The pleasure of planning

Or do you enjoy winging-it when you travel?

Now that I have booked my flight to Japan, I am getting to grips with planning my itinerary. It made me think - when was the last time I did a solo adventure trip?

Not going to see family.

Not travelling with other people.

Not for an organisation, or for a conference.

A solo trip.

It must be over a decade. My honeymoon trip to California with Sarah was in the same ballpark category because we had fun planning and putting the trip together over a number of weeks.

This feels kind of similar.

Photo by Thomas Tucker on Unsplash

Because I think I get as much fun - in a weird kind of way - planning and putting my trip together as I do actually being on the trip.

I am a traveler that can feel overwhelmed unless I’ve put some planning in. I did the winging-it thing in my 20s, inter-railing across Europe, trips to Ibiza, Egypt, and in my 30s in Thailand, Arizona / Utah, Western Australia, and the east coast too. Slowly, as the world changed and my need for predictability did too, my level of planning slowly ratcheted up.

I’m in my 50s now. Time is precious. Not in the sense that I’m well into my 30,000 days (but that too). But more the idea that not much of my time is no longer only my own. With a young family and sharing responsibilities for parenting and more, it is a real privilege and luxury to take this trip. And for that, I am thankful - especially to Sarah - who will be away in Europe this month for work.

So yes, it’s good to be in the moment.

But for me to be in the moment, I like to create the space for me to relax and enjoy and not be overwhelmed with trying to plan the next thing. To understand the cultural context of where I am before I go it there, rather than stitching it together afterwards. To look forward to local delicacies and treats knowing what to look out for rather than trusting it dumb luck for things to work out.

Because, I’ve already done it, enjoyed doing it, and look forward to the enjoying the fruits of that planning.

So are you a planner, or a wing-it kind of traveler? And have you changed as the years have gone by?