I have my last final on May 12, and at 6:00 a.m. on May 13 I’ll be catching a flight to Washington, DC with my friends. This trip has been in the works for nearly two years now, yet we only started seriously planning in March. We would talk about taking a trip together every time we hung out, but we could never bring ourselves to pull the trigger. Now, our flights and a hotel are booked and we have a plan in the works to make the most of our long-weekend getaway!
If you’re seriously considering planning a trip, whether it be solo, with friends, or with family, I can’t recommend enough that you actually do it. I know that for my friends and I, the two things holding us back were scheduling and finances. We got our schedules figured out easily enough; the real hard part was building up the guts to actually pay for everything. Sure, we all had the money to take a trip, but nobody wants to see hundreds of dollars leave their bank account all at once. I encourage you to think of it this way: there’s plenty of time to make money back in the future, but the experience you want with these people in this place at this time won’t be there forever.
When we finally decided to go for it, we knew exactly where we wanted to go: Washington, DC. Not only are we all into the museums and monuments, but DC isn’t a long plane ride and it’s a relatively traveler-friendly city. Because the museums and monuments are free, this was also a perfect destination for us as first-time travelers with a budget. We made sure to get a hotel within walking distance of many of the must-visit spots in the city too, which is another great way to save money. If you’re planning a trip for the first time, make sure to pick a spot that fits your budget, experience level, and vacation goals!
The next step in our planning process is to make a schedule of what we want to do each day. Of course, we won’t be detailing our daily activities down to the minute, but we’re only going for a couple of days and want to make sure we see everything we want to see! I’m personally very excited to visit the National Gallery of Art, so we’ll be sure to make time for it. Another way we’re making the most of a relatively short trip is to pack light. We won’t be able to check into our hotel for a few hours once we land in DC, so carrying a small bag around instead of having to make an extra trip to the hotel to drop suitcases off will give us a few extra hours on check-in and check-out days.
I haven’t visited a cool place and been able to be a full-on tourist in a while, so I’m super excited to head to DC with my friends this May. It’s so important to have things to look forward to, especially as we approach finals season and move towards the end of the semester, and a little trip like this is perfect. Whether you’re going somewhere an hour away or across the world, make sure to just get out there and see new places. Splurge on experiences! Money can be remade, memories can’t!
Can’t get enough of HC UMass Amherst? Be sure to follow us on Instagram, listen to us on Spotify, like us on Facebook, and read our latest Tweets!