It sounds like a shortcut. You search for a three day plan or a perfect week or a best route. You open an article titled something like ‘Ten Things You Must Do in This City’. 

And you follow it.

Step by step.
Museum in the morning.

Lunch in a trendy area.
Afternoon market.
Evening view.
And… 

On paper, it looks efficient. But as you move through it, something starts to feel off. You are ticking boxes, but you are not feeling much. You are present, but you are not engaged.

That is because the plan was never made for you.

It was made for a general idea of a traveler. A traveler with average interests and average energy and average curiosity. The problem is that you are not average. No one is. You might need more quiet time. You might want more conversation. You might care more about stories than about views. Or the opposite. And no template can know that.

The truth is simple. The more generic the itinerary, the less likely it is to work for real people. Not because the places are bad, but because the pacing, the framing, and the purpose are mismatched. What is exciting for one person might be draining for another. What feels like exploration to one might feel like chaos to someone else.

Your trip is not a task list. It is not a project to be completed. It is a living experience. And experiences work best when they follow your internal logic, not someone else’s plan.

So why do so many people still follow one size fits all routes? Because they are everywhere. Because they are easy to find and easy to follow. Because they promise certainty. But in exchange, they often take away the one thing that makes travel worthwhile. A sense of personal meaning.

Travel is not about doing what others did. It is about understanding what you want to feel and building around that. It is about attention. Alignment. The right moment in the right place, seen through your eyes, not filtered through someone else’s top ten.

A good experience is not about how many stops you make. It is about how many moments feel real to you. It might mean doing less. It might mean changing the route halfway through. It might mean ignoring what is considered a must see and choosing what simply feels right.

You are allowed to design your trip around your own rhythm. You are allowed to move slower or faster. You are allowed to care about things no guidebook mentions. And most importantly, you are allowed to say no to plans that do not match your personality, even if they come highly rated.

The one size fits all itinerary does not fit anyone. That includes you. Choose a way of traveling that does.