10 travel blunders that taught us valuable lessons
Everyone makes mistakes when traveling, especially when first starting out on world adventures. We’ve certainly made our share, although we thankfully don’t do it very often these days. Here are our biggest blunders. Some were also a bit costly (those are the ones we remember the most). In every case, we learned a valuable lesson that helped us avoid the same mistake again. I hope sharing our blunders will help save others from similar tough lessons.
1. Using a private ATM such as Euronet
One of the best ways to get cash when traveling is via a debit card from a bank-owned ATM. The key here is bank-owned. There are several privately owned ATM companies, of which Euronet is by far the biggest. Their machines are literally everywhere. We’ve seen them at the entrances to restaurants and inside hotel lobbies. Euronet was cofounded in 1994 by its chairman and chief executive officer, Michael J. Brown, and president and chief operating officer, Daniel R. Henry, brothers-in-law based in Kansas, USA. It is not associated with any bank.
Their ATMs look like regular bank ATMs. You can’t tell by anything other than knowing to watch for them — they are blue and yellow with a white diamond around the Euronet name. They definitely don’t behave like regular bank ATMs. They charge high fees (up to €13) and offer terrible conversion rates (you might get up to 20% less than withdrawing from a legitimate bank ATM). We didn’t know this the first time we traveled and it cost us a lot. Now we warn everyone — make sure that any ATM machine you use is clearly identified with the name of a legitimate bank. Even better if it’s located in the bank’s lobby or on the wall outside.
Here’s a great video from Honest Guide with more about this issue.
2. Choosing the wrong currency on the credit card machine
If you travel with another country’s credit card, such as when we traveled around Europe with a US card, you are asked at the time of purchase which currency to use: the currency of the card or the local currency (both options appear on the credit card machine’s small display with a button next to each). We didn’t know the first rule: always-always-always choose the local currency.
If you choose your card’s currency (i.e. USD), the machine does the conversion from local-to-foreign and you are charged a surcharge for that. We were hit between 5-10% higher charges the times we messed up, before we figured this one out. Choose the local currency and let your own bank/CC company do the conversion.
3. Not reading the worst reviews for a hotel
Never just look at the good reviews for a hotel. Those could easily have been paid for or provided by friends or even employees. Check the 1- and 2-star reviews. That’s where the truth comes out. On our house-hunting trip to Spain back in 2017 we reserved a room in a hotel in Valencia. The description and photos on Expedia looked nice. The room we chose had a large shower as well as a spa tub. The hotel was centrally located in Old Town.
When we arrived, we discovered the truth. The hotel had no on-site staff as the place was actually on the verge of closing down, in spite of their enticing ad on Hotels.com. We had to call a store up the street and wait for someone to come unlock the door to the lobby. It also soon became obvious our room had once been an office or storage area.
Here’s what we found:
- Spa tub: The spa tub was underneath some stairs and difficult to access.
- Stairs: Speaking of stairs… even though it was a one-floor room, to the left of the entrance was a flight of stairs that led to a mysterious second-floor door. There was no deadbolt on our side of that door, but it was locked from the other side. We had no idea where it led or who might have access.
- Shower: The walk-in shower was lovely but flooded the bathroom floor the minute I turned it on (I thought it looked sketchy so I tested it).
- Door: Next to the bed was another door. This one led to an alley where garbage bins and refuse were stored. This door also didn’t have a lock on the inside. Anyone with a key or strong tools could easily have entered our room from the alley.
The place was so bad we wouldn’t even spend one night there and ended up losing all that money. We now refuse to use Hotels.com because of their lack of help with what happened — we switched to Booking.com and have been very happy.
4. Catching the wrong train
Language difficulties can make it extra challenging to ensure you catch the right train (or bus). That’s what happened to us in Prague, Czechia. Also, instead of taking our time, and ensuring we really understood the gate agent, we took her word that the very next train was the one we wanted. It was due to leave in just minutes, so we hurriedly bought tickets and boarded.
