Many vacations provide you with more free time than you know what to do with. After the first couple of days unwinding from the every-day stress of “normal” life and when you have had time to unwind, you may start to feel bored. This is why it’s recommended to plan ahead and bring things to occupy the extra free time you’ll have when you are away on a trip or vacation. These are also great things to have in case the weather is just not really good and you get stuck indoors.

Top hobbies that you can take on your vacation (some are not as good for a cruise, but you can tell which work for what kind of trip):

1. Photography – whether you are taking photos of your friends or family, or beauty shots of the places you will visit, photography is a great thing to plan ahead for (don’t just make it an afterthought). You may need to think about a good photo album for your photos (see some here – photo albums). If you are using a digital camera, bring extra memory chips. You may need electrical adapters for power supplies in foreign countries. Do your research on the type of electrical outlets that are used in the places you plan to visit. If your camera or flash device uses batteries, bring along extras! Here is a photography website with tips for digital photography.
2. Scrapbooking – Your photos can be saved up to use in a scrapbook to have a memory book about your trip, so take pictures with your scrapbook in mind. Also, save mementos and other souvenirs that will be flat enough to put in a scrapbook. These things you can save and bring home make excellent scrapbooking embellishments. Plus you can buy some stickers or other scrapbook embellishments after you return home.
3. Music – Take along your mp3 player, iPod or other device to listen to your favorite music. Another more radical idea is to take along an instrument, escpecially if you are trying to learn to play one. For example, you could get those guitar lessons, because of a dream to learn to play guitar and take them along when you will have some time to actually use them! A course on DVD would be great if you can bring along a DVD player or a laptop computer to view your lessons on.
4. Books – This goes without saying that you may want something to read in your time off. Books, magazines and puzzles or crossword books are always so great to have around on a vacation. Check out the book reviews and see what you thing you’d like to read.
5. Needlework - Small needlework projects (knitting, crochet or embroidery) are wonderful to have around when on a trip – especially if your trip includes a long plane ride.

Hopefully, you’ll have so much sunny weather on your vacation or trip, you won’t have to spend too much time indoors with your hobbies or reading. But just in case, plan ahead to make your next vacation the best one it can be.