I am not ashamed to admit that I make mistakes, especially while traveling. After all, I’m human, and no one is perfect (no matter how much they pretend to be online).
And don’t mistakes lead to lessons and learning? If only. However, what does in fact shame me is the fact that I tend to make the same mistakes traveling over and over again and never seem to learn my lesson. Oopsies.
You would think by now after over 7 years of international travel and 4 years of living abroad I would have learned a thing or two. To be fair, I’ve pretty much nailed this whole travel the world alone as a girl and get paid to travel (sometimes) deal on the head. And yet no one is as surprised as I am how frequently and consistently I do miss the target.
Something that bothers me over the years in blogging and social media is the fact that travel is so glamorized and picture-perfect, literally. Let’s be honest, that’s not always the case. There is so much grit and details that go into a trip, especially my kind of trip, crazy moments and insane experiences that usually make the memory of the trip all the sweeter.
Of course I am talking about the bad times, the mistakes, the clusterfucks and the oh-shit moments that are an integral part of traveling. Can’t have the good without the bad. And yet how many travel blogs are out there that paint the world in technicolor rainbow of fake idealized perfection?
No one has ever accused me of being perfect.
So in an effort to recognize the problem and hope (probably in vain) for a solution, I’ve compiled a little list of 5 travel mistakes I make over and over again. The first step in finding a solution to something is recognizing there’s a problem, right?
1. Packing
Overpacking. Or rather I should say, packing incorrectly.
I don’t know how I manage it, but somehow I pack all the wrong things for almost every single trip I take abroad – how is that possible?
From not bringing enough undies and socks to forgetting sweaters to swimsuits no matter where I am I tend to forget one crucial part of my wardrobe and bring several things I really didn’t need.
Like that one time I moved to New Zealand in winter and didn’t pack a coat or hiking boots. Well done me. I was so proud of myself that I managed to fit my life for a year in a suitcase and backpack and as it turned out, had nothing appropriate for the freezing windy wet misery that is Wellington in August.
Or that one time I went to Australia in the heat of summer and brought 4 pairs of long pants and one pair of shorts. And a parka.
2. I am not a member of any airline rewards program
OMFG what is wrong with me?
For shame, Liz. For shame!
I’ve been flying internationally since 2005, I’ve had 9 years to get my ass into gear and join an airline rewards program and I STILL haven’t done it! Why?
While I can’t put my finger on it per say, but I reckon it has something to do with general laziness (on my part), intimidation and a little bit of regret. Regret for all the hundreds of flights and millions of miles that POOF disappeared into thin air in 7 years of round the world travel that will never count as points.
As soon as I book a flight or am booked on a flight, I think “oh yeah” I should get on that whole rewards business. And then I promptly forget until I check in at the airport and think to myself “damn I wish I had done that rewards thing. Next time.”
It’s a vicious cycle, guys.
In other news, will someone please tell me where to start with this? Thanks.
3. Forgetting to change my phone SIMS
I believe it was the summer of 09 the first time I took my smartphone overseas and forgot to turn off data roaming. Cue a $500 bill from AT&T. Twice.
5 years later and it still happens. Or what’s even worse sometimes I’m in a position where I don’t have wifi and I desperately need to get online (but not really) and I reactivate the roaming to use the internet. Boom. $500 bill and a warning on my phone that my service has been suspended due to excessive roaming.
Why are the bills always $500?
Finally in 2012 before deciding to blog and travel full time, I sucked it up and paid a big fee to unlock my American iPhone so that I could by SIMs in each country I travel too, not having to depend entirely on wifi or roaming packages. Sometimes I would travel so much that I’d not have time or forget to buy a SIM in each country, so I would end up paying the roaming charges or buy data packages anyways!
Like that one time I went to Australia (last week) and forgot the Australia SIM I had bought the last time and ended up paying for New Zealand international data packages 3 times. Who am I?
4. Traveling with no safety net
Sometimes when I think back to how I used to travel while still in college and straight afterwards, I am astonished more terrible things didn’t happen to me before I started to get my act together, something I am still working on.
For example, I traveled for years with only one debit card and no credit cards as either a safety net or backup. Do you know how many times Bank of America cut my card even though I notified them I was overseas? About twice a year. Is there anything worse than trying to pay for something only to have your card declined even though you have enough money on it? Embarrassing.
As you can probably imagine this contributed to the massive roaming charges I incurred on my phone either by searching for my bank info or phoning the US to sort it out.
Thinking back I am so lucky I was never robbed or pickpocketed and lost everything overseas. Knocks on wood.
I finally got smart about it after one too many catastrophes, I set up a couple of credit cards, and I always make sure I have enough on them in case of a BIG emergency, instead of flying by the seat of my pants and living like “oh $100? that’ll last me a weekend in Paris if I’m frugal and sleep in the airport.” Oh to be 19 again.
However, being me, without giving too much away and embarrassing myself even more, let’s just say at New Zealand hasn’t been too kind to my credit cards at the moment and if I were to have a big emergency, I might be making a roaming call to the Bank of Mom. I hate myself.
LUCKILY I did get smart about property insurance last spring and invested in a policy with Clement’s that covers my gadgets overseas for cheap – and which already saved me once when I had the misfortune of falling off a camel in Jordan and broke my brand new fancy camera a week after I bought it. Typical.
With my first solo trip to Turkey last year I also started buying travel insurance before each trip. World Nomads has heaps of customizable affordable policies that fit with my travel style – it’s flexible and can be changed easily online and covers ALL the adventure sports. The security of knowing I didn’t have to worry (too much) if something went wrong was amazing!
