It’s January, the month millions of Canadians scour travel sites like Expedia, Travelzoo and Skyscanner looking for the best deals on trips south and overseas.
I’m always of two minds when I travel. Part of me wants to have a wide open itinerary and let faith and sweet serendipity dictate my travels. The other part, the realist in me, recognizes that you’d be crazy if you didn’t at least book accommodations in advance to reduce stress and so you know you have a bed to sleep in at night.
I know someone who has to have every minute detail planned to the last minute when they travel. It’s almost become an obsession. They know what activities they will do, where they will eat and even what they are going to eat based on the restaurants’ online menus.
Personally, I think that takes some of the fun out of travelling.
Some of the most amazing days and experiences on my travels have been a result of sweet serendipity.
I remember when my best friend Leslie and I went to England and Wales for our 40th birthdays. We booked three days in London and one B&B in Bakewell in the north in advance, but that was it. We left the rest up to chance.
One night, as we were driving south through Wales, it seemed our strategy might backfire when we were unable to find accommodation. It was getting late and we finally ended up in this tiny village called Howie where we had the best Thai meal at our B&B followed by a night at the pub drinking with the locals.
The locals in the bar asked us if we had seen the Morris Men dancers in town that day. We hadn’t. Morris dancing is an ancient folk dance in the UK where bands of merry men enter villages and towns with bells and dance for the townsfolk. We drank to our bad luck, then packed our bags and headed south back into England to the tiny town of Arundel.
As we checked into the quaint B&B we were staying for the night, the host asked us if we had come to see the flowers. “What flowers?”, we asked. Once a year for three days in May, Arundel Cathedral is adorned with thousands of flowers along the aisle leading up to the altar. There is a different design each year and people come from hundreds of miles to visit the church.
Counting ourselves lucky to land in the town the exact same day the flowers were on display, we headed to the church. It was stunning. After we left the church, what did we see? The merry Morris dancers, performing in the town square. Pure serendipity.
For our 50th birthdays, we spent two weeks travelling around Ireland. My favourite day by far was the day we ventured off the beaten path to tour around one of the deserted peninsulas, The Sheep’s Head, which juts off south of the town of Bantry into the Atlantic Ocean.
As we traversed the desolate windswept shoreline, we stumbled upon a memorial for the Air India crash in 1985. We hadn’t seen it in any guidebooks (most guidebooks don’t even mention this head), but it was a spectacular, moving stop and one of the highlights of our trip.
Yes, sometimes the best plan is to have no plan at all.
This week’s #HappyAct is to remember to leave some things up to chance as you start making your travel plans in 2025. Happy travels!
Above: the Air India Memorial in Sheep’s Head, Ireland and the carpet floral display at Arundel Cathedral in England
Happy Act 