The Benefits of Mystery Travel
Life can be pretty stressful, vacation shouldn’t be.
The last thing that you need to worry about is your travel and relaxation time. Need some convincing? Here are some benefits of mystery travel.
Written by Kelly Schanes
Surprise Travel [sərˈpraiz ˈtrævəl]:
Booking a vacation when you do not know the destination and thus, do not have to plan the logistical details of the getaway
Reducing Overtourism
Overtourism is a growing problem where towns and cities cannot support the increasing number of people that are visiting. According to CNN, “Thanks to cheaper air fares, rising incomes and social media's ability to laser focus attention on specific destinations, more travelers than ever before are descending on places that can no longer cope with their own popularity.”
With mystery travel, the tourism is spread out over time and places so that everyone is not always visiting at peak times. For example, numerous tourists want to visit cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, or Boston in the summer. Many would not think of going during a different time of year. With mystery travel, you may be going to these at a non-peak time, such as February. While it may be cold, it will still be a great time + a great opportunity to distribute the seasonality of traveling!
There is a tendency for travelers to gravitate towards the same cities + surprise travel breaks the mold of where people go. We want to help you explore destinations off the beaten path and to introduce you to your new favorite city that you never would have thought to visit.
In a recent podcast, Pack Up + Go founder, Lillian Rafson, gave an example of how Pack Up + Go does this:
“For example, Charleston, SC, is experiencing overtourism right now. At Pack Up + Go, we know that Savannah GA, which is just two hours down the coast is also an amazing city with alot of things in common. So if we receive a traveler’s survey and we think that Charleston would be a great fit, Savannah might also be a great fit as well- we have the opportunity to distribute where travelers go in order to offset some of the over-tourism effects.”
Based on your survey, we can pair with cities that you may have never thought of that fit your preferences and help you skip “the same old trip”
Supporting Small Businesses
Small businesses add authenticity and uniqueness to every city. If a city is full of chain restaurants and stores, traveling to different areas is not worth it because everything is the same. Small businesses are create the unique reasons to visit other cities and help give each city its funky flare. They also are extremely important to the US economy. Small businesses are often seen as the “little guys”, but in fact, they make up the majority of the U.S. economy, accounting for 99.7% of firms with paid employees and for more than 65% of net new job creation from 2000 - 2017.
We believe that small businesses deserve to be supported as much as possible with enthusiasm and active participation. Often, it can be hard for these businesses to compete with much larger competitors which is why we have always made it a priority to highlight small businesses on our surprise destination itineraries. Another way we at Pack Up + Go love to make sure that we are supporting these small companies is through our Small Business Partnership Program. As a small business ourselves, Pack Up + Go partners with others throughout the United States to create amazing experiences for our travelers.
Some of our small business partners include:
Getting Surprised as an Adult
Can you remember the last time that you were genuinely surprised in a good way?
Have you had the thrill of not knowing lately?
Are you sick of being the person that always has to plan every detail of your vacations?
Mystery travel can help with that. Imagine the anticipation you will feel when you receive your envelope with your destination inside and how exciting it would be to go to a mystery destination. There is also a great relief in not having to stress over every detail, but instead being able to pack your bags and just skip town. Research shows that “poorly planned and stressful vacations eliminate the positive benefit of time away,” so let our expert team handle the planning to ensure a restful and amazing experience!
With our pre-trip survey, Pack Up + Go is able to get information about you. Our Travel Team takes your likes and dislikes, travel history, and any other information you tell us to send you to a city that will be perfect for you. You can try to guess where you are going, but the actual destination may be a complete surprise!
In life, everyone needs some excitement and surprise, and Pack Up + Go vacations are the perfect way to do this.
These are just some of the immense benefits of mystery vacations that we know of, but if you are a past traveler, please feel free to add your favorite part of the experience in the comments down below.
If you haven’t traveled with us, are you ready to Pack Up + Go now that you know the Benefits of surprise travel?!