For various reasons we have almost always made our big moves in December or January. I moved to Houston right after New Year. We moved to New Jersey right before Christmas. We moved to Korea in the summer but ended up relocating to our job in Jeju in December. Our moves within Korea were always in winter- between academic years. We moved back to the States in January. We moved to Denmark in January.
I have a December birthday. This means I have had my share of, if not lonely then certainly somewhat isolated, birthdays due to the fact that we were new to the area and didn’t know anyone. It wasn’t that big of a deal. When you have a December birthday, especially one close to Christmas, you get used to people not being around.
My husband has a June birthday. In the past, by the time his birthday came up we had an established circle of friends. The weather was invariably beautiful and I was able to easily arrange some sort of get together to celebrate the rushed passing of time as we are ushered towards our inevitable deaths.
This June was different. Though we have been here six months I don’t feel like I really know anyone. Certainly not on a, “Come to my husband’s birthday party!” level of intimacy. Instead of party we planned to take a trip. His original request to go to Bliboa to see the swiveling hips of his favorite pop star turned out not to be workable. So I started looking for any and all flights out of Copenhagen (CPH) during the days he had available. To that end I discovered several sites that allow you to search for anywhere.
For Skyscanner all you have to do is leave the destination blank, plug in your home airport and dates, and you are golden. You don’t even have to choose specific dates. Skyscanner allows you to search for the cheapest flights within an entire month! This will bring you to a listing of countries with the country with the cheapest flight at top. Click the down arrow to see the flights between your chosen home airport and the country the piques your interest. The first flight will be the cheapie. They will also show (usually much more expensive) flights to other cities in the country.
WhereFor’s whole deal is finding a cheap flight to anywhere. Their tagline is “Where you can go for what you can spend.” On WhatFor you enter your combined flight and hotel budget, the number of travelers, dates, and departing airport. You get sent to a map of destinations available within your budget. Choose a destination and check out the deals. You can book just the flight, just the hotel, or both through the site.
On Adioso the first option on the drop down list for departures is “Anywhere”. It doesn’t get more straight forward than that. Not only that, under departure dates you can choose specific dates, a range of dates, a whole month, or anytime. You can also choose a one way ticket, a return based on the length of your trip, or a specific date. This will bring you to a Pinterest like city list where the actual cost of flights is prominently placed in the upper right corner of the picture of the city. The list is not in any particular order so you have to scroll to search for the best deals, but that’s just nitpicking on my part. This site, by far, offers the most flexibility of any I found.
Skipplagged also allows you to choose “Anywhere” on their drop list for destinations. It does seem that you have to choose specific dates, but for most of us this isn’t an issue. As with WhereFor this will bring you to a Pinterest like city list where the actual cost of flights is prominently placed on the picture of the city, this time in the lower right corner. This list is in order from cheapest to most expensive and can also be viewed in map form.
It is also possible to do open destination travel through Google Flights. Just leave the destination blank, fill in the dates, and Google. This gets you drop down list that is not in particular order, a map, and and several ways to filter your search including. but not limited to, the number of stops and airline choices.
Ultimately, we didn’t actually go anywhere for my husband’s birthday, a fact I feel vaguely guilty about despite the reality that the situation was not within my control. So, I didn’t actually go through any of the sites listed here. But it’s nice to have for future reference. Have any of you used any of these sites? What was your experience?