5 Embarrassing Rookie Travel Mistakes
Image: aghman.
Mistakes. Everyone makes them, from rookies to seasoned travelers. We're definitely not immune, far from it, we still make them quite regularly. But, the great thing about mistakes, is that we can all learn from them. So, in the interest of both amusement & education, I present you with our own top five rookie travel mistakes.
Our first two, understandably, came on our first trip abroad. I was completely unprepared for overseas travel: I knew no Italian, had no idea what I wanted to do, and was completely naive. The rest...well, the day I stop making mistakes is the day I stop traveling.
Roman Cab Driver Ripoff.
We were three young Americans, freshly arrived in Rome. Jet lagged, no sleep in who knows how many hours, and no idea of the Lira:Dollar ratio, all contributed to a classic cab driver ripoff. He told Kelly one price, our friend another, and finally came to me to collect the money at the end of the ride. When we compared notes later, we realized we'd been fleeced. What could we have done better? We should have all been together and paying attention when we agreed on a price, and have looked up what a decent price was, beforehand. If I could have told my 21 year old self even better advice, I'd tell myself just to take the subway or the bus.
Language Food Barrier.
Thinking back on it, this mistake was probably one that I regret the most. It's a little embarrassing to admit that I was too afraid to eat at a restaurant without English on the menu. The result? Mediocre, overpriced meals at the cheesiest of places. Hell, we even at the Hard Rock Cafe because we were craving Nachos. In Rome. For shame!
We should have come armed with a little Italian, so that we could have ventured off the tourist track and into something good. Even if we didn't have any italian up our sleeves, we should have tried it.
No soup for you! (or anything else)
New Years. London. It sounded like a good idea at the time. Our plan was to see the fireworks, hang out with a few million of our closest friends, and then head back to our hotel. During he day, we figured that we'd hang out at the pub until it was time to head to the festivities. However, we'd never thought to research the nightlife for New Years Eve...near the river, there practically was none. Every pub we went to closed before dinner time, leaving us wandering around for hours, searching for a snack. We eventually, and I'm exceptionally ashamed to admit it, ended up subsisting on a combination of McDonald's and convenience store food. What could we have done better? To this day, I'm still not sure whether our situation was normal for New Years, or if we just picked the wrong dozen or so-odd pubs to wander into that night. A big breakfast maybe?
Too much technology, no backup.
On our most recent trip to Italy, we did lots of research, found tons of places we wanted to go, mapped them out on a google map, all in a nice, easy to carry electronic package. We took my Google G1 phone, with the intention of getting internet, so that we could access all our maps, find places easily, and not have to carry around paper maps. Oh, those paper maps, they're for the birds!
Hardly. After being shafted by T-Mobile, via a screwed up unlock code (and non-existent help while on the road), we were left with few of our saved notes...and no map. And since internet cafes are going extinct, we were left without many places to get to our research. Next time, I'm printing my plans, drawing on a map, anything besides relying on technology alone.
Repeatedly taking absurdly early flights.
Like a young child, who doesn't know better than to keep sticking paperclips in the electric socket, we've fallen into the trap of repeatedly taken 6am flights out of Venice. After all, those are the cheap flights! They can't be that bad, right?
Every time, we swear we'll never do it again, after all, getting there in time means leaving our hotel at 4am...or friend's houses much earlier. Simply put, It's no time to be awake. We get to the airport, dead to the world, and have to slog our way through a day's worth of airports and customs agents, on a few hours sleep.
The only benefit to this repeated mistake is that 4am is a great time to see Venice...completely empty. It's eerily calm. But take it from me, kids, it's not worth it. Get your sleep.
Ok. Enough about our mistakes. I want to hear your favorite (or least favorite) rookie mistakes you've made in the past! Share them below in the comments, if you dare.
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Buying a travel ADAPTOR instead of a travel CONVERTER on our recent trip to Ireland. I didn't understand the difference. After shorting out and destroying our little travel fan, I do now.
I'm definitely with you on the first one - I don't want to say publicly how much I paid to take a cab from Fiumicino Airport into the city, but let's just say it may have been double what I paid to make the return trip, arranged by my hotel. Live and learn.
Not sure how you managed to find a London pub closed, they are always open. It migh have been a bomb threat I suppose, in which case you were probably better off away form the area!!
We trusted our concierge too much. She directed us to the wrong bus station in Barcelona so we ended up missing our bus to the airport and paying 200 in order to not miss our 20 euro flight. Lesson: do the research yourself, you can't trust anyone!
On my very first train tour of Europe (3 weeks) it never occurred to me that you can bring food (and glorious wine) on the train with you. Only on my last couple rides did I realize this (I sat next to 4 Dutch frat boys on their way to Munich from Amsterdam, and they managed to drink an entire case of beer.)
I've had friends travel to the UK for Christmas and New Years...with similar results as you. When traveling around a holiday it is a good thing to check out the scene first so you have a back up plan.
On a positive note, if mistakes weren't made you'd never have the experience and learn how to navigate more efficiently :)
I'm a proud Londoner but I wouldn't recommend my own city as a New Year's destination. Most pubs and bars either close early or insist that you buy an exorbitantly priced ticket in advance (£50+) for an evening of forced jollity, cheap sparkling wine and a Slade soundtrack. Oh and although it's the only night of the year that the entire transport system is kept running you'll be standing out in the cold for hours while buses crammed to the rafters whizz by. In the end you'll give up and walk the two hour journey home on your swollen, aching feet. Try Amsterdam instead, bars operate pretty much as usual; adhoc, anarchic fireworks displays take place on every corner and you're never more than 15 minutes away from your hotel/apartment. Happy New Year!
1. Letting a taxi driver take my bag: The Naples taxi drivers were the most aggressive I'd seen in Europe (I've since seen worse in Asia) and two had a wrestling match over my bag and who was taking me. Now I hold my bag all the way into the cab.
2. Not realizing the carry-on bag policy in the US was much more liberal than that in the UK. I always pack carry-on (even for a 3 wk trip), but didn't realize that in the UK that you couldn't also take a small backpack. My flight was delayed getting to London, my connection was the other side of Heathrow, I had to exit customs, check my bag, and run for my flight. Of course, my bag missed the next connection and spent the night in Vienna while I went on to Turkey.
which brings me to:
3. Always assume your bag will sit on the tarmac and get wet. My bag arrived in Turkey and although water didn't actually pour out of it, the only reason it didn't was because the rain was absorbed by all my clothes. Now, if the bag isn't waterproof, I line the luggage with a trash bag. (I use the trash bag later in the trip to isolate clean from dirty or smoky clothing in my bag.
4. Not making a reservation in a major city on a friday night or weekend. First time in Europe, first time in Paris, it might have been May, but you're still not gonna find a hotel room easily on a friday night...and if you're like me, you'll end up spending more than 4x what you paid for any other hotel room on the trip. (I don't remember the name of the hotel, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the George V...the bathroom alone was larger than any of my first few apartments.)
5. Assuming that Mexican is the same as Spanish. I grew up in So. Cal. I speak pretty good Los Angelese Mexican. In Spain, I learned I didn't speak Spanish. In Peru, I learned I had an LA accent (but at least they mostly understood me.) And in Washington D.C. working with Salvadorans, I learned that slang in a foreign language can give people the WAY wrong impression. (The word in Mexican meant something else in Salvadoran...though I did get several marriage proposals from the construction workers I was explaining the I-9 process to.)