Do you want to plan a long weekend trip with your family but don’t seem to have the time? Are you ready for a surprise adventure of a lifetime? Pack Up & Go, a surprise travel agency, plans and executes three-day adventures all around the United States. You can plan to travel solo or in a group by car, bus, train or air. Each trip varies from $100–5,000. All you have to do is decide on your mode of travel and a budget.
The program consists of five easy steps. To begin, you answer a few quick questions and travel preferences. You can let them know if you visit Miami every month for work, if you and your girlfriends just traveled to Denver or if you really hate Columbus, Ohio. Next, they plan your accommodation based on your requests. A week before your adventure, you receive an email stating the weather in the secret location, a few recommended items to pack and where to go to begin your journey at a specific time. This email is vague and keeps you on the edge of your seat, wondering where Pack Up + Go plans to send you.
Photo: Gpointstudio | Dreamstime
Then comes the “hard” part.
A few days before your trip, you will receive an envelope in the mail that cannot be opened until you are at your meeting location the day of. This secret envelope contains research on your handpicked location, travel information and recommendations on events and activities in the area. When you get to the specific location, you open the envelope to reveal your surprise. Finally, all you have to do is go.
Lillian Rafson, a Pittsburgh native, founded Pack Up + Go in January 2016 when she was only 23 years old. Within the first three months, Rafson booked around 90 different trips for customers all across the United States. She was so successful, she needed to hire a small team of travel lovers to help plan the surprise getaways. So far, the team has sent solo travelers and groups to places such as New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, Austin, Chicago, San Diego and Denver.
In Pack Up + Go’s promotional video on the website, Rafson states, “So break free from conventional trip planning, take a leap, live spontaneously, be adventurous and leave the planning to us. We do the work and you, Pack Up + Go.” Pack Up + Go is not for people who are easily disappointed. Customers must be optimistic and ready to take on a new region of the United States with little to no planning.
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