The day I met a new friend at Hannigan & Sons Irish Pub in Granada, Spain.
I love having a plan. I want to know what I want to see, where I'm going, and how I'm getting there. I've also learned not to plan a trip so tightly that there's no room for the things I couldn't possibly have planned.
While visiting Spain, I met a lovely woman from Belgium and her husband. We started talking, spent some time together, and somehow a random encounter while traveling turned into a friendship. We still keep in touch, and I'm already planning to visit them the next time I'm in Belgium.
There was no box on my itinerary that said, “Meet new friends from Belgium.” Yet it's one of the things I remember most about that trip.
That's the kind of room I want to leave in my travel plans.
JUST GO DOWN THAT STREET
Some of the best discoveries happen between the places on my itinerary.
It's the little street that catches my eye. The shop I wasn't looking for. The café we happen to walk past. The view around the corner. Or the place that makes me say, “Wait—let's go see what's down there.”
I don't mean wandering around completely lost. I've done that too, and it's considerably less charming.
I mean giving myself permission to stray from the itinerary when something looks interesting.
I may have a list of ten things I want to see that day—and let's be realistic, I'm probably going to try to see all ten—but I don't want to be so focused on checking them off that I miss everything happening along the way.
Sometimes the places I remember most weren't on my list at all.
If a street looks interesting? I'm probably going down it.
A fun little stroll down a shopping street in the Albaicin Quarter of Granada.
We found Mesón Andaluz, a little Andalusian restaurant and bar, just a few blocks from the Granada Cathedral. We just went in for an afternoon sangria and it was delicious!
Cacho&Pepe, Granada, Spain — We found this little gem during one of those wandering moments. It may have been the smallest restaurant in Granada—it had only two tables! But that didn't matter because it was some of the best Italian food I've ever eaten.
THE ITINERARY CAN WAIT AN HOUR
Because eating is part of the trip too.
Some of my favorite travel memories have happened around a table. A little café we stumbled across, a local dish I’d never tried, a glass of wine in the middle of the afternoon, or simply sitting across from someone I love talking about everything we’ve already seen that day.
I have one rule when I travel with my kids: we don’t eat somewhere we can eat at home. If we can go to the same restaurant back in Iowa, we’re not eating there while we’re halfway across the country—or the world.
That doesn’t mean every meal needs to be fancy or expensive. Quite the opposite. Give me the little café, neighborhood restaurant, pub, bakery, food stand, or place we stumbled across because we were hungry and it looked good.
Food is part of experiencing a destination. I want to try what the area is known for, order something I've never had before, and take the time to enjoy it.
Sometimes it's the food I remember. Sometimes it's the place. Sometimes it's simply who was sitting across from me.
So yes, there’s probably something else on my itinerary that I want to see.
It can wait an hour.
The castle will still be there. The church isn't going anywhere. That charming little village will still be charming when we're finished.
Order the food. Have the drink. Enjoy where you are. Then we’ll get back to the itinerary. That's really what all of this comes down to for me.
Been There. Made the plan. Went down that street anyway. Loved That.