How Much Control Do You Need Over Your Vacation Itinerary?

Can You Just Throw Caution to the Wind and Still Have an Amazing Time Traveling?

When I go on a vacation, it’s often to a destination I’ve never visited, and I always want to see as much as possible, from the food to the historical sites to the beautiful or fascinating accommodations. This often leads to an extreme amount of planning where I have every single second of the trip planned out. Realistically, these plans tend to turn out wonderfully. It’s terribly convenient to have a schedule when you travel, telling you where to go.

However, there is always the allure, in the back of my mind, of an unrestricted vacation where all I might have is a destination in mind. Obviously, a little bit of planning has to go into any travel, but just how much is necessary? Can you get away with just booking a plane ticket to some far-off destination and leaving the whole thing to chance?

I think the one area where I would end up having some remorse is in not knowing ahead of time where I might get the best experiences. For example, if I didn’t book that bicycle tour I took in Paris, I never would have seen so many little streets and interesting places, let alone learned so much about their history and why things were they way they were.

That experience just couldn’t compare to what I would have seen if I had simply walked out of my hotel and wandered around for half a day. While I do think you can wander around aimlessly in a city like Paris and actually have some incredible experiences, I’d say that it wouldn’t be possible to do that everywhere and that one of the biggest factors in your ability to just go and throw caution to the wind would be time. But what do I mean by time?

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How Much Is Enough Time When You Don’t Have Any Plans?

One of the conscious decisions I make each time I plan a vacation itinerary, especially when it’s an international itinerary, is downtime, where I and my traveling partner might spend a few hours or even an entire day lounging about. I insert these periods of rest and relaxation because running around doing tours and visiting all sorts of tourist destinations can get exhausting, especially when you’re fighting jet lag.

If I’m looking at an entire day spent on a tour where we leave the hotel at dawn and don’t return until it’s dark, I usually try to arrange something light the next day. I might give us the morning to sleep in and lounge around with a brief city walk or tour in the afternoon. When we visited Cartagena, I arranged for our city tour to start at 10:30, and we were done right around lunchtime. Not only did we sleep in, but we also had the afternoon to chillax.

But since we’re talking about trying to forgo any real planning, how much time do you need in a destination to feel satisfied that you had enough time to find stuff to do and that you saw enough of what the area had to offer you as a tourist? Obviously, the number of days might differ, but I estimate the amount of time you’ll need is directly proportional to how much planning you do.

For example, I saw an overabundance of Paris, and I was only there for a hair over twenty-four hours. I carefully arranged two tours and even had enough time for two leisurely strolls around Montmartre. But I did plan every second of that single day. It wasn’t rushed, even though I wished I’d had a month in Paris rather than a single day. I think if you don’t plan anything at all, assume you’ll need a little extra time to really get a good feel for the place you’re visiting.

What Can Go Wrong If You Don’t Plan Everything?

It’s never fun to focus on what might go haywire while traveling, but it’s helpful to remain aware of the consequences of booking a plane ticket and arriving – especially in a different country – without a stitch of planning. The biggest issue is that you might have some trouble with the local customs and immigration desk. In some countries, they want to see the hotel where you’re staying.

If you don’t book a hotel in advance, you might have difficulties getting your passport stamped and getting into the country. However, that doesn’t mean you need to book rooms for your entire stay. The customs agents don’t usually check the dates and locations of every single one of your hotels. I will admit the customs agents were a little inquisitive in Vietnam, but I did have all my reservations for our entire trip handy, so it wasn’t a giant problem.

In most countries, you can sail through customs as long as you have that first night booked. And if you’re brave enough to leave the rest of your lodgings to chance, then you can book your other stays after you’ve already arrived. In addition to having some trouble getting a place to stay, you might not have the easiest time getting around if you don’t make some plans for traveling while inside the country.

Even if you don’t specifically book a car ride in advance or buy a bus ticket, it’s probably a good idea to conduct a bit of research on the best way to travel in a country. Do people usually use the metro (subway), like in Paris? Are taxis more mainstream, like in Los Angeles? Are bicycles super common, like in Amsterdam? If you know ahead of time how to travel within the country, you should find it easy to make arrangements once you’re there.

What’s the Minimum of Planning Needed to Travel?

If I was truly going to throw caution to the wind and try to travel with nothing but a plane ticket, I’d still make just a few other arrangements before I departed. The first was a visa application, if necessary. I wouldn’t have even been able to fly to Vietnam if I hadn’t had a visa, so it was a necessary step. Just check with the State Department (if you’re from the U.S.), and the website will tell you whether a visa is required to visit your destination.

I’d also take a look at the extended forecast for the ten days immediately after my departure. You really never know what the weather is going to do, and you can’t always rely on historical averages. When I went to Morocco, it was supposed to be coolish (like the 70s), but we experienced a few days of 90-degree heat, and my packing was pretty terrible for the trip since I didn’t have a lot of hot weather outfits in my suitcase.

Another bit of planning I’d suggest would be to try and book your travel for the off-season where you’d face less competition for things like hotel rooms, tours, and everything else you might want to do as a tourist. If you want to leave your hotel room to chance, don’t book a ticket during high season and expect to find a room at the last minute.

I think if I was to book a trip without any real planning involved, I’d also read up on the coolest things to do and see in a particular country, city, or destination. I don’t think I’d want to go fully uninformed, leaving absolutely every step I took to chance. I’d want to have some basic information in the back of my mind, so if I decided to wander around, at least I could wander in what I thought was a good direction to see something fun.

Sometimes, the Middle Road is the Best Path to Travel

All things considered, I think you could probably get away with pursuing a trip somewhere in the middle as far as planning or not planning is concerned. While you probably don’t need to go as far as planning every minute of your itinerary, you can definitely have a terrific time, leaving yourself plenty of open days to explore during your journey.

Let’s take a visit to Los Angeles as an example. You’ll probably want to see some of the iconic tourist views like the Hollywood Sign and the Santa Monica Pier, but seeing those doesn’t take more than a day. Then, you can spend another day just lounging on the beach all day. Los Angeles has dozens of beaches up and down the coastline, and many have their own unique look and feel.

I think the idea of booking a plane ticket with no particular plans beyond it is exciting, but it’s definitely not an adventure everyone can stomach. However, if you’re keen on letting go a little bit over the control you have over your vacation, you might find it freeing to toss a few free days into your next vacation. You don’t have to go crazy trying to avoid planning, but writing up a list of things to do without actually putting any of it into reservations is a good start.

With each trip you take, try removing one more piece of the puzzle that you’d normally prearrange until you reach a point where you feel like you’ve removed just a bit too much. Maybe you’re fine with leaving the activities and food to chance, but you always want to know where you’ll be sleeping at night. Go ahead and book those plane tickets, find your hotels before you leave, and then start exploring without any destination in mind when you arrive!

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