11 Most Common Mistakes People Do When Traveling

Being educated about what mistakes you shouldn’t do when you’re traveling is not just going to save you a lot of money, but it could turn your trip from bad to good. Enjoy the 11 most common mistakes people do when traveling!

 

1.Having a too big agenda.

Having planned our your entire trip can be a good thing, but definitely also a bad thing.  Anything that would get thrown your way on the travels you’re on, may not be an option because you had already planned something that day. For example if you find out there’s an incredible mountain view not far away , but you can’t go because you had already booked train tickets to another place.. You may want to do some planning, but open up some space for spontaneous ideas you might stumble upon.

 

2. Not paying attention to your surroundings

When traveling, you’ll often find yourself being very present in the current moment and you may not be as mindful as to yourself and your surroundings. For example you may have a good time with your friends but not realising that you’re actually being very loud and swearing infront of families with children. Be mindful of the people that’s around you, especially when there could be cultural differences of what’s ok to do and not.

 

3. Packing too much!

This can’t be stressed enough as so many people tend to do this mistake over and over again. Ask yourself how long you’re going away for, where you’re going and what is the climate going to be like? Do you really need to change every single piece of clothe every day? Do you not realise that the place you’re going to probably is a cloth-selling country aswell..

 

4. Not respecting the culture

Althoug i mentioned the mistake people make being noisy and loud in their surroundings, I thought that listing this mistake on its own was important as this mistake is unfortunately very common. If you’re travelling to another country with different people, different cultures and so on, be humble and respectful. Just because you’re on a holiday, doesn’t mean that every person is there to entertain you and likes to be photographed. Just because the food didn’t taste like your mom-made spaghetti, doesn’t mean you should spit it out and make a grimace.

 

5.  Negotiating for a lower price

You may have been to other countries where most of the shops has no fixed prices. And experienced as you are, you know very well that you could save a dollar or two by really putting your negotiating skills to the test. But ask yourself, do you really care if you have to pay an extra dollar for the item or not? Or do you do it for your own entertainment or to prove that you’re not “just some tourist”.  Think about it in another way, the person you’re negotiating with most likely has a family to take care of, you giving them an extra dollar or two, could mean more food for their children.

 

6. Discussing prices beforehand

Although I previously mentioned how you shouldn’t discuss prices when buying a product, taking a taxi is a whole different thing. If you just jump into a cab and ask them to take you to the hotel, they are often going demand a ridicilously high amount of money when you’re there. Instead, ask how much it’s going to cost to travel to the hotel and if you’re fine with the price, then take the taxi. Since there’s a chance of you declining their offer, they’re most likely not going to ask for a high price.

 

7. Not knowing any words for your travel destination

Assume you’re lost and you don’t know how to get back to your hotel. Usually you can just ask someone on the street for advice, but what if you can’t communicate with them? In a lot of countries, people lack knowledge in English and it can there be difficult to communicate. A mistake is to not know any words such as “yes, no, where, how to go ..”

 

8. Not having travel insurance

This is a big mistake wether you’re young and on your own, or with your kids on a family trip.  Not only does travel insurance cover cancellation fees, but it also covers emergency bills that could cost you thousands of dollars.

 

9. Not doing research on restaurants / hotels

A small investment that is going to save you money, bad experiences with insects and sickness. Doing some research on the hotels you’re going to stay at could be the savior for the entire trip. When traveling abroad, the quality of hotels and restaurants varies tremendously. Some countries have different laws that regulates how good the kitchen standard should be and you’re therefore more dependant on reviews online. Have a look at tripadvisor for example.

 

10. Not keeping your valuables safe

The last thing you want to having to deal with is your phone, passport and wallet being stolen. It may seem like a mistake everyone should be aware of, but trust me it’s just not the case. Knowing how pickpocketers in Rome operate, can be the difference of being robbed or not if you travel there. They are far more clever than you think!

 

11. Exchanging money

A big mistake not many people think about.  When exchanging your cash to get the foreign currency, they always take a certain fee. But this fee varies a lot from place to place!  Airports for example takes a super high fee and you should therefore always making large exchanges at airports. My tip is looking up places, their currency rates and then decide where you’re going to exhance your cash for the trip!