A lot of work goes into planning your travels, especially when you have so much ground to cover in a short amount of time. It has been part of our experience that something goes wrong about 90% of the time. Sometimes that something wrong has an easy solution but sometimes that something can change a lot of your trip. No matter how bad it is, it is a huge disappointment when anything goes wrong because of all the work we put into our plans .
So here is what I have learned over the years, that I have practiced myself, and it has saved me bigger headaches.
DO NOT: book flights too close together.
Last May, 2018, I booked a trip to Belgium, due to the affordable price, and then booked a flight from there to Lisbon, Portugal. With a 14 hour layover I thought I that would leave plenty of times for delays. We left on time from or departure city but we ran into a storm and had to be diverted. The diversion led to us missing the last flight of the day, therefore that 24 hr periods caused us to miss a flight that only happened everything two days. Either way, we would have lost out on our flight either way. We missed that entire leg of our trip. Click here to find out the full details of that tragedy.
DO: Plan with time
If you want to cover as much ground as possible in a short amount of time, like we do, plan with time. Figure out how long it takes to get from one location to another, how to get there, and how much time you will need. It is fun to be spontaneous, so definitely leave some time for that, but have at least have the "skeleton" of your trip planned out to avoid extra expenses and hassles.
DO: Save money
Saving money well in advance makes a huge difference. It doesn't even feel like much money when you put little bits aside, consistently. You would be surprised how $25 a week adds ups! If you can do more do more. Even when you don't know where you are going next always add to the "travel savings". By doing this it is not as stressful when you need to book stuff or when a trip sneaks up on you.
I like to purchase my flight well in advance, pay that off immediately, then save up money for spending until I leave. Hide your money from yourself , works every time. Out of sight out of mind! 😉
DO NOT: Travel with someone you couldn't live with.
If you can't see yourself living your travel companion(s) you might not want to travel with them. Travel usually involves dealing with high stress situations and if you travel with someone you don't work well with you are almost guaranteed to put yourself in a more stressful or dramatic situation. You want good memories of visiting foreign countries. You learn a lot about different cultures as well as yourself and how you deal with specific situations. You don't want to learn how much you don't like one of your friends anymore. I have avoided going on certain trips with people because I value our friendship and want to remain friends with them. I know we would get on one another's nerves if we went to a country that was more stressful with language barriers, etc.
You will be happy you take my advice. 😉 Thank you for reading! Hope this helps.