"Not all those who wander are lost."
At least I think that's what J.R.R. Tolkein said. This is most certainly NOT a criticism, but I've noticed that some people come to this board to ask advice about their itinerary. Sometimes people's expectations are unrealistic because they want to pack in seeing as much as possible. I understand this. For most of us, Europe is a long way to go to NOT try and pack in the sightseeing. However, all these itineraries make me wonder if I'm the only "wanderer" on this board. I plan, that means, "make a list" of places I'd LIKE to see at each stop (sometimes I don't even do that), but then I end up seeing about half of what I had "planned" because I wandered off.
It starts when I head out towards Point A. Then I'll find something interesting along the way to Point A. I eventually get to Point A, but sometimes, by then it's Point C, D, or F. Not to mention all the interesting things that I don't need to stop and see but just take the time to gaze at as I stroll by. It took me nearly all day to get to York Minster. York is a wanderer's paradise.
Are there any other wanderers here or are most people on a schedule of some sort?
Ruth
Midwest, USA 7/22/10
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That is much the way I travel. Some of the highlights of my trips have been completely by chance. Often, I get pointers and advice from other travelers I meet along the way.
Some things require - or offer a big discount for - advanced booking and a day will revolve around that. Especially in Europe weather is so changeable that I often end up choosing where to go on a given day only the night before. Which is just one reason I travel with my computer.
One of the things that I really like about my walking tours is that I arrive only knowing that we'll be walking somewhere in the Scottish Highlands within an hour and 15 minutes of the Black Isle. The actual places depends on the weather, how well the group is walking and other random events. It has always resulted in a wonderful trip. This year has been better than ever because I am fitter!
Also, I had made all sorts of museum plans for Amsterdam, and then the Dutch were in the final and everything went up for grabs. The Van Gogh Museum will still be there the next time I'm in Amsterdam. ; )
Pam
You're asking about small-scale wandering.
I thought maybe you meant, do some of us leave home with the idea of going to Country A, change our minds to County B on the plane, then go to Country C when we land?
Nope....... Never..... Well, maybe once in a while (about half the time?).
Some people wonder why I'm not a big fan of making reservations.
I love to wander (and wonder!! lol). And you are absolutely right about York. It is a great place to wander. The center of London (Picadilly, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, China Town, etc.) is a great place to wander. Cardiff Wales is also a wander's city. Salizburg is a great place wander. That's what many of us here recommend to the newbies- its just that they are sometimes hard to convince.
By the time we depart we are carrying in our heads and bags much more information that we could possibly use in two trips. Except for the "use" of deciding what to see next.
We've also made most of those choices, tentatively and subject to revision, before we go, so we do have an itinerary--and many permutations.
Mostly we end up following that itinerary pretty closely, but sometimes we make changes, since, as the man said, all that is gold does not glitter.
Some of our days are pretty tightly wound, but we try to build in time for serendipity too.
Can I call myself a 'scheduled wanderer'? I must start out with a plan...as a teacher I believe that no plan = chaos...however, a plan without flexibility = disappointment, frustration, and missing 'teachable moments'. I certainly don't want to miss those 'teachable moments' in my travels, so there are times when the plan falls by the wayside...and that's just fine with me. It's more important that I have an experience, not just sightsee.
One of the joys of travel to Europe is discovery, and sometimes, things I have enjoyed most I stumbled upon by just walking or driving around. So, count me as a wanderer. For my last trip in May, the set-in-stone itinerary before I left consisted of this: Day 1- arrive. Day 16- depart.
And don't get me started on the term "must-see"...
I am somewhat like Cindy. I feel more comfortable knowing where I will be staying, so I do make reservations ahead of time. Only on a couple of occasions have I made reservations for activities, but sometimes that is necessary so I don't spend forever in a line. I like to have ideas of what I want to see, but I don't have a schedule of what time I am going to see them. I do love to wander around the towns and am always open to doing things I become aware of during the trip, such as a festival or something else of that sort. Some people think this will be their one and only trip and they want to see EVERYTHING, at what price? I would rather go home wanting more than to go home exhausted, frustrated, and feeling like I never really had the chance to enjoy my trip. Or even worse, hating the experience. I went to Europe for the 1st time 4 years ago and thought that I may never get a chance to return. Fast forward - in 6 weeks we leave on trip #4. As Rick says...expect to return!
I'm a combination planner-wanderer. Particularly when I am traveling alone, I plan one "major" thing for each half of the day (for example, Newgrange). If I have time, I can also fit in a smaller sight but they are never planned in advance. It leaves me flexible for staying longer or leaving sooner, and gives me time to discover other things I might not have known about in advance.
"Failing to plan is planning to fail."
I've seen this proverb, and ones like it, attributed to several writers, including Winston Churchill. I tend to do a lot of research in advance of every trip, and so when I go someplace it's because there are things there that I want to see. I never just go someplace because it's a name on a map, and I want to see if there might be something interesting there.
I've occasionally had to resort to a contingency plan when my primary plan wasn't going to work, but never has anything so interesting that I had to change my plans "popped up" unexpectedly.
