5 ideas for long weekend getaways

Memorial Day is just around the corner, and that means a three-day weekend for most of us! Maybe you spend your three day weekends lounging at home and binge-watching your latest Netflix series. But we've got a better idea--how about grabbing a couple of friends, and getting away from it all?  

We're huge fans of the weekend getaway--especially if we can tag an extra vacation or personal day onto a three day weekend.  So, here are our top five suggestions for long weekends.

1. Explore a European City.

Have we lost our minds? No. No, we have not. While it might seem like Europe's far away, if you've got four days to spend, and you happen to be on the East Coast, a long weekend in Europe is totally do-able. Case in point--we once went with our friends Sean and Kevin to Madrid for a few days. We left on Thursday night from JFK, flew directly to Madrid, Took Friday, Saturday and Sunday to explore Madrid. We visited the Prado (still one of the most amazing museums I've ever visited), ate lots of incredible food, and even managed to do a day trip to Toledo! We flew home on Monday, which happened to be the holiday. But by tacking on one extra vacation day, we had a full and fun trip. It was super easy, too!

photo licensed from Shutterstock

2. An All-Inclusive Carribean or Mexico Resort.

In March, we had a late-winter snowstorm on the East Coast, so it might not have been a coincidence that we got a call from Emilia and Jake, who had a pretty simple request. They wanted to go somewhere warm for a long weekend. They didn't care where. All they wanted was four or five days, a warm beach, and a direct flight from their home airport.  And it needed to come in at under $1,000 per person, including air.  48 hours later, we'd booked their trip, and just two weeks after that, they were on the beach in Punta Cana, at a fantastic resort. And they didn't have to search themselves to death on the internet to find it! Sometimes, you just want to lie on a beach and chill out. We get that. Call us. We can help!

3. Vegas, Baby!

Full disclosure, if we've got a three-day weekend, more often than not, we go to Vegas. It's a fun long weekend with friends, whether or not you gamble. We make a list of all of the celebrity chef restaurants we want to try and then eat our way up and down the Strip. We find a fun show to see--maybe one of the Cirque du Soleil shows, or maybe a legendary recording artist in concert (in the past, we've seen Barry Manilow, Styx and most recently, Britney Spears). And, if you do like to gamble, we highly recommend learning Pai Gow Poker. It's a great way to lose your money slooooowly.

photo licensed by Shutterstock

4. Take a cruise!

Maybe you're not sold on cruises. We think that's a mistake, but how about giving it a shot with a short 3- or 4-night cruise? Nearly every cruise line has short itineraries to the Bahamas. But you can also cruise to Cuba on either Norwegian or Royal Carribean on a 4-night itinerary, as well. Both of those lines are preferred cruise lines for us--meaning we can almost certainly find you a great deal with some fabulous amenities. Princess Cruises--another of our preferred suppliers, has some really fun west-coast cruises ranging from 1- (yes, only one night on board) to 4- nights. Check out the Pacific northwest, wine country, or the Pacific coast of Mexico, and have a fabulous relaxing trip. The great thing about cruising is that you can visit a few different destinations, and you only have to unpack once!

5. A Roller-Coaster Extravaganza.

Of course, the theme parks of Orlando are obvious choices (and both Disney and Orlando are preferred travel providers with our agency), but if you really want to focus on incredible roller coasters, you need to call us so that we can book your flight to Cleveland, rent a car for you, and get you to Cedar Point, in Sandusky, Ohio. Cedar Point is the roller coaster capital of the world, if you ask me. We have family in Ohio, so it's fairly easy to tie in a visit to Cedar Point when visiting them.  But we've also planned a long weekend where we flew in from New York, and our relatives from Chicago drove a few hours, and we spent a really fun day riding the most thrilling coasters imaginable!