Picture this.
It was a toasty summer evening in our un-airconditioned apartment. I’m sitting on my bed pouting, an ice cube melting in my hand. Scott is next to me surfing the front page of the internet. This is a common occurrence in our household due to my lofty expectations and Scott’s love of reddit.
Our first wedding anniversary was coming up that Saturday and, like almost every weekend of our first year of marriage, Scott had to work. This was not how I expected to spend this anniversary, (thus my pouting). I had been told by countless people that their best piece of marriage advice was “Live up your first few years together! Have adventures! Travel as much as you can!” But how is one suppose to do that when your time is dictated by an exhausting work schedule? If you are in that boat currently, I’m sorry. We’ve been there.
Oh the joys of adulthood.
Anyways – we were talking about our options when something truly magical happened. We went to look at the calendar to find a different day to celebrate together when we realized – Scott wasn’t working this weekend… He had this weekend OFF. Not only that. He the following MONDAY off. A empty, unplanned, long weekend. Folks this never happens and I was not going to let it pass us by…
Which leads me into my first piece of advice for last minutes getaways:
1. When the opportunity arises, you take it.
The first step in any adventure is making the decision to have one. Do you have a day off? Possibly a weekend? Or a whole week? It’s worth it. Buy that plane ticket. Start driving. Grab your camera. It’s worth it.
In this particular story, the second we saw that open window in our schedule we went into a planning frenzy. Scott started by searching “cheapest plane tickets for this Friday.” That answer google gave us? Cancun. I will take it! Within 10 minutes we were hitting “book” on our round trip tickets, $300 total. It felt absolutely crazy. We sat there after like, “Uhm did we just do that? Are we going to Mexico tomorrow?” We didn’t take the time to plan or question any of it. We just made the decision to go and worried about the rest later.
2. Be flexible when it comes to travel plans.
Secondly I really encourage you – Don’t avoid doing something because it doesn’t fit your ideal vacation. You may have a dream bucket list or certain qualifications for where you like to go. I do too. I prefer mountains over beaches, I would rather not pay for a plane ticket unless it’s an extended trip, and I want to go to Peru. But for last minute travel and true adventure, you do not have the luxury of waiting around for your dream to happen. Take the time and resources you have and find a trip that fits.
Some of the best memories Scott and I have are days when we went somewhere we were not expecting to go. I remember one time we got off work early and drove to South Dakota just so I could check it off my list of states. If we would have sat around and tried to plan that ahead of time, we would have said, ” Not worth it.” I mean in hindsight we literally just drove there, turned around, and came back. But in the moment, we made pit stops for junk food snacks. We saw a part of the country we had never been. We blasted the car radio and sang together. We met people and told them, ya we just got into the car and drove. It was liberating.
3. Don’t ask “What if…”
As a planner I would normally never give this advice, but for last minute getaways, you do not have the privilege of waiting around. Don’t worry about if it’s efficient or worth the effort, like I have said before – Just do it.
After booking our Cancun tickets, we had many things to figure out. Do we need to transfer money? Where will we sleep? Will our phones work? If we would have worried about all this before we went, it may have deterred us from going. We solved this by finding a very cheap hotel on Groupon where all our food was included and not using our phones the whole weekend ( Have you ever taken a phone free weekend? Highly recommended…)
4. Make the most of your time.
It is a getaway after all. Have an optimistic attitude and do your best to fill all your time with whatever refreshes you most. For some people that’s sitting all day with a good book and for others, such as myself, its going non stop to see the sights and get as many cool photos as possible. Turn off your phone and work email and allow yourself to actually get away, even if it’s just for a short time.
When we arrived in Cancun two days after booking the ticket, we had no idea what we would even be doing. We got to our resort to find a recent storm had caused major leaking in all of their rooms. We were prepared to make the best of it, but got lucky instead. The hotel upgraded us to a deluxe package at their brand new hotel down the street. Free drinks, private beach, free water sport activities. We seriously got lucky. We filled our time to the max for two whole days and by the end we felt like we had been there a week.
At the end of the day, I really think you can make anything feel like a getaway, even if it is one night at a campsite, or a long day at a state park, or a two day trip to Cancun! The best way to plan a last minute trip is to open your computer and start searching what is out there. Don’t be picky or worrisome. Openly try new things and go in with an optimistic mind.
Here are some ideas to start planning budget friendly and time sensitive getaways:
- Research national and state parks within 3 hours of driving.
- Look up “Unique Homes” on Airbnb
- Google last minute travel deals for flights or cruises.
- Grab your camera and start driving, stop whenever you see a Insta-worthy shot.
- Research underrated towns in your state and go explore.
- See how many miles you can put on your car in one weekend, stop whenever you see something interesting.
- See if there are any restaurants nearby highlighted on “Drivers, Dine-Ins, and Dives”
- Pack a picnic and drive somewhere with no cell service.
- Search Groupon for hotel deals and go wherever is the cheapest.
- Look for rentable cabins, yurts, and cottages instead of hotels.
- Go for a road trip to the nearest landmark and sleep in your car.
- Look on a map for big cities you have never been to.
- Keep checking for cheap flights with Spirit, Allegiant, Frontier, or WOW air and don’t pack anything but a personal item.
Global Pastiche 