25 Rookie Travel Mistakes NOT TO MAKE

My TOP 25 Rookie / Beginner Travel Mistakes NOT TO MAKE on your travels! Learn from my mistakes, these are all things I've done and learnt from.

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[beepboop]

life/travel hack: after lots of walking/skating/leg activity at the end of the day lay on the floor, legs up, butt against the wall to help drain the lactic acid, do
it for a long time so they will be less sore in the moment & the next day

[ShannonMorse]

pro tip on WiFi: make sure to use a VPN. Open access public wifi (even password protected ones) can easily be intercepted. If youre entering passwords or logging onto a site, it's really important to protect your accounts, specially when traveling. Sincerely, your local good girl hacker. ;)

[sarahbrewer]

my travel rules:
1. always bring an extra pair of underwear, just in case.... (inherited from mom, she sat in a puddle and now its a rule)
2. always bring at least 2 pairs of shoes-- after a year of traveling i thought i was being savvy and packing light by just having one pair, until my favorite walking shoes betrayed me with blisters on a 5 day trip. now its a rule.
3. always bring granola bars. i have a limited diet, so these are my backup if i cant find something i can eat. i also made a habit of taking note if i saw a place with stuff i could eat, in case i couldnt find anything at meal time i could go back to the place i saw earlier.

for the "forgetting your cords" thing, i always make a sticky note list of stuff im bringing that isnt packed so in the morning i can just check them off and go. at hotels/hostels (and tbh like cafes and benches too), always look behind you and make sure its e.m.p.t.y.

check your camera battery at night so you can charge it overnight. also once when i was a kid i had my camera literally lifted off my shoulder and didnt notice, so now i constantly do the "pocket-tap/shoulder check" thing, even when im out at home. i think its a goos habit to have.

i found downloading maps (i used the google maps app) really helpful as well, even without data or wifi i always could see my location, and i would save my accommodation location so i could see where i needed to be. Also helpful to know what public transit stops are near where youre staying, cuz then you can use the transit maps to get you back to where you can find your way.

double check dates. my whole group might have had to pay double cuz i booked the wrong day, but thankfully as soon as i realized i called and they changed it even thought the site said nontransferable.

[disflylatina]

If you're getting souvenirs do it toward the end of your trip because if you start right away you end up collecting too many things or later find the same item somewhere else for much cheaper.

Definitely don't over schedule!

[OnsceneDC]

From a veteran traveler who has been to over 50 countries: don't worry about "laundry days/facilities". Bring a little powdered detergent and wash your clothes in the sink. Many hotels even have clothes lines! Saves a LOT of time and money.

Also, make a copy of your passport in case yours is stolen. And always wear a cross-body bag and be aware of your surroundings. There are a lot of thieves who target Americans and can easily swipe your belongings without you knowing if they're not secured....

[nilsdelventhal]

1. Choose your travel companions very, very wisely
2. Keep track of your budget

When travelling for a longer period of time even small habbits happen to become extremely annoying and even ruin trips + friendships. A good solution would be to start together and plan a destination where you consider walking seperate ways...

These were my biggest mistakes probably, asking my parents to buy my flight home wasn't a pleasure.

[curlydiva]

pro tip: you can pre download languages on google translate and use without data.

[coolcatcarolena]

One way I found to avoid jetlag when going international is flying at night (if it's 5+ your flight)...I book the latest flight possible which usually means I arrive in the morning to my foreign destination. This gives me the opportunity to sleep all night while flying and I wake up ready to land and explore my new destination.

[cretveldy]

PRO TIP: underwear is easily washed in your room. Use the shampoo or body wash provided by your hotel and wash each day when you shower!

[SarahWheeleeTravels]

I'm not a rookie, but I've learned to be hyper efficient in airport security. Stretchy clothes, separate packs for liquids and battery packs and cameras, ready to whip out, and rubber soled shoes. You gotta be ready so you aren't holding up the line. Nothing is worse than having to send your bag back through the machine. Know what they want to look at separately from your bag, and have it ready. Anyways. Thanks for these tips chickadee! I love your videos. We should collab one day! You have such a good energy. byeeee! peace and hugs from China!

[MyLifeAsLouis]

I'd already made most of these mistakes lol
In addition, don't forget to bring a universal travel adapter! Bringing a charger is useless if it doesn't fit the foreign electrical sockets :)

[RymVri]

My tips: 1) Plan rest days, especially if you're going to be traveling for a couple of weeks. You NEED down days. It helps if you can do laundry on these days. 2) Rent an apartment so you can cook some of your meals. Grocery shopping in a foreign country is an experience that will take you from tourist to traveller, and it saves you money. If you're going to be in an area for a week or more, get a place to "live" for that time, not just "stay." 3) Pack light. You will never wear everything you bring. Except for underwear—pack a few extra pair.

[shilohgoes]

She's a travel blogger, of course she needs wifi people.

