4 OF OUR BIGGEST TRAVEL MISTAKES
Seeing Too Much in Too Little Time
On paper, being able to see more for less time sounds fantastic. Who doesn't want to say they saw 7 countries on their 2 week vacation? It sounds incredible right? Right?! Wrong.
Last year we spent two weeks in a single state in the US - Alaska and even though bucket list countries weren't being ticked off at a fast rate, we had one of the most memorable trips I think we will ever have. Ice pick climbing down glaciers to seeing the Northern lights from our tent is still a memory I can't believe we have.
We then decided to see Cambodia over the course of three weeks. We easily could've thrown in some surrounding countries and called it a successful trip. We now can safely say we have seen all that we want in Cambodia and have come to peace with moving onto the next Asian journey.
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Not Signing Up For Travel Miles
Even though our year abroad included not as many flights as you would anticipate, we didn't claim nearly enough of them on a unified travel mile system. There are so many benefits from taking the extra few minutes to sign up for a travel rewards program or even track down an existing one that we are kicking ourselves we didn't commit to it earlier.
Expect discounted rates, free travel and even the potential for a free upgrade. Don't be silly, get those points up.
Knowing that it's okay to pause travel
We only learnt this lesson after feeling burnt out after a year of travel. It's hard to explain but exploring the world full time can take a toll on you. When you return you begin to cherish the moments with your friends and family more as you didn't have that direct contact for so long.
In 2015 we traveled full time and in 2016 we decided to do FIFO (Fly-in-Fly-Out). We disappear for a month in Asia and return for a few weeks to enjoy the familiarity of home and our own bed before jetting off to the next destination. Honestly I am starting to love this style of travel as we are appreciating each new venture more-so than the ones we had in our year abroad.
Ultimate Cambodia Geckos
Packing Too Much
I think everyone should comfortably raise their hand when asked this question, "Have you ever over packed?". We honestly are generally quite good when it comes to packing, as we pack for a weeks worth of clothes and re-use them (after washing them, don't worry) throughout our extended trip.
Oh yeah and before I go any further - let's just ignore all our electrical equipment including 2 laptops, 4 cameras, a drone, spare batteries and a bunch of cables. This section is only referring to clothes as I still don't know how to sort out the mess that is our electrical goods.
There have been occasions where additional baggage has been pre-purchased. Thankfully most of the times we realised before checking in but we have been stung with fees at the airport which put a damper on that days flight. I think we still need to improve on this travel mistake.
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What's the biggest travel mistake you have made?
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