Why you should plan a spontaneous trip

A spontaneous traveller also gets out of their comfort zone and learns to experience things in the now. Picture: Clinton Moodley.

A spontaneous traveller also gets out of their comfort zone and learns to experience things in the now. Picture: Clinton Moodley.

Published Sep 21, 2017

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A friend of mine is travelling to Nepal next month. It's been in the pipeline for months now and it's all we ever talk about when we see each other. But while it's been forever that we have been talking about this trip, she and her husband have only booked two flights and nothing else.

This means that the pair have not booked most of their accommodation or internal flights, but before you judge about how ridiculous it may sound, I believe that a little spontaneous travel is needed once in awhile.

How many of us live routine lives when we travel. We get up at 6am, go for breakfast at 7am and from 8am you out ticking off the planned activities off your list? By the end of the day, you are too tired to explore the city and retire by 8pm.

A planned itinerary can be good, but taking the off beaten track once in awhile can do wonders for your experiences.

My friend and her husband are hiking to Annapurna Base Camp, but while others have set a timeframe on how long it should take, they are taking time to explore all it has to offer. From Nepal, they are off to India, where they will visit The Taj Mahal and other touristy things, again without a solid time frame.

The truth is time frames can be frustrating. During a recent trip exploring the province of KwaZulu-Natal, we had to rush our experiences at game drives and historical sites because of a timed itinerary. This meant that some experiences were cancelled or we spent shorter time periods there because we were busy trying to tick off items of our list without really having fulfilling ones.

As a traveller, we should take risks. I know that risk taking in small doses can go along way in ensuring once in a lifetime moments. The mistake many people make is doing what everyone else does. We base our trips according to what’s the must see instead of looking for new attractions. Travel should be spontaneous as its those moments that can help us discover new attractions.

I mean, the person who discovered those 7 Wonders of the World must have been on a spontaneous traveller.

A spontaneous traveller also gets out of their comfort zone and learns to experience things in the now.

Next time you decide to plan a trip, try to keep things spontaneous.  

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