Katie Strick abandoned the travelmaxxing trend for a plan-free week in Cornwall, and found that refusing to optimise her holiday led to better sleep, better food and a greater sense of wellbeing than she had experienced on a trip in a long time.
Strick and her fiancé, burnt out after a summer of heatwaves, decided they needed an anti-optimisation holiday. Instead of following TikTok itineraries and must-see hiking routes, they chose to get in the car, sit by the sea, read books and plan nothing.
An experiment in doing nothing
Strick admitted she found the lack of structure difficult at first, wondering if it was wasteful to go to Cornwall and not see all of it. But they chose somewhere they had been before, having already ticked off highlights like surfing at Newquay and Polzeath, stays at the Carbis Bay Hotel and shows at the Minack Theatre.
They settled into Ennys, a collection of cottages between St Ives and Penzance, where self-catering meant their timings were entirely their own. The first afternoon was spent reading beside the pool, while her fiancé was so absorbed in a copy of Atonement that he stayed curled up by the woodburner.
Freestyle days and spontaneous stops
The first few days followed a pattern of lounging, dipping and eating whenever they felt like it. They walked from Newlyn to Mousehole, stumbled across Barbican Bistro for seafood tapas, and on day two set out without a plan, unsure whether they would return for dinner or see where the night took them.
By day three, they returned to the rockpool dip in Penzance they had enjoyed the previous afternoon, waving at a swimmer they recognised. Repetition, Strick noted, had never really existed in her travel lexicon before.
Newness without the rush
Cornwall proved perfect for the experiment, with almost every country lane ending in a fishing village, a beach or somewhere serving exceptionally good seafood. They still walked, swam and ate extremely well, but no longer treated those things like appointments.
There was always enough newness to keep things exciting: Kiln, a wood-fired sauna, had opened above Porthmeor Beach in St Ives; Jude Kereama launched his BBQ seafood pop-up Kota Kuki in Porthleven; and Tom Sellers opened MOR at Carbis Bay Hotel. They planned to roll into dinner straight from the train but ended up ditching the Barbara Hepworth Museum in favour of reading on the beach.
The point of the experiment
After Cornwall, they drove east towards Dorset with paddleboards and camping kit, stopping at Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove, before meeting friends for a last-minute camping trip overlooking Brownsea Island. When grey sky appeared, Strick was unfussed, realising she hadn't checked the forecast for days.
On returning home, the main learning was how full and varied the week still felt. Strick still had occasional pangs of missing out, but found she was too busy enjoying whatever she was doing to care. She concluded that perhaps the most useful thing to do with a week off is refuse to optimise it at all.
