My Top 10 Travel Mistakes & How To Avoid Them
I'm getting vulnerable today and sharing some mistakes that I have made and learned from. I hope you don't judge me too harshly, but can learn from my top 10 travel mistakes, and maybe have a few laughs along the way.
#10 Not Taking The Sun Seriously Enough When Closer To The Equator
This one has gotten us a couple times. Once in Cancun, my husband fried the ghostly white tops of his feet like a well done steak. We covered every other part of our bodies with sunscreen, but when he took off his shoes to go jet skiing, those feet had no protection. After our jet skiing fun, he had some red sore feet!
Another memorable burn happened in Florida. This time my daughter and niece were the victims. They were both pretty young at the time, so the blame is all on me. We were at the beach, and I did put sunscreen on them, and even reapplied it after awhile. They had an amazing time running in and out of the waves of the Gulf of Mexico. By the time I could tell that they were turning pink, it was too late. I felt terrible! They both ended up red as a raspberry. Apparently the sunscreen we had was no match for those waves.
So when you are heading south, make sure to buy a quality sunscreen with a high SPF. If going into the water be sure to read about the sunscreen's water capabilities.
#9 Not Looking At A Map
This story takes us back to a trip we took with our children when they were very young. We flew to Arizona to see Sedona, the Grand Canyon, and the Hoover Dam, and were flying home out of Vegas. My husband and I had been to Vegas before and remembered seeing many things on the strip that we were not ready to expose our young children to, like flyers all over the streets advertising prostitutes. We did however want to take the kids to a few fun spots in the hotels. One of these spots was the Bellagio Water Fountain show. To stay off the streets, we hailed a taxi and told the driver where we wanted to go. He gave us a weird look, but then off we went. After just a bit of driving around and behind a few buildings , we arrived at the Bellagio, which turned out to be right next to the hotel we were just at! PLUS, there was a skywalk connecting the two buildings! We ended up with a big laugh, a $30 cab fare, and a lesson learned on paying attention to where you are.
#8 Not Downloading Offline Maps
Speaking of maps, I strongly advise downloading offline maps onto your phone of the area you are traveling, especially if the area is a little "off the grid." I have noticed that a lot of National Parks have poor cell service, and offline maps come in extremely handy there.
On our last trip to Costa Rica, I was really wishing that I would have downloaded an offline map. I thought it wouldn't be necessary because the car we rented came with a cellphone with GPS. The phone GPS worked well directing us from the airport to southern Costa Rica. When we arrived in the little town that our Airbnb was located in that night, our GPS took us on a few wild goose chases, our paper directions didn't make sense in the dark, my phone had no reception, and just when I thought we might have to sleep in the car, my husband's phone took us down the right road and we found it! Talk about a stressful way to start our vacation.
#7 Not Contacting Your Credit Card Company To Let Them Know You Are Traveling
Your credit card company wants to protect you from fraud, which is great. Using your card in a different state or country may cause the company to lock down the card until you call them to straighten things out. To avoid this, call ahead so that your credit card company can put a note in your file with your travel dates.
This is exactly what I tried to do before our Costa Rica trip. I called our credit card to get some documentation to show our rental car company, and after I had squared that away, I asked to be connected with someone to tell our travel plans to. When I was transferred, I got a recorded voice that said they no longer needed to know that I was traveling. In hindsight, I should have called back and talked to a human being, because on our first day after paying for our rental car, our credit card was frozen, and remained frozen the entire trip! It is also a good idea to have a second credit card, along with cash, just in case. Luckily, we had prepaid for much of our trip, and had enough cash for the rest. We had to use our son's debit card at the airport restaurant and to get out of parking lot.
#6 Not Putting A Distinguishing Tag On My Checked Suitcase.
