How to Create a Home Base

Adventure is a State of Mind

I received a question about creating a home base for an adventure, so I thought I’d expand on the Tuesday Travel Tip #2.

The Benefits of Having a “Home”

Along the same lines as trying not to do too much in one day, your trip will also be more enjoyable if you don’t try to travel to too many locations over the course of the trip. In my younger travel days, I took some trips where I stayed in a different place every single night. Yes, I covered a lot of ground, but much of it was viewed from train and car windows.

Whenever changing locations, it’s important to remember that it takes time, time, and more time. There is the time you spend repacking your suitcase and loading your car or repacking and traveling to the train or ferry station where you will have to wait to board. Then there is the time en route to your next location, the time it takes to find your lodgings, and the time checking in and figuring out things like where there is a good restaurant nearby because you’re starving from traveling all day!

Having a “home base,” or possibly two or three home bases over the course of a two week trip, can not only save time but reduce stress. With a little planning, it is often very manageable to make multiple day trips from a central location. And when you do that, you only need to carry the things you need for the day rather than taking all of your bags with you to the next place you’re going to sleep.

Think Small

I often choose a smaller town as a home base which usually means less expensive and quieter options when deciding where to stay. And there is a very special feeling in repeatedly visiting a small local bakery or cafe over the course of several days and having the proprietor recognize you…and in some countries possibly give you a hug or a kiss on the cheek!

If, like me, you prefer not to drive or to try to find your way around an unfamiliar town in the dark, having a home base means that you can spend your daylight hours having adventures and then come “home” right before the sun goes down rather than interrupting your adventures because you need to move on to the next location and find your lodging.

Figuring Out the Time To and From Your Base

Once you’ve identified your home base(s), you can figure out and add travel time into your plans. Google Maps is indispensable at this point. Many years ago, the option was looking at a map or train schedule and trying to estimate (usually incorrectly) the amount of time the traveler needed to allow to transition between locations.

Now, in Google Maps, I put in the points we are traveling between and indicate the means of travel — walking, driving, bus, or train. For example, I might start with figuring out the time needed to travel by a metro train from the airport to the metro station nearest the bed and breakfast where we plan to stay. Then I add in the amount of time estimated to walk from the metro station to the bed and breakfast. And, of course, I allow extra time for all of the possible snafus…or getting lost!

The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings.

Kakuzo Okakura

Adapting Based on Your Needs

Sometimes, at this point, I’ll realize that the home base I’ve picked does not work well with the activities we’ve chosen because of travel time. For example, perhaps you’ve decided to stay outside of Paris. This might be perfect if you want to spend a lot of time in the countryside with a day trip into metropolitan Paris for one day. However, if everything you want to do is an hour train ride (each way) into Paris, it might make more sense to stay in the city.

Take some time to daydream about what you see yourself doing on your trip. If you fantasize spending late evenings drinking and talking with locals and then stumbling home to your hotel, staying in the city would make the most sense. On the other hand, if you envision yourself waking up to birdsong and walking across a small town square to visit the local bakery for picnic supplies to take on a road trip through the countryside, then you’re going to love staying in a small town that you had never heard of before planning your trip.

Choosing

A friend once asked me how I pick which small towns to visit or in which to stay. Honestly, my method is just slightly more sophisticated than throwing a dart or rolling dice. Occasionally when I’ve read travel blogs or books, I’ve come across descriptions of small towns, and if they sound especially beautiful, historical, or interesting, I’ll start exploring those towns with the use of the internet.

Many times, however, I start with a map and then randomly pick small towns in a location central to the various places where we want to visit. Then reading about the towns, looking at photos on the internet, and searching for lodging usually help make the decision. An additional but very important step is looking at train schedules if we are planning to use the train as our primary mode of transportation — it’s an easy decision to eliminate a town as a potential home base if the train stops there only once a day!

Look at a map of where you plan to visit on your next adventure–is it a good home base location for other places you want to visit? If not, zoom out and look at other towns that are between different locations you want to visit. Would one of them make a good home base for your adventure?