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Travel Tip Tuesday : Travel Bloggers Share Their ‘Worst Travel Advice’

written by robin

Travel Tip Tuesday LogoYou may remember in last week’s Travel Tip Tuesday we received some of the best advice from travel bloggers.  Well, as promised, today I am sharing the flip side of the coin.

The Worst Travel Advice.

And, to tell the truth, worst advice posts are usually so much more fun!

So, without further ado – I bring you Travel Bloggers ‘Worst Travel Advice’.

As for bad advice, I think I may have blocked it out. But I would suggest that bad advice is anything that is beyond your comfort level. All travel advice must be considered in the context of your interests and capabilities.

People will tell you to rent a car and drive from Paris to Provence. Take the train and relax. Unless you have lots of time and want to really discover France on the back roads for fast travel, take the TGV!

“Go and see as many cities/countries as you can; you can always go back.” I think this is terrible advice! While it gives you a surfacey starting point, it really takes some time to get to know a city or place. I’m a huge fan of limiting the itinerary and staying a minimum of 3 nights in any city/town. A week is better. And travel is a luxury–you never know when you’ll be able to afford to “go again.” Focus in! Write out the top 10 stops you’d love to see and then edit it down to 3. You’ll be glad you did.

Worst advice is from my mother : buy expensive luggage.  There doesn’t seem to be a relationship between luggage price and quality.

Worst advice I ever got: “Don’t talk to strange people in foreign lands or agree to visit them in their homes because you’ll get drugged and robbed.” I can’t tell you how many times I hear this.

Of course, as a solo female traveler I must be cautious, but never engaging with locals means I am not really learning about the true culture of a place. I take it on a case by case basis, always make sure someone else knows exactly where I am going and when I will return and I always have a backup plan for getting out, such as arranging for a taxi driver to pick me up at a certain time, or having the option to walk back to my hotel if it is close enough.

Had I taken this advice, I would have missed out on some of the most wonderful experiences I’ve had during my travels.

Worst advice I ever received was when I was 48 years old and I told my friends I was leaving to study in Europe.  “Don’t go”, they said. “Only kids do that, you’ll have nobody to relate to.”

Ha, ha! They were right but oh, SO wrong. I met fabulous young adults in my classes, on campus, and in pubs. We got along just fine. They taught me to ‘think young’ when I floundered and I offered some ‘adult parenting’ when they needed it. For me it was an absolutely wonderful learning experience both academically and emotionally.

Early on in my solo travel career, I heard a lot of fear-based, knee-jerk reactions from family about me traveling alone.  Things like “Why would you want to go alone?” “That’s not safe” and “Why don’t you just go with a friend?”  If I had waited to go with a friend, I’d still be waiting, and I’ve never felt unsafe while traveling solo, so I’m very glad I didn’t listen to them.

My worst travel advice came from a GPS navigation unit. Unbeknownst to me, it was set to avoid toll roads so an hour’s journey turned into three hours along country roads in rural western New York. But it did mean that I got to visit Amish country, so that was fun.

The moral of the story? There’s no question a GPS navigation unit can be helpful, especially for the solo driver, but don’t rely on it blindly. Check the settings of the GPS and also review the route the GPS is recommending against a real-life map.

Your turn to share.  What’s the worst travel advice you have ever received?

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