Quick Weekend Trips
Most of us can’t take overly long trips and if you are like us we love to explore in the US and abroad. We love taking quick weekend trips and its given us a great opportunity to cover all 50 states and as of this writing 59 different countries. I want to give you all some of our tips and tricks to have a meaningful weekend trip and to go farther than you might think you can go on a quick weekend.
Ways to Use the Weekend to Travel
I am fortunate to have a concept called the 9/80 work schedule at my company where after working extra hours during the week I get every other Friday off. This gives us more flexibility to travel on weekends but even if you don’t have Friday’s off you can take one day off if possible or sometimes you can do a quick two day trip. Most of our travels in the US and sometimes international trips. Its pretty easy to do a road trip on a weekend but you can fly pretty much anywhere in the US and places in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America on a weekend. Here is how we plan it out:
- We check for flight deals and low prices for the city we want to visit. Its fairly easy to find cheap prices for flights on Thursday evening or Saturday morning. We then look to see if there are affordable flights back home at anytime on Sunday. We will usually check multiple airlines to see what options we have.
2. We check for the city we are visiting to see if things like Hotel and rental car costs are affordable. Its a mistake booking cheap flights before checking other parts of the trip like hotels. If there is a big event going on that has hotels and rental cars booked you could end up with an un-affordable trip.
3. We look to see what activities or tours are available for the location we are looking to book. If its too expensive or not enough to warrant a weekend trip we will not take the trip even if other things are cheap.
4. We then look at what options we have to discount our airfare or hotels. If you fly domestically and have airline miles sometimes we will book one way on points and another leg of the trip with cash. That way we don’t use up all of our points but we also are not paying full price for airfare. For hotels like Hilton you can use Points + Pay where you use points to discount your stay without using up all of your hotel points.
5. If everything price wise looks good we check to see how complicated the flight schedule is. Sometimes you will need to change planes so you have to see if a weekend trip is worth the flight time to get there. If there are complicated change of planes it might not be worth the stress. We have taken some complicated international weekend trips and end up getting stranded or traveling more than the time we spent there. We try not to repeat those kinds of trips now days.
6. After we book all the airfare, hotel and rental cars we book our Travel Insurance especially if its an international trip. While it adds to the price of the trip it has saved us thousands of dollars when things go wrong.
7. Our last step is to book tours and if need be book tickets ahead of time for events and popular attractions. You do not want to show up to find everything is sold out.
Example Weekend Trips
We have had many great weekend trips around the world and here are a few ideas that include some tour options that would be great for a weekend trip. Booking guided tours with a guide is a great way to make a quick trip more meaningful and a good use of the limited time.
Mexico City
Mexico City is a great place to visit for a weekend. Mexico City is very well connected to most major cities through airlines like AeroMexico, United, Delta and American. Its only a quick couple hour flight from cities like Houston and the prices are usually very affordable. There is a lot to do in Mexico City as well such as world class museums and history, an amazing food scene, historical sites like Teotihuacan and Tenochtitlan are not far from Mexico City with Tenochtitlan being in the center of Mexico City. We took a weekend trip and saw a lot using Viator tours. We had a great city tour that visited Chapultepec Palace, Reforma Avenue and The National Anthropology. We also took a day tour to the huge city and pyramids of Teotihuacan. We had great food and there are many more things to do in Mexico City. While like any large city you should be careful but the city is really not any less safe than major US cities and is very safe with a guide.
Tours in Mexico City
Cancun, Mexico
Cancun is another great weekend trip option. With many cheap flights such as Southwest Airlines, United, American, Frontier, Spirit and others you can head to Cancun in as few as a couple hours from cities like Houston. It is of course a great location for water activities, beaches and shopping but there are many historical options and shows available. We took a Saturday to Monday trip to Cancun and we visited Mayan museums and sites in the hotel zone and we visited a great Cirque du Soleil show and dinner experience called Joya. We also went to the amazing XCaret Park that has many different cultural experiences as it has different ‘lands’ that represent different parts of Mexico, a underground river to float down, and many shows including a wonderful night show going over the culture and history of Mexico. Its a relatively affordable destination to visit as well and as long as you aren’t looking for trouble you are perfectly safe.
