Plan, Plan, Plan or Go With the Flow?

I often look back with nostalgia at some of the trips I took when I was younger.

I frequently flew from Auckland to Sydney, hungover and with nowhere to stay (much to my mum's dismay!). When I was 19 I travelled to Canada via Seattle to spend the winter snowboarding - again, hungover and with nowhere to stay! On another occasion I went with a friend into a travel agency and asked where we could fly to the following day. We contemplated Palau, looked and Vietnam and then had tickets couriered for Bali that evening. Once in Kuta we found some man at the local shopping centre, handed over money and were picked up the next day and taken by car, then boat over to Nusa Lembongan island (pictured below at sunset) where we had a great week.

Those were the days where I would turn up (often with a friend) in a foreign city, armed perhaps with a few pages that I had photocopied from a travel guide at the local library, more often just with a phone number of an acquaintance. Without a mobile phone. And everything always worked out perfectly. I miss those days and that style of travelling. These days it is a completely different story.

For example, for the trip we went on to Ibiza back in August, we planned out meals for the week and even wrote a grocery list. For my upcoming trip back to New Zealand next year we are going to be having two nights down in Queenstown (pictured below in winter). I have already planned out a draft itinerary for the 2.5 days we have there - and booked three restaurants. This is still four months away.

I think in this age of the Internet going with the flow just doesn't seem to work as well as it used to. If you don't research all the best places to go, bars to check out and exhibitions to see - chances are you won't be able to do any of those things as they will be booked out.

What do you think? Do you plan and book your trips away in advance or do you prefer to see where the day takes you once you have arrived?

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Images: 1, 2