Doug Mack on the drawbacks of over-planning one’s travels

“But where’s the fun? Where’s the adventure? It’s not just “If it’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium,” it’s “If it’s seven o’clock, this must be the Café Le Petit Obsessive-Compulsive, this wine must be the Pinot Noir that I read about on Wines.com, the server must be Yvette, who got high marks on TripAdvisor, and I have to be done eating by eight o’clock so that I can follow the Google Map instructions to the subway station and use the Paris Metro app to catch a train to Montmartre, where I will snap a photo exactly like the one I saw on WikiTravel, which I will then upload to Facebook at the Internet café recommended on the bulletin boards at Yahoo! Travel because they accept American credit cards.”
–Doug Mack, Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day (2012)

Posted by | Comments (3)  | April 23, 2012
Category: Travel Quote of the Day


3 Responses to “Doug Mack on the drawbacks of over-planning one’s travels”

  1. DEK Says:

    I suspect modern child-rearing practices are to blame. So many of today’s young travelers grew up with every moment of their day planned. They grew up thinking that life was mainly a scheduling problem. They grew up with the constant feedback of their peers. To them, the unexpected was not a good thing. We should not wonder that they do not take easily to foot-loose adventure.

  2. Paul Says:

    @DEK – Good point, modern parenting is strange. If today’s young trekkers ever get exposed to a microbe or two, they’re done for as they likely won’t possess a robust immune system.

  3. Dale Says:

    First of all, a lot of people want predictability. They want recommendations.

    Second, by the time you go on a trip, you may have read so many “must see” / “can’t miss” / “best of” lists you can’t help feeling like you’re missing something if you don’t plan-plan-plan ahead.

    A useful travel recommendations list would look something like this:
    1) Go somewhere, wander around
    2) Make new friends, have dinner with them
    3) Take a nap in a park
    4) Wake up late, see what’s happening that day
    5) Ask a local what’s their favorite restaurant

    Sadly, these will all yield unpredictable experiences.