Don’t leave anything to chance

From our traveller’s perspective, the most rewarding experiences are those experiences that allow you to live to the max whichever city you’re visiting and steer you away from touristic tsunamis which we all form a part of initially but some of us elect to skip later. The aim of our trips is not to scale to the highest level of The Eiffel Tower; rather, it is more akin to dining at a small, out-of-the-way bistro that only locals frequent because of the intangible quality it preserves which makes it trés special to all who go there.

If living real experiences keeps us on the move, what’s the best way to guarantee that this will happen? Is it wiser to plan every single minute or is it better to take things on the fly?

In our opinion, a trip that’s planned from A to Z is the antithesis of what travelling is all about. Imagine the following scenario: “9 a.m. be at such and such a place, wrap up at 10:30 to catch the tour bus so that we can zip somewhere down the road, 20 kilometers away. Of course, we won’t be able to hang there very long either, cos there’s this hotspot near the hotel which serves the most fabulous cuisine.” Trips were not made to be lived at stress levels higher than those one would encounter during a crazy, rush day back at work. Besides, seeing a slew of sights really boils down to  “seeing” nothing at all.

Something undeniable is that every trip should have at least a modicum of improvisation: let yourself be swept away, discover and experiment, allow yourself to be surprised and, even, dismayed. Many of the experiences that I’ve lived, and not just those during the start-up phase of our ExperienceLess days, have been the natural by-product of this process of continual discovery which I try to include in every city I hit.

I don’t mean that you should leave everything to chance. A healthy balance requires planning (having a general idea of what you want to do and see always helps) and improvisation (why not just let it all flow?)  is key to living experiences that you will remember forever.

Photo by: antxoa