Have you ever hopped on a plane not knowing what you were going to do once you got to your destination?
The thought of that gave me major anxiety. But I did it. And it was AMAZING.
In the fall, my husband and I took our first long-distance trip without our kids! I was set on having this trip detailed by the hour. I wanted to do all the things, see all the sights, eat all the foods, and cram absolutely as much as I could into our four day trip to Denver.
My husband convinced me otherwise.
“Let’s just enjoy it,” he said. So…that’s what we did.
I’ve never packed a bag and boarded an airplane with nothing booked but a rental car. No place to stay, no activities — nothing. It was unnerving for me, honestly.
And this is the way I’m doing any kid-free trip from now on!
I recognize that with little ones in tow you do have to do a considerable amount of planning. (Which is why this trip was so odd to me, I think.) But if you get the opportunity to take a kid-free trip, then I want to encourage you to plan nothing.
It was really weird to get up each morning and have not. a. thing. to. do. No nap times to schedule around, no set meal times, and no bedtimes. Then on top of that to not have an itinerary?
Freedom.
We flew by the seat of our pants for four days and it was exactly what my head and heart needed. One day we decided at 5pm that we wanted to fly fish the next day. So you know what? We did! And the only reason we could do that was because I hadn’t packed every day with something to do like I usually do.
We thought we’d meet up with an old friend for dinner one night, but he lived almost two hours away from where we were that morning. But guess what? It didn’t matter since we hadn’t booked any lodging ahead of time! We were able to hop all around Denver each day without any obligation to turn back to the same hotel, in the same part of town, each night.
The next time you take off on an adventure, leave room for freedom and spontaneity. This unplanned trip taught me to care less about the destination and more about the trip.
Travel without a plan! You’ll be glad you did.
