10 Day Trips And Weekend Breaks From The City To Take Before Summer Ends.

If you were not able to take the big Caribbean vacation you dreamed of this year, at least consider a small escape from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Here are 10 short day trips or weekend breaks from the city to go on before summer ends.

I. Go To The Beach

New York is less than 15 miles from the beach. If you too are located in a city near the ocean or the sea rent a car for the day and visit or make it a thing and stay overnight!

II. Go Visit A Historic Village

The key to this day trip is to find a village that is preserved. Typically the people who live in historic villages are not only stewards but are also historians and can offer insight into your cultural heritage.

Colmar, a historic town in the Alsace region, in eastern France bordering Germany — a 2 hour train ride from Paris.

III. Go To A Music Festival

If a music festival sounds like a good idea consider one that is outdoors, not inside a stadium. This way you’ll have to travel outside the city. This website has all of the music festivals categorized by country.

one-africa-fest-tekno — The One Africa Music Fest, right outside Lagos, Nigeria.

IV. Go To An Outdoor Retreat

The biggest trend in self care is retreats such as yoga retreats or rejuvenation retreats, they are popping up in every country. But they prescribe total isolation. It is meant to get you outside your normal routine, in nature, without distractions. To be on the safe side, take your own secret supply of wine.

img-3906_1_orig — Yoga Retreat, Costa Rica.

V. Go Wine Tasting

While you can go wine tasting all year, there is something about sitting outdoors at a beautiful estate, sipping wine and looking out over the valley. Am I right?

140826133353-napa-valley-chappellet-2-horizontal-large-gallery.jpg — Wine tasting, Napa Valley, California.

VI. Go Clam Digging

Whether you like clam digging or oyster shucking the best experience is outdoors. In Point Reyes, California, a few hours outside San Francisco, fishermen serve oysters by the bucket. Take a load of friends and a barrel of booze and smoke your clams or shuck raw oysters and eat until the sun goes down.

oystersweb — Oysters. Point Reyes, California.

VII. Go To The River

Do this one with friends. At the River you can go jet-skiing, river rafting or kayaking. And after it is all over hang out at the water as the sun sets and talk about how amazing the day was.

River rafting in Manali, India right outside Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh..

VII. Go Bird Watching

Try something new, go bird watching. There really isn’t a bad time to try this sport, but we hear in the summer birds are trying to attract mates and they frequently sing. Depending on the species, it is supposed to be a magical experience.

Golden-Winged Warbler typically found in southeastern and south-central Canada and the Appalachian Mountains northeastern to north-central United States.

IX. Go Cheese Tasting

Creameries are loaded with tourists during the summer months, establishment owners offer tours of the factory and cheese tasting with wine pairings. The cool thing is, you learn so much about cheese and wine that when you return to the city you are the life of the party with your friends.

cheese_wedge_cutting — Farmstead Cheese factory in Point Reyes.

Kuba-Hemmerling-652x507 — Farmstead Cheese factory in Point Reyes.

X. Go On A Nature Walk

To be fair we realize an amazing location like the one below is not within easy reach for most of us, but if you are in cities in the Carolina’s or Michigan, you’ve got this right outside your city limits. Take advantage of it!