When you’re not seeing famous sights and eating local cuisines, then you might want to use some of this free time productively. I mean it’s not often we’re given the gift of time and we normally don’t know how to use it when we’re on holiday.
If you’re like me and find yourself getting a bit bored by the pool after an hour, then here are some ways in which you can spend that time productively and feel like you’ve made the most of your holiday, potentially even gaining a new skill.
Learn The Local Language
You’re not going to be an expert by the end of the holiday, but learning the basics like hello, goodbye, thank you, the numbers, sorry and excuse me, asking for the bill and ordering food are very useful to know.
Nowadays you have language apps that gamify the whole process, making it weirdly quite fun to learn and work in different ways to help different mindsets pick up the language, whether you’re better at written or verbal.
You can then practice later on that night when you head out for a meal, make a deal with yourself that you will handle the whole process in their language. If it fails, who cares? You can always fall back to English and you’ll probably never see these people again.
Learn A New Skill
This could be something related to your work life, something around a personal business or just a general area that fascinates you, the choices are yours to make.
Personally, I oddly love learning history while abroad. This is mainly around the history of the area I’m in, as I think it builds into the experience and helps you to make sense of why certain buildings or cultures are in place.
You can also use this time to generally improve your knowledge across the board. The Nibble learning app is great across a variety of subjects, such as history, philosophy, biology, literature and music.
Build Your Own Business
This used to be an idea for entrepreneurs, but nowadays it seems like everyone has their own side hustle. It doesn’t have to be a full blown business, it might just be selling second hand clothes or doing some hairdressing, but whatever it is, this is a chance to put some time into your side hustle.
I know a lot of people over the past few years that stopped their full time jobs to seek their own ventures, as nutritionists, consultants, gardeners and dating advisors. Almost all of those people built out their business plan while relaxing on holiday.
I personally utilise this time to think more about my blog, which seems to have grown into a business in itself.
Read A Book
It could be fiction or non-fiction, whatever you prefer, reading is a really productive way to use a holiday and is so nice to do while sitting next to the pool.
We all say we’ll carry on reading when we get back home, but we never do, it’s just so hard to find the time, while we’re knackered before bed. But on holiday, when you have real downtime to do whatever you want, this is the perfect timing.
A book I bought for my next holiday is ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’, as someone I follow on Instagram mentioned it was a great read. I would also love to highlight Shantaram as one of my favourite books of all time, supposedly based on a true story (but some of it sounds exaggerated).
Listen To Some Podcasts
I do love listening to Diary of a CEO, but I find all of the videos (which are normally around 1.5 hours long) are paused at the five minute mark as I simply don’t have the time to watch it all.
A holiday provides you with time on the plane, travelling to the hotel, time by the pool and even time at the airport. Of course, if you want to make the most of the plane journey, then you will have to download the episodes as you won’t have access to the internet.
This is also where noise cancelling headphones can be really useful, as airports are so loud and it can feel impossible to concentrate on what’s being said, unless you get a decent pair.
You could even download a podcast which covers the area you’re visiting! That could be a travel guide or a fun story about someone from the area, or even maybe a historical figure that has statues or plays a strong role in the city.
Plan Your Holiday Itinerary
That free time can be used to ensure your holiday plan goes smoothly, whether that’s working out the travel time between activities or landmarks, ensuring you have tickets saved on your phone wallet or looking up new ideas.
I personally like using Google Sheets, but everyone has a preferred option. I also like Trello as that has a drag and drop system, while many others prefer to use their phone calendar as that can have reminders built-in.
Having tickets saved on your phone wallet really is a key point, as I’ve visited famous landmarks like the Sagrada Familia and couldn’t load the digital ticket as I had no internet connection, which was really frustrating. Since then, I always make sure I have it before leaving the hotel.
You also might find that, while you have planned out some good activities, there could be a few hidden gems that haven’t yet made your list. While you’re searching, you can also check for discounts or special offers, to see if you can save some money for when you arrive.