I am not the best planner though I ask questions here before my trip. Sometimes I feel like a failure when I realise that I forgot to bring something that I printed out, or that I packed too much!
But as far as wandering is concerned...I swear we have all good intentions some days, and then we totally blow the Rick Steves idea of seeing a lot in the same day e.g. Versailles. We had gone there the first day to see the Chateau, but the weather was great and there were some long lines to get in, so we went to the gardens instead. We had planned to go inside later that day but loved the grounds so much that we wandered the entire grounds, took a nap, had a picnic and left later in the evening.
The following day we headed back out to see the Chateau. That's two days dedicated to Versailles. Now how many here would do that? LOL
The same happened in the Vatican. Went to see the Pope and St. Peter's but didn't have the energy for the Vatican museum. Returned the following day for the museum! Oh, then I added a quite trip back to the Vatican for mass that last Sunday! Talk about wandering and taking our time, LOL
I'm a planner. I get my kicks out of planning a trip and a daily itinerary. I like knowing where I'll be staying and doing the research to find a good hotel at a good price.
However, I also like exploring and venturing into back alleys and up random paths, so I simply build this wandering time into my itinerary and usually I can get in everything I want to see, as well as time for just wandering about.
I seem to plan trips that are either all about wandering or all about itinerary. Whenever we rent a car it tends to be about wandering and stopping wherever we want on the way, although we always have our accomodations booked. For example we had a great time meandering down from Scotland to London in our car, and again when we had a villa rental in Spain. But if we are using trains or a short term trip then it becomes more about itineraries. We planned a six day blitz of Paris last February and that was all about itinerary.
We have an upcoming trip to Italy and Austria that was mainly plotted by my husband. I think it will be too busy but I'm sure I'll love it nonetheless. We'll have a debriefing when we get home and apply the lessons learned to the next one!
Thanks for the replies. You all are very interesting. I'd love to hear your wandering stories - perhaps something you discovered because you didn't plan.
Ed - I once watched two people at one of those "information" booth places in Waverly station trying desperately find a place to stay in Edinburgh that night. It was a weekend in mid-summer and every place the woman called was filled. I wouldn't mind what you might call large-scale wandering, but I'd rather have the piece of mind that there is a bed waiting for me. How do you do it? Call ahead a day in advance or just show up and hope for the best.
Tom - I prefer "recommended sights." "Must-see" suggests that if you missed it you failed in your mission to see (fill in country or city name).
Lee - If your plan is to not have a plan then you fail to fail. :D
You can have a lot of fun going to a place just because it's on a map, even if nothing particualrly interesting is there. At the very least you can tell people you've been there. I see it as the opposite of going to those "must-see" places Tom doesn't want to get started on. haha!
It depends on who I am with as to whether I'm a wanderer or not. When it's just my daughter and I in Europe we only have a very loose plan of what to see and we detour quite often from that. We have all the info of what interests us, but are very relaxed on when or if we see them. But when I'm traveling with my husband (and sometimes family or friends come along too) I turn into the chief travel agent/conceirge and literally have to set up a detailed itinerary. Even then I always leave one day per week completely open, just in case things do not fall in place like planned. The whole time during the trip I carry a very mini sized spiral note pad that fits in my pocket with complete info of sights, restaurants, etc. We see quite a bit, but I definately need a few days to relax after it is all over. All that said, I would definately pick my relaxed vacations with my daughter over these planned out trips hands down.
OK Ruth here is my wandering story.
We were driving from Edinburgh towards York and saw a sign on the road for the Alnwick Garden. I couldn't really remember what I had read about it but I said, "hey I've heard of it, lets go!". It happened to be Canadian Thanksgiving and I had been lamenting not getting my turkey dinner and what do you know? Their cafeteria was serving a pretty decent turkey dinner.
And the garden was beautiful too.
"I think that Tracy from PA is a prime example of over planning."
Probably shouldn't mention that name anymore... Coincidentally she deleted her own thread and this was posted by the webmaster within a day or two of each other.
http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/53070/notice-new-posting-guideline.html
I was the typical traveler my first several trips, too - 'hey, we have an afternoon free on Tuesday; is there a museum or church we can squeeze in there? Don't want to *waste* any time'. [This goes for packing, too - just because your suitcase is not full doesn't mean you should start sticking 'useful' things in there :-) We know who we are!] It took several trips to FINALLY relax and just sit in a park in Paris for a few hours, then wander over to the next park for a pastis and more relaxing. No thinking 'but there's this church I saw on The History Channel last year...', or 'we might be missing a concert at Sainte Chapelle'. We had seen most of the biggies so we could just let go and enjoy being there. Finally. I have great respect for the first-time traveler who can stay in a villa in Tuscany in the middle of 'nowhere', and just 'be'. I'm getting there...
