Nearly 20 years ago, back in 2001, I went travelling on a RTW ticket with two friends. Two of us started up in India and met up with the third in Thailand to continue our trip. While we were talking one talking on one of our first evenings in Sri Lanka, Andrew asked me how we used to book our accommodation in the “olden days”.
The truth is, as far as I can recall, we just used to rock up and hope for the best. We moved around much more frequently than we will be on this trip with kids, Access to the internet was restricted to a trip to a cyber café, which often had power cuts halfway through your weekly update email. usually staying maximum a week in places. When arriving at the beach resorts, a man would come up to the boat you had just disembarked from with a folder full of plastic wallets of cut and pasted photos and hand written prices for you to select. Or you would go and sit in a tiny air conditioned “travel agents” office to plan your next mode of transport or trip.
Access to the internet was restricted to a trip to a cyber café, which often had power cuts halfway through your weekly update email. At the time, you’d send these to all of your friends and family whose email addresses you had (this seems slightly embarrassing now!) We also used to have our photos developed from our camera films and then scan them in to attach to our emails! Oh how things have changed in a relatively short space of time.
In recent years for shorter trips I tend to always use Booking.com or AirBnb for accommodation. Booking.com has got us out of some last minute sticky situations on occasion. However from a travellers perspective I’m undecided whether this is a blessing or a small curse to have all of this choice at your finger tips.
While being able to book ahead while travelling with kids gives you peace of mind, I find it takes a bit of the fun, adventure and spontaneity out of it. You’re also left tied down to a pre-existing booking, having already paid, when it may not be exactly what and where you were looking for. Photos and a fish eye lens can be very deceiving! Admittedly sitting on the side of the hot dusty road with a load of bags and two tired screaming children – while one of you runs around looking for the perfect spot – also doesn’t seem too appealing.
I guess what I am getting at is: if you book somewhere for a week or two you may turn up and find that it isn’t quite what you expected. The vibe or layout might not work for you and by then you have already committed to a period of time and spent your cold, hard earned cash.
On the flip side, you may be pleasantly surprised by it and a last minute, in-person booking could in fact seriously backfire. I know most millennials these days won’t even eat at a beach bar without checking the Yelp reviews so presumably a guy with a flip file and a few pieces of paper would send them running for the hills.
Am I asking too much for the best of both worlds? Should we try not booking in advance one time and see what happens, for a sense of adventure? I fear that I may be protesting too much and that we could be two dusty parents crying at the side of the road finding that everywhere is fully booked #novacancy …watch this space…
