Sometimes you just need to do something different in life. You need to take a risk, take an adventure, do something... Out of the Ordinary.
So we did! Vacation planning can be rather stressful for me. I am always on the hunt for the "perfect" location, choosing "perfect" accommodations, and finding just the "perfect" mix of activities and downtime. With all that planning, I almost always end up wanting to say "forget it, let's just stay home".
My husband (bless this man, he is a wonderful one of a kind perfect match to me!) saw on MSN about this mystery vacation destination travel planner! You pick the dates, fill out the survey, pay the money, and they PICK YOUR VACATION SPOT! And so we said--why not?
[So now for my friends who are like- "get to the point already!", you can scroll to the bottom of this post and get a quick summary. For those who enjoy a good story, read on!]
The online setup was secure and painless. They want to know how many travelers, what days you want to plan your vacation (they need a minimum of one month prep time), and whether you want to choose a Flight/Train Destination or whether you would like a Road Trip package. We chose the Flight/Train Destination and the trips begin at $650/per person which includes your flight/train tickets and accommodations for 2 nights.
We then filled out a survey inquiring as to what kind of things we normally like to do on vacation (night clubs, museums, shopping, shows, etc). You can check as many boxes as you like! There are other questions about lodging and your nearest airport and a section for you to tell them anything you think they should know. (For instance we made sure to let them know that we were NOT well traveled and were unfamiliar with public transportation, Uber/Lyft, and cabs--and that any information regarding how to navigate these things in the city they chose would be very helpful to us).
Then we paid for the trip and received a confirmation email and were told that we wouldn't hear from them until 1 week before our departure date. On that date they would email us with the weather forecast for our destination, the time of our flight and what airport we would be flying out of, and any special packing instructions needed. A few days after that email, we would receive our packet in the mail but we were not to open it until the day of departure.
We booked our vacation on March 21 for June 18-June 20, so there was quite a bit of waiting. We had a lot of fun wondering where we would be going!
Right on schedule we received our email one week before departure. It let us know our flight would be leaving from Indy Airport at 11:15 and we needed to be there by 9:15am. The weather was going to be in the low 80s with a 40% chance of rain each day. They told us to bring walking shoes and an empty stomach as this city is known for it's food. They also told us that it is also known for its rich history. Two days later our packet arrived in the mail. I did really well on not opening it -- until the night before. I was a little bit like a kid who really wanted to open a present on Christmas Eve! My husband laughed at me and said, I thought we were going to wait? So we did wait, although I did pout a little.
As we were settling in to go to sleep I realized--are we supposed to be in Indy 9:15 Central Time or Eastern Time? It was currently about 10:30pm Central Time the night before. So we quickly emailed, hoping that someone might answer us quickly. Within 10 minutes we received an email back stating "Great question! The time would be the same as the airport, so that would be 9:15 Eastern Time". Which meant, we needed to leave an hour earlier than we had originally planned! Yikes!!
The next morning we hurriedly opened the envelope and found out we were headed to Atlanta, Georgia! Then it was off to the airport! We briefly glanced through the envelope on our way there, deciding we would take more time when we were waiting at the airport for our flight. The drive was uneventful, we got to the airport, got our boarding passes, made it through security and found our gate.
The packet contained several colorful pages of information about Atlanta. There were many suggestions of places to go, restaurants, and things particular to the city. They had included a list of transportation options while in Atlanta, which was very helpful to us. They also had a map outlining how to use the MARTA train system from the Airport to our Hotel. We were also informed that they had made a dinner reservation for us at 7:00pm that night at the South City Kitchen in Midtown, along with a phone number to call to cancel our reservation if we decided not to attend.
Our flight was on Southwest Airlines. I haven't flown in 10 years, but the flight was fine. The weather....was bumpy. We had thunderstorms flying out of Indy and thunderstorms landing in Atlanta, so there was considerable turbulence. Have I mentioned I have a minor issue with motion sickness? Once you land in Atlanta, you take a "train" from concourse to concourse that goes very fast. And once you get off that train and onto the MARTA train to take you to your hotel, well you should make sure that you don't ride backwards if you tend to get motion sick. Needless to say, I was feeling a little lousy. And well, we ended up missing our stop for our hotel. No biggie--just get off at the next stop and walk? I mean, the stations aren't that far apart on the map.
