Hey, fellow travelers. In this quick guide, we’ll share with you all the travel mistakes to avoid if you’re a first-time tourist.
Today we’re going to give you five ways that tourists kind of mess up when they do travel, kind of like little mistakes that we make when we do travel. So, you don’t make those same mistakes.
Over Planning – First Travel Mistakes to Avoid
The first mistake, I see a lot of people making is that they over plan. I mean, I’ve heard people say, “I’m going to see nine countries in 12 days and take it all in.” I mean, like nine countries in 12 days, how are you going to see anything?
If you try to pack too much into your trip, you’re gonna get all burned out, and, you’re not able to see as much of what you want to see. And it becomes too much time of unpacking, packing, travel, packing, unpacking travel.
Oh, did I get to see the sights in Paris? Why was I just unpacking my suitcase? So, what I recommend is when you’re planning, don’t overdo it, give yourself some extra time, in different cities, you might need an extra day here and there.
Especially if you have kids, throw in a kid day like a free day, just to give them time to play at the park, or do something like that.
So, overplanning is one of the travel mistakes to avoid if you’re a first-time traveler.
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Over-packing
In addition to the over-planning, you have the over-packing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen tourists with one big huge suitcase behind them, a backpack on their back, a backpack on their front, and I’m thinking, what are you bringing with you, you don’t have to bring everything when you come.
And the thing is they have stores where you’re going to go. And that’s actually what expert travelers exploit, they go shopping to buy clothes, so they fit in better when they go there.
And also, when we go around, we don’t have these bags were lugging around. Because yes, when you’re lugging too much luggage around, you do become a target. But for me, it’s more like a freedom thing.
Because I’m trying to drag two suitcases behind me with a backpack on me and these kinds of things. I’m not enjoying the sights I’m trying to I mean; I’m not enjoying riding the metro, that’s for sure.
When you have less luggage, it’s easier for you to get around. It makes life so much simpler. And when you’re doing public transport in Europe, what you have to realize in lots of places in the world is there’s not a lot of space.
And so, you don’t have places to put lots of big luggage or luggage overhead and things like that, or keep your eye on if you have to put at the end of a train and stuff like that.
So just don’t overpack because you don’t need to bring the kitchen sink when you travel.
Under Planning
Now, another one of the common travel mistakes to avoid is the exact opposite of over-planning. And that’s under planning.
This is when you’re going and say you know what, we’re just gonna go we’ll be fine. Yeah, the backpacking by the seat of your pants thing. It is pretty fun. I won’t lie to you about that.
But you really need to make sure you’re at least prepared a little bit, because you think you’re just going to show up in Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day and get a place to stay, you might have some bad luck, or I’m gonna go to Oktoberfest and party all night long.
Well, it’s kind of hard to get a table at Oktoberfest after six o’clock, because they’re all reserved, for companies. And that’s why you really want to plan if you’re going to be going to major cities during major tourist times to make sure you have a hotel in place to just stay, eat, and things like that.
Another thing I’d want to warn you about is that if you want to really do just fly by the seat of your pants, wherever I want to go, at least make two reservations, the first night you’re getting into Europe and the night before you fly out.
So, you at least have those things set up. And in some countries, when you come in, you have to tell them where you’re going to be staying that first night.
Once that is settled, you don’t have to worry about not knowing what to do. So at least have those two things planned. So don’t completely under Plan. Just have some things there. Okay.
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Not Experiencing the Culture
Next on the list of travel mistakes to avoid is not experiencing the way of life of that location. Sometimes it’s hard to really experience the culture.
This is one of the really tough ones to do when you’re traveling, especially if you’re seeing lots of places.
And so, what you want to try to do is see if you can get it a cooking class, or go to a tour of like the markets or something like that, or, or just try to talk to people in your restaurant just to get to know a little bit of the culture while you’re there.
So, then you can experience more because once you understand the Italian culture better for example, you’ll love Rome so much more. But it is one of the tough things to do.
Not Trying Out Other Dishes
Next on the list of travel mistakes to avoid when people travel is relying too much on the food from home.
Okay, you know, pizza and things like that. So yeah, try those. But experiment out and try other dishes. Just because it’s not on your facilities menu back home, doesn’t mean it’s not delicious.
So do try to test out the new food in places you go. When you get to find out these new foods, it gets you a chance to know the culture a bit more.
It is okay to know that if you want to stop at a restaurant, and you recognize foods from your home country, that’s okay. You can have that, but you want to try to limit that. Because those things you can have at home.
So, make sure you take the time and the money to go and explore the cultural food that’s in your travel destinations, not just stuff you recognize from home.
Not Taking Public Transport
The next common travel mistakes to avoid I see a lot of tourists make is they don’t take public transport.
Because maybe you’re not used to public transport back home or you just would take a taxi and be fine. Look, you can use public transport throughout Europe, it’s cheap, it goes everywhere. It’s easy to use, you know these kinds of things.
So do make sure you do use it. Because if you’re using taxis and Uber all the time, you don’t get to see how people live, but also, you’re going to spend a lot more money using those private drivers and stuff like that.
So do use that public transport because it’s easy to get around and see so many more things.
Travel Mistakes to Avoid (Final Notes)
Anyway, those are just some little travel mistakes I see travelers make and I’ll be honest, almost everyone makes these mistakes.
So, it’s okay, but we just want to put those out there. So, you know, when we try to do too much, or we’re not planning enough, what should one be doing exactly?
I hope it helped you out. Anyway, if you want to learn more about traveling, check our travel tips section on usafaqwizard.com.