Tours in Cancun
Montego Bay, Jamacia
Montego Bay is another place that is well connected to cities like Houston and you can get cheap airfare to Jamacia. There are many different resorts you can stay at including All Inclusive Resorts like the Hilton Rose Hall. There are many beautiful areas such as Dunn’s River Falls and of course the beaches. There are a lot of great historic places such as Rose Hall Plantation and Nine Mile where you can visit Bob Marely’s childhood home and grave site. Crime in Jamacia has become a larger problem as of late so it is a place you want to be cautious in and to take guided tours outside of the resorts so you have a local with you to help. We took a weekend trip where we visited Dunn’s River Falls, Nine Mile and we spent time relaxing at our resort. The food is great in Jamacia so be sure to get some Jerk style food while there.
Tours in Jamacia
The Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is another great weekend trip location with many flights that can be affordable to vacation hot spots like Punta Cana. Most major US airlines fly to the Dominican Republic and its only around a 3 hour or so flight depending on where you fly from. There are many great resorts all around the Dominican Republic. There are great beaches and plenty of historic sites as well. The capital city of Santo Domingo is the oldest city in the Americas and has sites like a home that Christopher Colombus built that his son lived in and a huge museum dedicated to the countries of the Americas and is said to have Christopher Columbus’s remains. We stayed at the wonderful Hilton La Romana All Inclusive Resort that had a water park, great restaurants and entertainment. We enjoyed the resort and took a day trip to Santo Domingo to enjoy the history and culture there.
Tours in The Dominican Republic
Domestic Weekend Trips
There are plenty of great weekend trip locations in the US where you can take great weekend trips where you can take interesting tours to natural wonders or visit great museums. We have taken many weekend trips around the US to places that people don’t think about being a great trip. Kansas City is a wonderful city with great museums like the National WWI Museum, Hallmark Visitors Center, The Money Museum and the National Toy and Miniatures Museum. It has great food as well with a big BBQ Scene.
Detroit (Specifically Dearborn, Michigan) has the spectacular Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. The Henry Ford Museum is a collection of very rare planes, trains, cars and so much more collected by the iconic businessman Henry Ford. The Greenfield Village is historic homes and buildings from all over the US and some abroad. They were split into pieces and re-assembled in Dearborn. They include the Wright Brothers shop where they build the first plane, A courthouse where Abraham Lincoln practiced law, Thomas Edison’s Florida laboratory, Model T Cars you can ride in, a steam train, homes of famous Authors and so much more. You can easily spend a day in each museum. You can also take a tour of the Ford Rouge Factory where they build Ford F-150 trucks.
Everyone knows Las Vegas for the shows, partying and gambling but there is so much more to see outside of the Las Vegas Strip and Downtown. In Las Vegas The Springs Preserve has the Nevada State Museum, a boomtown, Desert exhibits and other museums about the great wilderness that is Nevada. The National Museum of Atomic Testing is off the strip as well as other museums. If you leave the strip wonderful natural and man made wonders can be found. A short drive away is Red Rock Canyon and the Valley of Fire State Park where movies have been filmed in the beautiful rock formations. You can also head over to the stunning Death Valley National Park in California that has sand dunes, colorful rocks, a sea of salt, history and the lowest point in North America. The Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam are well withing reach. In Southern Utah Zion and Bryce Canyon National Park are amazing parks to visit. You can drive yourself or take guided tours and save on the rental car and stress of driving.
Las Vegas Tours
Wherever you decide to go the world is accessible in quick weekend trips. Look for cheap prices that can be found and head off on an adventure. The key is taking that first step and getting out of your comfort zone as you will find there are great places to visit and people to meet out there!