Last weekend, my close friends and I visited our former officemates in their hub at the province up north. It was a two-hour drive from where we live and around 15 minutes from the city proper. They are all working in the same house and are definitely raking all the money!

It’s so good to see them again. Well, after a quick chat, we all went back to the car to go to a theme park. One of my friends told us that it was only a 40- or 45-minute drive. After 45 minutes, we found out that we’re not even halfway! After an hour and a half, we finally reached our destination. We took some pictures with the sea in the background. We also took some pictures of the monkeys that we saw on the street. They were so many you’d think you’re in the wilderness.

After several months of not seeing my friends/former colleagues, changes were pretty evident, not only the change in their appearance (one of them surely gained a lot of weight) and style in clothing. The three of them have become mature enough to put up a business and be financially independent. In fact, two of them already have their very own cars. I am so proud of them. Way to go guys!

Many people are quite scared about taking weekend holidays for the simple reason that they think they don’t have time to plan for them in an appropriate way. The problem with them is that they don’t know how to organize the time in an effective way in order to take the maximum benefits from a weekend getaway.

If you are planning to take a trip on a weekend, the first thing you need to do is to organize a bit every day of the week. From my point of view, on Monday you should be already thinking and discussing with your family or friend where are you planning to go and the general details for the trip, either if it is at the town at 50 Km from your city or even to a foreign country.

When the day for your weekend holidays approaches, let’s say at Wednesday, a good idea would be to make a list of what you will need to bring along. This little effort that can take a maximum of half an hour, will surely pay out very well. All you need to remember is that what you are planning to do one and not a trip for a month to Africa.

Bring the less you can concerning fashionable clothes, make-up, or other hobby related stuff and make sure you bring your basic need along. And basic needs does not mean the Play Station I’m afraid, and you will not need your laptop either unless you are on a business trip, but this is not our concern in this article.

Providing you have done an adequate list for your weekend holidays, Thursday (and NOT Friday!) will be the day to pack the most of the things already. That means that you will leave outside only the most commonly needed items such as the toothpaste, your nightdress, your contact lenses cleaning liquids, etc. In any case, the things that you leave outside the bag on Thursday will be place in a same place for all the family. Simply establish a “weekend holidays” shelve where everybody will return everything that uses from there.

In that way, when Friday arrives and you get out of work ready for them you will be able to take everything out of the shelve, place it in a plastic bag, take the main suitcase, take the car and depart.

Again it happens in weekend holidays, but as everything in the traveling world planning ahead is always the best option.