Sunday, June 19, 2016

Last Minute Trip Planning

I’ve never been one for fanatical planning of holidays or road trips.  If I’m being honest, much of my planning is done at the very last minute.  I have been known to pick up currency on the way to board a flight, but I like to think of this as efficient rather than useless, which is how everyone else seems to view it.

Last Minute Trip Planning
Yeah, this is NOT me.  
A couple of weeks ago, while dozing in bed, Les announced that he’d booked two flights to Pisa.   After waking up fully, I couldn’t recall whether it was a dream or whether it had actually happened.  Turns out; it had actually happened.     

Fast forward to a week before the trip and we had organised nothing.   With seven days left before we hit up Liverpool Airport, I finally conducted a half hour search of AirBnB and found an apartment that fulfilled my needs (Wi-Fi; kitchen with working stove/cooker; good location; balcony for drinking wine...).   I clicked ‘book’ and Boom: we had somewhere to stay.

Immediately after that, I ran through Pisa’s tourism information page and Pinterest, finding relevant articles about what to see and do while I’m there.  I have visited Pisa before, so this didn’t take too much time.  I then did similar searches for Siena and Florence; where I expect to take day trips, and made a note of all the sights I wanted to see.

By this stage of the game, I have friends who would have suitcases packed; routes planned and sat navs programmed, while I’m all over here like: ‘mañana, mañana’.  I see no point in causing myself unnecessary stress before a holiday so that I spend most of my trip trying to unwind.  

Plus, I quite like the whole unknown quantity of my holiday and have no interest in military type planning.  I like to go with the flow and realise that the things I might want to do a month before I go are very unlikely to be the same when I actually get there.   Apart from frequenting my local bar.  I *always* want to do that.   There's something romantic about the notion of aimlessly wandering around Italian streets, finding little places that you didn't know existed and never would have if you hadn't done very minimal planning before you arrived. 

Last Minute Trip Planning
This looks nice.    Ooh, and there's a bar next door.  Who knew?
My packing consists of a few dresses, vest tops, flip flops, money, passport and my trusty Priority Pass, so that I can relax in the airport lounge for a few hours before I board.     Apart from that, if I forget anything, I generally find it's nothing I can't pick up when I reach my destination.  And besides, I LOVE trying out foreign toothpaste - it's one of the many joys of travelling.    I'm not even kidding.

So, as I write this, I'm sat at the dining table, cradling a cup of coffee and pretty much ready to roll jump in the car and head North to Liverpool to spend the day doing, well...clearly I don't actually have anything *planned*, so we'll just have to wait and see what the day brings.

Are you a maniacal trip planner; somewhere in between, or completely relaxed?


Suz x 

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