The 5 biggest mistakes people make when planning vacations
in this article i'm talking about the five top mistakes that non-professionals make when they are planning their vacations,
by not doing these five things you can lose time, you can lose a ton of money, and just have not as great of an experience. but if you can hit all five of these your vacations are going to be even more magnificent you're going to save more money and everything is just going to run far more smoothly even if something goes wrong you'll be covered so let's go ahead and dive in.
by not doing these five things you can lose time, you can lose a ton of money, and just have not as great of an experience. but if you can hit all five of these your vacations are going to be even more magnificent you're going to save more money and everything is just going to run far more smoothly even if something goes wrong you'll be covered so let's go ahead and dive in.
the fifth biggest mistake that non-professionals make is :
Not Calling Ahead :
now this is particularly important since coronavirus to call ahead to wherever it is that you're going and by that i mean call the hotel, if you're not in a hotel call your airbnb, host or wherever it is that you're staying .
call somebody there and if you are staying in a place where you can't call anybody then find a local hotel and call them instead but call ahead and find out exactly what the situation is in that city at that time ,by that i mean with regard to coronavirus;
- what's open and what's closed, can you get food is it only takeout and delivery or can you dine in,
- in the hotel you're staying at is their restaurant open?,
- what are the options there, are things like pools and spas if that is something that you're interested in are those things open .
in the city in general i always like to call ahead even if it's not coronavirus and find out are there any holidays in the time span that i'm coming up that i don't know about or anything in regard to how the days progress.
for instance in spain you know when is siesta so i can plan around that
- if there's a bank holiday or something like where all of the businesses are closed on sundays i'd want to know that so when i'm planning my itinerary i know those things.
- other things like : safety in the area, what is the best way to get around transportation, you know can i walk should i take the metro is that safe, do i need to rent a car things of that nature.
- also cash versus credit cards should you carry around a lot of cash or do most places take credit that's especially important if you are traveling abroad but calling ahead can give you details that you maybe could not find when you're researching online things that locals will know that they can give you a heads up about to make your vacation run far more smoothly once you get there.
mistake number four is:
Not Checking The Little Details:
and this kind of bleeds into mistake number five but it's the little things that actually make or break a vacation .
you might have the perfect flight in the perfect hotel and seeing all these different things and doing all these different activities but if you don't consider the little details that beautiful plan might die and crash and burn .
- so by little details it's some of the things i already mentioned in mistake number five things like find out especially if you're going abroad whether you to use cash or credit card, if you need to carry cash.
for instance i went to tokyo last year they are primarily cash there's some places that take credit card but for the most part you need to have cash to pay for things and then other places you like in america you can use credit card pretty much everywhere but there might be little things that you want to have cash for.
finding out those things will make that run more smoothly things like : safety, what's the best way to get around, are there any neighborhoods or areas you should avoid, things like transportation what is the best way to get around other things like openings
so for instance if you're planning to go to the louvre on a vacation to paris and you don't figure out ahead of time what days it's open it might be closed for construction or something might happen or if you're going to say disneyland and you don't find out kind of what's in store you might find out you get there and half of the rides you're wanting to ride are closed for construction.
so it's always good to call ahead or to find out what's open what's close so that everything you're wanting to do you know for sure is available to you also things like construction as far as if you're going hiking if there's weather delays or problems ,
again back when i went to japan there was an entire area that had just gotten hit by a lot of landslides and so a lot of it was closed so i couldn't have gone even if i wanted to but planning and and researching those things ahead of time can make all the difference in your vacation if all of those little things are ironed out and you know what you're running into it's going to make everything run much more smoothly.
mistake number three is :
not getting travel insurance:
now this is particularly important if you're traveling abroad but it also pertains when you are traveling domestically not only does it cover you if something is cancelled or you have a flight delay and things get moved or things get changed and you need help paying for a hotel overnight or something.
- it also covers if the travel provider you're going to defaults and goes bankrupt and in coronavirus we all know that that's been happening a lot where an entire airline or hotel chain just shuts down they just go bankrupt and then if you had tickets on that flight or that thing you lose your money.
if you have travel insurance they will cover you in case something like that happens.
- the other thing is medical so not only does it cover if you get sick or if you get hurt but what if you're somewhere and you need to be airlifted out your common insurance that you have at home is not going to cover things like that it also covers dental problems if you crack a tooth and you need to go to a dentist while you're abroad.
- and then it also just has other other protections and other things that i really like .
my favorite travel insurance providers also has things like if you get your credit cards and your passport stolen they will not only float you some extra cash to get you by but they also help you to replace your passport and things of that nature so just in general it is a nice protection to have because you never know when something might go wrong and having that security, having that backup could make all the difference.
mistake number two is :
not using google:
i have tried a hundred different travel booking engines both open to the public and only open to the travel industry i have been around for 20 years in this industry and at the moment and this might change but at the moment my favorite website that seems to consistently give me good information i can trust and also information they usually find the cheapest price every once in a while they don't but for the most part i consistently find the cheapest price and the best information and that is google flights and google hotels.
they also have some things to do things of that nature that one is okay i mean it's a good research tool but i don't use it as much but google flights and google hotels are my top two picks when i am booking any new vacation um for the reasons i said it gives me reliable information it has a lot of really great tools where i can play with dates and things to see when is the best time to go and it consistently gives me the best prices available for the time that i'm gonna go so mistake number two is to not ever look at google .
the number one top mistake that people make is:
not being flexible :
now this isn't always in our control but if you want to save money if you want to go when it's the best time to to visit a place where there's perhaps less crowds or to go to special unique places the name of the game is being flexible .
- by that i don't simply just mean flexible on dates i also mean flexible on where you're flying out of, or you're flying into, potential different destinations, potential different day trips.
i'm also talking about being flexible on hotel versus vacation rental versus glamping or camping or boats or ships or cruises versus you know a land-based just being flexible and being open to all of the possibilities by being as flexible as you can and i realize sometimes you only have a vacation this week it's the only week you can have a vacation and that's fine .
- but you know even if that's the case then maybe be open to all of the other details around it open to destinations maybe going into or out of a different place open to different forms of transportation other ideas .
the more flexible you are the more money you're gonna save consistently always you're gonna save money if you're flexible on your timing and on when you go and and the the airports you leave and out of so you're always gonna save money by being flexible or always know you're getting the best price available under your circumstances you're going to be open to a world of options you may not have considered.
- there are so many things out there and so many things you may or may not have known about or have done that can just create an incredible vacation so by being flexible in all of the different parameters you can ensure that you're gonna have a remarkable vacation no matter what and save the most money so those are the top five mistakes i see non-professionals make when they're planning their vacations but if you do all five you are going to come a lot further and making sure your vacation is absolutely extraordinary