In reference to Ed's comment, one of my most fun moments on this earth came in that first Grand Tour many years ago. My husband and I were sitting on a train (Global Pass, but of course), and we were crossing Germany on our way to Prague. I realized if we stayed on the train instead of transfering in Munich we could go to Salzburg instead (was later in our itinerary). WOW! Yeah, let's do that! I hate to get into all of the RS cliches ("footloose and fancy free", "world is your oyster", "I'm King of the World" - wait, that's someone else...) but it certainly felt like that! Those were the days when we didn't have to worry about cancelling hotel &/or train reservations. These days, we travel with my in-laws = everything nailed down: how many steps to the hotel room? metro = too many steps; what's close to a good bus route? can't go there - town too small = no taxis. We don't want the bother of looking for rooms for the 4 of us, and they get a little discombobulated if there isn't A Plan. Wandering isn't in The Plan; therefore, to them we ARE lost! LOL
We're looking forward to wandering soon...
[not that Andrea needs a bully to stand up for her, and not poking at James (I read The Memo, too) but..]
I applaud Tracy for coming back to the Helpline, saying 'I goofed; please help me salvage my trip'. I thought that was darned brave of her. AND if you've kept up with her blog, the clouds have DEFINITELY blown over. Whew!
Her blog should be required reading for all first-timers (and second-timers, and ...)!
Have a great time wandering, Tracy, and everyone else!
Great post Ruth! We're wanderers. We rarely plan on what we are going to do day by day. Spent a week in Paris with the family. The only advanced planning was the day before we did whatever. When in Germany, we always travel by car and head off in a general direction, usually Bavaria. Now that is freestyle cruising!
Ruth, you have just hit on the biggest problem with guided tours. Your type of travel would never work with "everyone back on the bus in 45 minutes."
Ruth, in all honesty I avoid europe like the plague in summer unless there is something I really want to see and can't work it in at another time....or we're traveling with friends and that's when they have to go.
But, I have to fess up. I've made one, just one mind you, really big wandering goof. We were headed to europe for late fall/early winter and packed accordingly with warm duds. At the airport, the airport mind you, we saw a clear path to Singapore and from there to Australia. Away we went.
Do you know how stinking hot it is in Darwin in November? And yes, ma'am, I do have a masters in geography. And yes, ma'am, I do know what the equator is.
Ed, did you buy tickets to Europe and then change your mind at the airport?
While in Brighton, as I wandered up and down the streets, I finally decided to go and walk on Pier. While walking about, I saw people sitting on benches looking at the water and basically people watching. I decided to do the same, for about 3 hours! Spent about two of those hours chatting with an English couple from London. One of the best memories.
Everytime we take too long somewhere, I always end up talking about Rick Steves and wondering if he would give us a nod or tell us we're wasting time, LOL
Eli, Nope. Tickets not involved.
Mary - thanks for "defending" me regarding Tracy. I have edited my earlier post in order to meet the new guidelines. I also applaud her for being brave enough and open minded enough to realize there might be a better way, and for changing her mindset mid-trip. I was not trying to insult Tracy in any way and I hope she is having a fabulous time in my favorite city. I haven't read her blog for the last few days, but I hope to have time tonight.
"We had seen most of the biggies so we could just let go and enjoy being there." ~ This is London for me.
HAHA! That's great Ed! I'll bet you enjoyed a wee bit of shopping in Darwin, yes? :)
I saw that post by the admin and wondered what it was about. Obviously I missed Tracy's troubles. Sounds like she tried to pack too much into the schedule and got stressed at just the thought of trying to do it all. Glad to hear she's worked it out. :)
Yes, it's hard to be spontaneous when travelling with others who need a schedule.
Oh do NOT get me started on tours. I refuse to do them, period, full stop. I have relatives who have done tours some more relaxed than others but you're always at the mercy of he dreaded SLOW people. The people who are NEVER ready to go on time and hold up the whole group.
I'm trying to think of a great wandering story. I usually end up meeting travelers from other parts of Europe - especially ones who think I'm local and ask me for directions. Hahaha!
I know people who will pack a bag with essentials, head to the Frankfurt airport where they have a long gallery with all the companies offering last minute trips. They find one they like, with the right price, and set off. It could be 2 weeks in Spain, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Greece or where ever. Most are packages with hotel and flight included, and they are fantastic deals. It is always something I wanted to do myself, just for the heck of it. Surprise vacation!
Wandering is fun, exploring a city. Have a small list of places that sound interesting, but then go wander.
I pay for airfare and hotel room before I take my trip. Then I go on my trip and do whatever I feel like doing. I never plan a thing and I have had alot of fun. I map out a few things I must see, but other than that, I am just spontaneous.
I am a planner to a fault. Much like Liz, I find it fun to develop my itinerary. I put so much research into my trip that when I arrive, I feel like I have been there before. When I am at my destination, I tour based on a strict pre-planned 8-5 schedule. It's like traveling is my job. But, I leave my evenings to wander. I never really use guidebooks for dinner. And I tend to get lost, and wander with out a plan. That's how I like it. There aren't too many places that I have visited twice, but for those places that I have, I do follow a more relaxed policy.
Tami, that sounds great but makes me wonder why you spend time on a "Plan your Trip" board?
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