Spontaneity vs Structure
Coddiwomple (v.): To travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination.
Do you leave your trip open-ended or plan where you’ll be each day? I’m guilty of both on different occasions but I land somewhere in the middle with a healthy mix of both. I always want to have my first hostel booked in the city my flight lands. This time I am arranging to have a private transfer from the airport to my hostel to minimize that stressor when I land at 9 PM. In Vietnam, this only cost me about $15, so it was an easy decision. When it comes to deciding which places I will go to, I think about which few places are my can’t miss. For a month trip, this usually lands about one location a week. This leaves wiggle room on the sides to visit other cities and areas while having some kind of structure. My four for this trip were Bali, Ha Long Bay, Hanoi, and Hoi An. With Ho Chi Minh being where my flight was booked out of, I had a loose idea of where to go.
Once I have a very rough outline I start to consider booking hostels. Since I knew I wanted to do a Ha Long bay river cruise, I could book that and build around it. The cruise I selected had a pickup from Hanoi, which meant before the cruise, I had to be in Hanoi so I needed to book a hostel there. Based on when I booked the cruise I would likely want to start heading south toward Hoi An after. The caveat is a lot of the hostels I booked through Hostelworld. This means it is very low risk if I end up canceling one hostel and want to go elsewhere instead. I’ll book usually around 60% of my accommodation before I start traveling, then leave room for spontaneity around that. I will say, if there is a specific accommodation you want, book it in advance. You have to be okay with flexibility in accommodations when you book things last minute as I do.
Rather than plan out what I will do in each city each day, I make a list of all the ideas that sound exciting in the locations I’m excited about. This gives me some kind of guidance on what to do in each city while also knowing that so much of my day will be contingent on the people I meet and what sounds exciting. A lot of hostels will have daily activities or walking tours that can open your trip up to things you never expected. Some of the most incredible adventures I have had were from things that were never on my list, but my trip wouldn’t have been the same without them. From bungee jumping in Thailand to ending up on a yacht in Greece, leaving room for what the universe gives you makes the best memories.
This is one of the reasons I am so passionate about solo travel. I’ve found groups of people are much more likely to bring you into their crew when you’re social and traveling as an individual. Does this scare the crud out of my parents? Sure. Has it created some core memories in my mind? Absolutely. So I’ve found the middle ground with balancing my spontaneity and my structure. This trip I really want to lean into the spontaneous moments and know it’ll create lifelong memories. So my advice to you is to allow yourself to have moments of the unknown. Wander down a backstreet and find some beautiful views. Say yes when a new friend asks if you want to join in on their plans for the day. We spend so much time concerned about what the worst-case scenario is. What if we reframed that and wondered what is the best that could happen? I like to think that this mindset will lead to more spontaneous moments and incredible adventures.
