What is a Creative Vacation? Great question.
The Vacation Dispute:
Not long ago one of my BFFs and I decided we needed a girls weekend. (You can see one of our past girls weekends in this post). She lives in Texas and I live in Louisiana, so we knew we would be flying somewhere, but where? This question quickly escalated to a problem.
She suggested Seattle, which we both love, but with over four hours of flying to get there I thought it was ambitious for a long weekend.
“Can you think of somewhere thats quicker to get to, somewhere we could do easily in a long weekend?” I asked.
Ten minutes later she called back, “Big Bend” she suggested, “Its really pretty and I’ve always wanted to go.”
Now for those of you who may not know, Big Bend is located in West Texas. Unfortunately, we soon realized getting there was going to take even longer than Seattle. A flight to Austin (for me) and then 7 hours of driving. So with that, the dream of visiting Big Bend was out too.
Our creative vacation solution:
After she dismissed a plethora of my suggestions, all of which were promising, we finally found a solution. It was sparked by a Google search and the fact that she had heard of it somewhere.
The answer? A 3 day vacation planning company called Pack up and Go. Per the company, “The Catch? The Destination is a Surprise.”
If we use the definition for creativity that I have used since my original post on creativity, this company nailed it. Most travel planning companies do the opposite of pack up and go. They ask YOU where you want to go, but this companies’ mission is to implement surprise. And I love that.
As far as my BFF and I’s girls weekend destination standoff goes, Pack up and Go is the perfect solution. So we have committed to go somewhere (?) at the end of March. Let me just say, for someone who had almost no trouble waiting nine months to find out the gender of her baby, I’ve been feeling pretty impatient about finding out where our creative vacation will be.
Other Creative Vacations:
Of course, I don’t think this surprise destination is the ONLY way to take a creative vacation. Maybe you stay in a creative hotel such as the colorful Saguaro Hotels. Or maybe its a road trip with ample time for spontaneous decisions. Or even braver, a road trip without a specific destination.
One of my favorite vacations I’ve been on was a road trip through Arizona with a group of friends. Minus, the morning sickness, as I was in my first trimester of being pregnant with Ray. I will add that this trip included two nights stay in a Navajo Hogan at the Shash Dine Eco retreat. This is where the pictures for this post are from.
Maybe your vacation is creative in how you budget. I recently saw a Facebook post from a group of friends who went to Disney world and were stuck eating PB&J sandwiches for every meal because they chose to spend their splurge money on tickets Mickey’s Christmas Party! I love how creative this is! Yet simple!
Perhaps creativity on your vacation is just something you keep in your mind. I think this perspective of a creative vacation may be especially crucial if your “vacation” doesn’t turn out so great. Our first vacation with Ray was a sleepless disaster, and yes it took imagining anything else to keep me sane.
There are probably a plethora of creative vacations that haven’t been mentioned here. Please tell me about it if you have something in mind! That is the beauty of creativity, though, its somewhat boundless.
For now, I hope I’ve encouraged you to weave some creativity into your next vacation. Next week I’m sharing a fabulous guest post from my dear friend about how everyone, yes even you, is creative. Until then, cheers!