If there is such thing as a small apartment, there must also be such thing as a small vacation, the kind of vacation that is cheaper and smaller than most others, but just as sweet.
While many people take a week or two off and head south to Florida or the Caribbean at this time of year, a friend of mine used to take his girlfriend (now wife) to Paris each Valentine's Day weekend for a little romantic getaway. Missing only one day of work, they would slip away from the city unnoticed, board a plane in the evening and wake up in Paris, where they would walk and talk all weekend, eating great meals and napping liberally.
On Monday morning they would slip back into the office without anyone knowing, a little tired perhaps, but smiling with memory and the experience of their rendevous among the crooked old streets of Paris. They kept up this tradition for ten years and only recently stopped with the arrival of their second child, but the stories they tell of this special little holiday remain intact.
Tonight we are going to try the same thing. We bought tickets and booked a room for the weekend months ago (From January to the end of March flights are bargain basement cheap and the city is lively, but empty of tourists) and are leaving tonight on the red-eye for Paris, returning Sunday. While Jill takes over the controls, we are going to take pictures of cool decor, scrumptious dishes and celebrate our birthday as well. We'll be back on Monday, a little tired perhaps, but energized by this small vacation and excited for the spring.
Do you have a favorite small vacation? If so, tell us...
*leeds, that's incredible: my favorite is Porto, too. Was there last September for 3 days- swore to return for more;love everything except the famed tripe dish-ewww!
And Montreal-been there numerous times, always hungry for more.
happy birthday guys (Maxwell and SaraKate, and New Tenant's NJ BF), keep the Eiffel tower' manufacture going!
Wow - what a coincidence. My boyfriend and I are leaving for Paris tomorrow and returning monday. I'm taking him for his birthday, which is March 27. We've both been before but not together. I plan to do a lot of eating, drinking, shopping and just soaking in Paris - no major sightseeing.
i think that is so sweet, have a wonderful time in beautiful paris!
i love little getaways, sometimes a true three days away feels like a week. even a day trip out to the north fork or the hamptons (especially in the wintertime when the ocean is so pretty) is rejuvenating if you leave early enough and enjoy the full day away from the city.
My favorite place is the inn where my husband and I got married: The Black Bass Hotel in Lumberville PA, just north of New Hope (but much quieter). They have the best sunday brunch ever. It's a short 90-min drive from the city, sometimes we just go down for brunch and a walk by the river, other times we spend the night.
OR, I think it's fun to splurge on a hotel in the city. You save the airfare and hassle of getting to the airport and spend that money on playing tourist at home!
Wow. A weekend in Paris. Definitely very romantic and as a mini vacation, very special.
Have a wonderful time there.
Okay, okay, I simply can't resist: Remember to bring back a little Eiffel Tower souvenir to share with all your AT friends. (Put it somewhere in your apartment. Take a photo of the room. Post the photo, and then we have to look for it.)
I recently took my first "quickie" trip to Europe - two-and-a-half days in Italy for a small animation festival. It ended up being significantly longer than I'd planned, thanks to Lufthansa screwing up a connecting flight, forcing me to stay over 18 hours in Frankfurt. I got no compensation, Lufthansa wouldn't cover the (ridiculous) cost of phone calls or email from the hotel to attempt to alert people in NY, my cat had no one feeding him for a day (cat-sitter had left already) and I missed teaching my weekly class Monday, thereby screwing my students too. When airlines work as promised, quickie getaways are a great idea, but airlines seldom work as promised these days. And the more airlines cut costs, the worse they treat their customers.
The small vacation is the only way I can afford to vacate. Every year I take the two days off we get for Thanksgiving and head across the pond to London or go to Caribbean. On President's day I try to get drive to Quebec and when I lived in California I'd go down to Mexico for a cheap weekend. This past Turkey Day my boyfriend and I took the Mon, Tues, & Weds off as well and packed in a trip to London, the English countryside, and then we even went over to Paris for two days. Our trick is staying with friends and family for part of the time and then semi splurging on a hotel in the cities where we don't know anyone (or if we just don't want to mooch off of anyone).
