Way back in 2003, my co-founders and
I launched Original Travel with what we
felt then (and still do now) was a rather clever
idea: the “Big Short Break”. Until that point,
a long weekend away most likely meant a few
nights in Paris, Barcelona or — if you were
feeling particularly adventurous — New York.
We all subconsciously realised that what our
dear departed AA Gill once called, ypically
succinctly, “an espresso break” could provide
us with a short sharp hit of otherness, but
the options just weren’t there.
Enter three blokes with an idea in a spare
bedroom and a list of new flight routes, and
Overnight sensations^ >^ For the ideal short
break, go long haul. By Tom Barber
the world was suddenly our oyster.
Everywhere we offered had to work from
a flight perspective for maximum experience
from minimum time of, but the key factor
had to be “bragabiliy”. Was the guy at next
door’s desk on a Monday morning going to die
a litle on the inside when you tell him you’d just
been mushing your team of purebred Siberian
huskies through the snowy forests of Swedish
Lapland at the weekend? If yes, job done.
Fiteen years later, we ofer much, much
more but our Big Short Breaks remain hugely
popular because when executed perfectly
they can make it feel like you’ve been away fora week or more without having to tackle an
email mountain on your return. Joy unconfined.
So, here are a few ideas for Big Short Breaks
emphasising long haul destinations. Before
we start, though, a few basic principles: to
make the most of the long weekend you have
to hit the ground running on arrival, so try to
adapt to your destination time a day before,
or push on through with a big first night.
Secondly, it really helps to turn let on the flight
because a few hours kip in the poiny end of
the plane can make all the diference, especially
on the return leg if you want to look/feel even
half human as you walk into work.54 Style