Ever travel without plans?

asharak said:
I did it for like 2 months in China. I had a couple cities/attractions to go see, but I went to each city without a place to stay til I got there. Spent about a week in 8 different areas.
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So where did you end up staying each time?
 
There is literally no point in not booking a hotel, and reserving rental car in advance. What exactly do you prove or accomplish or experience by not doing such?
 
Lots of times. I recommend it.
 
I know a guy that goes to places like Guatemala and Bolivia with no plans or reservations, and just a suitcase. He is a farmer, a hard working old school farmer that is very intelligent, and crafty. He has a large family, owns a lot of property and stuff, and basically a pretty well off guy that made it by hard work. I DO suspect he might be a drug lord type of guy though. I would not dare ever ask him about it because he is sort of frightening.
 
Me and some buddies was hammer drunk and hopped on a cruiseship that left the city at 1 a.m. Woke up on some chairs on the aft deck with metric tons of pensioners around. Got some great advice about that you should not do shots, but always get some mixer with that.
 
House by the Cemetery said:
No hotel reservation, no predetermined destinations to see, etc.

If so how was it?
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For many years. It's the best way to go if you're good at socializing with strangers. So many people have invited me to stay with them, or with their friends or relatives, that if I'd had a room booked somewhere that would have fucked up the serendipity. As well, you find places in your travels that you like way more than you thought you would, thus want to spend more time there. But if you have something arranged for the future, you have to move on. That sucks. Or you meet someone, but have to move on. That REALLY sucks. Or conversely, your plans turned out to be not so good, but you're stuck doing them because it's all been arranged.

For the ultimate in adventurous travel, I strongly suggest not making any arrangements. Just go! Every morning is exciting. You can do anything you like!
 
I plan on going to Vietnam this year. I'm going to book a hotel but other than that I'm going to wing it.
 
I definitely want to. I am like someone with ocd planning every little detail whenever i do anything. My goal for the summer is to pick a random city in Europe with no planning or previous knowledge and just go from there.
 
I never have a plan but always book a hotel.
 
fortunately for me, a good amount of times. i've backpacked europe three different times, and south america once. it's my preferred method of traveling, but not because i don't like traveling with others. i just think that traveling alone is an experience everyone should have at one point in their lives. i mention this, because being spontaneous and not having a plan is a huge benefit when traveling alone. when you travel without a plan, every new day is incredibly exciting because you didn't know what was going to happen. planning everything out takes away from the element of surprise.
 
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KrazyKanadian said:
Have done it lots of times, and it's amazing.

Just a plane ticket, no real plan beyond that. Sometimes, I'll book a hostel just so I have somewhere to go from the airport but sometimes I won't either.
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yup, have done the same. just gotta be sure that you're not doing this while some crazy event is taking place, and the entire city is booked. found this out the hard way at the running of the bulls in pamplona.
 
MadSquabbles500 said:
There is literally no point in not booking a hotel, and reserving rental car in advance. What exactly do you prove or accomplish or experience by not doing such?
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in today's age, it's not so difficult to find a hotel last-minute. i've done this where i get to a city early in the morning, walk around, and don't look for a place until i'm in an area i'd like to stay around, and then look for a hotel around there.
 
Wife and I always plan loosely, and usually it works out quite well.

A little planning is better than no planning, or total planning, IMHO.
 
Chesten_Hesten said:
Wife and I always plan loosely, and usually it works out quite well.

A little planning is better than no planning, or total planning, IMHO.
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I kinda live by this. GF and I are going to New Orleans this summer with plans to stop in Nashville...and that's it. A road trip from New England, a little planning, but not much.
 
Leonard Haid said:
For many years. It's the best way to go if you're good at socializing with strangers. So many people have invited me to stay with them, or with their friends or relatives, that if I'd had a room booked somewhere that would have fucked up the serendipity. As well, you find places in your travels that you like way more than you thought you would, thus want to spend more time there. But if you have something arranged for the future, you have to move on. That sucks. Or you meet someone, but have to move on. That REALLY sucks. Or conversely, your plans turned out to be not so good, but you're stuck doing them because it's all been arranged.

For the ultimate in adventurous travel, I strongly suggest not making any arrangements. Just go! Every morning is exciting. You can do anything you like!
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That's the key.

Everyday, I get into deep discussions wherever I go, and the laughter is always there too. Takes just seconds in most cases. I love learning new things from the strangers I meet, and sharing mutually beneficial experiences with them. It's addictive.

Although, I can see why many would rather plan everything though.
I enjoy executing a well thought out plan, and there is great value there as well, although perhaps the best of both worlds is having a perfect plan with the option of casting it off to one side and being spontaneous when the opportunity presents itself.
 
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Solo road trips usually involve an end destination/halfway point for me, but it's not set in stone and I don't reserve any hotels unless I plan on "treating" myself one night and the place in question requires a reservation. Other than that it's fair game - I drive, and when I get sick of driving I stop wherever I'm at for the day.

I've up and decided to drive out to places from coast to coast, taken 6 hour detours, stayed at truck stops, shit motels in the hood or in the middle of the desert, eaten at random greezy-ass diners, chilled with homeless people. It's the greatest.

Now if I go on a road trip with a girlfriend or whatever, I plan the trip a bit more.
 
I recently traveled with my wife, we had hotel reservations and we also had plans but when we were there we changed plans so we kinda did something different, we were both fine with it, I think we should always be aware of the NOW so if at the moment something emotionally makes you happy then you go with it

I think doing no plans could be interesting but at least you have to have hotel reservations. I mean you HAVE to sleep somewhere so you are going to end up paying more and wasting time trying to find hotels if you want to do it right there.
 
I moved to japan with a job lined up but no apartment. Got there and found a place that same day.
 
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