The Dumbest Travel Mistakes I’ve Ever Made
Rather than highlighting a specific destination this week, I thought I would share some of the dumbest travel mistakes I’ve ever made. Because I’ve made a lot of them! Most recently when I flew back from Amsterdam in March…through Houston! (I live in South Florida!) Sometimes I overestimate myself.
I try to speak from experience when helping clients. Just this week alone, I’ve tried to talk people out of the following ideas…
A crazy short transfer at London Heathrow — did you know the distance between Terminal 2 and Terminal 5 at Heathrow is TWO MILES??!!?!
Driving in Italy when they have never driven in a foreign country before and are, by their own admission, nervous drivers.
Spending a night at a crappy airport hotel in France for a 10 am flight rather than staying at a lovely hotel on the beach 30 minutes away.
Waiting til next summer to travel in the hopes that flight prices will go down. Let me tell you something…flights will never be as cheap as you want them to be. Just book that trip!
I want clients and travelers of all sorts to avoid the same mistakes I’ve made! So here are some of the dumbest things I’ve done while traveling…if you have your own story to tell, contact me! I want to hear your story!
Falling for a Taxi Scam at Beijing Airport
When I arrived in Beijing in September of 2000 for my bike tour with Backroads, I picked up my bag from the luggage carousel and a woman asked me if I wanted a taxi. Stupidly, I said yes. She told me to follow her and I got into a taxi. There was a driver in the car and she got in the front seat. We started to leave the departure area when all of a sudden, this very tall Chinese military officer stepped in front of the taxi and held up his hand for the taxi to stop. I don’t know what he said to the woman and the driver, but he made me get out of the car and he put me into the official taxi queue. To this very day, I wonder what would have happened had he not been there. Nowadays, whenever I arrive in a country where I don’t speak the language and there’s no Uber or airport train, I always arrange for a private transfer. To be fair, I’m not really a huge fan of Uber for airport transfers in foreign countries. I prefer to use a private transfer company that I know from my agency or a hotel car. If you must take a public taxi, please always look for the OFFICIAL taxi queue. If you need a private transfer for a trip this summer, please let me help you!
Going to a Thalasso Spa Hotel In Tunisia
You don’t want to know. I am still scarred from the experience. With spa treatments, make sure you know what you are signing up for!
Renting a Car in Cabo San Lucas
I did a little mother-daughter weekend with my mother in Cabo San Lucas a while back. For some reason, I decided to rent a car at the airport and drive to our hotel an hour away. I had never driven in a foreign country before. It was not like America. My mother still talks about the white knuckle drive in the dark from the airport to our hotel. I’m not sure what I was thinking. There were no road markings on the highway! It was crazy. I should have ordered a transfer and left this drive to an experienced driver! Oh to be young again! Driving in a foreign country is stressful. I do not recommend this unless you are a risk-seeking person! There are plenty of people who will take your money to drive you around! If you need a private driver for a trip this summer, I’ve got you covered! Get in touch.
Accidentally Tipping a Gas Station Attendant in Mexico $30
(Same trip as above!) Know your bills in any foreign country!! I meant to give the guy the equivalent of $3. I gave him $30 instead! Nowadays, I try to always have a “moment” with the local currency to make sure I understand all the bills and coins.
Booking the Cheapest Flight
Sometimes, you think you’re being all clever by booking that cheap flight with the bad connection. Oh trust me…I’ve fallen for this myself. As I sat in Houston for seven hours recently, DYING OF BOREDOM, I REALLY regretted my decision to be cheap. I could have been home an entire 4 hours earlier if I had just coughed up for the slightly more expensive connecting flight. Time is a luxury.!! Remember that.
Traveling with a Friend Who is Bad at Math
Many years ago, I traveled with a friend to a certain country. Half-way through the trip, she totally surprised me when she angrily explained how much money I owed her. (We were taking turns paying for things.) I had actually kept a running tally for my own records and as it turns out, she owed me over $200 and I wasn’t sweating it because I knew we still had a few more days together. Plus, she was my friend! I still don’t understand why she got so angry. Even if I did owe her money, did she think I wouldn’t pay her? To avoid problems like this, use Splitwise! It’s such a great app for keeping track of shared expenses.
Traveling with a Friend Who Just Likes to “Walk Around”
I’m going to keep the country anonymous here again but I once met up with a good friend in Country X. We had never traveled together before. I soon learned our ideas of travel were very different. She just liked to walk around. Like all day…just wandering the streets. I need a plan…a destination! There’s only so much aimless wandering I can do. Where are we going? Why? What’s in this direction?
This is why I am a huge fan of walking tours!! (Or any sort of tour, really.) If you need a tour for your next trip, I have a huge storehouse of options. Book a consultation here.
Imagine traveling with someone who doesn’t want to eat this.
Traveling to Italy with a Friend Who Doesn’t Like to Eat
I once went to Italy with a friend who was full the entire time we were there. She never ate. It was very disconcerting. As I polished off plate after plate of pasta every night—plus desert — I felt like a glutton. Travel with friends with similar priorities and interests! If they don’t want to do a food tour and you REALLY want to do the food tour, maybe you guys aren’t a good fit.
