My biggest travel mistakes

Travel is not without it’s problems, believe me, I know. If anyone could trip up over thin air, miss the most well advertised flight, or fall down a hole that wasn’t there for anyone else, it’s me. Because of this, I feel quite well qualified to discuss travel mistakes, and hopefully help you avoid the same ones that I made.

Failing to recognise that the local wildlife bites

I am mosquito bite prone, and I’m not just prone, when I get bitten, I go what can only be described as gammy. If you don’t know what gammy is, Google it, it’s not pleasant. So my number one travel mistake, purely for discomfort value, is failing to travel prepared for the local wildlife and their aforementioned teeth or stinging tails.

I’m not stupid in general, but when it comes to packing to go away, I do have a habit of forgetting important things. I’ve never forgotten my passport, I’m pleased to say, but bug spray, antiseptic, all that kind of thing? Yeah, I tend to forget that. The lesson? Don’t think that it just won’t happen to you!

Missing a transfer

This little incident strictly speaking wasn’t my fault, but I have to take some of the blame for not being adequately prepared. The story goes a little like this – I was travelling from London to Istanbul, and unfortunately for me, my flight was delayed by a stupid amount of time. Not a problem, right? Well it is a problem when your transfer is picking you up from the arriving airport at the time you’re meant to land, and you have no phone number to inform them of your delay. This resulted in me having to bat my gay eyelashes at another transfer driver when I arrived, and having to blag myself another ride to my destination. Stressful. The lesson? Write down phone numbers!

Forgetting my travel insurance

Yes, I’m stupid. This wasn’t my fault again – are you seeing a theme appearing here? I thought my year-long policy was still covering me, but it turns out it wasn’t. Thankfully I didn’t need to use it, but I could have, and then the results would have been catastrophic! The lesson here is a serious one – always check your travel insurance policy is valid and in date, and never ever attempt to travel without it! I learnt my lesson.

Almost missing a flight

This could have been bad, but thankfully it was just an ‘almost’. This was basically because I didn’t set my alarm properly, but in my defence, it was on the day when the clocks went forward and I failed to factor this into my plans. The feeling of panic when I eventually woke up and had to do a serious dash to the airport wasn’t pleasant! I had planned to do the chilled out airport preparation, hoping to arrive all calm and collected, but instead I arrived looking like a scary mountain goat with my hair stood on end, breathing heavily and nearly having ready to beg the check in lady to let me go through. Panic was thankfully avoided, but the lesson remains the same – make sure you factor any time changes into your travel plans!

I haven’t had any travel disasters to date (touch wood it continues that way), but I have had a few mistakes and near misses. How about you?