A Love of Adventure and Each Other

Sarah and I met in the summer of 1998. We began dating shortly thereafter and were married in October of 2001. We were young and just starting out in our careers (Jeremy as a web designer and Sarah as a paralegal), so travel was not a priority for us in those early days of our relationship. Instead, we focused on buying a home and starting a family. Our son, Jacob, was born in 2004 and his sister, Holly, followed in 2006.   

The Birth of Brief Visits

The seed for "Brief Visits" was planted in 2015 after Sarah and I took a trip to Iceland. I had celebrated my 40th birthday that year and rather than throw some big party or buy some material item I really did not need, we decided to spend a week in Iceland to (hopefully) see the Northern Lights. The aurora was something we had both always wanted to witness, so we figured this special trip was a perfect excuse to do so.

The trip to Iceland was incredible (it is recounted here), but it was what happened once we returned home that would set the stage for this site. As we began to share pictures of our trip on Facebook, our friends and family started to ask us lots and lots of questions. People who had considered a vacation to Iceland came out of the woodwork and asked for our advice on places to go and things to see in the country. As we had these conversations, we realized how much we enjoyed sharing our travel experiences with others. We also began to consider where we wanted to go next! Looking into some "wish list" destinations, we realized that if we were willing to travel on off-days and if we planned shorter trips rather than week-plus long excursions, we could definately work these travel plans into our budget. We began to call these little trips "brief visits" and the idea for this site was hatched.

Why a "Brief Visit"?

When we talk to others about the value of taking short trips, the most common pushback comments we get are - "Is 3 or 4 days really enough to see everything?" and "Doesn't it make more sense to do a longer trip to make the transportation costs worth it?"

First off - no, you cannot see everything in just 3 or 4 days, but realistically you would not be able to see everything even if you spent 10 times that long! Brief visits force you to prioritize what you want to see and do, but you can absolutely get a wonderful sense of a place, and experience some of the best a location has to offer, even if you only have a few days at that location.

Second - yes, it could be true that the cost of a flight may be the same whether you visit a place for 4 days or 2 weeks. This is why many people argue against a short trip. To get the most out of the transportation expenses that trip will require, they suggest a longer trip is better since it gives you "more bang for your buck." I disagree.

While it is true that flight costs may be largely the same when comparing a shorter and a longer trip, every single other expense will be greater for that lengthier visit. Lodging costs, meals and entertainment, and rental cars will all cost you more money the longer your trip is. There are also costs like airport parking or pet boarding that will increase as your stay away gets longer. Calculate the full cost of the longer trip and what you are likely to find is that it is prohibitively expensive. You can start to save up to take that trip later, but for Sarah and myself, we decided that we'd rather do shorter trips that we can more easily afford, allowing us to experience more places by embracing this concept of "brief visits."