So, after traveling for 3 years around Asia, and finally starting a blog, I started thinking about all the things, travel related, that I regret, for instance.
- I did not signing up for Arline’s reward program when I first started traveling
- I did not buying a decent camera to record my early travels
So I thought, what do other travelers regret?
I decided to do some research, and these are some of the most interesting answers I got.
How to make money while traveling?
There was one answer that appears to be a consensus among the travel community, which I’ll share at the end.
36 Things Travelers Regret
1- Not traveling when I was a University student just because I had no friends to travel with.
2- (A mother said) Not traveling with my daughter while she was young
3- Not traveling to Mali before the civil war
This one is a very specific one, the Mali conflict between the north and the south began in January of 2012 and is still ongoing as of today (January 2019)
4- Traveling and forcing myself to be on a diet, I didn’t eat Wagyu beef in Japan nor fried Pizza in Naples .
5- Taking so long to build the courage to go on a road trip in my own country, I was scared about getting lost on the road.
6- Traveling by plane way too often.
7-Not visiting the Galapagos Islands when I was in Ecuador.
8- Always packing too much.
9- Coming back home while is still winter time (March was still very cold)
10-I love my children, but I wis I had waited longer to have them so I could have traveled while I was still young instead of struggling being a single mom.
11- Lying on the beach too much instead of going on excursions.
12-Leaving my luggage in full view in a locked vehicle while I was hiking … uninsured.
13- The Dominican Republic. Women are not respected especially English speaking women. Never again.
What do you guys think about that statement?
14- Not taking a camera with me in the early trips ☹️At the time I always said you can’t experience anything if you’re glued to the camera all the time but now I have few images to look back on 😲This was long before mobile phones were commonplace.
15- That I didn’t take to the road for long durations when I was younger. It was always four weeks here, four weeks there. I never took the leap and went out for half a year or more. Just financially I felt at the time it wasn’t possible for me to just quit my job, and leave my partner behind. I’ve enjoyed my experiences but just wished they could have been longer.
16- Not having enough battery in electronic devices, especially on mountainous areas.
17- A couple of years before the outbreak of war I had a trip to Lebanon and Syria booked. To please someone else I canceled the trip. Big mistake.
18- Diving without a camera in New Caledonia. That was the best dive in my life and I have nothing to remember it or to show it around 😢
19- Losing a phone in Sydney with our only photos of Ayers Rock😣
20- Not carrying enough gifts back home.
21-Spending all the day only sleeping in the hotel room and realizing the trip is pretty much over.
Don’t fall asleep, let’s continue with this list of Things travelers regret
22- Not traveling around México while I was living there (for 2 years!!) because “I could do it later”… 😯
23- Going west instead of East.
A Cross Border Trip in South East Asia
24- Not going to Easter Island when I was in Chile.
25- Not going back to Nosara when I had the chance and the dollar was strong. For that matter, not recognizing the whole of the late ’90s as the golden era of travel when the dollar was strong.
26- Not staying longer on my eastern Europe trip.
27- Cramming in too many activities in a given period of time.
28- Filming so much that I kind of missed the country.
29- Only spending one day in Paris. You need a month to see everything in Paris. I ran around that day like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to get pictures of every landmark in Paris.
30- Only spending one day in Kyoto.
why would anyone do that?
31- Not taking my husband to Russia before we had kids…it’s now too far and too expensive.
32- Not being able to snorkel much in Belize as it costs 150 US dollars per person to get to the reef .
33- Not taking pictures of the beautiful and historical places during 1980’s
34- Going to the same place so often instead of trying other places.
35- Getting 2 phones with all the photos stolen because I get a little bit to beer excited sometimes.
AND THE FINAL ONE, THE THING PEOPLE MENTIONED THE MOST
36- Not traveling more when I was young.
Interesting list we’ve got here right.
Conclusion
Not everyone has the means to travel, if you do and you’re not doing it simply because you’re afraid or you’re waiting for the right person to tag along please stop, start traveling as early in your life as possible.
How to make extra money to go on vacation?
Once you start traveling make sure you take at least a cell phone with a nice camera so you can record those exciting moments and then look at them in the future, who knows, those places you’re visiting might no longer exist after 5 or 10 years.
So what are you waiting for, go book a flight, if you’re not sure about how to do it on your own please read this post I made about how to find the best fly deals for international travel.
Hope you liked this post -Things travelers regret- what do you guys think?
Do you agree? Is there something you would like me to add to the list?
Please comment below.