If you read my post, "How To Make Packing For Your Next Getaway Easier," you know that I like to travel with carry-on bags only. However, on our trip to Utah we brought along our camping equipment and needed to check a bag. After our action-packed Utah adventure and our tiring flight home, my daughter and I were very ready to get out of that airport. But there we were, watching the luggage carousel go round and round, watching all the other travelers picking up their bags and scurrying off to the parking lot. We kept waiting for our big purple suitcase to come down the shoot, but it did not. There were some suitcases spinning around on the belt, and one of them was purple-ish. We decided that we would pull it off the belt and call the phone number on the luggage tag, and sure enough, the owner of this bag had taken our suitcase. We made arrangements to meet them in front of the airport to swap bags. We couldn't help but laugh at the thought of this family opening up our purple suitcase filled with our dirty tent and stinky sweaty clothes.
To avoid this kind of mix-up and possible delays, try marking your checked suitcases with something that stands out, like these colorful luggage straps and tags.
#5 Not Choosing The Right Season For The Destination
I referenced our camping trip to Utah in #6. If you haven't read the story, check it out here - "Why, Oh Why, Did We Try To Tent Camp in Utah In August?
I am pretty strong-willed at times, and if there's something I want to do, there's not much that can stop me. So even though I knew that it was going to be hot in Utah in August, it was a place that I wanted to see and hike in, so we went. I loved our adventures there and would do it all over again (except the tent camping part.) Being in a hotel with air conditioning was just so much better!
Some destinations are just so much better in the right season. It is important to understand the weather. Areas like Washington have a rainy season, other areas like Glacier National Park close during the snowy winter, and the Caribbean Islands have a hurricane season. Do your research or ask your travel advisor about the best season to travel to your destination of choice.
#4 Not Having Everything Needed For A Hike
This story has become a legendary tale in our family. It took place on a trip that my husband and I took to Kauai with my in-laws and children. One of our days was set aside to do an epic hike along the Kalalau Trail from Kee Beach to the Hanakapiai Falls. This trail is moderately challenging, but oh so beautiful! The first two miles follow the shoreline with stunning views of the Na Pali coastal cliffs and vegetation. When you reach the Hanakapiai Beach you need to do a stream crossing and then head inland into the valley. This second two mile stretch gets a little more strenuous, there are boulders to climb over and many more stream crossings. When you finally reach the 300 foot Hanakapiai Falls it makes it all worth it! There is not only one falls, but thinner waterfalls are coming out all over the place spilling over the high walls.
We had seen photos of people swimming in the pool under the falls, but today there was not a chance of that. It was raining up in the higher elevations and this waterfall was really pumping! The blast of it made all of our pictures kind of blurry. This rain was also making the stream that we would have to cross again on our way out rise. By the time we made it back to the first beach, my husband had to assist everyone to get back across the now chest deep rushing water.
My in-laws are both in great shape, and I hope I can still do hikes like this when I get to be their age. But that last two miles back out had them walking a little slower. At one point my father-in-law asked his wife for his portion of the Aleve pain medicine they that had packed, and my mother-in-law responded that she had already taken them all! He stood there in disbelief that she took them all! (and it wasn't just 2 or 3) We made it back safely to the car, with amazing pictures and memories of that hike. We still like to remind Grandma about the time she took all that Aleve.
Aside, from making sure you have enough Aleve in your pack, it is also important to pack some necessities it case you would stuck on the trail longer than expected. (Sometimes the water rises so high that hikers have to be rescued by helicopter) And lets talk about hiking footwear. I was amazed to see how many people try to hike a trail like this in flip flops. That seems like a twisted ankle just waiting to happen.
# 3 Not Having A Separate Bag Of Gear For First Night Of Trip
This one is pretty specific. It took place on a trip to the BWCA - The Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota. If you are unfamiliar with the area, it consists of lots of lakes and rivers that can only be entered with a permit, and by hiking and canoeing. Your permit gets you into a specific route on a specific day, and then you can backcountry camp at primative sites along the way. Your route usually consists of some paddling and some hiking, and when you are hiking (or portaging as it is called), you have to carry all your gear and your canoe. This creates the need to pack light. We don't pack any luxury items, and over the years we have invested in lighter and lighter gear.
