The three-city rule that fixed my burnout from 'seeing everything'

My first Europe trip was eleven cities in sixteen days, and I came home needing a vacation from my vacation. I remember almost nothing specific — just a blur of train platforms and museum lines.

The three-city rule is the fix: pick three cities, minimum four nights each, and delete everything in between. The math is not complicated — fewer transitions means fewer half-days lost to checking in and checking out, which means more actual time existing somewhere instead of arriving and leaving it.

The unexpected benefit was routine. By night three in a city, I had a coffee place. A walk I liked. A sense of which direction was which without checking a map. That feeling — not the landmarks — turned out to be the entire thing I had been traveling for and skipping past.

I still see fewer "top ten" sites per trip than I used to. I remember actual afternoons instead of a highlight reel. That is the trade, and it was a good one.

Part of the deeper dive: The Budget-Smart Guide to Traveling More Often for Less.