Biggest Travel Mistakes We Made (And How You Can Avoid Them)!

So, you’re probably wondering, how many mistakes can someone really make only 4 weeks into their trip. Well, you’d be surprised, so I’m here to help you not make the same mistakes and what to do instead. This blog is filled with tips and tricks that we’ve learnt either by accident or due to huge mistakes we’ve made.

If you haven’t already read about our huge mishap in the first place we stayed in then you won’t quite understand why these first tips were found out and learnt from very early. But nonetheless, these tips will SAVE you when booking places to stay and teach you exactly what to look out for and how to not do what we did!

Firstly, READ REVIEWS!!! It takes a few minutes, sorting them into ‘newest first’, look at photos and listen to what people have to say. There’s usually a general consensus and they’re usually right. Some top tips for reading reviews are always do newest first, it helps to easily see what current issues are and with older reviews, you tend to find that the hotels actually change and improve. Another tip would be to see what country the review is from. If you have only 10 reviews for a place and they’re all from the same country as the hotel, with little to no detail yet exceptional scores, they’re probably fake. On top of that, try and read more reviews in your language, you will quickly learn that the translation isn’t always the best and can often lead to confusion. Always try and choose places with more reviews, this isn’t always the case but generally, if you have a rating of 8 with 300 reviews versus a rating of 10 with 3 reviews, do the first one, it’s just so much more reliable. And finally, disregard any complaints about noisy guests and not enough lifts! I understand noisy neighbours can be frustrating, trust me, we’ve had a few, and not all neighbours have the same courteous values that you may have but in reality, what do you want the hotel to do? Maybe if there is an individual who is drunk and causing chaos then I understand being annoyed. But if they might be talking louder than you like or letting the door slam rather than slowly closing it, it really isn’t the hotel’s fault and if it bothers you that much, speak to the hotel. (And they’re usually wrong!)

Our second mistake? While I don’t really have too many tips on what to do if you end up in our situation, at least you can avoid making this mistake! So, when I say that wooden buildings are the worst things ever, I do not say it lightly and it has definitely scarred us. There are so many things that can go wrong with a wooden building. Warping, no sound protection, HOLES and bugs. Now, we may have just been extremely unlucky but we have made a point of not booking wooden structures from now on. I wish I could give you loads of amazing tips if you did find a wooden place but my only tip would be to not do it. Just don’t. They feel so unsafe, from the environment and from other people. I’m not saying that you’re going to get robbed or wake up to an elephant in your room, I’m just saying it definitely increases your chances. And the bugs are a recipe for disaster, they often blend in making it difficult for you to catch them or manage to run away into every nook and cranny. As someone who is just about terrified of every bug on Earth, I would say I am definitely biassed. Now I will admit, if you’re not scared or bothered by bugs, no doubt you’ll be fine, maybe not from the aforementioned elephants and robbers, but the bugs, easy. The mosquitos might eat you alive and the noise from the outside may leave you wanting to tear your hair out and use it as earmuffs, and the door may not close properly and at this point you may as well be sleeping under a blanket in the jungle but hey, it could be worse! Actually, maybe not, I really don’t see how it could be worse.

But if you do end up in this situation, I recommend trying to buy some bug killer, drenching yourself in bug spray constantly and try stuffing holes with tissue and gaps in doors with towels.

Another booking tip would be that if you’re planning on staying somewhere for a little longer, especially longer than what others may suggest staying there, look for somewhere with a pool, a balcony and a nice outdoor area. Trust me, you will find that you’re spending too much money going out, it quickly gets exhausting going out every day and will probably lead to you going insane if the only place you can relax is your bed. We loved getting a few snacks and spending evenings on the balcony playing games together or ordering a pizza-in if we’d had a busy day. Pools were great for free days, it meant we spent no money, could relax and we had so much fun swimming together. Obviously, if you’re solo-travelling it might not be so easy creating your own fun but it’s also a great place to read a book, catch up on your favourite show or just sit on your phone. Because not every day has to be filled with a crazy adventure. 

It’s also important to know that last minute bookings are so much more expensive, almost double in some cases! I know a lot of people like to go with the flow while travelling but where possible, try and book in advance as you’ll end up paying so much more!

Following on from this, hostels, especially for 2 people, can end up being more expensive or the same amount, it just makes sense to book a hotel where you often get better amenities and a nicer room. I understand hostels are a great place to meet people and can sometimes be crazily cheap per night but it just depends on preference and what you deem as a necessity. For me that’s a private bathroom, I’ve had my share of shared bathrooms and it’s just something I personally don’t want whilst travelling, finding that hotels were a better fit for us.

