I’m going to share a cold, hard truth: no matter how much sweat, tears and spreadsheets you put into planning, your trip won’t be perfect.
You can book your dinner reservations weeks ahead, purchase the necessary travel insurance, get to the airport hours in advance and have your itinerary planned to the minute, and reliably, something will trip up your trip. Your flight’s delayed. You’re hit with unexpected tourist fees. Inclement weather keeps you off the beach.
I struggled to accept this truth for the longest time. But once I did, it opened a world of unexpectedly marvelous adventures. A few years ago, a friend and I lost a full day of our trip to Montana because our flight was canceled, and we scrambled for a friend’s couch (literally an L-shaped couch) to rest our heads for the night in Washington, DC. But that meant we had a free day to explore DC, frolicking all over the National Mall with nowhere else to be. It was glorious.
When travel plans go amiss, embrace spontaneity and cherish the lessons learned.
- Ann Douglas Lott, Associate Editor
