language but because of the game itself. We have a little rest time, usually every afternoon, with a drink, writing postcards, and catching up on email.

We have not been to Italy, but we have found a dearth of English language bookstores all over Europe. We found one in India, and one in Philippines but we bought nothing in either one. I think if you want to read something you should take it with you. Cheap, old pulp paperbacks don't weigh very much and you can find them it the common second hand stores. You can leave them in the hotel library as you go.

Just go with the flow. Enjoy another culture as much as you can. Don't worry about home, your bed and toilet will welcome you back when you get there.

We don't like Kindles or ebooks, either, but we love to read, and we have found both new and used bookstores carrying English-language books in almost every major city in Europe. We always leave home with 2 or 3 paperbacks each. Many hotels/B&B's have "libraries" where you can leave a book and take a book, so we donate the books we've both finished and take books left behind by other travelers. It's an interesting way to broaden your literary horizons ... we were introduced to the Scandinavian mystery writers in this manner. If we run out of reading material, we hunt down a used bookstore. This often becomes a quest and takes us to neighborhoods off the normal tourist track.

As for down-time during a month-long trip, we give ourselves a free day every 4 or 5 days. I use mine to catch up on my journal-email-travel details, so I can feel organized again. My husband goes for a long, wandering walk. Then, together, we find someplace scenic for people-watching and book-reading, and just soak in our surroundings. The next day, we're ready to go again!

Edit: I just saw Monte's note about the dearth of English-language bookstores in Europe. Our experience has been different, possibly because we actively go out looking for them. For the past 7 or 8 years, we have been bringing home foreign language picture books for our granddaughters. Sometimes we have the stories translated by someone at our hotel (using sticky notes). Last year we brought them books from Bruges and they had fun translating for themselves, using Google Translate. The bookstores where we find the picture books sometimes have English language books, or they can point us to a place that does. We love having this sort of interaction with locals.

When I go to Europe I have only a rough plan. I book from the US only if there is a huge event in town I want to visit or for certain fast trains which give a substantial discount if booked early. Otherwise I book hotel usually from the previous destination. Several time I came to Prague with nothing booked, went to Accommodation Center in Prague Main Train Station and got decent hotel with big discount at most 10 minutes by tram from the Old Town. The same in Vienna. You give them your price range, event. your other wishes and they always find something. Last year I did the same in Hallstatt and in high season - July. No problem. I tried to book on line but didn't like high prices there. Once in Hallstatt I went to Visitor Center and no problem. When I come to my first destination in Europe I go to the Visitor Center and get all information then I make adjustments to my plans. You get so much more information locally than here using internet and guide books. So that way I am very flexible and have my down-time whenever I feel like it. When we go for Rick Steves Tour we always add something to it. Either before or after. With Turkey it was Greece, with Paris and heart of France it was England, with Adriatic it was Italy. In Greece we did not have anything booked (but it was late in season), no ferry, no hotels but everything worked. I think I would not enjoy my trip if I had everything planned and booked and feel like a slave of my schedule.

Wow, you guys like my thread ;)

I appreciate people sharing their different approaches, that's what makes this forum nice. I hope to travel with as few books as possible and swap out fiction as I go. Should not be hard to find English literature along the way.

We plan to share an iPad as a last resort when we need a TV or news-blog fix to stay connected to home. I have traveled extensively and also lived abroad but it's rather different when you are living out of a suitcase on holiday, don't you think?

Though I'm mighty impressed that some of you don't have these problems - good for you - like mom always said, only boring people get bored :)

Many bookstores in Italy have a small foreign/English section. I've picked up a couple of cool British-published books in Italy-- the thing about a small selection is it encourages you to branch out and discover something you would likely ignore in a big bookstore at home.

First, Italian bookstores often have English-language sections (Feltrinelli is one), so check any large bookstore. Many hotels or B&Bs have a selection to swap out, or to read during your stay. All my reading material is on my iPad mini, except for maps.

I travel for nearly three months at a time, living out of a suitcase and a daybag. I stay an average of four nights per city, never less than two. I never plan "down days", but because some of my stays are in small towns, I get plenty of down time. I also don't rush around even on busy days, and I don't try to see every piece in a museum's collection (sensory overload is very tiring).

One of the best vacations I had was a month in Greece with a friend. Decades later we are still talking about how great it was. What made it great for us, wasn't necessarily planning specific "down" days. Rather, we slowed down to Mediterranean time for the whole trip. We generally stayed put for at least 2-3 days. We had some idea of the things that we wanted to do in each place, but unless we were moving on to the next location we decided over breakfast what we would do--museum, ruins, or beach. We were mixing all three into our trip. We spent one day on Santorini in one cafe where we stopped for mid-morning coffee and never left until Greek dinner time--after 8:30. We were in at least 4 cafes a day--breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner. Sometimes there was a fifth after dinner cafe. We loved it. We bought copies of the International Herald Tribune and did the crossword, we read books--this was pre-Kindle so we just bought local English books. That's when I discovered Gerry Durrell's books and read nearly all of Alistair McLean's books.

