When traveling, mistakes are bound to happen. That’s just a fact. But to help you avoid most of them, here are some of the most common travel mistakes that are easy to avoid!
- Having An Over-ambitious Itinerary
A mistake that I think we have all made while traveling is to completely fill your schedule without leaving enough room for relaxation. If you do this it can lead to the classic sentiment of “I need a vacation from my vacation!” This mistake is so easy to make as when we are planning we tend to get over-excited at all the exciting potential things to do and forget that we need time to rest even when vacationToer to avoid this, you should let your plan be more flexible. For example instead of saying “we are going to be at the history museum from 12 to 5, and then dinner at 6” you could say “We are going to spend the afternoon at the history museum, and then find somewhere to eat after.” This gives you the option of spending more or less time at the museum, without having to rush away to get to your next thing. Another good tip is to just relax. Don’t expect to see the whole city in one visit. Instead, focus on having a good time, and if that means taking a day out of your schedule to just rest then so be it.
- Relying Totally On Guide Books
Don’t get us wrong, guidebooks can be a helpful resource, but there is one major tbadwrong with them. This is because they are use information that was up-to-date when it was written, which might have been a lot longer ago than you would think. This doesn’t even mention the fact that all of the places and things in the guide will be the most touristy in the area.
- Not Backing Up Your Pictures
As photography has become increasingly accessible, a camera has quickly become a staple of every traveler’s bag. Just having a camera isn’t all you need to document your travels though, if you look around in photographer’s circles you will find plenty of stories about the loss of entire road trips or weddings to a stolen camera, or a corrupted hard drive. You can get thumb drives with plenty of storage for cheap, so I recommend them as a perfect travel-sized backup. Another great way to back up your photos is any one of the many cloud storage options, such as Google Photos, iCloud, or Dropbox. The only problem with storing your photos on the cloud is that you must have a computer and a good internet connection to back them up.
- Blindly Following Your GPS
If you are ever looking for a good laugh then you can always scour the internet for the surprisingly large collection of stories about people blindly following their GPS into places and situations they really shouldn’t be in. For example, there was a man in Manhattan whose GPS led him onto the first few stairs of the entrance to Riverside Park instead of the street that he was supposed to go down. Or there was the time that an elderly woman followed her GPS all the way through Germany to the capital city of Croatia when she was just trying to pick her friend up from the train station.
- Sticking to the tourist trail
I think we all know instinctively that the best parts to visit while touring a place are ironically the parts that are off of the beaten path. If you are new to traveling, or if you have never really delved into the uniqueness of wherever you might be, you would be surprised that the greatest opportunities, the best experiences, and the most amazing adventures are always found off the beaten path.
- Tempting pickpockets with flashy items
This is probably the most practical piece of advice on this list, but you would be surprised at how many people show off their valuables while traveling. What you should do instead is keep a close eye on the people who enter the space around you, and never leave your valuables unattended.
- Having unrealistic expectations
Now, this is one that you might not have expected, but yes, having unrealistic expectations is the easiest way to ruin your vacation. Now, it’s easy to see all the advertising that might surround a place, and expect visiting it to be a life-changing experience, and it might be. But if it isn’t (and it probably won’t be) then there is no way for that trip to make up for the difference. This isn’t even mentioning that sometimes things go wrong, like the weather canceling a show you were planning on going to, or your flight being overbooked, but if you can go with the flow, and not create an image of expectations surrounding your visit, then you are sure to have a better time.
- Overpacking
You might be surprised but overpacking is probably the most common, and the most insidious, mistake to commit. It can cause a host of issues like delays at the airport, tiredness from lugging it around, and even packing the wrong things, as too much can make it more difficult to notice when you have forgotten something important. This isn’t even mentoring the potential for oversized, overweight baggage fees, and all the other little issues that come with having too much stuff.
There are plenty of mistakes that you can make while traveling. This isn’t even close to the full list, but don’t let that scare you. Traveling is one of the most fulfilling, and fun things to do, even when things might not totally go to plan. So get out there, and get traveling!