A few weeks ago I was getting burnt out by life in Ho Chi Minh City. It had been about a month since my family had been in town and since then I’d gotten stuck in the same routine. Do work, eat five chicken legs from the same restaurant for lunch, and then go on a date or do more hustling. I love the cafe work culture and liveliness of this city, but things can get old after a while.
This happens to almost everybody after some period of time. You can delay this feeling by making changes to your daily routine, but eventually you long for something different.
When you live in the small town you grew up in you may crave action. Why is everybody here so boring? Does nobody have aspirations beyond making 60k a year and getting married? Isn’t there things to do with my friends beyond going to the movies or bowling?
Yet, when you live in a chaotic city like Ho Chi Minh you eventually crave peace. At what point did I decide living in a city with horrendous air pollution was a good idea? Why can’t I walk on the sidewalk without an endless steam of motorbikes beeping and attempting to drive past me? Have I really chosen to live in a city where I’m pleasantly surprised when I’m able to walk thirty- seconds without seeing garbage in the street?
Almost everyone can relate to one of the previous two scenarios. However, not everyone has the flexibility to continually rotate a month of life in the big city with a month of life in a small town. For this reason, short trips have an enormous benefit. They allow you to maximize the upsides of life in your city while minimizing the downsides.
Live in a big city? Excellent. Hustle, make connections, have a great dating life, and enjoy all the other perks living in the city brings. Take a short weekend holiday to a more laid back town once a month to refresh and enjoy the nature and serenity your city may not be able to provide you.
Live in a small town? Enjoy the low stress lifestyle, nature, and relaxed vibe. Take short trips into economic city centers near you on occasion to network, attend interesting events, or simply enjoy the abundant energy the streets of these cities provide.
A short trip once a month is a great way to keep yourself stimulated and breakup the monotony of the daily grind. Planning these trips can provide a pleasurable anticipation that helps you get through difficult moments at work or rough patches in your personal life.
However, as great as planned short trips can be, I’ve found that last minute trips can often be an even better value for hustlers. Here’s why…
Last Minute Trips Give You The Ultimate Flexibility
When you decide to take a trip at the last minute you don’t ever have to worry about canceling flights or hotels due to unforeseen circumstances. You also have the ability to take the trip when it’s most convenient for you.
Some weeks you’ve got lots on your plate and need to work six or seven days. Other weeks are quieter and may only require three days of your attention. Taking a last minute trip allows you to capitalize on this. You won’t have stress about taking a holiday when you’re too busy with work, or spend a long weekend alone at home bored because things are quiet.
You Can Get Out Of Your Routine Exactly When You Need To
Sometimes we’re genuinely happy with where we are in life. Sometimes we’re completely content with staying in the same place and have no need or desire to travel. Taking last minute trips helps you avoid traveling and/or wasting money when you’re perfectly fine with life where you’re at.
On the other hand, taking last minute trips can also help you escape burnout. When you’re feeling grinded down by your daily life you can change things up when doing so will have the greatest possible positive impact for you.
You Can Save Money
Typically booking transportation and accommodation in advance will get you the cheapest prices. This is especially true if you have your heart set on traveling to a certain city or staying in a particular hotel.
However, occasionally booking a flight or hotel a few days or even a few hours in advance will get you a cheaper price. Why? Because sometimes airlines or hotels believe that by lowering their prices they may end up getting a last minute traveler to give them something rather than allowing their seats or rooms to stay empty.
If you’re flexible with your destination, you can usually find a good deal on transportation. Please note this isn’t always the case, however.
Often airlines and hotels will jack up their prices for last minute travelers. This is because most people plan travel weeks or months in advance. Often airlines believe that a last minute traveler booking flights is traveling either for business or an emergency. In either case, the airline knows they can charge almost any price and the traveler will be forced to pay it.
You Can Sometimes Save Time
Sometimes when we plan a trip we forget that our time has value. It’s easy to spend endless hours searching for a slightly better deal. However, is it worth spending an hour per week for the next month searching for a cheaper flight? If you manage to get a good deal you may pay $240 for your flight instead of $300. In this case, your research “saved” you $15/hour. That may or may not be worth it to you.
It’s common, however, to spend a month looking at ticket prices only to see little change. Maybe instead of getting your ticket for $300 you instead pay $284. In this case, your research only delivered a payout of $4/hour!
When planning travel it’s important to remember the value of your time. Last minute trips are great because you don’t have excess time to worry about “Will this be the best ticket price I can get?” or “Should I go on this say or that day?” You just take the best deal available and your entire trip can be planned in a few short minutes.
Conclusion
This post isn’t meant to discourage you from planning your trips. I’ll probably still me taking more planned trips than spontaneous ones (especially when flying over other forms of transportation).
However, I do hope this post opened your eyes to the possibility of adding some excitement into your life by taking a last minute adventure. Everyone should wake up one day without plans, and find themselves in a faraway city that night at least once.
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Two more videos from the Da Nang trip already recorded and coming along with new blog posts soon! Just gotta do some video editing and write up the blog posts this week.