Black Travelers Are Discovering That Sometimes the Best Itinerary Is No Itinerary at All
We need to discuss something.
You went on vacation.
You woke up at 6:30 in the morning.
You had breakfast reservations at 7:15.
Museum tickets at 9.
A walking tour at 11.
Lunch at 1.
A boat excursion at 3.
Dinner at 7.
Drinks at 9.
And somewhere around Day Three, while standing in front of something historically significant that you were apparently supposed to appreciate, you realized:
I am tired.
Not vacation tired.
Work tired.
Except somehow you paid for this.
Welcome to the problem with the modern vacation.
We have become so committed to doing something that we have forgotten how wonderful it can feel to do absolutely nothing.
WHEN DID VACATION BECOME ANOTHER JOB?
You know the spreadsheet.
Monday: arrive.
Tuesday: culture.
Wednesday: adventure.
Thursday: excursion.
Friday: shopping.
Saturday: “free day,” which mysteriously contains six scheduled activities.
Sunday: airport.
Monday: back at work wondering why you need a vacation from your vacation.
Somewhere along the way, leisure became another performance.
If you flew all the way to Paris, surely you have to see everything.
If you went to Ghana, surely you need Accra, Cape Coast, Kumasi and every restaurant TikTok recommended.
If you’re in Jamaica, apparently lying underneath a palm tree for six consecutive hours is considered wasting the trip.
Excuse us?
That may have been the entire point of the trip.
ENTER THE SOFT VACATION
There is a different philosophy of travel worth embracing.
Go somewhere beautiful.
Check into the hotel.
Unpack.
And then resist the urge to immediately start accomplishing things.
Have breakfast slowly.
Read by the pool.
Walk without a destination.
Take a nap at 2:17 in the afternoon because nobody needs you.
Order room service.
Sit on the balcony.
Go downstairs for dinner.
Come back upstairs.
Sleep.
Repeat.
That isn’t laziness.
That’s vacation.
BLACK PEOPLE, WE ARE ALLOWED TO REST
There is another layer to this conversation for Black travelers.
For generations, achievement has often been attached to survival.
Work harder.
Be twice as good.
Keep going.
Don’t complain.
Handle it.
Push through.
Make something happen.
Those instincts can follow us straight through airport security.
Suddenly we’re in a beautiful resort still checking email, answering messages, coordinating everybody else’s dinner plans and wondering whether we should squeeze one more activity into Thursday.
No.
There is nothing morally superior about returning from vacation exhausted.
Sometimes joy is productive precisely because it produces nothing.
AND PLEASE STOP WORKING FROM THE BEACH
We see you.
Laptop open.
Ocean behind you.
Caption:
“My office today.”
Baby.
Close it.
😂
You crossed an ocean to answer the same emails you could have ignored at home.
The beach is not impressed by your productivity.
Neither is the bartender.
And that little umbrella in your drink did not travel all this way to watch you update a spreadsheet.
There is a difference between working remotely from somewhere beautiful and actually being on vacation.
Know which one you’re doing.
SOLO TRAVEL CHANGES THE EQUATION
One reason doing-nothing travel works particularly well alone is that there is nobody else to negotiate with.
No group chat.
No:
“What are we doing today?”
No:
“I didn’t come all this way to sit in the hotel.”
No:
“Can everybody be downstairs by 8?”
No.
You wake up.
You ask yourself one question:
What do I feel like doing today?
And sometimes the answer is:
Nothing.
Beautiful.
Meeting adjourned.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO EARN THE HOTEL
Here’s another strange thing we do.
We’ll spend real money on a beautiful hotel and then leave it every morning at 8.
Why?
You paid for the pool.
Use it.
You paid for the balcony.
Sit on it.
You paid for that enormous bathtub.
Get in it.
You paid for the robe.
Baby, put that robe on.
If the hotel has spent millions of dollars creating an environment designed to make you never want to leave, perhaps stop fighting them.
They have made an excellent argument.
THE ONE-THING RULE
If doing absolutely nothing makes you nervous, try this:
Plan one thing each day.
That’s it.
One museum.
One dinner reservation.
One neighborhood.
One beach.
One concert.
One excursion.
Then let the rest of the day happen.
Maybe you discover a bookstore.
Maybe you sit in a café for two hours.
Maybe somebody tells you about a restaurant that wasn’t on your list.
Maybe you meet someone.
Maybe you walk.
Maybe you sleep.
The empty space is where travel often becomes memorable.
Because some of the best moments aren’t reservations.
They’re accidents.
YOUR CAMERA DOESN’T NEED TO EAT FIRST
And then there is the pressure to document everything.
The food arrives.
Nobody touch it.
Photo.
The sunset begins.
Photo.
The hotel room.
Photo.
The outfit.
Photo.
The beach.
Photo.
The cocktail.
Photo.
At some point you have to ask:
Did I experience the vacation, or did I produce content about experiencing the vacation?
Take the picture.
Absolutely.
Then put the phone away.
Eat while the food is hot.
Watch the sunset with your actual eyes.
There is no prize for returning home with 4,700 photographs of a trip you barely remember experiencing.
MAYBE LUXURY IS TIME
Luxury gets marketed to us as things.
The suite.
The first-class seat.
The designer bag.
The expensive dinner.
Those things can be wonderful.
But perhaps the greatest luxury of travel is much simpler:
Nobody needs anything from you right now.
No alarm.
No commute.
No deadline.
No laundry.
No grocery list.
No meeting.
No explanation for why you’re still in bed at 11:43.
Just time.
Unscheduled.
Unclaimed.
Yours.
And maybe the next great vacation isn’t about asking:
“How much can we fit in?”
Maybe it’s asking:
“How little can we schedule and still have the time of our lives?”
THE MOOD QUESTION
Could you take a vacation where you had absolutely nothing planned?
No itinerary. No sightseeing checklist. No pressure to make every minute count.
Could you spend four days eating, sleeping, wandering and doing whatever you felt like doing?
Or would doing nothing drive you completely crazy?
STAY IN THE MOOD
The next time you travel, leave something off the itinerary.
Leave an afternoon empty.
Sleep late.
Order breakfast twice.
Sit somewhere beautiful longer than necessary.
Let yourself get bored.
Because perhaps the point of leaving your everyday life isn’t to build another schedule somewhere prettier.
Maybe it’s to remember what your life feels like when nobody is rushing you.
And wherever you decide to disappear for a few days, take WHRL Mood Radio Harlem with you.
Read Mood. Listen to WHRL. Watch Mood TV. Live the culture.
Let us curate your Mood.
Mood Magazine. Mind. Body. Spirit. Culture. Harlem to the world.
