Everything is going wrong. The flight was canceled. The weather has turned horrible. Some horrible unforeseen disaster hit. We’ve all seen it happen. So, what do you do when your travel plans don’t go as planned?
Some people may say that’s why you need travelers insurance.
I say that’s when you get creative.
My Experience
This year, one of my besties and I went to Savannah, Georgia for our annual trip. We only get to see each other once a year and we travel somewhere together to do so. After years of going north to New England states, I’d finally convinced my sunshine state buddy to let us go south so I could get out of the snow.
After three years of going north and not having any problems with the snow, we went to Savannah.
And it snowed for the first time in 20 years the day after we got there.
Everything was closed our first full day in town. We even tried going to the movies and found those closed. We were lucky enough to find a Target to get some spa things and food for the night (since all of the restaurants were closed).
Day two meant most of the museums and historic homes were still closed for half, if not the whole day. Restaurants stopped seating by 5pm, and it was difficult to find things to do.
So what do you do?
Honestly, the best thing to do is to start with a good attitude. My friend and I grabbed spa goodies, turning our day into naps, facials, bath bombs, and nails. Then, had all sorts of bad-for-us junk food in the room that we were then trapped in for the first day.
When the bad weather has passed, you do what any good-Gen-Y members do: Check social media.
I know many people will roll their eyes at this, but this really is one of the best ways to keep up-to-date on what is happening in the city you’re traveling in. Check local news stations for updates on weather, road closures, and other logistics for the day. Many of the tourist stops will update one of three places: social, their website, or phones.
A caveat:
We spent a lot of time checking social media. Unfortunately, many of the places I like to go when traveling (historic homes and museums) are volunteer-run. And volunteer-run organizations tend to be managed by people who are retired (aka, not always the most tech-savy people in the world). There may not be the information you’re looking for on social media. A few of the places were on top of things and had updates regularly on if and when they’d be open. Other’s hadn’t updated their pages for over four years.
Social media is also a great place to reach out to organizations. We had tickets for a trolley tour. Unfortunately, the headquarters (located out-of-state), was not doing a great job communicating with their frontline staff. These amazing men and women stood outside in the cold with about 50-60 disgruntled people who were told the buses would start running at 11:00am. Then they weren’t given clearance to go. By the time we’d left to get lunch, it was 1pm and there were some very grumpy (and hungry) people.
I decided to head to Twitter and ask them directly since the company was leaving their staff out to dry.
Now, I never received a reply, which is a whole other problem. However, in the best case scenarios, companies and organizations will be using any of the millions of ways to reach their guests so they know what’s happening. Twitter is a great way to get customer service, but almost every organization has a Facebook or a webpage. If nothing else, those pages will have phone numbers you can call.
Ask the Locals
We also spent some time talking to the wait-staff at restaurants or in shops, and the concierge at our hotel about the best things to do. Usually, the locals will know some little restaurant that never closes, or concierges will have heard if that museum you wanted to hit up will be open or not.
Or, they’ll give you some options on things that never close and are cool to check out. We found an adorable little bookshop that was open on a snowy day that we bummed around in. If we hadn’t been scurrying to find a place to eat, we could have stopped in one of the cemeteries that had its gates open for visitors.
In conclusion?
Be flexible and have a good attitude. If you’re convinced that your trip is ruined, it will be. Take a moment, center yourself again, and start exploring.
After all, isn’t that the whole point of travel?
