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To Plan or Not to Plan

So everyone lately has been asking me, “How’s the planning going?” Well, the short answer is that there isn’t much planning at all…

When I first had the idea of this trip, I planned like a madman.  I had an Excel document, and worked out a budget per week and a target city to be in every Sunday, and all that stuff.  I even started reading Lonely Planet’s South America On A Shoestring to figure out the more detailed day-to-day itinerary.

Then I read Doug Lansky’s Rough Guides book, First Time Around the World, and in it, he warns about overplanning.  Overplanning sets up too high an expectation, and you’ll only end up feeling down when stuff doesn’t go according to plan...which often happens in developing countries.  Other season travelers have seconded this notion, by word of mouth and in books; Rolf Potts, author of Vagabonding, even suggests to just buy flights along the way as it hits your mood. 

No guide should be treated like a bible, so I’m compromising.  While my flights are more or less set in stone, there are at least 3 months in between them for the wind to take me wherever.  I anticipate getting into random adventures as I just roam on and off the backpacker trail, always working towards my next airport departure city. 

I realized that when I was planning out a day-to-day itinerary, each page was short enough that I could just read as I travel along...no sense in cramming it all up front and locking myself to a routine.  Routines and schedules are what I’m leaving behind in the USA in the first place.

So the answer to “How’s the planning going?” is, it’s not really going at all.  My plane tickets are booked and are en route to me, my passport’s away to get extra visa pages in it, and my travel vaccination appointment has been made.  My first country Ecuador doesn’t require a visa, so I don’t have to worry about that.  Subsequent visas I’ll worry about in the neighboring country before I enter it.  I suppose the week before I leave, I’ll look up a hostel in Quito and book it.

I’ve quoted him before, and I’ll quote him again:

“I don’t know, I’m making this up as I go.”
- Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark

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Comments for "To Plan or Not to Plan"

• Hey Erik-- I had no intention of swinging over to the east coast before 2004, but serindipity is at play and basically because I have opted to ‘plan’ my journey flexibly--I will be arriving in NYC Aug 22-26. I am the pints and pool girl. Let me know if you wanna meet up…
  Cheers.

  Posted by Kacey  on  08/18  at  02:20 PM

  
  

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