Don't forget to check out Habitat. They are a French chain but have some nice accessories: www.habitat.fr
our short vacations turned out to be monthly mini vacations ( 2 days to DC, west virginia)
After work and school, we would drive around DC and go to williamsburg,west virginia - drink in the greens around us and come back home bubbly refreshed.
My husband take impromptu vacations - a day or two- drive down - feel the place - hills/ beach / or just cobbled path stone paths and we would be all set to tackle the next 3 weeks
Say, maybe that explains all the little Eiffel Towers in the Smalllest/Coolest contest photos.....Lots of others in small/cool apartments have been taking small/cool weekend vacations to Paris too.
I took a French class once where we were doing practice conversations and we must have been on discussions of vacations...we had to say how long our vacation was on average--and mine was "le fin de semaine" (if that's even the right way to say it--I never said I excelled in that class!). My teacher laughed and I was like "hey, I'm American, I don't get 2 months off each year." My British friend nearly spit when she found out I get 10 days vacation--she was complaining about her 4 weeks. Anyway, I simply can't take the time to have a long vacation and still get paid and keep my job, so short is the way to go. I find that when I do take long ones, I end up wasting time anyway. Short vacations, even abroad, make them more casual--and I actually feel LESS pressure to see everything and do everything.
Are you kidding - I am definitely bringing back an Eiffel tower souvenir. I don't think you can enter an AT contest unless you have one.
My fav.is Porto.
Of course, I would also recommend Montreal, it's only a 45 min flight from NYC--& a whole different culture, great cuisine etc!
It's where I live, but friends&family from other cities have certainly enjoyed their visits here.
enjoy your trip, & happy b'day!
I love the long weekend trip. A friend and I went to Belgium over Thanksgiving this past year and I would highly recommend it. We spent two nights in Ghent and one in Brussels. The weather was blustery and cold which became the perfect reason to stop into pubs and sample the amazing beer (and get warm!).
... i thought Habitat was British and originally founded by Terrence Conran...
Just did a long weekend to London (cheaper than going to Miami), and got in a day trip to Paris via Eurostar. Tip: take the last flight home from Europe and you'll have a whole extra day to enjoy, plus you still arrive home at a decent hour.
I love the weekend trip to europe. Fly out after work on Friday and back to work on Monday without anyone knowing. Kinda feel like a secret agent knowing that you were just jet setting to London, Paris, etc. and everyone else was simply having another ordinary weekend.
I've been dying to book a weekend flight to Paris......I want a bigger Eiffel Tower than the one I bought 12 years ago.........
Thanks Tat
Tat -
That's too much! I was there last Sept. as well-3 days there at the beginning & again at the end of visiting 2 other cities (2 weeks total). I had been to Porto 2 years ago for a week & would go again gladly; I'm hoping to go a this year. What a great 'hang out' city, right? & you're right about the tripe dish, I loved everything else but..it was only OK-luckily the 2 friends I had brought along liked it. Did you go on the new Metro system? Amazing. Discovered a new spot that way; &the day we were leaving they had just opened a line to Vila Nova de Gaia, across the bridge (what can I say about that *bridge*? also by Mr. Eiffel as you know)
Come back to Montreal, summers are full of all sorts of activities.
I like to take short vacations to northern Minnesota (north shore of Lake Superior and the Brainerd Lakes area are my favorites) and Chicago. I visit Northern Minnesota for something less urban than Minneapolis (water, trees, hills, and blue sky) and when I need to hear a "Fargo" accent. Chicago works out well for a more urban experience.
A weekend trip to Europe is a bit much (and generates a lot of greenhouse gases.)
I have come to the conclusion that these long-weekend vacations are much more relaxing than the full-week shebang...especially with children. Hope y'all have a good one!
I surprised my girlfriend with a Valentine's weekend trip to Paris this year. It was fantastic. We departed Friday night at 11:00 pm, touched down at noon on Saturday. A friend met us at the airport, drove us to the hotel, took us to lunch, and we were on our way. We returned on a 7 pm flight Monday night, and got back to New York at 9 pm, in time to grab a full night's sleep before returning to work on Tuesday.
