Just about this time last year as the final working days were drawing near, Jeff uncovered that he had a handful of unused vacation days. Facing a situation of use them or lose them, Jeff proposed that we book an impromptu getaway to Paris set to depart in three days time.
Sounds exhilarating and romantic right? One would think. But instead, my initial reaction was, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. I can’t plan a trip to Paris that quickly.’ Impromptu travel goes against every bone in my Type A-body. I self-describe my approach to travel planning as, ‘carefully-crafted’. Like a craft cocktail or a craft brewery the term sounds appealing no? In reality, it’s a somewhat painstaking effort that involves me pouring of every corner of the Internet for days to create a meticulous master plan.
Thankfully Jeff had a bit of conviction behind his proposal. After he uncharacteristically pressed the issue for an entire day, I caved, hastily packed, and found myself itinerary-less on a Eurostar train. I felt physically uncomfortable with this situation:
But soon upon arrival in The City of Lights, I was quickly enlightened by the many pleasures that come with simply ‘winging it’. For instance, without a plan in hand you’re left to wander and potentially uncover the lesser known landmarks of your destination. A highlight of this trip was turning a corner and discovering the breathtaking St. Sulpice.
When you’re directionless, you’re far more likely to stumble upon unforeseen surprises like these musicians providing a free performance outside of The Louvre.
Moreover, having nowhere you have to be also allows for impulsive decision making. When you feel like you have all the time in the world, taking a moment to sing back-up at a cozy jazz bar seems like a brilliant idea. (This did happen, but thankfully all photographic evidence of the event has been destroyed…)
Without a fixed agenda, you can take it down a notch and linger longer over your morning café au lait or your (completely unnecessary) mid-afternoon wine and cheese stop.
Last-minute travel is also often more doable during off-season when crowds are kept to a minimum. Without tourists en masse, it can feel like you have a whole city to yourself as we did at The Luxembourg Gardens and with Monet’s water lilies at L’Orangerie.
Lastly, when your eyes aren’t glued down to an itinerary, it’s amazing what you discover when you look up.
Does all this have you wanting to double check your annual leave allotment for ’16? Perhaps you’ll uncover one or two of those precious days still waiting to be gobbled up. If you discover even eight precious hours of work-free allotment, I challenge you to lock in a weekend away in December, show up, and see where the wind takes you.
Sadly on our end our vacation days were meticulously mapped out and used already this year so there’s no impromptu getaway in our future. But it seems a long destination-less wander around London could afford plenty of its own surprises – as I’m sure one in your hometown would too!
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