You should see us on vacation - particularly when we go to Europe. It’s usually a group of us. We have a general idea of what we’d like to see but chances are, we only book our rental car and plane tickets in advance. We talk about it at breakfast - where should we go to today? And even then, plans change.

Do you think this seems stressful? Trust me. It isn’t. Because of that attitude we discovered some jems. Altenahr near the Mosel in Germany. Merano in Italy (Tirol). The Salzkammergut in Austria. These are just some of the memorable places that we found almost by accident and are now some of my favorite places in the world. Merano, for example, was the stop we took when we realized that Florence was too long of a drive. I’m glad we stopped!

Though it can be fun, some people either don’t loosen up and be open to possibilities, or they have the desire to be spontaneous but just don’t know how. Aside from saying the obvious (a Nike slogan comes to mind) here are some tips.

Notice the world around you. One of the things that makes sponteneity fun is being open. My husband and I weren’t sure where we were spending the night as we were driving through Germany. As we were driving, my husband looked into the distance at the hills and said, “I bet  it’s neat down in there.” So we got off the highway and sure enough, it was. That’s when we found Altenahr.

Plan not to plan. I know, planning not to plan sounds like it would defeat the purpose. But as a transition to your new life of sponteneity - plan one day during your vacation where you have no set plan and see what happens. Or if you don’t want to do this on vacation, do it on the weekend near your house. It’s amazing what you can find. I recently found a cute Eco boutique in my town that was tucked away down a side street.

Get some language skills. It’s not necessary, but it helps. One of the reasons why I feel comfortable being random in Europe is because I know German. That covers us for parts of Italy and Switzerland as well as Germany and Austria. And plus, English is pretty common there, too. But you get a lot more out of the experience of being in a foreign country even if you just know a few phrases. My favorite language site is BBC language.

I want to hear your stories of sponteneity. Share in the comments.

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