Just because we travel the world doesn’t mean we are always experts and don’t make mistakes. I’ve made mistakes, you’ve made mistakes, Michael Palin and Richard Branston – they’ve made mistakes. Just make sure you don’t repeat the mistakes you make and you’ll be fine. Here are the top 5 mistakes travellers make. Enjoy your travels and play things smart – you’ll save time and money.
Get a ONE WAY ticket booked.
1. Booking a Return Flight
Why? Why did you book a return? Is the place you are going to not meant to be better than the place you have just left? Therefore you don’t want to go back? Make sure you book just a single one way ticket. Travel doesn’t have to have an end, it doesn’t have to follow a strict itinerary and don’t let a company like an airline company dictate to you that you should return. Get out and see the world and don’t look back. Plus once you get there is you decide not to take the second flight, you lose money. Go with the flow and book things one at a time.
Top 5 Mistakes Travellers Make – booking a return.
2. Not Getting Visas
Seriously! Yes seriously. Do your research in advance and make sure you have the visas sorted. I had a few close calls for visas down the years, especially trying to get a Suriname Visa in Venezuela and getting an Azerbaijan Visa in Georgia. I got them in the end, but I left it late. Don’t leave it late, get multiple passports if you can and be prepared.
Relief the day I got my Suriname Visa in Venezuela.
3. Booking Things in Advance
Why book a hotel in a city in advance? You’ll pay more, you’ll have it booked before you’ve even seen the rooms or hotel and you also have to pay a portion in advance. Go with the flow. Arrive in a new town, look around and pick a hotel or hostel there and then. You can bargain easier face to face, you can walk out if you don’t like the price and you aren’t tied down anywhere.
Our hotel in Erbil in Iraq – booked it when we arrived – no need to book things too far in advance – your plans will change.
4. Getting Ripped Off
I see it every week and it makes me cringe. Useless travellers who get ripped off in foreign countries and don’t bargain prices down. They make things harder for the rest of us. Just because one posh traveller from Chicago is willing to pay $2 US for a packet of apples doesn’t mean I will. You can have 50 cents for them, or I’m walking on. I’m not a stingy git, I’m a realist and I hate rip off merchants.
I hate getting ripped off!
5. Getting Scammed
Yes it happens to the best of us and I don’t even want to mention some of the scams I’ve been involved in. There was also that crazy moment where I lost $1000 US in a river. Horrendous – how NOT to go tubing in Vang Vieng Laos.
Backpacking in Laos – the place I got scammed and also lost $1000 in a river!
But despite making these mistakes, there are always some tricks of the trade – discount tokens:
I’ve gone into some more tricks of the trade before but I’m always on the lookout for DISCOUNTS, anywhere and everywhere. Remember my post on discount vouchers etc. ?Be it hostels, flights etc. This is probably the one way that I have saved more money than any other method, by getting things at cheaper prices.
i Recently found Coupon Divvy. Using a website like Coupon Divvy can work well when you are buying Shoes from Wayfair, cameras etc. from Samsung and clothing from Target. Log onto their site and reap the benefits of promotion codes where customers can save A LOT. Think outside the box.
Take advantage of discounts at Coupon Divvy.
It’s not a perfect world when we travel and you will make mistakes, part of the fun is making them, realising them, admitting them and NEVER repeating them.
Safe travels my friends!