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Whenever I plan a holiday, I tend to make a list. Places to see, restaurants to try, markets to wander through, cafés to find. There’s always that little voice saying, “You’ve come all this way and you should make the most of it.”
But some of my favorite travel memories have come from doing exactly the opposite.
I remember a trip to Goa when we stayed at Taj Exotica Resort & Spa. I had imagined spending the days exploring beaches, visiting little cafés and seeing as much of Goa as possible. One afternoon, though, we simply decided not to go anywhere. We stayed at the hotel, ordered something to eat, made cups of tea and spent a few hours doing absolutely nothing. I read for a while, took a nap, wandered downstairs for another cup of tea and then sat by the window watching the world go by.
Nothing particularly memorable happened. And yet, years later, that lazy afternoon is one of the things I remember most clearly from the trip.
I think there’s something wonderful about having nowhere to be when you’re on holiday. At home, there’s always another email, errand, appointment or household chore waiting for you. On vacation, you suddenly have permission to spend three hours reading the same few pages of a book or sitting over a cup of coffee long after you’ve finished it.
It also made me rethink the way I plan trips. I still love discovering new places and making lists of things I want to see, but I now try to leave some empty space in the itinerary.
Maybe it’s a slow breakfast. An afternoon nap. Sitting at a café and watching people walk by. Going back to the hotel earlier than planned. Or simply opening the curtains in the morning and deciding that today, there is absolutely nowhere we need to rush to.
Because perhaps the weirdest thing about a holiday is that the moments you planned the least can sometimes be the ones you remember the most.
What about you? What’s the most ordinary or unexpected moment from a trip that you still remember?
