The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Freedom is the greatest of luxuries
Anna Hart is in Ibiza with no return flight home. Is this kind of liberty the future of travel?
This week I’m doing something that feels more decadent than a stay at Ibiza’s new £1,200-a-night Six Senses resort: I’m travelling with no return ticket. This is my first international trip since March 2020, and I flew straight to Ibiza from Rome. Why settle for one fabulous European destination when you can have two? Rome was a riotous romp through one of Italy’s most rewarding cities, and while I do find city breaks uplifting, they are rarely relaxing. Please don’t sulk, Rome, it’s fine – Ibiza has relaxation covered.
I did a few days of yoga with Trish Whelan of Soul Adventures (souladventures.co.uk), whose Zoom classes kept me semi-sane during lockdowns last year; meeting Trish and her dog in the flesh after so many days, weeks and months staring at her on screen felt like meeting my favourite soap star.
I made the most of late-season hotel rates and treated myself to a few nights at Ibiza hotels I’d always wanted to see, such as the Atzaro (atzaro.com) and Pikes (pikesibiza.com). And I stayed with old university friends Sam and Russ, who now work as DJs, rattling around the island’s most glamorous music venues in their battered Audi full of faux-fur jackets, sound cables and pilfered wine glasses. It has been a true adventure, and one thing that elevated my week here is the simple fact that I have no return flight sorted.
When I arrived in Ibiza, intending to book a flight home when my yoga retreat ended, I flicked through the pages of my diary and realised that – for once – I didn’t need to hurry home. Perhaps it’s a positive legacy of lockdown, but the only commitment in my diary is a friend’s wedding. My travel budget is also pretty healthy right now, after an enforced period of frugality. I feel entirely entitled to a bit of a splurge on holiday, and any reader who remembers my plucky little lockdown columns on the joys of car picnics, or fossil-hunting, will surely acquiesce. So this week I’m permitting myself the precious luxury of freewheeling travel, and the freedom feels fabulous.
Tacking on a few days after a yoga retreat in one of Europe’s most touristy destinations isn’t exactly an intrepid adventure, like parachuting into the Amazon rainforest or the Gobi desert. Even so, having no fixed plans feels gloriously free and rebellious, in a way that travel has not felt for some time. Even as a travel journalist with no children or other dependants, my holidays and work trips are usually wedged between work and family commitments. And so this trip to Ibiza is making me nostalgic for my footloose days.
I’ve spent some of the happiest months of my life backpacking in Southeast Asia, Interrailing around Eastern Europe, and driving a campervan round New Zealand. And I’d forgotten what it’s like to have the freedom to act, impulsively, on a tip from a fellow campervanner or local bartender, lingering in a town to catch an amazing musician at a local venue or seeking out a waterfall only locals know about.
It has been a long time since I had the freedom to accept invitations from friends, new or old, dining or staying with them and really getting a sense of what it feels like to live there. I’d also forgotten how it feels to wake up in a far-flung bed and consult my mood, rather than my strict itinerary, as I decide what to do with the day. Freedom is the greatest of luxuries, and I’m determined to learn from this spontaneous adventure in Ibiza as I plan my travels for 2022.
I’m not suggesting we all strap on a backpack, book a one-way ticket to Guatemala and make no plans other than a New Year’s Eve party on the banks of Lake Peten Itza. (Although we should totally do this! We should! I’ll bring the Gallos.) But there are ways we can do it. I have friends who always book an extra couple of days in their destination, their “wild-card days”, where they act on a whim or a local tip-off. Perhaps I also need to stay a little longer in destinations, and plan a little less.
I’m also resolving to pay a little extra for a flexible flight, so I have the freedom to extend any trip – even by a day – to accept an invitation to a dinner party, a festival or a boat trip. Another positive legacy of the pandemic is that most airlines, hotels and operators have adopted more flexible policies – and I intend to make the most of this.
These adjustments might not sound groundbreaking to you. But after a year in which our travel freedoms were so heavily restricted, these little liberties taste surprisingly sweet.