I recently thought that if I were reading this and had never taken a ridiculously long trip, my question to me would be, "Dave, what's a typical day like for you?"

After traveling 9+ weeks, most days fall into one of three categories: a) The Travel Day, b) The Activity Day, or c) The Vacation Day.

On travel days I get moved from point to point (hopefully) by bus, plane, train, boat, bashee, moto, missionary in a Landcruiser or some combination of the above. I walk, wait, read, talk to locals, fend off knick knack peddlers and touts, eat street food and wait some more. I eventually get dropped off in the wrong spot and lug my bags to a few guesthouses or cheap hotels before finding a room. Travel days are hectic, exciting, full of surprises. There's an adrenaline rush from arriving someplace for the first time. Even when the travel time is only a few hours, I'm always exhausted at the end.

On an activity day I pay a company to keep me busy. (The opposite of your current situation). They gather up the tourists and put us through the drill--safari, hiking, rafting, sightseeing, etc. I benefit from their cultural expertise, local knowledge and driving ability. Or maybe from their cooking, lifesaving, animal-spotting skills or what have you. Activity days are the best way to meet other travelers; it's always interesting to see who you get thrown into the fire with.

If the above are the meat and potatos, then the vacation day is the glass of Bordeaux. On these days I make the effort to eat well, drink well and keep good company. Or maybe I sit in a park filling out postcards. Or I knock off a novel on the beach. Or I rent a bike or check espn.com to see if the Red Wings are still in first place with their 2 overpaid goaltenders. Or I happen across a good band at a local bar. The possibilities are endless. The beauty of vacation days is that you never know what's around that next corner.

I must add that it's important to use vacation days to plan upcoming travel and activity days. How to get there with the least hassle, where to stay, what tour company to use. Well spent vacation days enhance the flavor of those travel and activity days.

So that's it. I don't know the optimum Travel-Activity-Vacation day ratio, but it's worked fine so far.