[katiewebb]

I'm going on a bus tour of Europe this summer for 3 weeks. I am very nervous for the logistics of traveling. This video is a huge help and gives me some peace of mind. Thanks for keeping it real!

[heynadine]

Don't forget to hit SUBSCRIBE (and click the bell) for all new Travel Advice & Adventure Videos from me!

[kerifreel]

GPS your taxi rides in foreign countries. They may not speak your language and may not take you where you intend on going. (this happened to us)

[heynadine]

Don't forget to click SUBSCRIBE (& the bell) for new travel advice and adventures! And add me on Instagram instagram.com/heynadine for all my travel photos!

[jencasey]

Pro tip: check the local economy before deciding on carrying all cash or depending on your ATM. I've been travelling since 2001 (so actually watched this to decide if you would have some newer tricks that I could use for potential business travel - aka 2-3 days - vs the long vacation trips I'm used to) and I have found as I have gotten more adventurous that you cant depend on access to an ATM everywhere you go (and some places they just arent safe to use even if you find them). If the place where you are travelling is way outside normal touristy places and doesnt have reliable electricity you wont find any ATMs (even more so when you know they have NO electricity!) and so you need to carry all your money in CASH. I have a friend in the Foreign Service (we were friends before she got the job) and I have visited her in some out of the way places and most of the time it has been really hard to get money and no one takes cards. If you are going somewhere with a very low standard of living, where the money isnt worth much and people are living on a couple dollars a day, then you wont find ATMs or you will have to travel quite a ways into the wealthy neighborhoods to find a safe one (because the touristy areas tend to have skimmers on theirs). My first trip to see her was to Cairo while she was still a student (she is a Mideast specialist), it took us over an hour and a half to get to the nearest safe ATM from her apartment. No one we interacted with (including the Pyramids!) took credit or debit card or had any way of doing so (this was just before the Arab Spring) so I needed all the cash I was going to use - which I took out in one big transaction. The key to carrying all that cash is to divide it up - small bills are best as you said - and hide it all over your body. Put just what you are going to use that day in your wallet the rest goes inside your clothes in internal pockets or a hidden money belt (under tucked in clothing!). I was lucky that only my friend and her one roommate who was also an American student had keys to her apartment because I could leave the bulk of my money there but that wouldnt have been possible with a hotel. And Cairo was a very touristy place at the time! Visiting her in Nigeria I could only get money by paypalling it to her and having her get it out of her account at the embassy for me. So again - carried all cash. We spent a few days way out in the jungle at a nature rehabilitation preserve where the only electricity they had was from a couple solar panels and it was just enough to run the electric fences that kept the groups of primates they were rehabbing and breeding separated (no running water either unless you counted a rain barrel with a rope that you held down to open a small spout for a shower as running water). The local village where many of the non-scientist, non-veterinarian workers lived had no electricity at all (neither did most of the town we went through on the 8 hour drive out there) so no ATMs but lots of good food to buy and some amazing souvenirs too.
So yea, really look at where you are going before deciding that you dont need to carry all the money you will need for your stay in cash and that you dont need to exchange currency before you go (always better to do through a bank in your home country a couple weeks in advance if possible) or at a currency exchange at the destination.
And if you have read this long - my biggest "rookie" mistake - made when I was definitely not a rookie sadly: check all the required vaccines and meds (like anti-malarials!) way ahead of time (did that was ok there) AND double check when to start them and how long after you need to take them (also did that was good there) AND most importantly check for any pertinent SIDE EFFECTS - namely ones that wouldnt matter in your home climate but become extremely important in climates you arent used to as it is. I learned this the hard way as the anti-malarials I was prescribed and took cause extra sun-sensitivity, and the sun in Nigeria is a bit (ok a LOT) stronger than the sun at home. I got sun poisoning my last day there when we went to the beach for the day even though I reapplied SPF 100 (cause I knew the sun was stronger and I burn in New England as it is) every hour or so. Flying with your skin melting off from sun poisoning is NOT fun. And if I had read the pamphlet insert that came with the meds instead of just packing them and going I would have brought a cover up and a hat to wear when we were not swimming and made sure I spent more time in our beach hut shelter thing and maybe reapplied my sunscreen every half hour that day, instead of hanging on the sand in a bikini all day. So know the side effects of anything different that you have to take on your trip!

[goncaloreismorais]

Great video Nadine, for me the most important and underrated Rookie mistake is travelling with a preconceived notion of the place where you're going or hyping things like you said .

For instance if you're traveling to a place where you think it will only going to be sunny because of some photos you saw online, just a little bit of rain can be enough to make you regret your choice or activities for that day.

Don't travel thinking things can only went ONE WAY, that's the fastest way to get disappointed.

[ggtp]

Don't take too many pictures. You could spend your time behind a screen trying to capture the moment instead of living in it.