Travel spontaneously?

[Scuba]

Okay just decided to go to St. Augustine for a few days in 2 weeks. For me, that is spontaneous!!!!!

Good for you! You’re breaking out of the planning mode already. [emoji4]

 

[akidagain2018]

I was reading a Clark Howard post on saving money on travel. https://clarkdeals.com/travel/ways-to-save-on-your-next-vacation/

He says find a great deal first (as in, regularly check KAYAK for cheap flights from your chosen airport) and then figure out why you want to go there. That is his #1 travel tip.

I'm wondering if any of you have subscribed to that philosophy? Or how do you figure out where to travel?

omni

I've done this, sure. Coincidentally it was a deal at an Omni resort in the Caribbean. I was traveling alone, I needed to plan a trip to have something I couldn't back out of, and look forward to, after what was a long difficult time. One of the best trips I've taken. I generally look for deals first, details later. Clark Howard and I think alike, apparently. Who knew?

 

[ohyes]

Okay just decided to go to St. Augustine for a few days in 2 weeks. For me, that is spontaneous!!!!!

Another place I want to visit. Report back, please.

 

[Dtail]

Another place I want to visit. Report back, please.

Absolutely. Going on July 18th.

 

[shortstop14]

I'm a little torn now with Airbnb and similar sites available. We used to fly in to Europe the cheapest way we could find, also booking the return (sometimes from a different city). We'd stay somewhere a few days, and find a new place to stay on the fly when we decided to move on to another city. Usually worked out OK, even before cell phones and the internet, but sometimes finding a new place was hard or time-consuming, using annoying international phone cards or looking around on foot. Easier to do that now, of course.



But with Airbnb, and our ability to stay longer, we can reduce the lodging costs quite a bit by booking in advance, especially if we stay longer. And over longer periods, the lodging is the highest expense. So now I'm tending to book the place to stay in advance, and have more of a known itinerary before I go.

 

[FUEGO]

These are the old Celebrity Cruise line ships-Mercury and Century. We have been on them in years gone by.

Wow, the Century! We took our honeymoon on the Century way back in 2004. I've been tempted by the Pullmantur deals but with flights to the departure port (vs a very cheap drive to Florida) it hasn't penciled out for us. Might have to reconsider to go on the Century again.

I love the deck 11 on the rear of the boat outside the buffet area that overlooks the propeller wash stream. That's been the saying between my wife and I all these years. Find a nice quiet place with a great view and we say "this is our deck 11".

 

[Nemo2]

I love the deck 11 on the rear of the boat outside the buffet area that overlooks the propeller wash stream. That's been the saying between my wife and I all these years. Find a nice quiet place with a great view and we say "this is our deck 11".

Hey, move over...that's OUR spot!!

 

[FUEGO]

Hey, move over...that's OUR spot!!

Next (free) drink is on me!

 

[Nemo2]

Next (free) drink is on me!

DW already has her seat saved:

 

[Talkjk]

Has anyone ever tried haggling with the airlines? Could you spontaneously decide to go to Hawaii tomorrow (or in the next week). You check an airline and see that xxx flight has open seats. So the day of that flight you confirm still open seats and show up at the ticket counter a couple hours before the flight. What do you think the chances of the airline working with you to fill the seat? Or would they leave it empty?

 

[sengsational]

There's no negotiating with airlines according to this stackexchange post that's got a goodly number of up votes. The idea is great, though, but they make the point that it would be an absolute CF trying to control who had authority to do what.

 

[brett]

We tend to be spontaneous travelers. We do bookend with flights though. Booked one last week. DW wamted to visit family in Eastern Canada for our Thanksgiving. I could not go that early....had to wash my hair. I will join her next week.

The return trip will be via Cancun for a few weeks. Hotel for one week is booked. No plans yet for the remaining time yes. We will decide when we get there.

Booked us to Thailand in January, and then on to Australia to join friends. We have air booked. Well, home as far as Hawaii and in between to Thailand to Oz. Watching fares now for the rest of the way. In between? We know where we are flying in and out. Will book some accommodation around that. We know where we are going. We will probably book three or four days out at a time once we arrive. We typically do extended trips. This gives us the choice of staying somewhere that we especially like or changing the itinerary on the fly as it were. We only take carry on. Some of our friends think that we are mad hatters. Couple of senior citizen nomads. But why stay at home when the weather is not to our liking? And who wants to drag along everything thing they own on vacation?

