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Though speed-running the major sights in any city you visit is not the recommended way to enjoy your travels, sometimes we only have a set amount of time and want to make the most of it.

On a recent trip to Europe, that was exactly the situation for not one, not two, but three cities I would be visiting. Packing our trip as tightly as we could, my fiancée and I were only able to squeeze in a day in Berlin, London and Paris to do our best and see what there was to see before we had to fly back stateside and return to normal life.

And as inconvenient as it was, we did it, and I am happy with everything we were able to see. We managed to do a lot in cities that you could spend your whole life exploring and still not completely traverse. Below is exactly how we did it and how you can make the most on your next trip.

4. Priorities

You need to know what you want to see most before you get there. Time spent scrambling on your phone reading listicles about the best things to do in that city is time not spent doing the best things to do in that city. So, it’s important to think ahead.

For famous cities like the ones we visited, it’s easy to know what the major sights are and set a course for those. For lesser-known destinations, it’s important to come armed with knowledge and your priorities straight.

It’s also good to know exactly how your most crucial bucket list items rank against each other so you don’t have to worry about making last-minute decisions when you are time-crunched and can only fit in a certain amount of activities.

3. Packing Lightly

Walking around with suitcases and backpacks and purses can really weigh you down. In cities with uneven roads, sharp turns and narrow alleys, it can make it extra hard to navigate quickly to what you need to see.

It is also an important factor when it comes to where you are staying. Many hotels have set check-in and check-out times, and you could easily end up hauling your luggage with you to the Eiffel Tower or the London Eye.

Though packing lightly is not always possible for extended trips, every ounce counts when lightening your load on the off chance you can’t find a place to put it.

2. Transit Passes

One way to take away the hassle of trying to figure out local transit as you go is to buy a ticket that covers unlimited trips over a certain period of time. Whether that be the 24 transit passes we bought in London, Paris and Berlin or the Amsterdam transit tickets that let us take as many trips as we wanted around the city without constantly adding up costs or buying tickets for each trip.

If you don’t plan on taking transit, having a car rented or the local version of a ridesharing app downloaded beforehand can go a long way in speeding up your transit so you can make it across the city in time to see everything, though ridesharing may be your slowest and most expensive option depending on the number of sights you’ll be seeing.

1. Plan Using a Map

This is the number one tip that seems obvious but is also something we often forget. In a haste, one might be inclined to just think of the sights they want to see the most and see them in that order, but depending on how your target city is laid out, that could mean making many unnecessary trips and going back and forth all the way across the city because you weren’t aware of where everything was located.

Before I travel to a city, I pull the map up on my phone (or even better, look at a physical map) and search for the main things I want to see, noting their general area and distance from where I’ll be staying. This way, I can set a logical itinerary based around one general path, with each thing leading to the next.

It seems superfluous, but this trick has saved me tons of time on trips and made the whole experience much more enjoyable. It almost makes it feel like you are on your own guided tour of the city, making your way through the best of what it has to offer.

Conclusion

Though it sucks to be strapped for time when trying your best to soak in a new local culture, it won’t be the end of the world. As long as you know your priorities, pack lightly, do a little transit research, and use resources like maps to your advantage, you’ll be able to take on any city in 24 hours and still see almost everything you’d hoped for.

If you can help it, be sure to give yourself plenty of time and a flexible schedule to be able to truly enjoy your destination. But in a pinch, you’ll still be able to get around where you want to with no trouble.