The holiday itinerary now has room for a little detour

There was a time when a good holiday itinerary was a carefully negotiated list of the obvious things: the landmark, the museum, the restaurant everyone told you to book, and perhaps a day trip if you were feeling adventurous. Now, there’s a growing appetite for something less predictable. A workshop you found on Instagram, a local fitness class, a cooking lesson that starts at the market, or a spontaneous detour that was never supposed to happen in the first place.

Call it the holiday side quest. These aren't necessarily the reason you booked the trip, but they have a funny way of becoming the parts you remember. More than simply seeing a destination, travellers are finding ways to participate in it, whether that means learning a local craft, moving as the locals do, or saying yes to an experience that wasn't on the original itinerary.

A souvenir

For designer and founder of Something Sustainable™ (SOS), Prernaa Lohiya, a honeymoon in Japan came with an unexpected Shibori dyeing workshop. She and her husband spotted the class at a local museum on Instagram, signed up and spent the afternoon making an indigo-dyed scarf they could take home. It was a small addition to a much bigger trip, but one that gave them a deeper appreciation for Japanese craftsmanship.

That sense of discovery can be entirely accidental. Co-founder of Inaara, Amrish Desai’s family had planned a classic French itinerary of Paris and Reims when a conversation with fellow passengers on their train convinced them to change course. They swapped an overnight in Paris for Île de Ré, where Desai began foraging sea holly and burdock root along the coastline simply because he was drawn to their sculptural beauty. Learning about their traditional use in French skincare later led him to explore the ingredients for his own skincare brand. “Travel gives you permission to follow your curiosity,” he says. “Sometimes the most interesting ideas come from looking a little closer at something you would otherwise walk past.”

There's something particularly satisfying about bringing back proof that you participated: a scarf you dyed yourself, a recipe you can recreate, or even a new ingredient you now recognise. The souvenir becomes less about buying something and more about having made, learnt, or discovered something.

Moving differently

The side quest doesn't always have to produce anything tangible. Sometimes it is simply a different way of inhabiting a destination. Stylist Aakriti Grover makes a point of seeking out local movement experiences when she travels, rather than defaulting to the hotel gym. In Bali, she tried classes at BYND, Immram, Maja, and Threshold, taking in everything from the spaces and music to the people who actually live there.“For me, movement is a way into a place,” she says. “You get to experience the rhythm of a city or community rather than just observing it.” It also gives travellers a reason to venture beyond the obvious neighbourhoods and attractions.

Medical professional, Dr Prarthana Shah has similarly folded fitness into her travels through Italy, running beside the sea and through vineyards and fitting in open-water swims while continuing her HYROX training. Rather than interrupting the holiday, the workout became a way of exploring it. “When you run through a landscape you've never seen before, you stop thinking about exercise as something you have to fit in,” she says. But there have been plenty of other side quests too: making pasta and pizza from scratch, learning to make sun-dried tomatoes, estratto and pelati, and eating produce fresh from the garden. “You're discovering the destination at the same time,” she adds.

Follow the impulse

The best side quests often begin with a little white space in the itinerary. In Sri Lanka, publicist Komal Lath and her husband hired a local guide and ended up spending three hours shopping for ingredients, learning about local produce and cooking around ten dishes in an open kitchen. She even learnt to make the coconut sambal she had become particularly fond of. “I went in thinking I was signing up for a cooking class, but it felt much more like being invited into someone's way of life,” she says.

For luxury strategist Chandni Kumar Mehra, the opportunity came during a tightly scheduled work trip to Geneva. She and her partner found a small window to take a Maserati MCPura for a test drive, with an F3 driver taking them towards Nyon and stopping along the way for photographs. “Work trips can make you feel like you've been somewhere without actually experiencing it,” she says. “That little detour gave us some time that felt completely ours.”

And that might be why the side quest works so well. It doesn't ask travellers to abandon the itinerary or become full-time tourists; it simply leaves room for curiosity. The museum, landmark, and restaurant will still be there, but the detour is where you might learn a craft, find a new ritual, eat something you've made yourself or discover a part of the destination you hadn't planned to see. The best holidays, it seems, leave a little room for getting pleasantly lost.

Lead image: Pexels

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