What we didn’t realize was that the upcoming train was the commuter run. Not only did it stop at every single station between Prague and Brno, it was booked beyond capacity. Had we taken the time to study the departure board and use Google Translate, we’d have realized we needed to take the next train — only another half hour’s wait. That train was the high-speed run and we could easily have had assigned seats.
Because we didn’t understand the gate agent’s explanation, and we got in a hurry, we sat on luggage for four hours instead of enjoying a two-hour ride with a comfortable seat. At least we did eventually end up in our destination city!
5. Returning the rental car after hours
On one trip to Brno, Czechia we rented a car so we could do a day trip. When we returned to the rental facility at the end of the day, they were closed. There was no drop box for the keys, at least not one we could find. We left the keys locked in the car and sent them a message. A problem: they had no other keys to the car! It never occurred to us that a rental car agency would first off, not have a way to return a car after hours and second, would only have one set of keys.
The end result was that the car company kept our security deposit because they had to arrange for the car to be unlocked.
6. Failing to punch our train tickets
We were unseasoned train riders the first time we were in Europe, so we were thrilled to have the opportunity to take the train between cities. We bought our tickets for the ride from Genova to Rome in Italy. There were no gates leading to the trains, something we were used to seeing from riding subways in the US. We didn’t notice the yellow Ticket Validation machines off to the side, so we simply boarded. During the ride, we were asked to show our tickets and the Conductor found we had not validated them. We got a hefty fine, which we had to pay right then.
This same scenario is also true for buses and other mass transit. Purchasing a ticket isn’t enough. Always remember to validate the ticket in the station, on the bus/subway, etc. Fines are not fun.
7. Getting dates backwards and going to the airport on the wrong day
This one feels silly but hey, it happened to us (thankfully only once). It’s easy to forget that European and American dates are opposite to each other. That simple difference caused us to head to the airport on the wrong day to pick up friends. At least we went early instead of late. Always remember where you are when you look at a date.
8. Losing our luggage because we changed flights
On our very first trip to Europe, we’d planned a lot because we’d saved every penny and scheduled every vacation day to make it happen. We were spending two weeks traveling around Italy before heading to Egypt for a week of SCUBA diving in the Red Sea. The plan was to arrive in Milan, Italy early in the day and attend a performance at the famous La Scala Opera House that night. Everything started going badly when our first flight (from San Jose, CA to London, UK) took off a couple of hours late. We arrived in London too late to make the connection.
I really didn’t want to miss the performance at La Scala, nor did I want to spend our first night in Europe stuck in an airport hotel, so I turned a bit “Karen” and insisted British Airways get us on the next available flight. They did, and we actually arrived in time for the performance, albeit only two hours before the curtain. One problem though: None of our luggage made it. For days. We’d moved on through two other cities before our luggage caught up with us.
In hindsight, it would have been better to miss the performance than have to buy clothes our first day on our trip and our first time in a foreign country, with no understanding of the language and little understanding of exchange rates and foreign currency. Even worse, my SCUBA gear never did make it. It was stolen somewhere along the way. I had to replace everything in Florence, Italy. I ended up diving the Red Sea with unfamiliar gear, calibrated in metric, and with all instructions in Italian! The final irony? The performance at La Scala wasn’t even that good…
9. Wearing clothes that were misinterpreted
We were on our way from a SCUBA trip in Roatan, Honduras back to Austin, Texas when we were pulled out of line by customs officials. They’d seen Eric’s shirt and believed we’d used Honduras as a stepping stone for an illegal trip to Cuba (US citizens are banned from visiting Cuba). It only took a quick minute of questioning to realize that the strap from Eric’s shoulder bag was covering the S on his SCUBA shirt (that shirt is long gone, but this is what it looked like).
We all had a laugh about it, but in other cases/countries, or had our timeline been tight for our flight, things might have not ended up so smiley. Be aware of wearing anything with printing on it. Meanings can be misinterpreted, languages misunderstood, or images taken completely the wrong way. Better to wear something that doesn’t have any messages at all.
