Time Consuming Travel Days

No matter how well you plan your transportation, long-term travel will mean long traveling days at some point. We know of some travelers who’ve clocked 25-40 hours of travel before reaching their destination. I remember back in my college days, driving from northern Washington to northern California for 15 hours, straight through, with minimal stops. Why does the same drive feel twice as long now that I am in my 50’s? Travel was easier when we were younger, but since we are “old” we’ve learned to embrace the travel day as a journey within itself.

Generally, we prefer the slower mode of travel, spending 2-4 weeks in each location because it reduces the amount of time spent on transportation. Fast vacationing by visiting 5 countries in 6 days is not our idea of fun. When we started our travel in 2025, we started so slow that we took a 16-day trans-Atlantic cruise to our first destination. Our 2026 itinerary started a bit faster because we chose to fly through USA destinations to visit family in Ohio and Oklahoma. Therefore, we had some rapid (for us) transportation with longer travel days to reach our destination of Caen, France. Here’s how it played out.

Monday: We flew from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Charlotte (3hours), then North Carolina to Newark, New Jersey (2 hours). It was basically a day of wandering around the airports. Relax. Settle in. Accept it.

Tuesday: We flew from Newark, New Jersey to Dublin, Ireland (6.5 hours overnight), then onward to Paris, France (2 hours). Again, more airports. Just embrace it and go-with-the-flow.

Once we arrived in Paris, we did not have a specific plan to get to our destination of Caen, France in the Normandy region. This “wing-it” approach was new to us, but we had been warned about possible delays with the European Entry/Exit system (EES) and did not want to risk missing a prepaid train or bus. Based on previous research though, we knew that both trains and the Flixbus were available, but they were located on the other side of Paris requiring a rideshare or a series of public transportation to access them. By knowing some of the information, and calling this a travel-day, we could minimize the anxiety and stress of travel. We didn’t have to get agitated when one airport worker gave us some misinformation about the buses at the airport. We simply took another breath, turned our observation skills to a higher level, and used some dogged persistence to follow our instincts to the small outbuilding marked as “Billettes”. The kind lady at that ticket office spoke a little bit of English and confirmed for us that there was ONE Flixbus that would depart from our location at the airport in about 2 hours, while other busses depart from the city center across town. So, we bought two tickets for the convenient bus and settled in to wait. By putting aside the anxiety and worry, it allowed us to put our feet up, have a snack, and people-watch in France.

When the bus arrived at the Caen Train station, we gathered our baggage and went in search of the next mode of transportation. Our AirBNB host advertised bus and tram services at the base of the apartment, we just had to figure out which lines - which tickets - which times. Though it took a lot of looking around, we finally found the tram station on the opposite side of the train station and each side of the tracks had electronic kiosks for ticket purchases. Comparing the map on the wall to the address on Apple maps, we determined which lines would finally take us to the apartment where we could finally rest. The kiosk operated like so many others we used before, but after our lengthy travel days, we were both tired and slightly impatient.

• Pick a language? English

• Buy a new card or top-up an existing card? New card

• How many journeys? 1 journey for 1 hour

• How many travelers? 2

• Please pay

**Flixbus operates in 40 countries across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. They had very clean, comfortable bucket seats with decent legroom. We put our small suitcases under the bus while our backpacks went into the rack above our seat. Each high-backed seat was equipped with a seatbelt and footrest. We were so tired that sleep overcame us for about half the ride preventing us from observing all the green countryside.

Two minutes later, the tram slid up beside us. We boarded and validated our ticket on the card reader by the doors. Then we watched the electronic reader board list off the two stops before it was time to depart and search for the apartment. Finally. There it was with the keypad entrance just as our host had described. We made it into the apartment and opened all of the doors and drawers with excitement before we flopped down on the deep sofa and began to rest.

Overall, when travel days are long and we must navigate planes, trains, buses, trams, or cars, we are learning don’t resist. We’ve learned to build the travel days into the travel plan. We get to the airports or stations early enough to put our feet up and chill. We plan to pass the extra time by people watching, shopping, eating, or using our electronics. And, believe it or not, with this mindset airport security isn’t as stressful either. Even when Greg got pulled aside for a water bottle that he forgot to empty, we didn’t have anxiety because our travel day had plenty of time built in. So, remember to lean into the experience and surrender yourself to the travel time.