 

[Fedup]

Has anyone ever tried haggling with the airlines? Could you spontaneously decide to go to Hawaii tomorrow (or in the next week). You check an airline and see that xxx flight has open seats. So the day of that flight you confirm still open seats and show up at the ticket counter a couple hours before the flight. What do you think the chances of the airline working with you to fill the seat? Or would they leave it empty?

No, but if you travel to Hawaii often, you know they often have sale in fall and spring. Stay away from summer. I’ve been waiting for sale to Hawaii and today I nabbed two tickets for less than $120 each way on Hawaiian Airlines. I’m open to any month that’s cool in California. Much cheaper than my aborted plan to Tahoe this week. Airline tickets that is. Hotels probably more expensive in Hawaii though.

 

[Fedup]

We tend to be spontaneous travelers. We do bookend with flights though. Booked one last week. DW wamted to visit family in Eastern Canada for our Thanksgiving. I could not go that early....had to wash my hair. I will join her next week.

The return trip will be via Cancun for a few weeks. Hotel for one week is booked. No plans yet for the remaining time yes. We will decide when we get there.

Booked us to Thailand in January, and then on to Australia to join friends. We have air booked. Well, home as far as Hawaii and in between to Thailand to Oz. Watching fares now for the rest of the way. In between? We know where we are flying in and out. Will book some accommodation around that. We know where we are going. We will probably book three or four days out at a time once we arrive. We typically do extended trips. This gives us the choice of staying somewhere that we especially like or changing the itinerary on the fly as it were. We only take carry on. Some of our friends think that we are mad hatters. Couple of senior citizen nomads. But why stay at home when the weather is not to our liking? And who wants to drag along everything thing they own on vacation?

I like your style and we travel that way too. More flexible. My husband and I are nomads ourselves, often travel with just one small suitcase per person. That’s our version of a young person’s backpack.

 

[Oz investor]

if you mean without booking in advance , absolutely

since i normally travel by bus ( interstate or not ) i roll up to the terminal and take yje first vacate seat going to the desired place

yes sometimes i have to wait a while , but it beats the drama and anxiety of trying to arrive on time , etc etc

being currently grounded ( until 2020 ) i don't currently travel far , but maybe later i will do it again

 

[athena53]

There's no negotiating with airlines according to this stackexchange post that's got a goodly number of up votes. The idea is great, though, but they make the point that it would be an absolute CF trying to control who had authority to do what.

They also seem to do a pretty good job of keeping the planes full; I don't see that many empty seats when I fly anymore, so maybe they don't need a process for last-minute sales to fill the seats. Years ago I used to subscribe to e-mails from Continental with last-minute bargains but either they quit sending them or I unsubscribed. The real bargains were trips between a couple of not-so-popular cities (think Des Moines to Cleveland, for example) in the middle of the winter. I never saw any bargain offerings to Hawaii!

 

[audreyh1]

They also seem to do a pretty good job of keeping the planes full; I don't see that many empty seats when I fly anymore, so maybe they don't need a process for last-minute sales to fill the seats. Years ago I used to subscribe to e-mails from Continental with last-minute bargains but either they quit sending them or I unsubscribed. The real bargains were trips between a couple of not-so-popular cities (think Des Moines to Cleveland, for example) in the middle of the winter. I never saw any bargain offerings to Hawaii!

I have also noticed planes being full. There always seem to be plenty of standby passengers too!

 

[Bamaman]

Living in Atlanta in the early 90's, we'd receive an email from Delta Airlines on Wednesday for their weekend excursions at ridiculously low prices. Of course they were going to places all over the country where airplanes were not full. Thousands of people would take advantage of the spontaneous travel every week.

But that was not the New Delta Airlines. Nothing like that is now seen, and we seldom even fly any legacy air carriers.

I do see where Frontier and other budget carriers will drop the fares when they go into a new retail market. We're seeing $55 round trip flights from Huntsville to Orlando, and Huntsville to Denver (after 10/26) for slightly more. I figured a jump to Orlando and then to London Gatwick on Norwegian Air Shuttle would be a good spontaneous trip for about $500.

 

[Souschef]

We love to be unplanned. My DW taught me that after years of tours, etc. We spent a week in Switzerland where we just went with the flow. It was kind of sad to see people on tours go up to the top of the mountain when we knew it would be socked in.
We have been doing that lately on our US travels too.

