Perched at a table at LaGuardia Airport in New York, I frantically thumbed through papers containing suggestions upon suggestions on what to do in Savannah, Georgia. I was minutes from boarding a flight to the southern city, yet I had absolutely no plans once I got there.
You can’t blame me of course, I only found out where I was going when I arrived at the airport.
I was headed on a surprise vacation with Pack Up + Go, a company that plans a trip for you based on a survey you fill out weeks in advance and mails you a suggested (and detailed) itinerary that you’re supposed to open when you’re about to leave. And for someone as Type A as I am, I knew it was going to be a challenge.
“These attractions and cities have the opportunity to surprise and delight you because you don't know what to expect in the first place,” Lillian Rafson, the company’s CEO and founder, told Travel + Leisure. “The idea is for you to experience a new place that you might not think to visit organically.”
Pack Up + Go has planned more than 10,000 trips since Rafson started the company in 2016. It was inspired by two women who were on a similar concept trip that Rafson met while backpacking up the Baltic coast. Pack Up + Go specializes in three-day weekend trips around the U.S., which she thinks helps with the unease of going on a trip you haven’t planned yourself.
“I think the fact that they are short trips really eases a lot of that stress and worry,” she said. “It's just a long weekend.”
So, after filling out the survey and noting that I was trying to be as spontaneous as possible — emphasis on trying — I was headed to Savannah (a city that, luckily, happened to be one of my top choices for the trip).
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