You can easily still do all those things as long as you don’t over plan your day. It’s also not a big deal to pivot if needed. Who schedules ‘nookie’ on a spreadsheet ever?
When you have things planned you never have to sit around trying to figure out what to do or where to go next, and you don’t end up making an underwhelming choice based on compromise/convenience
Spreadsheets don’t preclude any of those things. It’s not an either or of extremes. Big blocks of time can be scheduled for “wander in the Old Quarter” which allows for hundreds of options, or “Walk back to hotel, free time.” The spreadsheet allows me to glance at the plan if someone invites us somewhere to see what the best time would be. I despise tours and would never book every hour, but knowing the rough plan, location, travel time is very useful. The extreme of scheduling every hour isn’t for me, for sure, but solid restaurant reservations and knowing how long it takes to get there gives useful structure.
I try to avoid this. For our spring trip to France, we pre booked ten or so restaurants for our three weeks (three in Lyon, two in Talloires, lunch in Reims and five in Paris) and cancelled one. We almost never go out for breakfast (rather go for pastries? Bread cheese and coffee), often catch as catch can for lunch, and I love cooking meals with local produce, fish, cheese, etc.
I’ve moved much more in this direction since Airbnb. Still love to go out sometimes but, yeah, much of my traveling now is about finding excellent sources and preparing them at home.
Though we found ourselves scratching our heads at how cheap many meals were in Portugal, such that we reckoned it would have been more expensive to buy the fish / veggies etc. from the market and cook it ourselves, and even the wine markups were very modest. Very tasty food as well. Amazing really.
True! I went out a lot more in Buenos Aires, mostly because a high-end meal could be had for under $30, lunch under $15. Couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Carpe diem!
Spain can be excellent value too.
A totally different tack here.
We only stay at places with a fully equipped kitchen. Since we have stopped eating meat and fish some years ago (I don’t like the term vegetarian, it sounds like a sect) we basically stopped going out. No value there, you are being charged full price for side dishes. And tracking down good “vegetarian” restaurants is just too much hassle (I am not aware of any in all of Burgundy) knowing that we always do well ourselves. Shopping for quality local produce is an important and fun part of the stay. (Which can end up being as expensive as going out!) One cooked meal a day, ideally around 3-4 p.m.
No advance reservations etc.
Works fine for us.
I typically book fine dining restaurants as far in advance as possible, esp if it’s Japan Michelin/Tabelog silver/gold/bronze, as often that’s the only way to secure a reservation. We have France and Spain planned for Feb, and the big names are already booked. I keep a running list of more casual places, some booked ahead and some not, that we’ll mix in with local recommendations once we’re on site.
Warning: I think everyone has had a chance to chime in with their basic MO. I am going to ramble with some thoughts about this and my intention is only to provide some, well, food for thought, and not hijack the thread or brag.
I think I really fall somewhere in between the original query. I’ve never been a spreadsheet person for anything. I may have made is sound like I just go winging it but anyone who knows me knows that I am super particular about what I eat. That doesn’t at all mean I want to be in the most popular or even the “best” place. In fact, the most popular and, especially at the stuffy, upper end, places don’t appeal much to me. Basically don’t care about plating even though I respect it.
As I was recently reading about an older, aging Japanese gentleman bitch about the world that appealed to him slowly fading away in favor of what appealed to younger generations, and he included restaurants, I thought of something a friend said to me decades ago: “Restaurants are the new nightclubs.” It was both a statement on us growing out of the clubbing phase as well as an overall shift in US behavior. As much as I still enjoy going out to dinner, I don’t enjoy so many of the cramped places where my voice goes out by the end of the evening because I need to raise it to be heard even at a two-top. Often $$$$ will buy a little more space and quiet but it can come with more formality which doesn’t appeal to me. Maybe it’s just that I am aging out of the restaurant-as-club/entertainment phase.
I also wonder if I’m just slightly bored with it. As an importer and working for others prior to starting my own company, dining out was a regular part of business for ~15 years. I’ve been out for about 10 years so some of these names are dated but I never had to worry about reservations in NY. Blue Hill, Estela, Vinegar Hill, Il Buco, etc, etc, were never a problem and corkage free. In Piedmont, Tuscany, Paris, Loire, Burgundy, Alto Adige, Valtellina, and many smaller towns, I was the guest in some very fine places and houses. Amazing stuff but also gets kind of routine and tiring being tied in with work. To be clear, I am not jaded, just don’t feel that any of that really satisfies me more than good, informal meal.
