As with anything else, getting good at travel takes experience. The first few times you fly on an airplane, pack for a week away, take the family abroad or go backpacking will likely be great lessons in what to do — and what not to do! Some mistakes simply need to be learned by doing. For example, you really don’t know how many pairs of shoes you will need until you take too many and end up having to lug most of them home, unworn. Others, however, are so common that it would make the most sense to find out how to avoid them in the first place. Here are some of the ways that you can avoid the most common travel mistakes:
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Check your telephone roaming plan before you leave. You might be accustomed to having free long distance and unlimited data here in the States, so it might not occur to you that you won’t have it once you cross the border into another country. International roaming rates can be extremely high, so it definitely pays to know before you go! In many cases, it makes more sense to turn off your data while you’re abroad and either get by on wifi or purchase an inexpensive pay-as-you-go plan once you arrive in your target country.
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Make sure to book enough time between connecting flights. Have you ever seen people literally running, panic on their faces and losing things out of their backpacks, through the airport? You do not want to be one of them! If your first flight is delayed, then there’s a decent chance that you’ll be late for your next flight if you don’t have a good buffer. Also, remember that your arrival and departure gates may be quite a distance apart. If you’re flying into a large airport, aim for a minimum of two hours of time to get from one gate to the next. With luck, you’ll be able to veg the time away reading your Kindle, but if the worst should happen, you should be able to slip onto the flight just in time.
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Don’t insist on sticking to what the guidebook says. First of all, if you’ve seen one kitschy gift shop or modern museum of art, you probably don’t need to seek out others in the same area. Secondly, the best experiences are often had when you’re not following the guidebook to the letter. If possible, try to get in contact with a few locals to the area that you’re visiting. With the Internet making the world very small, this is almost always possible. Ask the local resident about some interesting places to go that won’t be in a guide book. Chances are great that you’ll find some very off-the-beaten-path things to do, and you will have made a new friend, besides.
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Take your time. Don’t cram too much fun into each day, or even into each trip. You are not going to see everything that Paris has to offer in three days, and while 14-day total European expeditions have their time and place, you aren’t going to be able to immerse yourself on this sort of vacation. Make a list of what’s important to you, and let the rest just happen as it may. Take your camera and a journal, and just soak up what’s out there!
- Finally, always read the fine print and ask questions. If you aren’t sure exactly how close your hotel is to the city center, then call up and ask. If you are signing an agreement for a short-term lease, read the entire thing. If it’s not in your native language, find a translator who is not the person trying to get you to sign. Double check all airline bookings to be sure that you are flying into the exact city that you expect. Particularly if you are traveling out of the country, you need to be sure that you understand what is happening; you won’t have the automatic knowledge of how things work that you have while on your home turf.
Travel is great fun, but it does sometimes cause regret when mistakes are made. Try to think of them as life experiences, even if they end up costing you time or money; at least you won’t make the same mistake again!
Have you made mistakes while traveling that you would like to help our other readers avoid? Share them in the comments section below.
