Travel Plans Were Made To Be Broken
18 Jun 2011 11 Comments
in Travel Planning Tags: Planning, Travel
Sometimes a great pre-trip idea just doesn’t feel so great after your on the road. Maybe the weather is bad, the culture isn’t what you thought it would be or you found yourself happily stuck somewhere else. My first big trip to Europe, I had a month planned and thought I’d plan the rest while I was traveling, just a few weeks out. I wanted to know where I was going to be in the next month, how I was going to get there and what I was going to do. I knew some flexibility was necessary, but I felt I had to have a rough plan in my mind. After a month of planned travel in Ireland, that whole philosophy got thrown out the window.
Before my trip, I thought I should go to every museum in my guidebook. I had one year (which turned into 20 months), so I had time and I thought to do each city justice, I should visit everything they had to offer. I found that I enjoyed them, but only in moderation. There are some you must see- the Louvre, Vatican Museum, Reichstag- but I don’t need to go to every little museum, castle and historical site in my guidebook (one reason I gave away my guidebooks).
One important thing I didn’t take into account at the beginning of my trip was giving myself days off. If I’m traveling for more than a week, I deserve a weekend. You might be forced to take a day off if museums, shops and sites are closed, but purposeful weekend gives you a chance to relax, de-stress and take in what you’re experiencing. I love weekends when I travel. I might go to the park and read or enjoy a beer, go on a walk with a new friend, watch a movie or just sleep in. Weekends while traveling are great.
My idea of travel morphed into going to a place, getting to know the culture, making some friends and only moving on when I feel I’m ready to leave. This type of travel is much more relaxed and feel-flowing. It’s also impossible to plan. I try to make plans about a week in advance, but I still try to maintain flexibilty so I canstay longer if I want to or leave early if that’s what I felt I need to do.
Now, my goal in traveling is to try new foods and new dishes. Traveling with a culinary mindset definitely opens you up to local people, so you still get to experience the culture. Traveling plate to plate and city to city certainly makes for memorable experiences. My first trip done with this mindset was a road trip to Portland, San Francisco and Sacramento. Of course, visiting my friends was a highlight, but the food I was able to try really made my trip memorable and unique.
Before leaving home, it’s good to have an idea of what sort of things you think you want to do. But unless you have a deep desire to do enough things to fill your entire schedule, it’s a good idea to leave some flexibility. If you want to plan your whole trip, feel free. But leave the option to completely change your plans and start from scratch if your trip isn’t going the way you want. You might find something that you love or realize that you loathe what you planned.
Feb 22, 2012 @ 01:29:09
That’s for sure. You never want to make too many plans because you never know what’s gonna happen in this crazy world. Cool site.
May 22, 2012 @ 01:44:41
Thanks! It’s good to find a balance between making stuff happen and letting stuff happen.
Nov 11, 2011 @ 02:45:14
I’m struggling with this myself right now. My GF & I have an 8 month RTW trip coming up and we really want it to be opened ended and flexible, but we’re pre-planning a lot and it feels we won’t have much spontaneity and will be rushed. I wish there was a pill that could cure this.
May 22, 2012 @ 02:16:50
I know what you mean…. try just planning it a bit at a time… as you go… you can see how you feel once you start.
I did a lot of museums at the beginning of my trip because I felt I ‘had’ to and I wasn’t traveling good enough if I didn’t see all the big important things…. then I realized I should see what I wanted and do what I wanted…. if that meant sitting in a park eating cheese and grapes all afternoon, I would.
So, maybe plan a bit, then plan a bit more as you’re traveling and see what kind of stuff you like doing.
Good luck!
Nov 02, 2011 @ 15:44:40
Agreed. Travelling with a huge itinerary of sightseeing lists which you can barely get through at best is not very enjoyable and worst is you miss out on all kinds of cool stuff which requires flexibility to take advantage of. Nice post.
May 22, 2012 @ 02:18:35
Thanks, Sam!
Certainly do what you want. This is your trip and you shouldn’t be dictated by what other people think you should do. If you don’t like wine and don’t want to drink any, but want to visit Bordeaux to bike, then do that.
Don’t feel like you have to drink wine just because everyone else thinks you should. 
Ok…. maybe that’s a funny example…. but it applies just like museums!
Aug 12, 2011 @ 04:57:54
I definitely try to travel with little pressure on myself. Sometimes I am in the mood for a total lack of plans…and other times I really want to do research and dig into a place. So I totally understand either way of traveling. Each is valid in it’s own way and there has to be some kind of happy medium, right?
May 22, 2012 @ 02:19:08
Exactly! I think as long as you’re happy, you’ve found the perfect happy-medium.
Jul 18, 2011 @ 16:39:46
Yes, lack of planning can be great… but sometimes (like for me, right now). You know you have to be somewhere by a certain date (canoe trip down the danube), you know you have to stay somewhere until a certain date (waiting on the embassy to give me a passport), and it looks like it could get really expensive for the in-between dates
But in general, I agree. Throw about the guidebooks telling you about a dozen art galleries you´ve never heard of, and just book yourself into a hostel, and chillout. Meet some travellers, drink some wine, go have some dinner and strike up some conversations with the locals. You never know where things could lead.
Jun 22, 2011 @ 17:44:11
Thanks for the advice. Having not traveled yet (aside from some overly scheduled short term stuff) I’m still unsure of what my typical traveling days will consist of. One thing we’ve heard lots is to take breaks. Specifically, we’ve been advised to take breaks from each other, as we’ll be traveling as a couple.
Jun 22, 2011 @ 23:28:48
Definitely take breaks from each other!!!
Find things that you want to do together and separate and do them! 
Don’t drag the other around if they don’t want to go! Trust me, you will probably get sick of each other! 
Traveling can make or break friendships and relationships. You can be best of friends but not travel well together. Take breaks from each other! Even sitting apart on the train or bus can be nice once in a while! 