Is An Itinerary is Always a Good Idea?

If you are planning your annual vacation, you may be ready to start building your daily itinerary months in advance. An itinerary, which is a travel plan that helps many travelers stay organized, has both its advantages and disadvantages. For business travelers who must stay on schedule, an itinerary is great. For travelers who are traveling to a new part of the world, an itinerary can be more of a burden than a benefit. Save some time and find out why traveling without an itinerary is best for the most memorable recreational trips.

The Advantages of Not Building an Itinerary

While you will need your flight itinerary to ensure that you arrive at the airport on-time and reach the gates with time to spare, you do not necessarily need to map out where you will eat, what time you are going to eat, and what attraction you will visit. Travel itineraries may take the spontaneity out of traveling, at a time where you can truly appreciate being spontaneous.

Enjoy Freedom You Cannot Enjoy in Your Daily Life

Your daily life consists of a tight schedule that is controlled by either work, school, or other circumstances and events. You have so many different responsibilities and obligations on a daily basis that you do not often have time to be free and spontaneous. Your vacation is the time when you can be spontaneous without worrying about consequences. Why not take advantage of this time and skip the process of building a detailed itinerary.

Experience Different Parts of the City that You May have Never Considered

You may spend hours scouring the Internet to find all of the most popular attractions and sights to add to your itinerary when you are planning your trip. While the Internet is a great place to find hidden treasures and to read unbiased traveler reviews, you may not find just what you are looking for until you get to the destination and speak with the locals. If you have an itinerary that plans out how you will spend your time for the entire trip, you will be forced to change your daily plan if something else strikes your interest.  Without an itinerary, you have the freedom to choose what you want to do on the fly without the stress.

Avoid Arguments

If you are an organized individual traveling with a spontaneous person, having a very strict itinerary can lead to arguments. There is nothing wrong with being organized, but if you are making someone adhere to your schedule, this behavior may lead to heated disagreements. You and your travel partner should be as happy as possible on your vacation. Being late to dinner or changing plans to swim or relax should not ruin your entire trip. Compromise and write down what you want to do without a schedule so that you feel like you do have a little bit of control. This can prevent stress and arguments.

Travel itineraries are appropriate in some situations. If you are attending a wedding, a special event, or a business meeting, you might need an itinerary to make sure you get where you are expected to be on time. However, if you are traveling strictly for fun, make it fun and do not build a restricting itinerary.