On this particular trip, our first trip to the BWCA I believe, we had reservations to stay in a rustic cabin the night before we started our route. We were excited about our upcoming adventure, had a good meal, and some of our group even did a little fishing. When it came time to go to sleep, we realized how rustic our cabin was. There wasn't even any bedding on the bunkbeds inside. Knowing how precisely we had to pack our waterproof bags to fit everything in, my husband decided that we were not going to open them to try to get our sleeping bags out. We would just sleep on the plain mattresses and be ready to grab our bags and go at first light.
It was a warm Minnesota day, UNTIL the sun went down. Then it got so very cold in that cabin. As I laid in my bunk listening to snores, I wondered how anyone else was able to sleep in these conditions. I tried to pull my long socks up higher to cover my whole self, but that didn't work. When I couldn't take it anymore, I climbed down out of my bunk and into my daughter's. She had snuck a fleece blanket out of her bag, and she graciously let me snuggle in with her for the rest of the night.
Now, you may not ever be in this situation of needing a pre-trip bag with bedding for the cold night before a BWCA adventure. Perhaps, instead, it is a "Park & Fly" and you spend one night in a hotel next to the airport before your vacation. It would be nice to have a separate bag just for that night, so you don't have to dig into your other carefully packed suitcases.
#2 Not Checking Out Your Brand New Gear Before The Trip
This is another BWCA story, and was a heavy lesson to learn. Before we had our Big Agnes lightweight sleeping pads, we decided to bring a regular air mattress that was the size of our tent floor. Sounds comfortable, right? We also packed a small battery operated air compressor to blow it up. I purchased these, and they went right into the pile of things to go on our trip. I figured that I would never be able to refold the mattress as small as it was straight out of the box, and it was brand new, so... why try it out?
That first night when we opened up the mattress, to our surprise, it looked like someone had stabbed the mattress repeatedly with a knife. So not only did we not have a soft air mattress to sleep on during our trip, we now had to carry around this useless plastic with us on all of our portages (there are no garbage cans in the BWCA. Everything you pack in, you must pack back out), and we had a useless air compressor filled with useless D batteries. What a bummer!
Of course, we made the best of it. We used our air mattress as a door mat for the entrance of our tent. We found some mossy spots to sleep on. Plus we walked away with another lfe lesson - try out your new gear at home.
#1 Not Getting Travel Insurance
Travel has always been a goal of mine. Sometimes to make a trip happen, I splurged in some areas and took the budget approach in other areas. When it came to buying travel insurance, I often skipped this cost and took my chances. During the Covid shutdown, this decision bit me in the butt.
We had a Christmas 2020 trip planned to Costa Rica. As you all know, in 2020 that didn't happen. I had no insurance and we lost all of the money that we had paid for lodging. Luckily, we were able to get vouchers from the airlines for future trips (after I spent much time on the phone).
I learned my lesson and I now know that it is money well spent. When we finally got to do our Costa Rica trip during our Spring Break this year, I bought the trip insurance and we almost had to put it to use. My son's basketball team had regional tournament games that were scheduled during the days of our trip. I looked into it, and school scheduled sporting events would have been an adequate reason to get a refund if he would not have been able to go on the trip with us. In the end, his team lost and he was able to go along to Costa Rica. Having the insurance was a big comfort though.
There are different categories of trip insurance including: trip cancellation, travel medical, emergency medical evacuation, baggage loss, and cancel for any reason policies.
Mistakes happen, unforeseen problems arise. The best thing we can do is learn and move on. While in the moment, these things felt bad, but as you can see, they are the funny stories and memories that we still talk about today. I hope you can learn from my travel mistakes. I sure would not let the fear of something going wrong stop me from getting out into the world and experiencing travel.
kristina@wanderfuladventurestravel.com
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