Time management
Travel topic
Travellers might often find themselves short of time for a journey, or at a destination. Business travellers might need to devote most of their time for work.
Prepare
People who are not in full-time employment have more time to travel. Studying abroad, gap year travel and senior travel are opportunities to have a long journey. Planning and preparation take time before the journey. While the planning itself is a pleasure for some people, a travel agency might make it faster. A common mistake among new travellers is to be too optimistic about itinerary planning. Must-do activities at a destination should not fill more than half your schedule on the destination. This is especially true for huge cities with many well-known attractions (such as New York City or Paris). Having a plan of what you want to do and an idea of the "lay of the land" before heading out can also save a lot of time. If you've only got one weekend you can't afford to spend a day just to get oriented. As intercontinental travel no longer costs a fortune, few destinations are once-in-a-lifetime. On a multi-stop journey or a road trip, transportation takes much time away from time on the destinations. Detours from your main destination might be a waste of time. If you have a few days in Rome, the historical city centre is enough to keep you busy. Even though Metropolitan Naples has famous attractions such as Vesuvio and Pompeii, it is wise to leave them for another visit. Time zones can work for and against a traveller. When you fly westwards, you "borrow" hours, and might arrive around the same time as you took off. Jet lag can be a stress factor, though. Public holidays and school vacations are times when many people travel. Plan for this in advance to avoid surprises. Look for websites with this information – for example on school vacations in Germany. Countries such as Germany deliberately stagger their school holiday season to relieve congestion on major North-South routes that bring travellers to popular summer destinations along the North and Baltic Sea Coast and in Italy. Countries like France on the other hand have one single day on which all school kids in the entire country start their summer holidays. Try to avoid traveling on that day if you can. Carrying, packing and unpacking excessive baggage slows down the journey. Flying without check-in baggag
Get in
Flying is the fastest way to travel long distances. Direct flights are fastest. Multiple-leg flights can differ a lot in total time; use aggregators to evaluate them against each other. Remember to add your time to get to airport, check in, get through security, clear border checkpoints, go to baggage claim if necessary, get to the exit and then get from the airport to wherever you're staying; all of this can add a few extra hours to the journey, making driving or taking a train or bus as quick and more flexible on journey start time for medium length journeys. Check which airport is closest to the city centre. Some cities have more than one airport and one may be located just a few kilometres from the city centre while the other airport is located in the suburbs. Airports like Hahn are famously nowhere close to cities they are named after, but even places like Munich Airport can be almost an hour by public transit from the downtown of the city they serve. Others like Taipei Songshan Airport, Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, London City Airport and Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport are so close to the city centre that it takes as little as 15 minutes to reach the downtown core of the city. When buying plane tickets that involve changes of plane, make sure you'll arrive at the second airport in time. It's rarely a smart idea to try to save half an hour by choosing an overly tight connection, because the first plane may get delayed. In the case of severe delays and if you're the only passenger the connecting flight would need to wait for, they often aren't going to wait for you even if the second flight is operated by the same airline and the journey is on the same ticket. Even if you make it to the plane, if you have checked luggage it may get left behind. Missing your connecting flight will even in the best case add hours to your trip, and in the worst case, you could get stuck for days. The same goes to some extent for other forms of transport. If there is a rail line, particularly high speed rail between two destinations no further than 500 kilometres apart, it is usually faster than flying. In addition, most train stations are in the center of cities
Get around
In cities, public transportation is usually an efficient method to get around. However, transit systems work very differently. Some have long delays or shutdowns. The schematic route maps also rarely give a realistic impression of the time needed for a journey, although quite a few transit systems provide estimated trip times and schedules on their websites. Especially when you drive, but for other means of transport as well, avoid rush hours. In most urban areas, these are 7–9 AM, and 4–6 PM. However, for some tourist destinations, such as California's wine country, or any popular beach town, the "rush hour" might start on Friday evening and end on Sunday night. In addition, some big cities, like New York, have extended rush hours that can last most of the afternoon and evening, and any time of day in Paris or Los Angeles is somewhat likely to have bad traffic. In general, even in the rare cases that driving in major cities is faster than public transit, it often tires you faster and leaves you with less energy to do something fun. You can study a map or guidebook on public transit while heading somewhere. You can't do that while driving, but you could delegate this task to a trusty passenger. On a road trip, plan your route to avoid passing through large metropolitan areas, unless you are planning to visit them. Above all avoid going through them at rush hour. Spectator sports, festivals and other big events can also congest traffic. One method is to have accommodation near the venue, or to arrive early and spend time within walking distance. Parades can really ruin traffic, as streets are reserved for festivities, and fireworks displays on major holidays such as New Year's Eve or a country's Independence Day often involve closing large segments of superhighways, so that spectators can set up lawn chairs or stand in the lanes to watch. Many cities have websites that list all scheduled parades for the year. If you are using large rental car companies, use their member cards. These will have your driving license and credit card on record. After the first time used, you will not need to stand in line at the counter and fill out paperwork. Simply walk directly t
Eat
Street food, fast food or a ready-made meal from a supermarket can save time, as well as packing camping food such as sandwiches, bananas, or nutrition bars (with the consideration that baggage slows you down). Eating in a vehicle saves time, and might in some cases be an enjoyable experience (a gourmet meal in a railroad dining car, or on a cruise ferry). While airline food has become better than its reputation, portions are rather small. Eating in public transportation vehicles and taxis is sometimes prohibited, and usually bad manners. In many restaurants, there can be a big difference in the waiting time for different dishes. Some fast food restaurants have a screen showing which dishes they have ready and can give you immediately. For instance the fresh fish may take 25 minutes to be cooked from scratch, but the stew may be ready to be dished in the kitchen. The "meal of the day", where such are offered, is usually served quite fast. Usually your group will all be served at once, so one slow dish can hold everybody up. Ask the waiting staff for suggestions to have a quick meal, and say if you want dishes to come as soon as they are ready. However, there are some countries such as Italy where you simply can't expect to have a quick meal in a restaurant. In those places, you should consider going to a bar or snack bar (such as a döner/shawarma or falafel place in some countr
Adapted from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA)