I was a very inexperienced traveller when I was younger. I think as a family, we went on vacation outside the state once when I was growing up. And I was maybe…five or six. We went to Disney Land, and I remember the holographic projections on the rides being the coolest thing I’d ever seen. And I think I vaguely remember meeting Alice and the White Rabbit. And I’m pretty sure we stayed in Tucson, AZ on the way back home.

After that, I didn’t really travel anywhere again until I was in my early 20’s. I had never been on a plane up to that point. Innocent, naive little me. A coworker wanted my help with a database migration in San Jose, so he had my company fly me out to CA. I was so very unprepared. I arrived in the airport and realized he wasn’t there, I had forgotten any phone numbers to get a hold of him, and had no idea where my hotel was.

I was too young to rent a car, at least without significant cost, and I didn’t have a credit card anyway, so it wouldn’t have mattered. I made that trip with less than $50 available to me.

Eep!

He showed up, took me to the office, introduced me around, made sure I had dinner that night, changed my flight and hotel reservations the next day when I had to stay a day longer, and enthralled me with tales of his wordliness. I was so in awe. This man had been to other countries. And had good stories to tell about them. He was a printer technician who did most of his work on the road, so he got to fly every week. I couldn’t even imagine how cool that would be.

And I hopped on the plane back home and decided travel – especially on someone else’s dollar – was the best invention ever.

Second plane trip I was almost as unprepared. I was flown to Las Vegas for a job interview less than a year later. My flight out there was delayed. I missed my first shuttle to the hotel. After my interview I was dropped at Ceaser’s Palce and told I could probably find a ride to the airport from there, and then my flight back was delayed six hours. Again, with less than $50 cash on me.

And I learned. I learned a lot of things at that point. First was, if you don’t have a company credit card, make sure you’re travelling with someone who does whenever possible and let them pick up the tab. It’s easier for them to expense it 😀 (okay, it’s easier for me if they expense it).

But I learned other, much more important things. And I’m always surprised when I travel with other people who don’t do this. I always rent a car now unless the company just absolutely won’t pay for it. And I always print out driving instructions. How to get to the hotel from the airport. How to get to the office/convention center from the hotel.

And I hope if I’m the one driving, I have a good navigator. My younger brother and sister – fantastic navigators. They know how to read a map like no one’s business which amuses me because neither drives (or did at the time at least). The girl I traveled with at my last job – lousy navigator. I learned my way around Nashville very quickly so I didn’t have to rely on that.

I have other quirks too. I like to reserve hotel rooms with two beds. One is where all the stuff gets dumped, and the pizza gets eaten. The other is for sleeping in. I almost always try and order room service one night when I’m there, but that’s easier if I’m not paying.

The thing is, all that planning and I never know what I’m going to do for fun before I leave. I don’t look up local hotspots. I don’t make evening plans. I ask at the front desk what’s fun. Or ask the client. Or drive until a place looks spiffy. I don’t track details like that until it’s time to do them.

Kind of like…when I write a novel (sorry it took me so long to get there ^_^). I typically have a general idea of how it starts, how it ends, what the highlights are and how important it is to get certain business done. But I so very rarely know the details before I get to them.

That’s part of the fun for me.

Are you an organized traveler, disorganized, or somewhere in-between?