And lest you think we missed the sites--we went to Delphi, Mycenae and Epidarus, the Archeological Museum, and the Acropolis, the ruins on Santorini, a trip to the volcano in the caldera, Knossos, the Samara Gorge, and more.

We had one other rule, which was, that we didn't have to do everything in lockstep together. It turned out that we only split up once, but having that rule freed us to be content with our plans.

I think that this strategy would work really well in Italy.

Pam

Will, I completely agree! One reason I don't like eReaders or Nooks. I think huge selection is not always a boon. Many of my favorite reads were found in train station bookshops, or borrowed from a relative's living room, etc.

Hello Jtraveler. I like this topic. I do not bring any computer with me to Europe. If I wish to send E-mail, I use a PC computer that is available for the public to use. Many hotels in Europe, and some B & B rooms, have a computer for accessing the internet. I like to read books. (I am a retired Librarian). But I do not do any reading of books when I am in Europe. I carry one book with me, from my home, for me to read when I am in the airplane flying from Europe, across the Atlantic Ocean, in the day time, toward my home. That is the time when I need to have a book to read. I do not look at the movie in an airplane. In the topic of "down time", I think it is important for travelers to be aware that a person continues to have physical and emotional needs when he or she is on a vacation trip. An example of that is : if when a person is at his/her home, he/she does Hatha Yoga (slow stretching exercise, with slow deep breathing) which helps a person to eliminate stress, I highly recommend that the person do the Hatha Yoga when he/she is in Europe, every day. And I highly recommend having one blank day in each week, when in Europe. That day, a person could do extra sleeping, and have a long leisurely lunch. And lay down outside with sunlight on you for 30 minutes or longer. Washing and drying clothes in a public Laundry takes time, if it is not being done by a person who works in the laundry place. And there are a few swimming pools open to the public, in Europe. Such as the big indoor pool in the Summer Olympics park at Munich in Germany. If Munich will be my last stop in Europe, I would swim in that pool, the day before I will be seated on a seat in airplanes all day. I do not look at Television when I am in Europe or Britain. And I do not see a movie in a movie theatre in Europe. I do not need to do any of that for entertainment when I am on vacation in Europe !
My advice to Jtraveler : Do not be in a hurry when you are at ITALY.

I think this is a very astute question. A month-long trip is a marathon, not a sprint.

For me, the key is to vary the pace and texture. After a bunch of cities, a village or beach or mountain. After a string of one and two-night stands, hunker down in one place for 5 or 7 days.

Rick calls this the "vacation from your vacation." You really need something like that to break a trip longer than 2-1/2 weeks.

Here's another retired librarian to add to the mix. I'm not a super-geek, but I went over to the digital dark side professionally long before I retired (11 years ago).

My husband and I are r-e-a-l-l-y slow travelers. Every day has downtime, partly because he is a late sleeper and I'm an early riser. He has been known to sleep past the hotel breakfast on more than one occasion.

We are usually gone at least a month and never feel at a loss for what to do. What others have said about easing out sounds just like us. I am always amused at the things people say they would never do in Europe because they would take away from the time they have for sightseeing or somehow diminish the experience in some way. For us most of those things teach us more about the country and culture than some of the sights we see. From my perspective, that's because most of the sights we see are about the history and past culture of the country, not necessarily what it is now.

When I was on my first trip to Europe in the 70's, I met an Australian at a hostel who said she only went to one major thing each day. I took that to heart and have tried to travel that way ever since. That would probably drive most people crazy. We fully expect that we won't be able to do all the things on our lists, that events might intervene and that we might have to alter our plans. Those last minute changes usually add a little spark to the experience.

My husband's penchant for taking pounds of books ended in 2012 when I got him his iPad. I started taking my Kindle in 2012, but now only take my smartphone and use it for everything, including taking pictures. We load the iPad and my phone up with books before we go. (I love you, Amazon Prime). We never finish all of them before we return.

We are able to use Wi-Fi for all the written communication. We use Verizon global access for our phones. We don't use the data due to the exorbitant cost, but we find the phone call and texting costs very reasonable compared to the overall cost of our trips.

I read before I go to sleep every night, no matter where I am. I love using my smartphone for that. Paperbacks and the Kindle are too heavy to use to read in bed as well as to put in the luggage.