 

[deserat]

We are scheduled to arrive in Copenhagen by ship mid May 2019.....we want to do the Baltics from there....seems the cheapest flight from Copenhagen is to Riga...so that's where we figure to start.

Had it been Vilnius, or Helsinki, or or.....

I was in the Baltics last June and was doing a fly to Frankfurt, fly to Vilnius, bus to Riga, bus to Talinn, fly to Stockholm, fly to Frankfurt itinerary.

First, the flight from Talinn to Stockholm was 50 Euros on Lot - amazing price. The bus tickets were 17 Euro each and I had two seats to myself and back of the seat entertainment (like the overseas airlines) and unlimited Wifi....another amazing price....the airline tix to/from USA-Frankfurt were miles I had and one of them was business class on Lufthansa that was on 'miles sale.'' All other travel expenses (movement, not hotels, that was another search) were about the regular price.

How I did this was being diligent and doing research on my options. And I was a bit more spontaneous than usual - the bus trips and some of the tours I took were at the last minute and with discounts. I also try to use walking, buses and trains when in Europe....much cheaper in general. I spent 2 weeks in the Baltics and 1 week in Sweden...the Swedish stay was with a friend so that was very cheap and wonderful as I got to see some stuff most don't see unless they are with someone local. I calculated that whole trip only set me back about $2K for everything including tchochkes....

Nevertheless, I don't belong to any great deals list or website. I have found that some of the info from the truly frequent travelers on this board have some great insight and advice.

 

[Souschef]

We love trains in Europe. We took trains from up in the Bernese Alps of Switzerland down to Nice. It was so relaxing, get up and walk around, look at the scenery, have a nice lunch, etc.
We love the Chunnel. travel from downtown London to Paris Gare du Nord. No Heathrow, Gatwick, Orly or Charles de Gaulle...

 

[NW-Bound]

We have an (unwritten) list of places we'd like to see.....if we're thinking about going to 'A' but see a great deal on a flight/ship to 'B'...then 'B' it is.

We'd rather spend the cash at ground level than at 30,000 ft.

There was a period when we did not even have a list of places that we'd like to see, but we knew where we had not been. And when my wife said there was a cheap airfare going to Bangor, then that was where we went.

It's tougher now for me to do that though. Not just going coast-to-coast in a coach seat, but diagonally from the Southwest corner to the Northeast. I have to be more selective now.

 

[Nemo2]

I was in the Baltics last June and was doing a fly to Frankfurt, fly to Vilnius, bus to Riga, bus to Talinn, fly to Stockholm, fly to Frankfurt itinerary.

Thus far we have booked flights Copenhagen-Riga, and Riga-Gdansk, with airbnb accommodation in both.

Since train scheduling in that area appears somewhat more conducive to intra, (rather than inter), country travel, that's probably as much as we'll book until we're in situ.

Extremely flexible 'plan' is then (perhaps) Gdansk-Lublin by train, Lublin-Lviv by 'however,' Lviv-Kiev by train, Kiev-Vilnius by plane, and perhaps trains thereafter.

Ahhh, who knows?

 

[braumeister]

I have also noticed planes being full. There always seem to be plenty of standby passengers too!

Long, long ago when I was with a large airline, I had free standby privileges. Often I would decide to spend the weekend in another city and I would just show up at the gate after work on Friday while the plane was boarding. Back then there were always empty seats so I could simply get on and hope I could do the same coming back home on Sunday. It never failed, but those days of lots of empty seats are gone forever.

 

[RunningBum]

We love to be unplanned. My DW taught me that after years of tours, etc. We spent a week in Switzerland where we just went with the flow. It was kind of sad to see people on tours go up to the top of the mountain when we knew it would be socked in.
We have been doing that lately on our US travels too.

I hate going unplanned, but I do like to be flexible.

A few years ago my son and I had 3 week Eurail passes. We booked all our hotels but for the Swiss Alps I made sure they could be cancelled at the last minute. Good thing, because they were going to get hard rain, so I did cancel and we went elsewhere at the last minute, to places less weather dependent for our activities, and they happened to be mostly away from the rain too. Disappointed to miss the Alps but we enjoyed where we went, certainly better than standing on a rainy, fogged in mountain or wandering between gift shops in town.