The costliest travel mistakes

Nothing worse than losing money because of a careless mistake, especially for travelers, when every cent have already a spending plan. Here are eight common travelers mistakes to avoid.

 

• Doing a Hotel reservation without taking into consideration the guests rating and comment:

Before doing a reservation, especially for an apartment, Hostel or less than than three stars hotels, read the guests’ comments and feedbacks. The hotels website and official photos may be misleading! Let’s see what you can discover, once arriving at the hotel:

Too small or dirty rooms, bad service, a very dangerous location, no lifts, hidden fees, no internet, a non “eatable” breakfast and the list goes on.

 

• Traveling without a Hotel reservation:

Arriving at the hotel without previously reserving your room is a big mistake. First, available rooms. If exist, may be luxurious, bigger than what you need and more expensive. Second, if you look desperate and tired to the hotel agents they will take advantage of that and charge you more.

Also, reserving too early is not a good idea. Hotels regularly make offers and discounts. Take your time to look for good deals but don’t wait till the last minute.

 

• Buying one way ticket:

In addition to the fact that it’s always cheaper to buy a round trip ticket, in some countries, Aeroport officers won’t let you travel if you have one way ticket and a tourist VISA. Let’s not imagine the deception and the costs!

 

• Taking too many things:

It can be tempting to fill your bag with what you may or may not need when traveling. But don’t get too comfortable. For you’re likely to do shopping during your trip, and end up with more stuff and no space in your bag. You will need to buy an extra bag then. But what about your maximum luggage allowance on the airplane? Now you may have to pay huge sum of money for the overweight and extra baggage. 

Solution is to plan to get along with the minimum. Take few pieces of clothes. Pick ones that are easy to wash and iron. You can wear a piece more than once usually, and you can look around for available laundry services at affordable rates. Do your search online before your trip to know your options and save time. If you’re staying in an apartment, make sure it has a washing/drying machine, and that will give you great flexibility. A portable luggage scale might save you a lot of trouble as well, and help you plan ahead.

For your electronics, you can get one of those international adapters, and an external battery chargers. That would save space, and keep the juice running in your devices.

 

• Using the Hotel services:

Hotel services like the laundry and the iron are not always free. It’s better to always ask before calling for anything.  Ofcourse, never use the Hotel phone to make international calls, it’s very costly.

 

• Using your roaming phone abroad:

Even though you will not use the phone too much, it’s always cheaper to buy a local phone card to make calls and use the internet. Using roaming will charge you even when you only receive calls

 

• Taking  too much or too little cash:

Safety is not always assured, so don’t go out with a lot of cacs. Also, there is usually a restriction on amount of cash you can carry in or out of country borders. Above that and you may raise suspicion. On the other hand, you don’t wanna travel with too little, and then realize your credit card does not work in that country. And yes, that does happen. So do your math, and carry enough cash to get you going for the first few days or week, and ask your bank about the ability to use your card in the country of destination.

Keep in mind also that not all currencies are exchangeable everywhere. Some currencies may be not exchangeable in your country. If you’re unsure, it’s preferable that you exchange the rest of the money you have to a popular currency like the Euro or Dollar before returning.

• Not taking  enough precautions:

You have to be ready for any difficult situation. Take with you copies of your passport and national ID and, do a medical insurance. This will help you in case you lose your passport, or get sick. You should also get informed about every important detail before travelling.

If you don’t know how to get from the airport to the hotel, you will be obliged to take the expensive airport taxis. By planning ahead, you can either use public transportation, or book a taxi ahead of time, which can come at half the price. If you don’t have any idea about the cost of living and price ranges you can easily be deceived. Read about general prices in that country, and common fraud cases travelers face. You can easily fall for their traps while you’re busy with your travel arrangements.  Also, pay attention to what you buy. Fake, and overpriced sellers can be anywhere.

• Above all:

The costliest mistake that you can do when travelling is not enjoying your trip as much as possible, and missing on the funny and crazy moments. You’ve already decided to take a break, and spend some of your savings to have a great time. So don’t get obsessed with economising. Just spend reasonably and avoid mistakes like these, because travelling happy memories are priceless.