The winter rates are very affordable. I'd definitely recommend it. We had a wonderful, relaxing time; missed the big NYC blizzard; and were invited back to spend a week at our friends' apartment while they are on vacation in August. It couldn't have been better.
Maxwell, please be sure to check out the Charlotte Perriand exhibit at the Pompidou Centre. It's definitely worth the trip.
Bon voyage!
Bermuda is the perfect spot for a trip like this.
*leeds, I thought I was the only one getting teary-eyed every time I hear the word "saudade".
No,I haven't used the new Metro (took one in Lisboa couple of times, though - fantastic use of wall tiles). I crossed that bridge in a doubledecker and stuck for 3 hrs in never-ending array of port cellars, one better than the other. Stayed in one pensao with incredibly lovely mix of the 18th cen. and Art Deco furniture, 5min from central train station, and dirt-cheap, too.
That was part of the 2-weeks trip: first i went to Algarve (magical), then took a bus to Lisboa, spent 2 days there, then to Porto on a train (4 hrs!) and back to Lisboa, where friends (met them thru the net, imagine) spent a whole weekend showing me UNtouristy places. [Speaking of Eiffel: I prefer his Lisboa tower].
I keep promising my friends to write a post about the whole adventure; where the stick to finally make me do it?
I've been to Montreal in the summer, during fireworks fest. and the jazz fest. I'll probably come in June, again.
My husband and I just did a three full day trip to San Francisco in between two red eye flights. Among other things, we saw the Calder show at SFMOMA, shopped for a new wok in Chinatown and ate the first catch of the crab season. It wasn't relaxing, but it was fun, fun, fun!
I worked in the marketing department for an airline for a few years, and while we had access to all the free seats we wanted, we only got 10 days of vacation a year. Oh the tragedy of it all.
We quickly learned how to squeeze the most travel in so we could take advantage of our flight benefits.
Here are some of the tips:
Travel light! Never ever check anything. When you don't check anything, nothing can get lost, and better yet while all those people are waiting for their luggage you are zipping through customs and immigration with nary a wait.
To travel light coordinate with your travel partners. No need to bring two of everything. Also remember you can buy things when you get there. It's always fun to try to navigate a grocery store, market, or pharmacy in a foreign country. You should also coordinate with yourself. Make sure your outfits are interchangable and wear your bulkiest stuff (read:shoes) onto the plane.
Know your hubs. For all of you living in NYC - well live THE hub and you are close to Europe, but for those of us on the West Coast, we'll have to fly through LAX, Houston, Detoit, Dallas, or Atlanta most likely.
Try to stay in the same time zone to take advantage of red eye flights and reduce jet lag. If you leave on Friday after work, you can wake up in Brazil. Hooray! Or Belize is a lot closer than you think.
And last but not least, know your shoulder seasons. Try to go just before or after the peak travel season for any given destination. That way things are cheaper, less crowded, and you may just get a coveted entire row to yourself on the flight.
Happy travels!
Tat
It'd be funny if we stayed at the same pensao, sound the same; was yours in Dos Aliados?
went to Lisbon on the train, liked it very much, like un-touristy stuff too. I adore Porto though, the pace etc. suits me (+2 hr bus ride takes you to Spain). The porto cellars are great alright! Would love to hear/read about your adventures in Portugal!
Did not know about the Libon tower..oh, well, that's IT, I HAVE to go back now! :)
Great hints from M&Cheese!
I just went to Madrid for a long weekend - flew out Thursday night and back in Monday morning so a bit more of a break than you are taking. My sister lives there and, as I've been there before, we didn't need to do any sightseeing. It was a luxury to simply spend time wandering around with my siter and her boyfriend, stopping for a drink and some tap, playing cards, etc. Not a romantic get away but such a pleasant way to spend a weekend.
I did the weekend trip to Paris last month (though I took two days off from work). It is a wonderful way to slip out the backdoor of New York City into a magical other world. Next weekend I am making a weekend trip to California--a little Napa, a little mountains, a little visting. Not a bad way to squeeze things in.