My mom and I have gone on a trip together every year for the past decade. We’ve mastered the art of planning them.

• Once I moved out of my parents’ house, my mom and I decided to go on a trip together every year.
• Our mom-and-me trips have become one of my favorite traditions, and we prioritize planning them.
• We keep the trips great by not overplanning our itineraries and getting reccomendations from locals.

Moving out of my parents’ house in Connecticut to take my first “big girl” job in Manhattan wasn’t easy.

I’m an only child, and my mom and I have always been close; we missed spending so much time together. So, the move inspired us to make a promise that’s become one of my most beloved traditions: Every year, we’ll plan a special getaway, just the two of us.

Since then, we’ve traveled to many places together, from California’s wine country to Florida’s white-sand shores. And after 10 years and counting, we have the planning part down pat.

Here are a few ways we make the most of our mother-daughter trips.

We never jam-pack our itinerary

In our daily life, my mom and I are strict planners. But when traveling, we prefer a flexible approach with a general itinerary and lots of wiggle room for spontaneity.

So, when planning, we choose just three or four “must-do” activities, then leave the rest of the getaway open for opportunity.

For example, on our San Luis Obispo (SLO) adventure, our nonnegotiables were biking the iconic Railroad Path, hiking Madonna Mountain, and sipping wine along the coast.

We dedicated chunks of our trip to each of those activities, but otherwise kept our days free. This allowed us to slow down, explore, and embrace unexpected local experiences.

On a whim, we ended up stopping by the Madonna Inn for its decadent pink champagne cake and discovering the sweetest wine-tasting room and boutique, Sextant, nestled within a secret garden.

It’s fun staying flexible and never knowing what local gems we might discover.

Instead of making restaurant reservations, we speak to locals and get creative

Unless there’s a to-die-for restaurant we must try, we don’t make dinner reservations in advance.

Though it’s untraditional, we’ve discovered it’s much more exciting to find foodie gems recommended by locals or fellow travelers we meet at our destinations.

Really, some of our best meals have also been pretty last-minute and lowkey.

One of our favorite dinners in SLO was one we pieced together while strolling through the downtown farmers market. We brought a bunch of local goodies (including wine, rice bowls, and doughnuts) back to our hotel balcony and ate while watching rom-coms.

Though it was nothing fancy, our meal was made even better because we got to binge-watch movies together, just the two of us. It’s one of our favorite pastimes we don’t get to do together the rest of the year.

I turn our memories into photo books after every trip

Throughout each adventure, I take notes and lots of pictures so I can turn them into a book for my mom.

It’s a way to capture the most special moments and laughs from our trip, plus it’s a Christmas gift she looks forward to receiving.

In the books, I also write down memories — even the embarrassing ones — like that time in Redding, California, when Mom almost fell out of her kayak or when I got us a bit lost in the rolling hills of SLO.

Though unnerving at the time, we still laugh about those moments to this day, and it’s nice to have an easy way to look back on them.

Lastly, we never put off making a plan

These trips are possible because we’ve made them a tradition and prioritize planning them.

Life gets busy, and it’s easier to make excuses than to compare schedules and book flights. However, my mom and I try to never put off ’til tomorrow what we can do today.

Instead of waiting for the “best” time to travel or holding out for bucket-list destinations, we work with the dates and resources we have.

After all, our time together is precious, even if we can only plan a weekend jaunt not too far from home.

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