In the past I’ve sometimes hurt myself badly and not gone to the hospital because I was afraid of the costs, i.e. Jordan and that one time I almost died in Dublin. Now all I can say is I am too old for that shit, and before any big trip I buy travel insurance with World Nomads.
See, I’m learning!
5. Buying really early morning flights//bus tickets//train trips//donkey rides
I don’t know why I keep doing this, but over the years I have developed a phobia about waking up super early. Especially this past year, god knows why, but I have had a lot of sleeping problems. Like a lot.
It’s not that I need to sleep in really late, I try to have a schedule where I can be up and about doing things well before 8 at the latest. But if I know I have to get up before 6, I can’t sleep at night. This is most definitely the case if I have to be up for something important, like a flight or some form of travel.
Especially after I realized that my travel style was evolving and I wasn’t suited for long-term rush travel. I was a turtle and I liked to take things slow and actually enjoy where I am.
And yet for some reason or another I somehow end up booking transport or arranging things super early, usually when I don’t need to. Oh a 7am international flight? Sounds perfect. Nope, that means I have to be at the airport at 5am and then get transport to the airport earlier, so in general I’m looking at a 4am wakeup call.
If I know that I have to get up at 4am, I can’t sleep the night before, no matter what I do. I have tried and tried and tried so many different things over the years and nothing works. The obvious solution is avoid early morning transport days, right? And yet here we are. Haven’t learned my lesson yet.
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This is quite funny, we often find ourselves doing similar things again n again.
Great post.
I certainly never learn!
Freaking airline miles. -_- I did what someone suggested above — join one airline from each of the two major world alliances, and then everything I buy trickles into one or the other.
I picked American Airlines, I’ve been flying them since college. But it’s so paltry — only 55,000 in like 10 years! I booked on Air Berlin for a flight from LA to Germany, and that went towards my American miles. I also have no life, so I fill out surveys to get rewards miles. Ho hum.
I’m also part of United Airlines miles (I signed up to benefit from my trip to New Zealand on AirNZ!)… but when converting AirNZ to United miles, I was annoyed to find out that you get miles based on how much you paid for the flight, and if it’s a certain code (it’s on the ticket), you don’t get -any-! I thought I would get about 12,000 miles for LA->NZ and back, but I only ended up getting about 1,500 for the big flight and a few hundred for the domestic NZ flights. I was bummed. When I took United to fly to Wyoming, I think I got miles based on distance though.
I don’t really know who does miles based on $$$ spent versus miles based on distance traveled. =\
I thought about trying to use Air NZ’s frequent flier thing but you have to PAY to be in it.
Anyway, tl;dr — I’d suggest signing up for two programs, and seeing how much retroactive credit they’ll give you!
Oh yeah — the dumb thing was the 1,500 was from only one way between Auckland and LA. I didn’t get credit for the other way for some goofy reason. I even emailed because i thought “oh, they just forgot to give me credit for like…4 of the 6 legs of my flights”, but they were like “….nope.”
Good idea, thanks!
Hi Jamie, Liz (and anyone else who wants to join Air New Zealand’s Airpoints). If you use the promo code “JOINAP” when signing up, it’ll wipe the $50 joining fee.
There is a further $20 fee per year (taken out of your Airpoints balance) which truly sucks ass, but there are ways around paying it. If you’re in New Zealand and get an Airpoints credit card, you won’t pay a fee and your Airpoints dollars will never expire. Also if you fly with Air NZ, you don’t have to pay the annual fee in that calendar year.
Generally, Air NZ’s earning rates are paltry, but they’re by far the easier frequent flyer programme to actually spend points. I never got my head around other programmes with limited seats etc. Seemed too much of a hassle to me and my points were always expiring before I had a chance to use them.
Awesome tip thanks tracey!
Ahh, dang! I wish I had known that when I visited NZ. Thank you for the tip! It did seem like they were the most straightforward for spending points. I’d love to go back (sooner rather than later), so I hope there is still a code like that when I go! That makes me happy. 😀
They’ve been using the same code for years so I’m sure it will be 🙂
Haha I do exactly the same thing in regards to booking things to start early, and I can’t sleep either if I know I have to be up at the crack of dawn. I am so scared that I won’t wake up when my alarm goes off that I toss and turn all night. The overpacking thing is sometimes a problem for me too. I used to be really bad. I find now that for long term trips I am great at packing but for shorter trips, I tend to pack the same amount as I would for an extended trip. I will probably never learn but that’s OK, no one is perfect.
that’s a good way to look at it, and what I tell myself too haha
Argh, do I hear you on the safety net.
We came to the US (currently here in Cali) with four cards from Australia and Canada, both debit and credit. Would you believe we’ve had problems with each card? Right down to my bank in Australia locking my card EVERY TIME I USED IT. It took me eight calls to lose my shit at them entirely, so I think I managed it well – but I really didn’t feel like ending up in a prison cell in Las Vegas because someone thought I couldn’t pay a bill and didn’t want to wait for me to call my bank to sort out my card.
I used to think it was silly that my mother got special travel debit cards that you load money onto and use as a credit card, but now I’m starting to think she had the right idea!
I hadn’t even thought of that but that might be a good idea!
How difficult is it to ring your card provider before you go abroad? A few minutes on the phone before I went to China and the only problem on debit or credit card was when their systems were down due to a power cut. Even then they made a phone call and sorted it in minutes. I’ve had more problems back at home than the other side of the world!
I did, Jonathan. Twice before we left – eight times on the road.
That’s how hard it is. But thanks for the concern. 😉
Yeah like I said in my post, I always notify my banks in advance and they still manage to put my cards on hold when I travel. So annoying!