10. Choosing a souvenir that raised eyebrows in the next country
We like to get a unique piece of art as a souvenir when we travel to exotic locations. We once forgot that different countries consider different levels of souvenirs acceptable. While on a tour of Pompeii, Italy, we bought what we thought was the perfect souvenir: a winged phallus. This symbol is everywhere around Pompeii— it’s a good luck sign/symbol meant to ward off the Evil Eye.
Problem is, our next destination was the conservative Muslim country of Egypt. When the winged phallus showed up on the security x-ray at the airport, we were pulled aside and our luggage was searched. We came across as bumbling Americans, because we honestly were back then, so after finding nothing else in our luggage they let us go. They even let us keep the phallus. Just as with the clothing message, however, it could have gone very different.
Stories from friends
Here are three stories from friends, just to show we’re not alone in making travel blunders!
Missing a plane connection
Airports, especially these days, are often chaotic. It can be hard enough to follow departure boards in the best of times. Today’s frequent schedule and gate changes make it even more difficult. Add to that the complication of a new international traveler and things can go bad very quickly.
In March 2022 my friend Melissa was on her first overseas flight, traveling between Austin, Texas and Valencia, Spain. Her flight included two plane changes — Heathrow and Madrid — before reaching us in Valencia.
Due to the confusing nature of the boards at Heathrow, and her unfamiliarity with multi-terminal, international airports, she was watching the departure board in the wrong terminal. By the time she realized what had happened, it was too late. She missed the connection to Madrid. A helpful agent got her on another flight, but it was late, so we knew she would miss the connection from Madrid to Valencia. We hopped in the car and drove to Madrid to retrieve her. It all worked out, but instead of a leisurely dinner after her arrival, we all crawled into bed at 4 am.
Never hesitate to ask any airport or airline employee for help if you are confused or can’t figure out where to go. Better to inconvenience an employee for a few minutes than miss your flight!
Trying to use an oversized carry on bag
Different airlines have different size limits for cabin bags these days, and it’s very important that your carry-on suitcase does not exceed the smallest limitation if you are flying with multiple airlines. Ryanair, for example has a smaller bag than Lufthansa: 55cm H x 40cm W x 20cm D for Ryanair vs 55cm H x 40cm W x 23cm D for Lufthansa. Many other airlines use the same limits as Lufthansa, but not all. American’s size limit, for example, is 56cm H x 36cm W x 23cm D.
Don’t trust your eyes, either. Here are our two cabin bags. The lighter blue one is “Ryanair-certified” for size. We use the darker blue one when we fly Lufthansa and other airlines (ours is just a bit smaller than Lufthansa’s maximum allowance, but still too big for Ryanair). At first glance the Ryanair bag looks to be the bigger of the two, but the allowable Ryanair bag size is less deep. That 5cm of depth means the dark blue one will not slide down in Ryanair’s measuring well.
One friend learned this the hard way. She was told her “normal-sized” cabin bag was too big for one of her flight connections. They would not let her take it into the cabin. She was forced to check the bag at a gate-cost of €90.
Getting charged for rental car damages you didn’t do
A common complaint about car rental companies, especially the budget ones, is that they often try to charge for damage to a car after you return it. It’s how they make up for their cheap rates. We had one friend whose card was hit for $500. He had no recourse because he couldn’t prove the damage was already there when he rented the car.
The trick is to be able to prove it. Any time we rent a car, we do a narrated video of both the outside and inside of the car, while it is sitting in the rental car lot. We make sure we get the lot itself in the video so it’s obvious where we are. As soon as we return the car, we do another video for comparison. We’ve never had an issue with a company trying to charge us for damage.
I hope some of our lessons help you have safer, less troublesome travels. Please share any blunders you’ve had before you became a Seasoned Traveler that might also help others.