We also suggest looking for places that include breakfast, it means a guaranteed meal every day, helps introduce routine into your day and usually it’s free or only an extra £3 or so. We loved that we were able to get breakfast every morning, especially on travel days (days where we would be changing locations) or on early morning trips as we could still eat breakfast! If you end up staying somewhere that doesn’t offer breakfast, I’d suggest grabbing some cereal from the shop as it can get costly eating out at a cafe every morning. 

This leads me onto my next point, if you can find a place to stay with somewhere to cook, do it. Not every meal has to be a meal out and not every meal can be afforded to eat out. If you love cooking as much as I do, you will soon miss it. Now, I do love trying local food, street food and being cooked for but I also love cooking and I would love to be able to replicate some dishes whilst travelling. If that’s not possible, at least go for a fridge and a kettle but most places include these anyway! We just found that having access to these helped half our food costs and meant we could always have nice cold drinks and make a cup of tea every morning.

Now you’re probably looking at booking a few trips, going somewhere exciting and doing a few activities but you’re so overwhelmed! Who do I book through, why is everything so expensive, what do I even do?! All questions that are no doubt running through your mind. In Thailand, we found that trips are expensive and if there are a few of you it can be so expensive. Here’s where we found the taxi method worked for us when we were with friends. It helped us save around £50 and we could’ve probably gotten it cheaper! 

First decide on a few things you would like to do, look at trips already available for inspiration! We decided on ATVs through the jungle, bamboo rafting and seeing some elephants. Here’s where we made a tiny mistake of not searching for specific places beforehand, therefore not knowing prices of things when we get there. I really think that our taxi driver took us to more expensive places or maybe to places where he knew people, so maybe bear that in mind. 

Then approach a taxi driver, in Khao Lak and most tourist areas (but not Bangkok) there are taxis everywhere on the streets, they’re usually a truck style with some benches in the back, not cars as they tend to be more expensive. As a general guide, there were four of us, 2 couples, and we paid 1200 THB (£30) for the whole day. That included him driving us to each place, waiting for us while we did our activity, and then taking us back to our hotel at the end.

Next thing to know is the cost of the things when you get there. Never accept the first price they give you, you can always haggle them down. While it doesn’t always feel right to do it, just remember that these prices are hiked up because you’re a tourist and if they didn’t want to do it for cheaper, they wouldn’t. If you don’t feel comfortable haggling the price down, we learnt (by accident) that if you just stand and discuss then they often approach you with a new price. We stood talking and they approached us 3 times with a new price in less than 5 minutes. While we still felt like the price we paid was expensive, we agreed as it was something we wanted to do and none of us had done it before. It’s also good to know that if there is a larger group of you, they will often give it to you for cheaper, like a group discount. On our activities, we spent about £100 for the whole day for us both, saving us around £50! That £50 goes a long way as backpackers!

We also did book a trip through a travel centre due to convenience of that specific trip and as it was just the two of us this time. This is something to consider when using the taxi method, double check how far away something is and make sure the taxi method would work for the trip you’re wanting to do. 

Another mistake we made was the luggage we brought. We decided on suitcases as it seemed more convenient, meant no backs breaking and had more space. Huge mistake. The paths are never suitable for suitcase wheels making it so difficult to take them places and move around a lot, risking a wheel breaking. We luckily did have a rucksack too so we were able to downsize our luggage and just due to coincidences, we were able to leave some luggage in a place we were returning to. Next, don’t bring toiletries, other than sun cream, a little makeup and products if you know you have any sensitivities. Toiletries here are so cheap and work so much better than toiletries at home, especially hair conditioner and bug repellent. Plus, not bringing toiletries saves so much weight and worries about leaks! Ladies, please bring period products though, they’re so difficult to find and I’m yet to find any tampons so huge regret there! 

Also, find a few outfits that you’re super comfortable in and stick to plain colours. It makes life so much easier and if on days that you’re feeling a little less confident, you know you have an outfit you can fall back on for comfort. Don’t forget long trousers and a jumper, it helps with cold coach journeys, preventing bug bites in the evening and any cold evenings. I’ve really struggled with body image while travelling, finding myself comparing my body to others and struggling to find clothes I want to wear. Please bring clothes you’re comfortable in and not too many. You’ll be finding the cutest pieces whilst walking around! 

This blog post is definitely still a work in progress. I will continue to update it as we learn more things and I’m certain we will! For now, here’s everything we learnt in 4 weeks!