We aren't the best navigators and it's amazing how disorienting it is when you don't know which direction anything is in a city! After walking for about 15 minutes in the wrong direction, we went back to the station and found someone to help us with directions. Although it took us much longer than needed, we had an adventure, learned from our mistake and made it to our hotel!
We stayed at The Georgian Terrace Hotel. The location was fantastic! It was a lovely neighborhood, within walking distance (or a short Uber/cab ride) to many activities. It has a rooftop saltwater pool that was lovely. It was a little chilly for swimming while we were there, so we didn't get to take advantage of the pool as much as I would have liked, but I loved the option! The hotel upgraded us from a 1 bedroom to a two bedroom suite, which really didn't make a difference to us. The suite also had a full kitchen with full size appliances--but NO utensils/pots/pans/plates/cups. Nothing. We thought that was a bit odd, but as we weren't going to do any cooking anyway, it didn't matter. The room was tastefully decorated and was clean. It was a bit worn looking. It was an older hotel. But again, we couldn't have had a better location.
In our packet we were presented with a few "sample" itineraries. They gave ideas of places to eat and things to see. It was a little overwhelming. So we spent most of the first afternoon looking through the packet, researching their suggestions and deciding what things we thought we would like to do.
The first thing we researched was South City Kitchen in Midtown--the restaurant that we had reservations for dinner. As we were looking over the menu, we both started thinking that maybe we should cancel our reservation. We aren't the most adventurous eaters and we were pretty hungry from travelling. We had both agreed to cancel, and then we talked a bit more and decided we wanted to go on an adventure--so we should at least check it out! We realized we didn't know what the dress code was for the restaurant, so we sent another quick email to the Pack Up + Go crew and heard back right away that business casual was appropriate. I had brought a few sundresses, but Josh just had jeans and a button up, but we decided that it would be ok.
The meal was fantastic. Our waiter was very helpful and encouraged us to try the Fried Chicken or the Pork Chop. Josh ordered the Fried Chicken and I ordered the pork chop and they were both excellent. The sides were really really good as well. We ordered fried green tomatoes--delicious! And for dessert pineapple upside down cake--yum! The atmosphere was fun--it felt like someone's home with lots of character. I would highly recommend the restaurant if you are ever in Atlanta!
From the packet we had decided that we would like to go to World of Coke Museum, Georgia Aquarium, Civil Rights Museum, Skyview Atlanta, and Ponce City Market while we were in Atlanta. From the packet, it showed that we could probably hit all of these in one afternoon, so we decided we would hang out at the hotel on Tuesday night and then Wednesday we would spend the day going to the various places.
We really lucked out with excellent weather while we were there. It was a comfortable 75-80 degrees each day and in the evenings it cooled down into the mid 60s, with low humidity!!
Wednesday morning we got up and decided to walk to the World of Coke Museum (World of Coke, the Aquarium, the Civil Rights Museum, and Skyview Atlanta are all in the same general area). It was a pleasant walk. We arrived at the World of Coke Museum shortly after it opened. It was such a fun time. It was one very huge marketing scheme, that was done so well that although I do prefer Pepsi, I found myself wanting to a drink Coke. Our favorite was the taste testing room where you could try different flavors of soda that Coca Cola provides around the world! There were some truly unique flavors--such as BBQ, we were NOT a fan. But it was fun to get to try lots of different flavors. And you actually get to see the vault where the recipe for Coca Cola is housed.
After we finished at the Coke Museum, we headed to the Aquarium. I must preface this by saying I have never been to an Aquarium. I fell in love. It was one of the most wonderful places I have ever been to in my life! There was a room where one whole wall -floor to ceiling was glass (23 ft by 61 ft)and you could watch the fish. There were 4 whale sharks, manta rays, a sea turtle, plus hundreds of other fish. It was fascinating. We spent probably an hour in there just watching...it truly was breathtaking. When we finished going to the rest of the exhibits, we came back and sat and watched for another half an hour. It was so fantastic. I would go back in a heartbeat and am looking forward to checking out other aquariums on future vacations.
