The Art of Intentional Wandering: A Stress-Free Approach to Travel

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Stress-free trip planning with intentional wandering

As a recovering Over Planner, I’ve come to embrace a less-stressed approach to trip planning. Especially after becoming a parent. Things are hard enough! Let’s make our travels as simple as possible. I believe in stress-free travel. And that’s why I use the intentional wandering method to plan all of our trips

As long as I know (a) where we’re staying, (b) how we’re getting there, and (c) a few key attractions or experiences that we don’t want to miss, then I’m not interested in detailed itineraries or pre-booking a bunch of meals and tours. I call it planning not to plan or intentional wandering.

And I’m going to teach you how to plan a stress-free trip with intentional wandering. 🙂 

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Plan a trip just enough to wing it

“I’m a big believer in winging it. I’m a big believer that you’re never going to find a perfect city travel experience or the perfect meal without a constant willingness to experience a bad one. Letting the happy accident happen is what a lot of vacation itineraries miss, I think, and I’m always trying to push people to allow those things to happen rather than stick to some rigid itinerary.” – Anthony Bourdain

So what do I mean by “intentional wandering”? 

Walking around a place with a destination in mind and a flexible amount of time to get there allows you the freedom to make spontaneous stops along the way.

Intentional Wandering gives you a stress-free way to explore a new place. Intentional wandering allows you to explore anything you want to while heading in a specific direction or towards a specific destination. You know where you’re ultimately headed but don’t have a fixed plan or schedule for getting there.

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“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost;” – JRR Tolkein

Let’s choose a direction to walk – for example, towards a museum or historical site. Let’s find a nearby snack or refreshment. Let’s wander down that alley and into those shops. Let’s see what’s around this corner, oh this place looks cute, let’s stop here. Oh, that was lovely, let’s head down to the river for sunset. Oh let’s take a photo here, there’s no line at the museum let’s go check it out. Now I’m hungry, let’s get dinner. Let’s sit at the bar, let’s talk to the locals.

Now, I’m not saying don’t do your research. This approach still requires research ahead of time. The intentional wandering trip planning method works best when you have a solid idea of what there is to do in the area. Becoming familiar enough with an area’s offerings will make it easier to wander intentionally. 

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How to Intentionally Wander

First, you choose a destination or a primary activity for the day. It might be a historical site, a restaurant you want to try for dinner, a great vista for photo opps, or a playground someone told you about. 

Next, you figure out a loose walking route based on other interesting stops along the way. Cute boutiques shops, art galleries, themed coffee shops, historical monuments or memorials, bizarre novelty shops, playgrounds, cocktail bars, famous buildings, historic filming locations. Anything and everything can be part of the exercise. The goal is to allow yourself to see as many of the interesting stops as possible. 

Then walk out the door! That’s it! 🙂 

The most important thing to remember about intentional wandering is that there is no rigid schedule. Ideally, the destination does not require punctuality, but if it does, be sure to build in plenty of flexible time so you don’t feel rushed. Turn down interesting streets. Stop and get a fancy coffee. Peruse that record store. Let the kid play in the sand. It doesn’t matter if you make a wrong turn or decide to go in a different direction. Get a little lost, on purpose. I promise you’ll have fun!

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How to use Google Maps to help you wander intentionally

Here is how I create my pre-trip planning maps by using Google Maps:

Put together a Google map of everything that interests you about a certain place. Create a layer for restaurants/bars, a layer for things you want to see but that don’t necessarily require you to go IN or have a required start time, and a layer of multi-hour attractions or activities. Make sure to add a layer to include necessities like your home base (hotel or AirBNB, for example), subway stops, or any important locations.  Build your map. 

Do your research ahead of time to fill the map with other notable sites, attractions, shops, restaurants, playgrounds, photo opps, etc. giving you basically pre-made DIY walking tours as you make your way to the focal attraction.

Then, for each day of your trip, select an area of the map to explore, identifying one must-do activity as the focal point of the day. 

Example of an Intentional Wandering Map

Here is a recent example of our own intentional wandering in Paris. We walked 9 miles and rode the metro a few times.

We took our son to Europe during the summer of 2024, starting in Paris. While our first day in town was super chill due to jet lag and hangry people, our second day was a long day of walking and sightseeing. We took the metro to Place de L’alma so we could go to the number two item on my son’s list: the sewer museum! (He’s obsessed with pipes.) Then we meandered over the Eiffel Tower (number one on his list) and hung out at a cafe underneath the monument for a long time, letting Skyler chase pigeons. We walked around the park a bit before taking the subway over to Saint Michel, to wander around the alleys and streets of the upper Latin Quarter. Pretty sure I ate one of many crêpes. We took a break in front of Notre Dame, listening to a man play the accordion. Eventually, we made our way through Île Saint Louis to my dad’s favorite restaurant. On the way, we stumbled upon a really cool percussion group. After dinner, we headed towards a train station and found a playground along the way where we let Skyler burn off some energy. The day was so much fun and no one felt tired or burned out because we didn’t have any specific place to be at any specific time and were able to take our time and rest as needed. We turned down interesting streets, took photos of intricate architectural details, stopped for snacks, enjoyed the weather, and had a really lovely time.

Check out this map to see everything we saw during our adventures that day, including photos!! Click the Full Screen button to explore the map in a new browser tab. Zoom in and click on the individual map pins to see where we went and what we saw — each one contains at least one photo!

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Slow down for stress-free trip planning.

“If you don’t stop and look. around once in a while, you could miss it.”—Ferris Bueller

Look, I get it. I understand the inclination to want to check as many things off the bucket list as possible. It can feel satisfying and like you accomplished something. You get a little shot of dopamine for a job well done.

But travel is not a checklist. Travel should not just be about seeing the big ticket items. Travel is an opportunity to experience other ways of life, to learn about other cultures, and to soak up the little details of a place – sights and smells and sounds and feelings that we cant see or smell or hear or feel at home.

We must slow down. Especially while traveling.

So plan a trip that let yourself wander. Let yourself get lost in the details, the familiar but unfamiliar, the sights and sounds and smells and feels that you can’t get at home.

We may not get to see or do every single thing and that’s okay. We’ll just have to go back! 🙂

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So go forth! Where are you heading next? Create your Google Map and try utilizing this technique for your next trip, and let me know how it goes! What did you learn from the exercise? Are you more of a “planner” or a “winger” by nature? How do you usually plan your trips?