Would you...?
 

How many (or few) of the dedicated trip planners here would be willing to trust a package tour company without knowing exactly where you'd be going....?

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2...liday-srprs-me

Not me.

Ack - no way! I love the planning too much to give that up!

Heck no! But I also really love researching and planning my trips. To me, that's half the fun. I also think carefully about where I want to spend my precious annual leave and equally precious paychecks. I like looking forward to a trip and talking about the things we might do and I couldn't really do that with these trips. I can see the appeal, though, for people who don't enjoy planning and prefer to be spontaneous.

Not a chance.

Never. I love research, and I'm particular about my lodging.

Never. Unless I'm a widower and I cannot rely on my wife for planning anymore. But would I travel alone ?

GTFO.

Has no appeal to me whatsoever. First, I hate surprises in general. But I want to be able to research a trip to decide what I want to do, where I want to stay, etc. I agree that is part of the fun, but I also want to choose things myself, anyway. I also don't understand how you could pack appropriately for such a trip. It claims they give you a "weather forecast" which sounds of limited utility, and they don't even tell you until one week before departure. No thanks, I plan my packing far in advance of that, in case I need to buy something, but also to get things cleaned/ready and because I am very busy with work, etc and can't leave it all to the last minute. But also, that negates the concept that what you pack depends on where you are going (not just weather) and what kind of places you plan to visit. Some people might want more upscale restaurants and plan to take appropriate clothes for that, while others are fine with casual corner cafes where you only need sneakers and jeans. And even if you check a forecast ifyou know the location, you get a more general sense of the climate and likely weather during your trip.

I really don't understand why anyone would want to do that. But a lot of people are bored, I guess, and need something like that to feel interest in traveling or something. I have too many places I want to see that I would pick to waste time and money going somewhere someone else picked.

I would think that is a very limited market of people who want to do that, but some of these companies have been around for some years now.

The owners are a bit of liars, I think, in the company description as to how this company developed. I notice they give no dates, but they say it was their own brilliant idea that just occurred to one of the founders on a trip. This isn't true, there are many companies like that around and have been for years, in fact. Here is one that has been around since 2009 and publicized a lot

http://magical-mystery-tours.com/about/

There are others, also.

srprs.me has only been around since 2014

Love this idea. I wish it was available in the US.

THE trip for folks who do not want to do an iota of trip planning and would assume company would try to make such a trip something to remember.

Maybe?

I plan the majority of each of our trips, but I wouldn't say I love doing it. It's just what you do to have a good trip, and I wouldn't trust anyone else--like a travel agent--to do it.

The one trip we took with almost no advance planning, to Dublin and to a wedding in Cork, went swimmingly, so I do try not to overplan since then.

The thing that put me off about the writeup for Surprise Me is that the group missed some pretty iconic things in Porto, which the author admits.

On the other hand, would she have gone to Porto otherwise? That's part of the point of Surprise Me, I assume, and pretty intriguing.

Well what is the betting you end up at a location like this?
Brits running for sun beds at 8am Gran Canaria
https://politica.elpais.com/politica...22_521372.html


That would upset me.

No way. I love trip planning, even if it's a very lightly planned trip, and want to own the consequences.

Why not for a few days? in fact once I am moved and settled, maybe I'll give it a go.

That's the spirit, hetismij2! Why not, indeed?

We can become slaves to habit, after all. This might be a way to break out of the ingrained habits of travel and rediscover the pleasure of letting go.

I travel independently, therefore I am.

Only if it was free. I'm not gambling my travel money on some else's idea of a great trip. However, I'd be more than OK with Porto.

We have a friend who used to surprise his wife with mystery trips, usually just long weekends but occasionally for a week. He wouldn't even tell her what clothes to pack and would pack for her. He thought he was being spontaneous and romantic. They're now divorced.

Jean, that sounds like the ninth circle of hell to me! I had a boyfriend once request a day off work for me and, instead of driving to work, took me on a day trip. (We worked together and carpooled.) I found it insanely controlling and we broke up shortly thereafter. There are people who might like that but you have to be really, really certain you've got one of those people.

Not a big planer, but organized group trips are a definite no.