Although the packet had said we could do all of the activities in a single afternoon, we must take much longer than the average person. We took 3 hours in World of Coke and another almost 5 hours at the Aquarium. So after we finished at the Aquarium, we decided to head to Ponce City Market and then grab something to eat. I'm not sure if we were just tired, or peopled-out, but Ponce City Market wasn't exactly what we thought it would be. There were several stores, but all carried more "high end" merchandise. The building was very unique. We were hoping it would be more of a flea market vibe, but it was more of a mall feel. By this time, we were tired and ready to head back to the hotel.
The next day we had to checkout by 11am and needed to be at the train station by 1, so we decided to not go sightseeing, and instead check out Mary Mac's Tea Room. It had been suggested to us by our Uber driver and also in our packet. It had the BEST sweet tea I've ever had. It was excellent. And their cornbread was amazing--and I'm not even fond of cornbread! For dessert we had the Georgia Peach Cobbler and the Peanut Butter Pie. I will be thinking about that Peanut Butter Pie for a long time. Both were very good!
After we had a bite to eat, we rushed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and head to the train station for home.
So that was our adventure to Atlanta--we were amazed at how beautiful the city was! So green--lots and lots of trees. Very lovely!
OK HERE IS THE SUMMARY FOR THOSE WHO WERE SCROLLING FOR IT:
QUICK SUMMARY
Pros:
~Surprise Factor. I can't overemphasize how much I LOVED being surprised with where we were going--that was SO FUN.
~Pay and Go. A pro for me was one shot payment. We were able to pay the amount, and flights and accommodations were taken care of with no more effort on our part!
~Quick Reply. Anytime we had a question, they were so FAST to reply. This was an excellent feature. Really well done.
~Reservation. I am SO glad they made the dinner reservation for us. It is not a place we would have chosen on our own and we would have missed out on an excellent meal.
~Many Suggestions. Our packet contained numerous suggestions for many places I believe we would have really enjoyed.
~Transportation. I specifically said in our survey that we were unfamiliar with public transportation and UBER etc, and they did an excellent job of providing specific instructions for us.
Cons:
~Not tailor-made. I thought the vacation would be more tailor made to who we were. And it wasn't. Most of the suggestions of things to do in Atlanta would have popped up in a quick google search. Perhaps we should have been more specific in our survey, but we wanted to be open to the experience.
~Details. While they were quick to respond to questions, I do think things like--stating what time we had to be at the airport (whether it was central or eastern time) was an oversight on their part. That should have been something they had already told us. Also, I felt they should have included in the email when they told us what to pack that they had made dinner reservations for us and we should pack some business casual attire to be appropriate at the restaurant. They should have also made suggestions for places to eat near the Aquarium and World of Coke Museum--as we made the mistake of eating at Pemberton Cafe that was TERRIBLE.
~Still had to research/plan. I still had to research and plan the vacation. It wasn't an itinerary tailor-made to us.
Things I would do different:
*I would open my packet the day we got it instead of waiting for the morning of departure. The only reason is because it was 2 nights and 3 days. But after traveling, it took most of the afternoon to decide what we wanted to do while we were there. And then our flight left early afternoon on the 3rd day and we are not morning people--so that left pretty much just one day for us to "do" anything. If we had opened the packet when we got it, we could have researched and planned prior to getting there and then could have spent all the time "doing" stuff.
*I would probably go with other people on this type of vacation. There is safety in numbers and while I never felt unsafe while I was in Atlanta, it can never hurt to be in a "group" instead of just 2 people gawking around as tourists.
*I would also choose to extend my stay. The standard trip is 2 nights and 3 days, but you can ask for a longer trip. If you are going to fly somewhere, then it really is better to stay for more than 2 nights. Airports have a way of draining your energy--especially with me getting motion sick.
We had a great time. I probably wouldn't do it again, simply because I'm frugal. I could have planned this same vacation for cheaper, but I wouldn't have gotten the surprise. But we did it once for the novelty and that was fun and worth the "extra". But there wasn't enough "extra" for me to want to pay for them to do it again.
However, if any of you decide to book a trip on Pack Up + Go, please mention us in your survey as we will get a promo code!!
