5 Travel Mistakes To Avoid

It’s time to set new resolutions, targets, and for some, travel plans. We tend to learn from previous years and make the next ones better. It’s about time we do this for travelling also. Presenting 5 travel mistakes to avoid:

Mistake #1: Applying for passport late, really late

This is the most basic yet most common. Life can surprise you with a foreign trip just when you aren’t expecting one. My first trip to Hikkaduwa (Sri Lanka) was exactly like this, free, sudden and unprepared. Four weeks was all I had and the plight of bribing, begging, coercing, using jugaad and whatnot was something that still gives me the shivers. If you don’t already have a passport, add that to your list of resolutions. You may not have a travel plan in near future, but there are times when flying to Thailand is cheaper than flying to Kerala. Besides, passport is a robust address proof! Visit the official passport site and get going. All it takes is two working days, and a thousand bucks.

Mistake #2: Try to cover everything in one trip

Let me see all that there is. Who is going to come back anyway?

While the paradigm is gradually shifting, this is a fundamental flaw with how most Indians travel. Mumbai doesn’t always mean Juhu and Goa doesn’t always mean Baga. Heck, Agra need not always mean Taj Mahal. When you visit a place, explore no more than you can absorb. Checking-in on Facebook or Foursquare is not a metric of happiness. If you like a place, revisit it after some years and explore a new side of it. Last year, I spent eight nights in Bali and went to only three ‘sightseeing’ places. The memories of relaxation and unplanned fun are so overwhelming that I plan to revisit it in 2018. Next time, I will see three other places.

Mistake #3: Book Too Late

Note: This isn’t for backpackers, weekend trips or impulse-driven jaunts.

I’m talking to folks planning their honeymoons, summer breaks, or yearly foreign vacations. Start planning four-five months before your flying dates. Freeze your flights and apply for visa at least three months in advance. Book your hotels six to eight weeks in advance. In the remaining time, buy currency, read about the place, culture, food, experience and decide what all are you going to experience. You see anyone can go to a destination, but few bring back the destination with them. Keep a watch on airfare and currency trends. Besides convenience, booking early will save you money, which you can divert towards other expenses. For domestic flights, use this fare calendar to find dates with cheapest airfares. For international flights, set Google alerts for websites you prefer.

Mistake #4: Clicking Everything You See

This one came late (thanks to KB10s with costly film-washing charges), but is growing menacingly fast! The best place to capture an experience is your heart and mind. Click should you want to, but use this tool sparingly. When you visit a new place, don’t come across as a typical camera swinging tourist. You will only attract trappers and repel locals who’d give you invaluable tips and information. Unless you’re on a photography tour, clicking everything five times is insane and time-wasting. No one, not even you, are going to see those 3500 pictures from a five-day trip. If this compulsive obsession is uncontrollable - which you are beginning to sense is - stop at two shots of a point. Don’t click postcard images that you know the internet is cluttered with. Similarly, don’t click yourself repeatedly in front of these places. We believe you went there. You checked-in on Facebook!

Mistake #5: Not Trying Local Food

Or worse, avoiding it! Do you think some Indian daal roti or sambar or biryani will make a foreigner sick? Then why will the local food in a land you are visiting harm you? It is sinful to not try local food at local joints. Key is to find the good and hygienic ones. Ask the natives, or simply check the crowd and queues outside these eateries. If it’s crowded, you are sorted. Local food is different, unique to the place, cheap and easily available. Given all this it’s worth some minor turbulence in the stomach. Our greasy moolee-paranthaas with pickles are not perfect either!

Dear Indian traveller, these are the five travel mistakes to avoid as you're planning your memorable holiday. Yet, I hope there are many more mistakes waiting for you and me as we travel along the road. Because in words of Oscar Wilde…

Experience is simply the name we give to our mistakes