Food and Water
The last thing you want to do when going away for the weekend is be sick for the following week. When traveling it is quite common to pick up a food or water born illness. Try to use only filtered or bottled water, avoid vegetables and street food, and stick to restaurants that tend to see a lot of locals. When traveling in a strange country eating strange foods and the chance to drink unfiltered water is quite common, as are certain ailments. Medicines to counter these travel illnesses are recommended such as antibiotics and diarrhea medicine.
Carbon Off Setting
Taking short trips is far better than a globe spanning private jet journey, but often on short trips you aren’t carpooling or you are flying back and forth for just a weekend. So, if the environment is a concern you may want to consider carbon off setting. The process off sets your greenhouse gas emissions by paying for emission reductions to take place elsewhere such as planting trees.
Communication
For the weekend traveler, your communication with friends and family back home is important in a number of ways. Not only does it allow you to check on your family back home. While the postcard is slowly fading into memory, the internet has become the cheapest and easiest way to communicate with friends and family back home. Cyber cafes are everywhere, especially in third world countries where the local population cannot afford internet service. Rates are usually less than $1 per hour, often considerably less. Online voice services such as Skype are downloaded at many net cafes and set up with headsets for foreigners to make international calls rather cheaply. While satellite phones are nice to have, they are expensive. Call centers in most third world countries, often inside or near cyber cafes, are relatively cheap, although the connections aren’t always crystal clear.
Weather
The weather in many tropical destinations, often favored by the weekend crowd, is often hot. The closer you are to the equator, the hotter the sun will be. Coming back from a weekend getaway with severe sunburn is only going to dampen your time off. Coming back with a nice tan though carries your good vibes and relaxation with you through the work week. Many weekend getaways are to beaches and lakes where tanning or spending time in the water is almost a given. Just remember that you can get severe burn in juts a few hours. Protection from the sun in the form of hats, sunglasses, and sunscreen is important to protect against sun burn, eye damage, and skin cancer. Sunscreen with a high SPF, higher than 30 or even 45, is recommended if you are especially prone to burning. In tropical destinations rain can last for weeks and even during dry seasons a strong bout of rain can occur, therefore waterproof and easy drying clothing is a good idea.
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