Two articles caught my eye this week.
The Guardian wrote about The Art of Not Planning, focusing on the joys of spontaneous travel. It’s a collection of suggestions, complete with personal examples, of how to indulge in spontaneous travel.
Their suggestions include: stop organizing, let the city (not the book) be your guide, put your trust in others, don’t book (wing it), and slow down. Sounds like a great way to travel but few people actually travel so freely.
Part of the reason we don’t is because we get so much pleasure from the travel planning or what Australian writer Kim Wildman calls The Anticipation of Travel. We like to research, read guidebooks, look at maps, make plans, and create detailed itineraries. It’s fun. It’s exhilierating. And it allows us to start travelling even before we leave the house.
When I went to Spain last year, the planning started a good six months before I left home. I read every book I could find on Spain (especially Madrid). I read about the geology, the geography, the history, the culture, the food, and the language. I didn’t want to miss anything. I guess you could say I immersed myself in all things Spain.
I created itineraries that planned my time in Madrid day by day and hour by hour. Nothing was left to chance. I knew which museum and art gallery opened when. I knew how long it would take by foot, bus, and train to get from the Palacio Real to the Parque del Buen Retiro Gardens.
But when I got on the plane, my detailed itineraries were not with me. I left them on the kitchen bench. Deliberately. I had done my planning. I knew what there was to see. But I didn’t want the itinerary to control me.
If I had, I would have missed out of doing ‘figure of eights’ around the Plaza Mayor on a Segway. I would have missed the gypsy street performers in the smaller plazas I found by chance. And I would never have caught the train to Segovia and discovered the Ancient Museum of Witchcraft (bizarre but intriguing).
So if you want to put some spontaneity into your planned travel, try these ideas…
* do make a itinerary but don’t treat it like it was carved in stone.
* carry a map but leave it in your bag. It’s there to get you back to your accommodation at the end of the day, not to guide you through the day.
* do pack the guidebook – not to plan where you are going but to see where you have been at the end of the day.
* stay open to opportunities and the unexpected.
* spend time just sitting (in a cafe, a plaza, a train station) and watching the world go by. Travel, after all, is not just about seeing everything. It’s about immersing yourself in the atmosphere of a place.
So what’s your travel style – planned, spontaneous, or maybe a little of both?
I feel like I’ve fallen off the opposite end… a few years ago I decided to leave home and go backpacking. I thought I’d be gone six months – I was gone three years. So much for any planning. I didn’t have much of an itinerary – I bought a one-way ticket to Cape Town, thinking I’d figure it out from there. I traveled up the spine of Africa, spent a year in Southeast Asia, and somehow got to Cuba via the Baltics… absolutely none of this was planned.
Even one day to the next was unplanned. I’d wake and wonder… shall I work today? I was supporting my travel as a freelance journalist so some work had to be done… or shall I sit in a cafe and people watch… or walk around… or go to the bus station and see what’s going where… or maybe go to that beach I’ve heard about… or or or…
I know it’s not for everyone and I have been known to plan a trip – but only when I don’t have much time away. The moment I can go for a month or more, the only thing that gets planned is my flight.
I’m a big fan of the the half-planned approach. Usually I’ll book a hotel or hostel for the first night — I’m a light sleeper on overnight flights, which makes the prospect of searching for a hotel room right away just dreadful. I’ll also book my room for the last night of my trip in advance, but know that I can cancel with 24 hours notice if my plans change along the way.
Overall, I think the greatest ingredient for spontaneous travel is having a rental car. There’s nothing quite like having a full tank, a road map and several days to explore. Unfortunately, though, nowadays renting a car can obliterate your travel budget, especially if you choose to drop off at a separate location. Sometimes, though, if you go the combo route of a package flight + car rental it’s possible to get a great deal.
Scribetrotter, sounds like a great way to live and travel. So much freedom to do as you please…oh well, maybe one day…
Pete, the half-planned approach sounds like a pretty good strategy, especially on long distance flights…after 12 hours in the plane, I sure don’t want to have to look for a place to rest my head…
Road trips are best left unplanned and spontaneous…just go where the road takes you.
the Planning is huge, its fun, it extends your travel experience beyond the actual days spen away. With every trip over the last few years I have travelled, I find myself relying less on the guidebook. By no means do I find it dispensable, but i read it much more beofre than during. It comes out most often for a map to see where exactly I am, and to read about the spot I am visiting ( a castle or temple, and the like).
My last trip we used the book very little indeed, and it felt great. I occassionally had the gnawing doubt of ‘am i missing something by not looking up the book in greater detail today?”, but mostly it was all good.
But genuine spontaneous travel I can only see happening in one of two situations:
- when I have a long time -at least a month [which I have not had till now:( ]
- when there are places in my ‘backyard’. Eg. living in New delhi and going to McLeodganj, or living in Hanoi and going to Sapa for a few days.
The first time I traveled totally spontaneously, some friends and I landed at the airport in Istanbul at 1 in the morning. The subway wasn’t working, we eschewed the badgering from cab drivers, so we ended up napping and chatting on the seats until 5 am. We also finally cracked the communal Lonely Planet, which we hadn’t even glanced at before flying out of Scotland.
We traveled all down the west coast of Turkey, barely planning a day ahead and happily following people (mostly Australians and New Zealanders, of course!) who invited us to see what they were seeing and eat where they were eating. Not only was it one of the best trips of my life, but I loved just sitting in the airport and watching the people, sinking slowly into this new culture.
Nowadays I’m a half-and-halfer. I read a lot of books before I go somewhere, and get excited about all sorts of history and building an awareness of a place. But when I go, I just pick up a city map and start walking. Walk, look, eat. Get lost. There’s nothing like getting lost.
I love the half-planned approach. It leaves you open for those serendipitous moments that make a trip memorable. National Geographic Traveler ran a collection of stories called “Sudden Journeys” about the joys of not planning, from some of our favorite writers:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/features/suddenjourneys0705/journeys.html
As you say Shakester, planning is huge but being spontaneous is just as huge. It’s just a question of getting the right balance between the two for most of us.
As for total spontaneous travel, I don’t know if I’ll ever get there – I’m too much of a knowledge geek and researcher…once I decide on something, I need to research….even if that only means stopping in at the local info center and picking up all the brochures and maps.
Nia, your Turkey trip sounds like it was a blast…and meeting Aussies and Kiwis is always a great thing on the road…we love to travel and we love to meet people…it’s a win / win situation.
And anyone who hasn’t already read the ‘Sudden Journeys’ at National Geographic Traveler really should head over to the link that Marilyn has supplied — it’s a great collection of adventures and will give you nothing but ideas and dreams of your own.
Happy travels everyone!!
Personally I like to have a look where I’m going and book things like hotels and hire cars in advance. Couldn’t stand getting stung when I got to a location. But equally I couldn’t stand getting stuck to a plan. So I tend to leave a lot of free time and maybe plan to do a few things on a few days and leave the rest of the time free.