I love watching TV in other countries (except maybe Spain after midnight). I feel like I learn a lot about the culture that way, even if I don't understand the language. There's CNN or BBC in most places and sometimes we even have access to English-language, or at least sub-titled movies.

We have yet to go to a movie in Europe on a trip together. I did go to a movie in Heraklion in the 70's. It was in English with Greek subtitles. It took awhile for me to realize that I was the only female there. I was glad that I was with a male traveler at the time. That definitely taught me something about the culture, at least 35+ years ago. I also went to a movie in Brussels in the 80's. It was in English with Flemish subtitles. It was the first time I had ever been to a movie that showed advertising. That's common in movie theaters here now, but it was unheard of back then.

Going to the theater in London is just the best, and I'm so glad we went to an evensong service at Westminster Abbey when we were there. I don't know if those experiences would count as downtime or wastes of time for some, but they were highlights for us.

Downtime for us is so positive, I guess we don't even think of it as a challenge. It's a lot of what we do on our trips because we like just being there.

I have purchased English language books and magazines in Europe and made use of "libraries" at hotels in B&Bs. Also, once I finish a paperback book/magazine, I offer it to English speaking people around me. And sometimes I receive a book in return.

If you love to read, please consider downloading some books on your Ipad. I am an avid reader so reading at the end of the day or on an off day is a real treat for me. The Ipad lets me bring more books. But I save that for hotel reading and will take a paperback with me when I am out for the day.

Other ideas:
1. Plan a beach day! There are many beautiful beaches in Italy. Or make use of a hotel pool. Do not feel guilty about "wasting" time at your hotel to recharge. Last summer, I went to Italy and stayed at the Hilton in Sorrento because it had a gorgeous pool. Coming back to the hotel after touring in the hot sun all day and jumping into a pool and getting a fruity cocktail from the bar felt luxurious.

2.Find a good pub and become a temporary "regular". You eventually feel like you are going to visit friends.
3. Turn on the TV in your hotel! Seeing your favorite episode of Saved by the Bell dubbed into Italian is a joy. Of course, I am not traveling to Europe to watch American TV. But when you need a break, it is interesting what comes up.
4. Bring a deck of cards. And you can download scrabble (not Words with Friends) on your ipad.

Have a great trip!

Hi,

Doing a month long trip....fantastic. If I want internet access, I look for an internet/call shop, usually found near the train station in Germany, such as in Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf, etc. Paris too. No tablet, lap top, eBook for me either since I don't want the responsibility for keeping track of them. As pointed out there are book stores where an area or section is devoted to English language books. If you're going to Berlin, one such store is Dussmann, a huge music and book store, a few minutes from Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse on Friedrichstrasse.

I don't believe in encountering the wearying aspect of the trip by the third week unless you don't factor in down time here and there. That's an important consideration, regardless of your itinerary; make it point to include this so called down time.

Here's another recently retired librarian's response to down time in Europe. We never travel for less than a month to Europe and have been doing our slow style of travel since 1990. We often visit just one country or region like you seem to be doing with your upcoming trip. You don't say if you are staying in a variety of hotels or have some apartments lined up along the way. This really shouldn't matter as down time is really your own idea of down time. The big difference for me is that an apartment usually functions more like home with comfy chairs for catching up on reading or writing that we may want to do. Some of our favorite down time days have been an occasional full day of thunderstorms! We actually look forward to this type of weather on our month long trip because we don't have that type of weather where we live. We also let plenty of other low key days happen--walks with no destination in mind, cafe sitting, impromptu musical events, fairs, reading, talking out life events. Like others have mentioned we each take at least 2 big thick used paperback books that we read if we have time and then leave behind somewhere. We have been putting more books on our iPads. These books are usually historical fiction or mysteries who's local is the country in which we'll be traveling. We've gotten some great reading lists from this forum in the past! Our sight seeing is usually a full or half day affair on the days we explore and if we don't see everything on our list, we just keep it on our scribbled out list for next time.

Rick's itinerary suggestions often include one out of every seven days or so as a "vacation from your vacation," whether it's a beach day, mountain day, or reading a book in the park day. As much as I've loved all my sightseeing, I've loved these down days, too. Guidebooks will often include bookstore info toward the start of each city chapter. Dedicated English-language bookstores are not common in Italy, but there are some with English sections. Feltrinelli is one of the larger chains, but not the only option. Lightweight Penguin editions of classic novels are often part of the selection.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that, from my own experience, I don't think bookstores are as easy to find in Italy as they are/have been in the US. On one trip we were specifically looking for bookstores with children's books in English and could only find one in the Piazza del Repubblica in Florence.