Finally, I have had the ‘luxury’ over the last 10 years to revise the way I travel. Other than the occasional overnight or 2-3 day stop, I don’t think I have stayed anywhere less than 4-6 weeks, with many stays being more like three months. Many places, such as Paris, feel almost like home. I know my way around and I don’t feel the pressure to pack anything into a single week. I love hunting for quality ingredients. That is often where I put much of my energy. I used to cook fairly elaborate, or at least labor intensive things but I have moved away from that a lot. I am still anal and always travel with a couple knives and, in the US, tote pots and pans as well. Part of eating at home is about health. Better restos use pretty healthy ingredients but I still like knowing exactly what I am eating even down to the oils. Cost is a factor too. Even though I can afford pretty much whatever, to some degree, I’m just not getting the value out of burning through $150-200/day going out for places to places that don’t move me all that much.
But I still love eating vicariously through the wonderful detailed notes of people like @Sarah_Kirschbaum and @Robert_Dentice and everyone else posting up all the cool reviews from their travels.
Nearly every trip adheres to 7Ps: Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
I do this because I feel don’t have the luxury of time or money to meander. Flights and hotels cost valuable points or dollars, and travel costs time away from home and/or work. If I made the effort to go somewhere, I want every bit of value I can get from it. Maybe I’m a little addicted to spreadsheets too… The above is what in-progress trip planning looks like.
That said, I also adhere to Barbossa’s statement that “The Code is more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules.”
Spontaneity is very important and I’m happy to toss the planning aside at a whims notice.
I pretty much left spreadsheets behind after I retired. Reminds me too much of my last couple of jobs. I was done with that stuff and don’t miss it.
Whatever you call this continuum I will anchor the other end. Not interested in the slightest is shopping for food and cooking on vacation. I mean, I’ll buy cheese and bread etc to have around, but hell no I ain’t cooking.
We willl buy fruit, cheese , crackers, meats , yogurts, bread, veggies , etc. but nothing that involves cleaning a pot or pan!!!
If you like to cook, it really is revelatory when you can buy products from vendors who give a shit what the sell. It’s always really hard to come back home
That’s understandable. I live in the Bay Area where this is never a problem. I don’t want to do a lick of cooking when I’m on vacation.
No matter where you live, there are local products you can find when traveling that you can’t get at home, or which are crazy expensive at home or low quality. If you are the kind of cook who is passionate about ingredients above all else, you might want to make that kind of exploration a part of your travel. We bring our knife roll on most every trip, and look for rental properties with great kitchens. Going to the markets, getting to work with local delicacies in the kitchen teaches me more about a people, place and culture than any museum.
Cooking isn’t something we ever want to escape from. In fact, a vacation means we finally have time to devote to it. To each his own.
My favorite thing to do when travelling to a new location is to take a cooking class and find the local markets.
I like to cook. At home. Not going to happen on vacation
This! Chicken is one thing that’s pretty rough in the US. Even in France, good birds aren’t everywhere but ‘my’ butcher gets the real thing. Small breasts, big legs. They are pricey but it’s literally a totally different animal
And the porc de Biggore is also something I have a hard time finding in the US. Lots of things. Le Zingam is a routine multi-stop place for me in Paris.
And “cooking” need not be a chore. My local butcher makes brandade once a week. Needs to be reserved in advance (oh the planning!). It’s a peasant dish but with a fresh salad, some crunchy crust bread and a bottle of Champagne, I really couldn’t be happier. Two people eating well with Champagne under $100 all in.
In Europe, I almost always try to book a place with a great complimentary breakfast. Truly one of my favorite parts of European travel to wake up to all the cakes and meats and cheeses. Bonus if there is a self-serve nespresso-esque machine.
Lunch typically unscheduled and might be apple and a dried sausage from a grocery store.
Always a nice dinner reservation that I’ve probably spent months obsessing over.
I don’t over schedule but I like to know options, allowing time to ramble but also knowing what we could do.
Repeat until we have to go home to work and kids.
