Holiday at Home - Bookings

This is a good time to say that from the very beginning that this series has been created for adults on their own, or with partners. I feel children's holidays have a lot of air time and I 
hope in this series to give the adults some TLC!

After the last blog, you will by now have three things sorted out:

Your holiday time will be booked in the calendar for a month or six weeks time.

• You will have decided what kind of holiday you would like: Calming, restorative or energizing. 
• You will have looked around your house and made headway with starting to get it in to shape. 

This blog is going to help with planning your well-being time during your 'Holiday At Home'. 

I have always taken the first two days of my holidays at home to deal with the things that will set me up to feel fantastic during my time off, but I don't want to have them take up time in the middle of the vacation. These are treatments that are great to have and look after you, but you may not feel that they fit into the bracket of things you want to dedicate holiday days to. So, get the calender out and book up these treatments to start your holiday on a high! 

1. Get in touch with your hairdresser. They often get booked up about a month before the time that you want to see them, so get it organized soon. A fresh trim, a re-color, or a total new look will help you set the mood for your holiday. 
2. Make a booking with your Beauty Therapist for your Manicure and Pedicure. You would get these done before you left the country for a holiday and so you should do them just before you Holiday at Home. There is no difference - you are still taking time for you. They will make you feel well cared for and happy feet and toes are always a great thing to enjoy.
3. If you have a regular wax, get it all done before your holiday. You really don't want to be bothering about it half way through your special time off. 

If you are taking a week off instead of two I recommend that you book these for evenings just before your holiday so they don't actually get involved in time off at all. 

Now, these bookings need to be made personal to you as you know whether you would like a calming, restorative or energizing holiday, so use these tips as a starting point and go from there. 

Exercise

 It is important to look after your total body wellness and holidays are a great time to do that. So many people go to Yoga retreats, boot camps, Pilates training, running camps etc. So why not do it from home on your holiday? 

If you are after an energizing time, talk to your personal trainer and ask them if they are available for a few extra slots during your time off. You can concentrate on some high intensity work, muscle training, perfect your running, and get some energy buzzing around. Spend time with them crafting a plan that will up lift you and keep you motivated. The other option is to go to your local gym and ask if they are running mini-courses for adults. At our local pool they offer mini-courses for people to get better at swimming and the gym offers week long morning courses to help with weight training for example. 

If Calming is more your thing, look at your local yoga or Pilates studio and ask if they are running courses or you can book in for a daily session with them in the early mornings. Using the early mornings to work on a gentle form of movement sets you up for your day well and then you have the rest of the time to do other things you want to enjoy. 

If you are like me and work out from home, then get some new DVD's from people you like and make a schedule for the time off when you dedicate time to move a bit more each day of your holiday. You can also mix this with a couple of sessions at the Pilates and Yoga studios, or the gym and pool to make a change, or you can just stick with what you love best! 

What ever you choose to do you need to book it up and make sure it is scheduled into the diary! Studios and Personal Trainers get busy, so you need to make this booking a priority along with your treatments so you are not disappointed when you get to your Holiday at Home. 

Holistic Therapy

As a therapist I know that my diary gets booked up three to four weeks in advance, and so if I am planning my Holidays at Home I know that I need to book my massage and facial appointments with my own therapists at least six weeks in advance to make sure I get time on the couch! 

Massage is great and Holidays at Home allow you to get a couple of extra treatments in. You can mix and match these with relaxing aromatherapy and Swedish based treatments, or you can have a couple that you have never tried before - maybe a LaStone treatment? 

Skin Care Treatments are relaxing and a lot of therapists offer mini-course for skin care so you can concentrate on a particular issue and spend quality time trying to help it. 

Look at what you enjoy the most; massage, facials, reflexology, acupuncture, etc and book it in around your holiday and maybe go for a couple more sessions than normal to make your time off extra special. 

Step back and take a look.

By now you should be able to look at your diary and see a good shape coming together around your vacation. You will be able to see the theme of your holiday and be able to work out if you are going to utilize the mornings for your exercise and holistic therapy so you can get more out of your days, or if you are going to make it a relaxing spa holiday and allow your bookings to make up the bulk of your time. 

In the next blog, we will look at the two week marker: What is out there that you would like to do as far as shows, exhibitions, lunches as well as quality you time.

So get booking and start to get really excited about your Holiday at Home!