We travel without phone or laptop.. always have.. but last year we did take my tablet.. however.. used it very infrequently.. just to skpe kids every four or five days.

I bring one or two books.. then leave them at hotels and pick up new ones.. seems many hotels have sort of book dump/exchange.. ( usually lots of german books.. but I do find English!)

We travel 3-4 weeks at a time whenever we go to Europe( why not after that long expensive flight!) and we always schedule downtime.. like 4-7 days in a beach town.. last year it was Cala D'Or in Majorrca.. in between London, Dublin and Paris.. all big cities with big city go go go ( so many sights!) .. year before we chose Tossa De Mar.. and trip before it was Nice..

We always stay min of 3-4 days in one place.. I figure if a place is worth seeing .. its worth actually seeing, not rushing through..

I agree that by days 21- 25 or so one can get a bit squirrely.. I get sick of my clothes ( since I travel light., theres lots of wearing the same stuff ) .. and I get sick of not having a hot bath( weird.. but I will not use hotel baths.. yech,, they never seem clean enough to me.. so I can only shower.. which is not relaxing!)

A few years back, I spent a solid year traveling around the world and living out of a knapsack and never once did I wonder how I was going to survive some down-time. I also did that year with no laptop or tablets since I needed to use every inch of my bag to pack clothing for all 4 seasons. When you are away from home for an extended period of time, you actually need to take advantage of down time where you aren't constantly in tourist mode every waking minute. During my year when I needed some down time, I would steer clear of the tourist sites and spend days doing the kinds of "errands" or activities that I might do back in the U.S.

I'd hit the self-service laundromat and flip through a fashion magazine while waiting for my clothes to dry, go to the movies or get some tickets for the theater, opera, ballet (whatever is happening at that time), get a pedicure/manicure/facial/massage - whatever I was in the mood for, wander through the grocery store or an outdoor farmer's market to pick up snacks and check out what the local offerings are, poke around in a drug store and look at various lotions or cheap cosmetics that I can't find back in the U.S., go shoe shopping (or at least just look at what they have and try some on), go for a run or take a bike ride, chat with a bartender and get their recommendations about a great restaurant in some out of the way neighborhood and go find it and have a nice long lunch or dinner, or stop at the local library and send out some emails on their free computers. If it was a big city, the local library was also a good place to get my hands on some English language magazines or newspapers that I could sit and read.

I did bring an iPod with me that year and before I left the U.S. I went to my local library, checked out dozens of audio books and copied them into iTunes and uploaded them on the iPod. I stayed at a number of hostels and B&Bs throughout the year and some of them had a basket or shelf of free paperbacks you could use that had been left behind by other guests. Sometimes I'd just park myself on a bench with a nice view of something, or in a shady, cool spot and listen to one of those audio books or the music on the iPod. Or if you are artistic, bring a small sketch pad and some pencils and try to capture what's going on around you - even if your end product isn't very great and it is more doodling than Picasso, it's fun to look back at the results.

Interesting topic,

I am in my late thirties and done my first one month+ european travel last year. After retrieving feedback of my (little) experience, I decided to stretch my night stays from two to three nights for my next trip. That way I can plan my time and do a two-day-itinerary stretched into a three day. That leaves me time to slow the pace and have more time to do laundry, enjoy time people watching, bumbing into locals anywhere and/or enjoying a short afternoon break at my pension/hotel to invigorate myself mentally and/or phisically. This way I feel I don't sacrifice the sightseeing priorities I have and make my travel more enjoyable.

I didn't brought a laptop or tablet with me, but I did fine with my smartphone. A 6" tablet might be a good add-on for my next trip but not a necessity. I'l decide when time comes. I did had a 6" kindle with all my guidebooks and other readings and I really found a great gadget, along with the RS audioguide app ( I loved them). And even when the Kindle screen froze in the middle of the trip, I managed to have my guidebooks in the kindle app of my smartphone as an emergency backup. Anyway, if you don't like kindles, I believe is a good idea to buy your guidebooks on the way. I didn't thought about that option. On the other side you might miss your notes and highlights from your planning homework at home.

PS: Sorry about my English grammar/writing as this is not my native language.

I would not travel without my tablet downloaded with movies and television shows for airplanes, trains and before bed in the hotel. I even bought a wireless storage device and downloaded a bunch of content so my wife and I can watch on our respective tablets. I also upload pictures from my camera for back up and post a picture a day on Facebook for friends and family to follow along. I am taking a break from the unseasonally high heat in Rome as I type this on my tablet.
All that is one way I occupy my downtime while traveling. I like a relaxed pace and don't try and fill every minute with activities like some people post about. Afterall, I am on vacation.