Imagine that you’re about to head off for your first overseas trip, and it’s an amazing feeling. You’re excited, obviously. It’s also a daunting feeling. What will you find outside of Australia’s borders? What will the world throw at you? How will you cope? How much money will you spend trying to deal with it? It’s inevitable that you’ll make mistakes the first time you travel, just the same as you’d make mistakes in any other facet of life. These are the five common ones that rookie adventurers commit.
1. Overbooking
It’s tempting, on that first daunting trip away, to get everything locked in – every hostel, every transfer, every breakfast, lunch and dinner. That way you don’t have to worry about anything, right? But you’ll soon come to realise that it pays to have some flexibility. Book in the big things, sure. But also leave yourself space to change your itinerary and take opportunities as they present themselves.
2. Using a travel agent for everything
While it’s now easy for you to book an entire trip yourself over the internet, I can understand the wish to have the safety net of a travel agent. But that doesn’t mean you have to use them for everything. Book your flights, and maybe an accommodation package. But you’ll generally save money if you look after everything else yourself.
3. Being scared of locals
You can always spot the first-timers, hands subconsciously guarding their money belts, faces set to “suspicion”, always trying to figure out what the scam is, who’s trying to rip them off. It’s hard when you first start out to spot the crooks from the friendly locals, so plenty of people just mistrust everyone. That’s a mistake though. The vast majority of locals aren’t out to get you. It can pay to trust them every now and then – you’ll make a lot more friends.
4. Being scammed
That said, however, there are scammers out there, and it’s the naive rookie travelers that provide their easiest targets. I was scammed the first time I traveled. And the second time. And the third time. There’s no easy way around this – you’re often dealing with pros who’ve been doing this their entire lives. Just roll with the punches and try not to part with too much cash. (Read: Ten classic travel scams)
5. Trying to see everything
This is why the group tours are popular, why people see things like “seven countries in 12 days” and think that that’s a good thing. This is your big overseas trip and you want to see as much as possible – you want to tick as many boxes as you physically can. But that’s a mistake. You have to trust that you’ll travel again. Instead of trying to see everywhere at once, slow down, get to know one country, or maybe two, and your appetite will be whetted for a lifetime of similar adventures. It’s easy to get lost in the excitement of your first trip abroad, which makes you more prone to these mistakes. However, it never hurts to plan early and carefully.
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