7 travel errors that we made on the go

Veröffentlicht: 16. Juli 2022, 20:31 Uhr

Aktualisiert: 09. Juni 2025, 23:04 Uhr

Von: wom87

Experienced travelers are a special breed. You can pack a backpack in 60 seconds, sleep well on the bottom of an airport and use nasty toilets with all the casualness of a Tory politician who shortens public money. You can also transform into endless bores ("When I was in Kenya ..." Ad Infinitum), rush through countries just to check boxes and fall victim to the lazy complacency. At Atlas & Boots, we share stories and advice that is read by over 50,000 people every month, but that does not mean that we do not make travel errors from time to time. We have done the following wrong on our trip.

1. Carefree to deal with our initial budget

The most expensive meal of our entire trip was in our first week of travel. Sure, we were excited and had reason to celebrate, and yes, the wonderful weather and the perfect beauty of Vanuatu let us weigh in honeymoon frenzy, but 60 £ (80 US) for a very mediocre food in the Breakas Beach Resort was completely unnecessary.

We always knew that our budget would be scarce during the trip (an assumption that was actually correct), but we shouldn't have taken it as a license to freely spend at the beginning. It is important to keep the costs low from the start.

2nd offering papaya in Colombia

We have learned on the hard tour that there are two rules according to which you have to live on the streets of Colombia. Do not offer a papaya at first. Second, when Papaya is offered, someone has to accept it. As explained in 26 bids and prohibitions of Cartagena, Papaya is a synonym for her valuables in this case. If you don't hang your camera or carrying bag over your shoulder, don't let your wallet protrude out of your pocket, do not leave your bags unattended. This is all standard, but we didn't know how much we had to subscribe to.

We stayed in a shabby part of Cartagena and, as indicated in this article, I was taken away from my pocket in our third night in Colombia. It was wrapped over my body, but the guy tore it hard twice, tore the strap and ran to the waiting motorcycle. Peter ran after him and managed to mount the bag (we leave this story for another post), so that no damage was done overall.

In fact, it was a timely memory for us to be careful for the rest of our trip. From then on I used zip pockets instead of a bag, after dark, I took a taxi when the area appeared unsafe, and wore jeans and T-shirts instead of summer dresses or anything that could indicate that we were more wealthy than we were actually. The lesson here is not to become complacent, even if they have walked through dark streets of the city all over the world.

3. Don't get a travel credit card

Application for a travel credit card can be tedious, but it is really worth it. Before we left, I applied for the Halifax Clarity Card. Unfortunately, my application was rejected because I had never had a credit card before (well, excuse me that I am responsible for debt). Peter didn't have enough time to make an application, so we went with a credit card that was only free of charge for purchases, in contrast to cash withdrawals. A fee of 3 % to £ 20,000 ($ 31,000), which we saved for a travel year, is £ 600 ($ 950), so that was a steep price. My advice would be to start research and application long before you leave. It would be advisable to start collecting your flight miles. Find out more about travel credit cards and airline credit cards at Money Saving Expert.

4. Visit Patagonia at the wrong season

Alt = "Activities-in-Puerto Natales Gallery"Atlas & Boots

In May this year we raced through Chile and tried to reach Patagonia before it was closed for the winter. Traditional wisdom (travel guide, forums) told us that it would not be ideal to visit the area in May but would be possible. Unfortunately, due to the ubiquitous and relentless fog, we saw nothing of Torres del Paine, Cerro Torre or Fitz Roy, some of the most dramatic mountains in Patagonia.

Perhaps this was just bad luck because other visitors in the area saw some sights, but in retrospect we shouldn't have visited them outside of the season. The temporary season always worked well for us (lower prices, fewer tourists), but outside of the season one step was too far. From now on we stick to better months, especially when we see weather -dependent sights.

5. In terms of my vegetarianism, not more confident

I haven't eaten meat since I was 13 (after seeing how cows were killed in Bangladesh ... it was the demarcation of the cows that caused it), so you can imagine my predicament when I visit some of the most careless countries in the world. Maybe it is up to my I-WILT-Keinen-upruplate British or maybe because of the you-minded-not-Muslim vegetarians !!! Reaction that I received from Muslim relatives in my youth, but it was always a bit embarrassing that I don't eat meat.

In South America, this was manifested in the fact that vegetarian dishes were selected in restaurants instead of requesting recommendations for questions or customer -specific dishes. This meant that in the end I often had an boring, excessive, cheesy pizza instead of the many delicious dishes, many of which could have been adjusted for vegetarians.

6. Co -complacent via logistics

We knocked on the door as loudly as our British reluctance allowed. An elegantly dressed waitress opened the door and told us that she was still preparing the tables. I took a look at the time. It was 8:05 p.m. I explained that we had a reservation for 8 p.m. She apologized and pointed to a table on the terrace. We sat confused and waited and grumbled quietly that we were not even offered a drink.

At 8:20 p.m. Peter asked when the table was finished. The waitress smiled and said: "Only a few minutes". At that moment, a single idea appeared in the middle of our complete amazement: In the three days since we arrived in Asuncion from Montevideo in Uruguay, we had no organized tours or meetings. Could it be that we were in the wrong time zone?

When they finally let us go to the restaurant, I took a look at their cash computer. In fact it was 7.25 p.m. We appeared 25 minutes before their opening time and 55 minutes before our reservation! Since we were a relatively short route from Montevideo and it had taken the bus, we hadn't thought of checking the time zone. We were operated on an hour ahead all the time. In broken Spanish, we apologized many times with the operation and swore, never to make the same mistake again.

7. Don't ask nicely

The worst thing that night was that we had changed the hostel. Our first was perfectly fine-clean, warm showers, helpful staff-but it was a 10-minute walk to the center of Baños in Ecuador and we wanted to be closer. The Santa Cruz Hostel seemed to be a well -equipped accommodation. We got a room right next to the joint fireplace, but it was said that it was closed at 11 p.m. "exclusively and without exceptions".

Name the obvious, loudest American, whom we have ever met, three shrill Valley girl and a fireplace that was certainly not closed at 11 p.m., and you have a recipe for the worst night's sleep of our life. Peters broke in the early hours of the morning and he stormed out to tell them that they should calm down because other people were in the hostel.

As a former teacher, Peter immediately recognized his mistake. Instead of calming down, they started to imitate him like children, which they certainly thought that there were incredibly funny comments ("Hey guys, can you be quiet? I fuck my girlfriend.") Why she thought it was insulting that I will never experience ...

The morality is of course nice to ask.