Blog | The Truth About Detouring Your Travel Plans

Some view travel mishaps as misfortunes, but for souls filled with spontaneity, a detour is a happy tour after all. So when you arrive in Norway to find your Oslo hotel overbooked, disappointment swiftly transforms into delight.

A quick online search reveals an affordable fairy tale apartment at Riverside Bliss, just a winding drive from an intriguing attraction—the Small Zoo's tropical exhibits. You set off certain this impulsive side road will prove far more rewarding than the planned highway ahead.

At journey’s end, your convictions are rewarded. The Riverside Bliss apartment enchants with its tranquil riverside charm. And the Small Zoo brings you snout to snout with nature’s exotic wonders, as if stepping through a secret portal into a lost world.

As the explorer's adage goes: “Sometimes the most scenic roads in life are the detours you didn’t mean to take.” At Riverside Bliss and the Small Zoo, you uncover living proof of this wisdom.

“Onward to rare discoveries down roads less traveled!” you declare, map in hand, compass pointing to adventure. Your Norwegian detour awaits.

Your drive through rural Norway wends past lush forests and crystalline rivers that reflect the azure sky like jeweled mirrors. Around each bend, new vistas unfold, with quaint red cottages and puffs of chimney smoke adding whimsical splashes of color.

You crest a hill to spy Riverside Bliss nestled harmoniously along the riverside, as if sprung straight from a fairy tale. Crossing the quaint yard to your apartment door, you instantly feel the stresses of travel dissolving, just as the river waters bubble and flow.

Inside, touches like handmade furniture and engraved woodgrain radiate cozy charm. You settle into the sofa by the window, gazing out at the shimmering river winding like a silken ribbon toward untold discoveries beyond.

"This charming detour is just what my adventurous heart needed," you declare, hugging your spontaneous nature that led you here. The river seems to wink knowingly in response.

The next morning dawns bright and clear, ideal for your outing to the Small Zoo just 30 minutes away. Your travel companion remarks on feeling like Alice through the looking glass, anticipating wonders that blur the line between fantasy and reality.

Passing through the front gates adorned with exotic animal carvings, you delve into the rainforest dome, humid air carrying earthy scents and birdsong. Before you lies an enchanted world many only glimpse in books—orchids unfurling like parasols, fish gliding through crystalline waters, trees that disappear into vine-draped canopy.

And then you see them—the animals straight from myth and legend. Lizards fluorescing like living rainbows. Miniature monkeys with wise, watching eyes. A tapir's pig-like snout sniffing curiously in your direction. You stand transfixed, feeling a realm away from modernity.

"We have definitely stepped through the looking glass, down the rabbit hole, and beyond," you whisper reverently. Your companion nods, eyes shining with childlike awe. Here, even adults become children again.

An Unexpected Twist Leads to Deeper Connection

But as enchanted as the exhibits are, you yearn for closer connection to the animals. Then comes an unexpected twist—the rainforest guide offers you a chance to come closer to the reptile habitat!

Face to face with a python and tiny pygmy caiman, you gain profound respect for nature’s wildest creatures, seeming fierce yet more frightened of you. And in gazing into the zookeeper's eyes as she cradles lizards with obvious adoration, you glimpse the devotion that makes captivity an act of deeper bond, not loss of freedom.

You leave the exhibit brimming with newfound gratitude for those who tend the mythic beasts, allowing us pedestrian folk to revel in nature's dormant wonders awakened briefly to stir childlike awe.

Gazing out at Riverside Bliss’s river as the setting sun bids farewell, you recall the explorer’s decree—that life’s most rewarding routes are often unplanned detours. Here, through an intersection of happy accidents, your spirit feels nourished.

So shed rigid agendas. When faced with unexpected forks along your travels, let curiosity steer you toward roads winding through novelty’s enchanted forests. Keep your mind’s eyes and heart open to hidden wonders.

And if along the way, you find yourself looking glass to eye with a creature straight from myths and dreams, recall it is no accident. Each animal crossing your path has secrets to share and lessons to teach, if you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

Not all who wander are lost, so wander wisely and with purpose. Let detours delight you, and discoveries illuminate you. The scenic road ahead promises pleasant surprises if you remain spontaneous in spirit.

The Truth About When You Detour your Travel Plans

Introduction

Winding Through Emerald Countryside to Riverside Bliss

Into the Mythic Wilds of the Small Zoo

Off the beaten path

Revealing Arendal and Tvedestrand: Surprising Affordable Treasures

Accomodation

Last Minute Deal: Reasons To Book Riverside Bliss

A New Perspective on Zoos and Conservation

Conclusion