My favorite criterion when trying to pick a vacation spot is to pick somewhere new you have never been before. That is how you get stories in your life and avoid that rut that people get stuck in where they go to the same place and do the same things every year.

After only a few hours of “sleep”, I decided to just drive toward Jackson, WY. At 8am we arrived, only to find that there were no rooms there, either. So we “showered” in a restaurant’s restroom, had breakfast, and left to find a place to stay. We finally found refuge in Missoula, Montana. What originally turned out to be a disaster turned into one of our favorite adventure stories to tell!

So, yes, more often than not adventure finds you. Just be willing to stick yourself in the middle of the possibility, and have humor if your adventure isn’t exactly what you thought it would be.

- If you are staying in a hotel, make friends with the concierge, bartender or other hotel staff. Be up front and say you dont want to spend a lot of money but just want to do what locals do. Even a guy in a suit takes it off once in a while and has some fun.

- Even if you dont use a site like couchsurfing, contact some local members to meet up for a drink. Couchsurfers love to meet new people, even if they arent actually hosting them. They’ll have a good idea of where adventure is lurking.

- Peter already said it, but it’s worth repeating. Say “yes.” Most of your real adventures won’t be planned. They will be impromptu encounters with a local stranger (ie a future friend) who wants to introduce you to something new.

While I do enjoy staying with locals I meet on the train when given the chance, couchsurfing (when it goes well) is a bit more relaxing, as your hosts are usually easily financially able to afford a guest, and are travelers themselves, giving you something in common.

Book a return flight with ten days in between, take a backpack with nothing but clothes, have a go at the language, talk to locals, and do what you normally don’t. This mindset got me talking to a Syrian millionnaire in a shabby café at 11.30pm in South Eastern Turkey, among other things.

As a larger habit, I get worried if I don’t know how I’m going to get from point A to point B, etc. Again, a large part of this worry is my extremely limited budget. So what I do is meticulously plan accommodation and transportation, and absolutely nothing else. That way, I know I’m not going to wind up being forced to stay in a $200 a night hotel, or pay three times the pre-booking cost of a flight or train ticket, but I still get to be adventurous. I’ll stay three days in a foreign city and have only the vaguest idea of what I want to do when I get there. For instance, I went to Madrid and I knew that I wanted to visit the Prado Gallery, but for the remainder of my three days my friend and I spent most of our time just walking around and exploring the city.

Walking leads me to another tip–always look for walking tours. This is fairly easy when hosteling, since many of the hostels keep track of cheap walking tours in the city. It’s by far the best and most informative way I’ve found to get a feel for a city in just a few hours, and a good guide can show you hidden gems and courtyards and alleyways you never would have found with a guidebook.