Reasons to book early: The joy of travel planning

Written by Lucy Dunn. Read the full-length article in issue 7 of our Explorer magazine.
 

Recent studies have shown that anticipating a trip can make you as happy as the trip itself, and early bookers are on the up. Last-minute traveler Lucy Dunn wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

When it comes to travel, I’d long been a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants sort of girl. Whether it’s the annual family summer trip booked a few months before or a last minute, grab-your-passport kind of adventure, I loved to wing it.

I’m the same when it comes to the itinerary; I’d always do a quick Google before booking – ensure the hotel isn’t next to a major motorway and check it’s not monsoon season – but generally I was happy to arrive at a destination and grill the first taxi driver I met for their recommendations.

The joy of plan-ahead adventures

But these days I am finding I’m in the minority. Research has shown that the Covid-cautious days of hedging our bets are over and instead of last-minute trips, travelers are now embracing the joy of plan-ahead trips. Early bookers are on the up – where once most of us would wait for the new year to plan our annual summer break, we’re now booking 12 months ahead or more. It seems that planning trips ahead is good for you.

Studies have shown that spending time before a trip researching and looking forward to an adventure trip can boost your wellbeing – indeed, a 2020 survey by the Institute for Applied Positive Research found that 97% of respondents reported that having a trip planned makes them happier.

You can read books, travel guides, watch documentaries, read up on the delicacies to try. You can learn a few words of the lingo so you can speak to people, find your way around more easily and feel more savvy and in control. These are the best adventure travel podcasts to listen to.

Adventure trips shouldn’t be box-ticking exercises

I have lost count of the number of times I’ve skidded round a city and not even scratched the surface of what I could have seen.

There’s also the practical side: if you plan, you won’t make the same mistakes as me – like realising you should have hired a car but didn’t bring your driving

licence, or turning up to a major art exhibition, where tickets needed to be booked months in advance. But whatever happened to spontaneity?

Thank you, Gen Z?

Of course, it had to be a Gen Z to put us lackadaisical Gen X-ers to shame and make me come to my senses about trip planning. This year my husband and I booked a two-week tour of Australia to see our son who was studying out there.

Having just two short weeks to get around a massive country meant every day mattered and so my son’s girlfriend, who was tagging along, made a color-coded itinerary a couple of months ahead and sent it round so we had plenty of time to really think about what we did and did not want to do.

While not everyone will have a 20-year-old student with oodles of time on their hands, there are ways to ensure the planning goes smoothly by using apps, or travel companies that will do most of the hard work for you.

And I must admit, knowing what we were doing meant we could pack accurately and only took carry-on suitcases, making hopping on and off planes so much easier. (Normally I find it impossible to pack lightly for long haul, the distance makes me anxious and ‘comfort-pack’ – the last time I went to Australia I took a 28 kg suitcase and abandoned it four days into the trip.) View all our family tours here.

The thrill of anticipation

But most of all I must credit my best friend Paula and her partner Rob for making adventure trips special again. Two years ago, we made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go away for a weekend together and on the plane heading home decided we were going to make it a regular thing.

After all, our kids had flown the nest, so we were now free agents... A few weeks later Rob got diagnosed with cancer and our worlds came crashing down. Since then, there have been some pretty bleak times, and we weren’t sure what was going to happen.

Seeing such dear friends going through such turmoil was beyond awful, there were times they went ‘dark’, and we didn’t see them for months. Our travel plans were relegated to the backburner… although they remained an unspoken dream, a goal.

So then, finally, we got the text we’d been praying for: “Prague next Spring?” And that’s where we are right now: Rob has the all-clear, a date has been set, plane tickets have been bought, and we’re savoring every boozy dinner where we get together under the auspices of ‘planning’.

Adventures should create special memories; they shouldn’t be box-ticking exercises. In this connected age when you can be anywhere in the world at the click of a button, I realize I have been guilty of doing this.

Our trip will be over two years in the planning, but I already know it will be a very special one – after all, good things really do come to those who wait.