Ask either Wonder Boy or I and we’ll tell you that we take very normal, but exotic sounding, vacations. Ask many people we know and they’ll tell you we take adventurous trips, a la The Amazing Race. I’m not sure where the discrepancy lies, but folks’ perceptions of what we do thinks maybe I have some credibility in advising your typical traveler on upping their adventure quotient.*For me, having an adventurous vacation is about releasing control. In my everyday life, I have to maintain whatever semblance of control I can at all times. Tightly scripted schedules, calendars of social events, to do lists, smartphone reminders. So when I pack my suitcase, I say let the control go and enter into a little of free fall.
That free fall starts for me in how I plan, or don’t, for a trip. Wonder Boy and I plan each trip the same way. We buy plane tickets, book our first and last nights’ hotels.
That’s it. The rest of the trip schedule happens organically.
I can acknowledge that it is sort of a luxury to be able to wing it. I know I can always afford a hotel somewhere, even if it falls outside of my financial comfort zone. But even when I was less financial stable, right out of college, I still let myself go into travelling free fall. Instead of hotels, I just relied more on hostels. This system can work with any type of budget. During our trip we find hotels using our Lonely Planet guidebooks, asking people or, now that wireless is so easy to come by, travel apps like TripAdvisor on our phone.
So this free fall? It’s not only lodging but also day to day activities. If you don’t pre-plan a trip, you can adjust where and what you do based on what’s interesting, the weather, the cost, etc. For instance, when we visited Turkey, we intended to enjoy some beach time and the Augean Sea. The weather in Northern Turkey was cooler than we anticipated. Since we had no schedule or reservations to maintain, we were able haul our butts south and enjoy southern Turkey and a nearby Greek island. Similarly, on a recent trip to Bali we went to Munduk, which was beautiful but also really rainy. After making the most of things and hiking and sightseeing in the rain, we split town.
Another aspect of adventurous travel is trying to find the right mix of touristy and non-touristy things. Old Kate would have said there is no value in touristy things, even if I was actively partaking in them. I see the value now, in moderation.
It’s easy to always eat at restaurants frequented by expats and tourists, where you know the food is more likely to be safe and familiar. The flip side is that it’s also pretty much guaranteed to be more expensive and less authentic to the place you’re visiting! When I travel, I will ask locals for recommendations on cheap, non-touristy places. Wonderfully, people are apt to refer you to their personally preferred bars and restaurants, where you get to experience inexpensive, delicious local food in an authentic atmosphere. In Bali in the city of Sanur we ate at a night market full of food stalls serving local cuisine to locals and we stuffed ourselves with deliciousness for a total cost of $1 (combined). The same philosophy works for hikes, parks, beaches, shops, etc.
All that said, I’ve been trying to embrace some touristy things. Without doing so, this would never have happened!
I feel like I’m not doing a fair job of explaining what Wonder Boy and I do because it’s what we don’t do that makes all the difference. You want adventurous travel? WING IT. It will be okay.
* I fully acknowledge that many people take way more adventurous trips than I do, involving physical challenges and truly dangerous places. That’s cool but probably a little out of reach for your average person. I think what I can offer is a way for a typical beach-goer, Disney visitor to up the ante a little.
