Travelers can hear it in the back of their minds. It is the clock ticking once those travels start. It is the common plight of the traveler. We could always use more time on our travels whether for sleep or just to enjoy getting lost in somewhere new. There are elements to travel however that can eat away at the visitor’s time. From baggage claim loitering to long layovers, here are five travel tips to free up that extra hour in the day when you travel.

Avoid lengthy flight layovers and multiple connections: One of the easiest ways to increase your time with a destination comes in the booking process. While the flights with 22-hour layovers and 10 connections are often the cheapest, they are not always the best if you are looking to have more time at your destination. Not only will you arrive disgruntled over waiting hours on end in the airport, but also you can’t get that time and energy back. You might sleep off the first few days at your destination because of the lengthy layovers and multiple connections on the trip over. Examine the price of a ticket that offers less layover time and fewer connections. It is usually worth the extra cost if you want more time on your travels and energy for that matter.

Get up early: You might love to hit the snooze button at home, but while traveling, you should try to break this routine if you are looking for an extra hour in the travel day.   Most attractions aren’t open in the evening hours for night owls, so you might as well rise earlier to have more time with your destination.

Use carry-on luggage: If you started clocking all of the hours you spend at baggage claim waiting for the conveyor belt to make a sudden motion and bags to drop, you might be very depressed. It is like those statistics that tell you how many years of your life you spend watching television commercials. You know it’s an obscene amount of time, but you don’t really want to know. Carry-on luggage can easily speed up your travel time and cut back those hours spent at baggage claim. Some airports are speedier with baggage claim than others. If you know one airport is particular tardy with bags, try to carry-on your bag instead and save what can be 45 minutes to an hour each way.

Schedule an extra day when you can: Whether it is business trips or just ordinary vacations, if you can add on an extra day to your travels, your time will magically open up. Whenever I schedule Thursday-to-Thursday flights, I always regret it. I might think I have a full week with my destination, but I don’t. With this mindset, you fail to realize that the two days spent arriving and departing are often just travel days. If you book a week vacation, tack on an extra day if you can. This will open that time you lost in transit getting to and from your destination that you thought would be more time with the locale.

Plan less: In a few weeks I will be in New York for a short weekend. I immediately started listing out all of things I wanted to see and all of the people I wanted to catch up with on my stay. I quickly stopped this insane list that didn’t warrant much time for sleeping or eating. If you don’t have a lot of time on your travels to begin with, as is the case with three-night stays in a city, don’t plan too much. You will end up far too busy and stressed in three days. By planning less, you have that extra travel time that always seems to be lacking: the time for just getting lost in a destination.  

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