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- Take a flight to a random foreign country where you don't know the local language, and where most people don't know English. No hotel reservations in advance,
by cperciva 8y ago
- Take a flight to a random foreign country where you don't know the local language, and where most people don't know English. No hotel reservations in advance, no laptop, no smartphone, minimal budget. Figure out how to survive and visit the city's major landmarks over the following 5 days. Bonus points if it's a developing country
This could result in you being more than just psychologically uncomfortable. Tourists are, broadly speaking, expected to have hotel rooms booked; showing up at immigration without any advance plans is a good way to be denied entry to some countries. (Yes, even countries you don't need a visa to visit: Border officials can deny you entry on the basis of "this person's story doesn't add up".)
- whack 8y agoYou can always make a bogus reservation on a cheap refundable hostel, and cancel it as soon as you get through immigration. That's exactly what I did when I applied for a visa and they insisted on seeing full hotel reservations.
- dopeboy 8y agoYes on the visa point - can't be totally random. The rest you can. I'm about to embark on a 3 week trip through south east asia. Aside from my liveaboard where I'll be living on a boat and diving (which I have to book in advance), I haven't booked a single accommodation. It can be done; hostels all the way.
- mcv 8y agoI did it with my wife when we visited Croatia ages ago. We only planned the flight there (to Split) and the flight back (from Zagreb), and we had to figure out how where to sleep and how to get everywhere. We visited the big island at the coast near Split, we visited Dubrovnic, the big nature park in the middle of the country. It was great. Not hard to do at all. Though I expect some places outside Europe it might get a bit harder.
- c1sc0 8y agoBook a cheap AirBnB / hotel for one nigh. Use address. Don’t show up.
- sametmax 8y agoMost of the time, just google an address before leaving, and gives that to the border, saying you will "hand around visiting". I've set foot in almost 30 countries so far, this has never been a problem.