5 Travel Planning Mistakes You Should Not Make
Have you ever made big mistakes when travel planning?
Weeding through all the noise when planning a trip, especially when traveling abroad can be tiring.
Do I book my flights on a Tuesday and exactly 6 months in advance? When should I travel to a specific location? Should I book tickets in advance for a popular site or just show up?
Hold on to your seats because these mistakes are all ones I have personally made (GASP!). Luckily, I’m sharing my top 5 travel planning mistakes to avoid with you, so you don’t have to experience them. Read on my friends!
1. Booking Your Flight too Quickly
Before we go any further here, these are personal opinions from my own experience in booking flights. I am not a flight algorithm expert, but I have done a lot of flight watching. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way….
My biggest mistake in booking flights is getting too excited and buying the flights right away. Our first trip abroad we decided to go to Italy and booked flights that weekend, only to then watch the fares drop in the next few weeks. Whoops.
Here are my tops tips to get a good deal:
- Flexible Dates – If at all possible, have flexible dates. Even a few days difference can be a savings of hundreds of dollars. It does seem that you can get the best deals if you do not fly on the same days everyone else does (weekends and Fridays). Try moving your dates around to see if it makes a difference.
- Flight Trackers – If you’ve read any of my other posts you’re probably thinking “oh she’s talking about this AGAIN?” But I really think this is your best tool to get a decent deal, especially if your dates are not flexible. Enter in the days you want to travel, and click to track the flight prices. Watch how the prices change over a few weeks time, and book when you see the lowest price. I don’t think the day of the week matters as much as tracking it and buying when the price looks right to you.
- Various Flight Search Tools – Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Check multiple flight search sites! I like to use Google Flights, Momondo, Skyscanner and Kayak.
Click on the pictures below to search for flights on some of my favorite sites!
2. Not checking for Important Events & Weather
The season and time of year can be really important.
We have had two separate travel incidences where we were not aware of local holidays. This can either make your trip really exciting or really mess up your travel plans.
We were stuck in Montepulciano and unable to go visit any of the small towns around it as planned, because we had no idea May 1st was Labor Day in Italy. Not a bad place to be stuck though, I know.
Here are my tips on what you should check for before booking:
- Holidays – Obviously from above, I recommend you check the local Holidays for the country you plan to visit. Sites, roads, and transportation may be closed.
- Weather – Don’t forget other countries and regions of the world can have rainy, flood, monsoon, hurricane, or tornado seasons. Worth looking into before you end up wading through a flooded Venice, or in a hurricane in the Caribbean.
- High Season – If you can, avoid booking during high season. High season is the time of year that most visitors flock to a location. For Europe, this is the summer. We have had major savings and a much more relaxed experience traveling during the shoulder or off-seasons.
Click on the link below to read more about high, shoulder and off seasons!
3. Neglecting to Look into Sites
Have you ever shown up to a top site on your travels only to wait in line for hours?
Yeah, this happened to us at The Vatican. Go on the free day they said. It will be amazing they said. That place was so packed, we were literally scared. I’m talking shoulder to shoulder there is no way out packed. Needless to say, I would plan that differently next time!
Here are my tips on how to plan to see the museums, historical sites, and sites around your destination:
- Research Top Sites – Before you go, research the top sites in advance and see what others recommend. Sometimes it makes all the difference to purchase tickets ahead, or you might find a time of day that is typically less busy. I love to use a guide book, or TripAdvisor to help with recommendations here. Also, Pinterest is great to research city-specific articles!
- Free Days – I know my story above sounds pretty horrible, but a free day can be a great thing especially in a smaller city or in the off-season. Your handy guidebook might also have this information. Check to make sure the free day doesn’t coincide with any big events….if you want to actually make it inside and enjoy yourself.
- Find the Official Website – Make sure you are looking at the official website for a location. There are lots of companies out there trying to sell tickets and make money off unsuspecting tourists. Google the site, and click on the website associated in the preview on the righthand side of the results page.
My favorite travel guide books are Lonely Planet! I have relied on their pocket guide for my last 3 trips. Take a look at all the guide books they offer (they even have ebooks)!
← Click to check them out!
4. Not Learning the Language (a little)
One of the most respectful things you can do when traveling to another country is to learn at least a few words in their language.
Not only is it respectful, but it can also really help you out. You’ll find in most big cities that a lot of people speak English as a second language. Smaller towns, not so much.
Here are my recommendations on how to tackle this:
- YouTube Lessons – Find YouTube videos that teach some basic traveler language. We do this before every trip we go on and watch them a few nights a week in the weeks leading up to the trip.
- Words to Learn – We try to learn the following basic words to help get us by – hello, goodbye, please, thank you, excuse me, and numbers 1-10. If you want to up your game learn – where is the bathroom, do you speak English (or your native language), and how much does this cost.
- Guide Book – for last-minute studying, most guide books also have a short language section in the back of the book. I like to read over this again on the plane ride over.
If you really struggle with other languages, you could try this handy dandy language translator. This one has great reviews on Amazon!
Something like this would be great especially if you plan to venture out to small towns where more people speak only the local language.
5. Over Planning
Yes, you read that correctly, this is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned.
I have 100% over-planned on my travels before. You end up exhausted, rushed and frustrated half the time.
Visiting a new country is an experience enough without rushing yourself through it.
- Stop and Smell the Roses – Literally or figuratively. Find a coffee shop and people watch. Go to a park with a picnic. Stroll through alleyways and get lost. Whatever you prefer to relax, make sure to take some time for leisure.
- Top Must-See Items – Make a list of your top 3 or top 5 must-see locations, and take the time to really enjoy them.
- Find a Balance – If you just can’t hold back on scheduling all the things, a least add some buffer time around your schedule. Sites might take longer than you thought or be closed, a location, alley, or shop might spur your interest, or someone might get hangry. ,
I hope sharing these 5 travel planning mistakes helps make your next trip a breeze. Comment below with any mistakes you have made, I would love to hear from you!
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2 Comments
Clazz - An Orcadian Abroad
I love these tips! Totally agree with all of them, especially overplanning. People get so stressed out by the little details. Also great tips on learning bits of a language!
Plan to Explore
Thanks for checking out my post! Glad you agree with all the tips, I appreciate the feedback!