An impulse is the influence of a certain emotion and then acting on it. Impulse travel is a spontaneous travel plan or act spurred by the human response to something. There are two types of impulse travel. One is when you are traveling and something causes you to change your plans. The other is when the emotion occurs at home and creates a whole vacation when one acts upon an impulse.
While traveling, travelers meet locals and other travelers. Interaction with other people can lead to suggestions on travel ideas off the beaten track. This may cause travelers to abandon their plans if they react to the information on an impulse. A beautiful lake might remind a traveler of a lake she used to swim at during childhood and cause her to seek it out.
Sometimes a whole vacation can be done on an impulse, but it may not be financially advisable. Say you inherited $3,000 from an aunt. Most people would probably buy themselves something nice and save the rest, but say your aunt really loved China. On impulse, you might decide the best way to honor her and the gift is to travel to China. This would mean the whole vacation would be on an impulse. Credit cards also make impulse traveling feasible, but this is not advised.
Usually those who travel on an impulse are adventurers. You have to have a certain frame of mind to take a chance and get off the beaten path. Those hardy enough to do this may spend their impulse traveling time in a remote part of the world in a jungle or a rainforest or perhaps on a safari.
Eileen Tien says: "The impulsive part lies in the precipitate booking, usually set off by a fleck in the ether---a snatch of movie dialogue, an overheard elevator conversation---even a photo in a book." Spur of the moment vacations can be on an impulse, but they are not automatically. If you all of a sudden had a week off and decided to travel, this is just convenience and not on an impulse.
