I Just recently took a trip to Nashville, Tennessee. It was a unruly 11 hours there which left us with only 36 hours to really be able to take in all that Nashville had to offer. I quickly realized there was a list of sites I wanted to see and things I wanted to do but I was limited with the amount of time I had in the city. Here are a list of tips to be able to get the best out of your weekend "vacay" and fit as much as possible in to a small time frame.

Plan.

You're going to have to figure out where you want to go ahead of time in order to make this work or else you're going to wasting precious time. Figure out where you want to go and what is most important to you to experience in the place you are trying to explore.

Take advantage of the entire day.

This isn't the time to be sleeping in and lallygagging around your hotel room. Wake up early and get a head start. More than likely the rest of the city you're visiting will still be sleeping and/or still drunk from the night before so you'll have the town to yourself.

Coffee needs to be your BFF.

Drink up people, the more energy you have the more enjoyable your day is going to be (I'm speaking from experience here). If you're awake from 8 a.m until the wee hours of the next morning you're going to need all the help you can get energy wise. Enjoy your day filled with energy, not feeling like you want to go back to your hotel room and take a snooze.

Ask the locals.

The locals will tell you what's worth seeing. They know the best spots and what attractions are really worth going to. So, when you go out to eat, ask your waiter/waitress their favorite places to eat and what touristy things are worth the over priced ticket to see.

Enjoy it and yourself.

Even though you may be upset that your vacation time has been cut short, enjoy yourself. Have a good time and enjoy the company. If you have a good time, you'll feel like you got the best out of your vacay, no matter how short it is.

I learned a lot this past weekend due to a series of unfortunate bus events on how to make the most out of 36 hours in an unknown city. But if you make the best of it, you'll have the time of your life.