New York (Money Magazine) - On a frigid Thursday evening last December, Dan Talbot tossed a small travel bag into a waiting car that took him from his Manhattan office to Newark airport. Just before 9 a.m. on Monday, he was back in his office, tanned and refreshed after a weekend with friends in Rio de Janeiro.

Those hours south of the equator were part of an almost monthly ritual. Talbot and his friends were off to Lisbon for two days in February and to Panama City for three days in March. Such weekends may sound like the dreamscape of wannabe international playboys with a surfeit of leisure time, but Talbot is actually a hardworking husband and father of three who commutes from a New Jersey condo to his job as a financial analyst.

What's more, Talbot's travel schedule isn't as unusual as you might think. Short on time but long on travel ambition, many Americans are resorting to what might be called extreme weekending, a strategy that uses careful planning to make the most of two or three days in places that many people consider once-in-a-lifetime destinations.

Such travel can be limiting. Many locations simply are not conducive to it. And you need to have reasonable expectations about how much you can do. But for Talbot, as for many of us, "it's the choice between going and not going."

With that caveat in place, here are some strategies for getting the most from a few far-flung hours.

When it comes to extreme weekending, the ideal flight has three characteristics. One, it's nonstop, cutting travel time and minimizing delays and missed connections.

Two, it's ideally an overnight flight of at least eight hours. That way, says David Hoppin, a Washington, D.C.-based transportation analyst who's been to Rio (four times), Buenos Aires, Lima and Santiago in the past two years, you don't waste daylight hours and you're more likely to get some "quality low-rem sleep."

Three, as the destinations of both Hoppin and Talbot suggest, it crosses as few time zones as possible, minimizing the need to dramatically adjust your body clock on arrival.

It's not essential, of course, to follow all those guidelines; extreme weekends are viable even if you're not interested in South America, for example. Tom Michelson, who works for an online travel agency in San Francisco, and his wife Jennifer Brazelton took an abbreviated three-day honeymoon to Amsterdam a couple of years ago. Their travel time, which a few years back would have been 17 hours, including stopover, was cut to 12 by a new KLM nonstop. Plus, Amsterdam's downtown is an easy 20-minute train ride from the airport. They enjoyed their compressed vacation so much, they're now planning a weekend in Hong Kong.

Extreme weekending is ambitious enough without trying to cram a week's worth of activities into two or three days. Those who do this kind of traveling regularly and successfully have realistic ambitions and enjoy their trip all the more for it.

Vicki and Norm Lionberger of Alton, Ill. have been making three-day pilgrimages to Paris about twice a year since 1983. They're regulars at a favorite restaurant and always stay at the same hotel and troll their favorite open-air markets. ("We speak food French," she laughs.) A long weekend was all the time the Lionbergers could take when they first went to Paris, but now they actually prefer it this way. "It's really enough for us to get a dose," Vicki says.

Another strategy is to choose a place that naturally lends itself to a short trip -- a place where two or three days actually feels just about right and more might even seem excessive. That may rule out Paris for those who haven't been there, but probably not, say, Lisbon -- which is what drew Talbot and his friends there. Similarly, the Lionbergers broke their tradition a few years ago and went to Prague for four days, which, they say, "turned out to be the perfect amount of time."

Web-only last-minute fares, which usually offer Thursday and Friday departures and Monday or Tuesday returns, are available at most airline Web sites and at Smarterliving.com and offer inexpensive extreme weekend options. But you can get more flexibility and about the same prices if you plan ahead by at least 21 days. With little room for error built into your itinerary, however, it's wise to check average on-time performance of a prospective flight at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics Web site.

For the same reason, it's a good idea to call ahead to smooth your time on the ground. Restaurant reservations, tickets, drivers and guides are all best secured before you leave. If you'll be flying in at an odd hour, it's also well worth seeking a hotel that will guarantee an early or late check-in. And it probably goes without saying that packing light and not checking luggage will prevent some occasional but time-consuming annoyances.

These trips can be taxing to your system -- but that's another issue that can be addressed before departure. After Goodman, the customer service rep from San Francisco, took a two-week hiking trip through Belize and Guatemala with friends from London, she flew to London two months later for a day just to share the photos. "I decided you need to see pictures in person," she says.

To really make the most of her single day, she decided to adjust her body clock before leaving by napping a little during the day, staying awake until late at night and eating meals on London time. That may sound radical -- but rest assured, Goodman had an extremely good time.