Booking Grayline Tours Two Times Too Many
Maybe there’s a great Grayline tour out there but I’ve taken two Grayline tours now that were the WORST TOURS I’VE EVER TAKEN. One in Shanghai. One in Kuala Lumpur. Both were just poorly disguised tours of every gift shop in town. Grayline is dead to me now. I will never take a Grayline tour again! I booked these on Viator…you just have to be careful with Viator. Really read the reviews. Once I went back and read the bad reviews of these two tours, it was clear I was not alone in my experience. Now i look for reputable brands (I LOVE Context tours!) and licensed guides!
Not Understanding Autocracies
Twice now, I have naively assumed that the photo of the man above the front desk at my hotel is the hotel founder. Ummm…it’s usually the country’s president. (Seriously though, can you imagine if Joe Biden’s photo was on the wall of every hotel in America above the front desk? It would be weird right?) Now I seriously always try to look up a photo of a country’s president before I visit. This is an underrated tip! (Also, I find that people really appreciate it when tourists know a bit about their country.)
Listening to My Friend Who Went to London…Once
An old friend told me I had to stay in South Kensington for my first trip to London. I have since learned that South Ken is NOT my scene. (Although the Whole Foods on Ken High Street is!) Also, South Ken it’s nowhere near the action. I want to be central — Covent Garden! Oxford Street! Tottenham Court Road! Not all the way west in London. Remember the source…if someone’s been somewhere once for three days 10 years ago, they are no expert.
You have better things to do than wait in line on vacation.
Letting Friends Overschedule Me
A few years ago, I went to a European country with two friends of mine. One person did all the planning. So in some ways, it was my favorite sort of trip. All I had to do was show up!! But man, were we on a schedule. I remember looking at something in a museum for just 10 seconds or so and being urged to move to the next room because we had to be somewhere else in an hour. I joke now that my new approach to traveling is “One Thing a Day.” I like to do one 4 hour-ish tour a day. (Usually 10 am to 2 pm.) That’s it. Then a nice meal somewhere (Roughly 2:30 pm to 4 pm) and a walk around. A visit to the local grocery store perhaps. (My favorite sort of tourism.) That’s my pace.
Waiting in Line Anywhere…for Anything
I have learned the hard way over the years — especially in Paris and Rome— that you really need to book museums in advance. Otherwise, you will show up to a huge queue. My 83 year old dad was in Paris for his honeymoon last month — yes, he married his 85 year old girlfriend in April — and he couldn’t believe the queues for the Louvre. My dad is a Francophile and says the queues were like nothing he had ever seen before. The same goes for lines at shops and restaurants.—you have better things to do than stand in line! Plan ahead to avoid these situations. Skip the Line tours are WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN GOLD. And I have a lot of them, just waiting for you! Reach out if you have travel plans this summer and need som Skip the Line tours!
The best way to get past a queue is to have a private guide. If you need a private guide for a trip this summer, I’ve got those too! Just get in touch!
Letting Friends Convince Me That We Didn’t Need to Book a Hotel
This was ages ago but the first time I ever went to London, my friends convinced me that we didn’t need to book a hotel. We could just stay with their friends. They failed to mention that their friends lived in student dorms and weren’t allowed to have visitors. So I actually had to sleep UNDER a bunk bed in case an administrator or tattletale saw me. Now during my pre-departure calls with clients, I talk a lot about agency. We all have agency. You do not have to do anything you don’t want to do. I wish my 21 year old self had known this and gone out and found a hotel that night!!
Letting Friends Convince Me to Stay in An Airbnb
I really dislike Airbnbs. Why would you stay somewhere where there are no cleanliness standards and you have no idea who the actual owner is or if they have insurance?? When I worked for an Airbnb property manager in London, he just shoved all the dirty laundry under the beds of his units until he decided it was time to do laundry. Yes, this is a true story.
Also, I have yet to stay in an Airbnb with nice towels and a decent hairdryer. (Hairdryers are the most common item stole from Airbnbs.) Anyhow, I went to a country I had never been to before and my friends booked an Airbnb. The property had NOTHING. No soap, no shampoo, no hairdryer, NO DRINKABLE WATER, and one roll of toilet paper. It was late at night in the middle of nowhere and we had no way of getting these things. I don’t want to bring all my own toiletries on vacation. Now I only sell properties vetted by my villa guy, Corey. Properties that come with a concierge service. Where I know you will have access to amenities and there’s a team on call at all times if you need something. Need a villa or a ski house this summer? Let’s talk.
So…those are some of the biggest mistakes I’ve made traveling? Got some of your own? Email me!! I may feature you in a future newsletter!
About Krista
I’m a Notre Dame grad and a Chicago Booth MBA. I spent over 11 years living and working in London, England, selling financial data. My career and personal travel have taken me all over the world. To date, I’ve been to 78 countries. Now I bring the joy of travel to others. Let me make your next vacation seamless for you.
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