Making Time for Yourself on a Family Holiday.

The rush, stresses, and bustles associated with family holidays can easily prevent you from taking your family out. However, this should not be the case as long as you are committed and determined. Once you have decided to take your family for a holiday, all you need to do is to plan how to avoid all the unnecessary stresses and bustles that may come along. Having travelled a lot with my family, I have learnt a few tricks that always help me make time for myself and be happy wherever I am. Some of the tricks include:

1. Delegating Duties
Trying to do everything on your own not only makes you tired and irritated at all times, but also confused. That’s the reason why I always ask my wife and children to do some things for me when we are on holiday. The most interesting thing is that they are always ready to help me carry out minor duties whenever I ask them to. This allows me to have enough time to relax or think of other important things.

If you have young children who cannot handle difficult duties such as laundry, cooking, cleaning, or shopping, you can hire some local people to do the chores for you. To get trusted locals who can work for you, you can ask the hotel or restaurant management to help you in the hiring process.

2. Create a Spa Day
Making travel arrangements, moving from one place to another, and trying to make every family member comfortable can be very tiring. For a break, I always schedule a day or days for spa treatments. Whenever I get a real massage, listen to soft music, eat special foods, drink warm mulled wine, take a warm bath, and dry myself with a soft towel in a spa, I feel very free and relaxed. Spas are many everywhere, all you need to do is to look for one offering the best services in town.

3. Say No to Unnecessary Activities
As much as you would like to enjoy yourself, you should not engage yourself in every activity. Create time for the most important things and activities and avoid the unnecessary ones as they may only drain your time and energy for no good reason. For instance, instead of going to a night club after a long day of moving around, I prefer taking supper and going straight to bed.

4. Cut Out Cold Callers
I often get irritated when get calls from salespeople or insurance agencies while I am on a holiday with my family. I believe there is the right time to communicate with such people. The best thing I do with my phone is register it online at the Telephone Preference Service and inform them of the types of calls I do not wish to receive. At times, when I am very tired and need no disturbances from anyone, I simply decide to switch off the phone and log out of all social sites like Facebook and Twitter until I feel ready to make or receive calls and messages.

Being unavailable not only prevents you from being interrupted, but also gives you enough time to prepare mentally and physically so you can focus on what you need to do for yourself and your family.

5. Relax in the Parks
Almost all countries and cities I have managed to visit have very beautiful public and private parks. Most of these parks are adorned with beautiful flowers and tall trees that provide peaceful and breathable atmosphere conducive to relaxation. Whenever you feel stressed or need some time alone, you can visit any of the available parks near you and cool yourself down.

Author – Colin McDonald. I am a keen blogger and traveller, having been fortunate to travel to many different countries and cultures I started to write about it to share my experience. Written with the help and cooperation of www.pottersholidays.com