A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRAVEL – MY ANTI-TRIP TO ORLANDO

Normally when we travel I’m all about planning. By the time I step foot on a departing flight I’ve most likely done countless google searches and read up on everything from a place’s history to it’s current political situation to the must-see attractions to what kinds of questionable street food you can buy from road-side vendors.

It might not be the most carefree way to travel but it helps me to feel more prepared and more relaxed once we get where we’re going.

I’m also not normally one to just chill out on vacations. I like to go and do and see. Most of our trips are planned around a specific activity and our record for time spent laying by a pool or on a beach is best measured in hours, not days.

So, when I decided last-minute to tag along with Mark on a work trip to Orlando, you’d think I would be frantically trying to learn as much as I could before we left.

Where would I go? What would I do? Would Donald Trump let me into the country?!

And yet, despite all these questions, I only half-heartedly searched for “things to do in Orlando that don’t involve Disney” (sorry people, but spending hundreds of dollars to stand in lines for hours on end with 50,000 of your closest friends is not my idea of a good time. If that’s your thing, all the power to you – you’re a better person than I).

Maybe it was because Orlando wasn’t at the top of my list of places to go. Maybe it was because I didn’t have a lot of time. Whatever the reason, I decided to just wing it on this trip.

And it was like I was a totally different person.

I spent most of my time laying by the pool. I had a massage. I used a hotel gym for the first time in my life. I participated in the company-planned trip to Hollywood Studios. I usually come home from vacations with thousands of photos – I literally took one picture.

Apparently this bird was the only thing I felt to be picture-worthy on this trip

I honestly had a great time, though I don’t know if I could have done it for much longer. By the end of the three days I was ready to find something else to do. My old habits and short attention span were starting to creep back in.

And while this trip didn’t totally convert me (I’ve got a whole folder of bookmarked pages in preparation for a trip to Playa del Carmen next month) maybe it will convince me to embrace a more laid back approach to travel in the future.

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