To Plan or Not to Plan…

Zara tank (similar)
Zara trousers (similar)
Vintage belt (via Mom) (similar)
Oak + Fort mules (similar)
Sezane handbag
& Other Stories sunglasses
Maris Pearl Co. necklace (c/o)
Keltie Leanne Designs ring (c/o) (similar)
Old Navy earrings (c/o Ivanhoe Cambridge)
Bon Voyage Collection barette via Lineage House (similar)
Location: People Serving People Inc. – Minneapolis, Minnesota

I am a planner. I’m sure that you’ve all had heart attacks and died of not surprise reading that entirely predictable statement. To-do lists give me life. I plan every day of my life, from the moment I wake up until I head back to bed. As I type this, the agenda for the first four days of our trip to Athens lays open beside me. Yes, it’s true – while our departure is still over a month away, I am meticulously mapping out each day, from the time we’ll wake up to what we’ll eat, which attractions we’ll visit and what I’ll wear to every stop along the way. (After all, how am I supposed to fit in a slightly over-ambitious very reasonable three photoshoots per day if I don’t have a plan?)

Most of the time, I don’t question my tendency to constantly organise and reorganise my life. I love my routines, and consider all surprises that don’t manifest in the form of delivery boxes to be unwelcome. But I recently saw read an article where someone actually described themselves as disliking routine, and it got me thinking. The spontaneity and lack of fix plans on vacation were what they loved most about travel, the writer claimed. And while I am most comfortable with a fixed schedule, my love for the escape from the ordinary, daily routines included, that travel offers, is equally strong.

We wrote an agenda for our trip to Minneapolis – we always do. Without a plan, we have a tendency to spend most of our travel time just wandering around. We take pictures, and we stop for snacks. It isn’t a bad thing, but it does make it difficult to answer basic questions like, “What did you do in [insert whatever city we’ve most recently visited]?” when we get home again.

“Wandered around,” I’ve learned, is not an answer most people can understand. They want a list of museums visited and photo opportunities taken. I make virtually no choices in my life based on what other people will think. But I have, on more than one occasion, come home from a city only to discover an incredible place I missed visiting when I was just there. That’s a hard lesson to swallow, so I do my research now. A good travel plan hasn’t failed me yet, although very few of them have gone exactly as I envisioned in the comfort of my office, with my map, pen and notebook in hand. Flights get delayed, and suitcases get mislaid. (I am more gracious about things not going to plan when considering those thwarted plans in retrospect, whereas in the moment, I am never a happy camper.)

What made Minneapolis different was how looseley we wrote our agenda. We booked the trip only two weeks in advance, which left minimal time to plan. And we were travelling for Ian’s birthday, so it seemed only fair to leave some discretionary time to spend on activities he would enjoy, rather than focussing our entire four days away on capturing photos. We still got the photos. But they came together in a very last-minute, we-got-lucky-being-in-the-right-place-at-the-right-moment way. This building, for example, was just across the street from our hotel and happened to have perfect light just as we were walking by on Friday afternoon. We couldn’t have planned for these shots if we tried. Sometimes, the ideal moment just comes along when you least expect it, and there is a certain amount of beauty in that.

But – you knew there had to be a but coming, didn’t you? The thing is, while we had four wonderful days in Minneapolis, we left our schedule so open that we found ourselves planning day-by-day. We wound up choosing activities based on silly considerations like the weather and our mood. Did we miss anything substantial? Probably not. But would we have seen and done more with a plan? Definitely.

I can’t say that I have regrets. After all, Minneapolis will always be just an hour-long plan ride away, which means we can take our time to see and do everything the city has to offer on subsequent visits. But most of the places we travel aren’t close enough for that to be realistic. Sometimes, we only get one shot to really experience a city in a lifetime – and if that turns out to be the case about anywhere I visit, I want to leave feeling like I didn’t miss a thing.

The thing about travel is that no matter how you do it, whether you meticulously plan every day or just see how things do, it will always be an escape from the ordinary. A new place always offers new possibilities and new discoveries. So I suppose, upon reflection, that it’s entirely possible to plan every moment of a holiday and still love the spontaneity of it in the moment. Which is just one of many reasons why I’ll never give up my pre-holiday planning. I love my routines, but it’s the time I spend living without them that helps me to appreciate the stability they offer. Just like all the surprises a holiday brings remind me how wonderful it is to get home and back to normal again when a trip ends.

Tell me, are you a planner, too? (I have a feeling I’m about to read a chorus of resounding yesses…)

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