You don’t always have to have a particular destination in mind when you travel. Maybe you just want to get away from your familiar hometown to any city that will take you in.
No-destination flying can be the perfect way to find anew place to spend the weekend. In this traveling trend, the specifics of destinations are irrelevant: the important part of traveling is escaping the tedious routine of your normal life and getting out of your comfort zone.
Rather than feeling obligated to see momentous and over–photographed tourist sites, you can focus on connecting with regular people living in regular cities across the world. No-destination flying proves that you can find adventure anywhere—not just at the world’s 100 most popular tourist sites.
Several websites and airlines offer ways to find cheap, last-minute flights to locations all over the world. You need only specify a departure airport, a range of departure dates, and a budget—-and these sites will find airline deals that you can take advantage of. Just know that the best deals often last only a matter of days or even hours.
You can also find deals by asking airlines to notify you personally. Most airlines send out weekly emails of their best deals to those who subscribe. If you don’t want a series of emails clogging up your inbox, some sites, like www.smartertravel.com and www.airfarewatchdog.com, will aggregate the best deals from several airlines. These last-minute flight notifications mean that you won’t have to do all of the searching yourself.
A more personalized option than wading through websites or receiving mass emails is calling travel agencies and airlines directly to ask about available deals. Airlines generally have employees with the title of “revenue manager,” whose job is to fill flights that are already scheduled to leave. Sometimes prices are lowered dramatically as the departure date approaches. Airline employees may know about deals that aren’t available online; their knowledge and expertise can save you time and money.
The next time you find yourself wanting to get away from your everyday life, consider giving no-destination flying a whirl. For as little as $150, you could find yourself with a round-trip ticket to adventure.
Nichole Eck
What a great idea! So spontaneous! This sounds like something I want to do. I’m glad you gave particulars on how to go about “taking a plane to anywhere” along with prices. Very helpful! Nice article.
This is so interesting! I didn’t even know people do this kind of thing. Definitely worth looking into.
You’ve inspired me–no-destination flying sounds like just the thing I need to survive this winter!
Flying to a random destination sounds like so much fun! I think it would also be hard to commit to going though–like oh, a good deal to Arkansas? Um, no thanks. Maybe someday I can do that when $150 isn’t so much money.
I would love to hear some personal experiences of people who have actually tried this.
This is EXACTLY what I needed to hear about! I’m a poor college student and I want to see the world (yes, Aladdin’s “A Whole New World” just went through my head) and it doesn’t really matter where–a cheap flight is just the ticket.
I like this idea! I always see all these cheap flights online, but I never would have thought to just buy a ticket and go somewhere random. Talk about spontaneity! Do a lot of people actually do this? I would be interested to hear some real-life experiences of people who have tried no-destination flying. That might make for an interesting follow-up article.