You will get scammed!
Regardless of how many well-meaning travel blogs you read or security warnings you heed on your country's Travel Advice and Advisory pages, I can guarantee this will happen to to you.
During my Euro trip in 2009, I had a flight to catch from Milan to Paris. When I got off the train from Florence a very nice man approached me and asked if I needed help with my luggage. Being a relative travel newbie I went along with it. He asked me where I was headed and I told him I needed to find the bus to the airport. So he very eagerly led the way to where I was going, chatting along the way about how he was from Morocco and worked at the train station, helping people get to where they were going. We conversed in a combination of English, French, and some Italian, and he was a very nice man. I did notice he wasn't dressed in a uniform or anything that official looking - his clothes were rather worn, actually. When we got to the bus, he handed me my luggage, put his hands out to me, and said "s'il te plais, tu peux m'aider?" (Please, can you help me?) Aaaah, the jig was up! So he didn't really have a job at the train station, he was a beggar who, in return for helping travelers find their way with their luggage, expected recompense. I felt so silly in front of the bus driver and all those passengers - I couldn't believe I had fallen for this! I handed him a few Euros and boarded the bus in my shame. (In all honesty, this was a pretty mild case of being taken advantage of and he obviously needed the money, so I didn't feel anything more than mildly embarrassed for myself). And I'm sure there are maaaany other times I've been taken for a sucker, times I wasn't even aware of being taken advantage of.
To add insult to injury to this story, when I finally arrived at the airport I realized I was at THE WRONG DAMN AIRPORT, which meant I had to get back on the same bus I had just got off of, pay a second time, get back to the train station, get onto the proper bus to the proper airport and pay a third time. It was an expensive night and a real hit to my solo traveler's confidence.
This brings me to my next lesson:
Double check your damn flight info, you idiot.
Choose your travel buddy wisely!
People can be very different when so far out of their comfort zone (or their existing neuroses even more pronounced...), and friendships can be forever altered (or ended) if your personalities and styles don't match up. This may not be something you're aware of until it's too late...
Be nice to the flight attendants.
Same goes for the people who run your hostel or guestroom, or anyone who is providing a necessary service. These people take a lot of unnecessary crap from rude travelers all the time. Just be nice and respectful and you will be appreciated (and maybe remembered) for it.
Sometimes, you will be the ugly tourist.
One day in Cambodia my sister and I had plans to visit part of the Angkor Wat complex. For some reason I thought it would be ok to show up in jean shorts and a tank top, knowing full well it absolutely was not (don't ask - I don't know what I was thinking, either). When the person at the gate refused me entry, I threw what can only be described as an ugly feminazi shit fit, pointing to a white male traveler (in similar garb to mine, though I think his shorts were much longer) and shrieking "AND WHAT ABOUT HIM? YOU LET HIM IN? HE CAN WEAR WHAT HE WANTS BECAUSE HE'S A MAN?!"
I can not tell you how ashamed I am of this behaviour. I know what certain cultures expect in terms of dress, especially at sacred sites. There is no excuse for this. Don't be this person.
Forgive yourself but learn from your mistakes.
Guess who will a) handle such a situation with grace and understanding next time, and b) be properly attuned to cultural expectations from now on?
Apparently it's weird to clap for the pilot after a smooth landing?
I recently read this in one of those "flight attendants tell all" articles, and it really surprised me. Apparently it's enough to simply say thank you, I enjoyed the flight (or whatever) when getting off the plane... In any case, being the only person to clap once a plane has landed would definitely make you the in-flight weirdo.
Booze+allergy meds=sleep on a plane!
I know drinking at high altitudes is not the best idea, and mixing booze with sleep-inducing drugs is never recommended... but it's truly the only thing that has ever put me to sleep on a plane (and helped me sleep for 6-8 hours, no fucking joke.) It was miraculous.
Flying somewhat tipsy is super fun.
Judge me. I don't even care.
Listen to your gut.
This totally goes for day-to-day life as well, but when you're in a foreign country, the ability to trust your own intuition is an important skill to have. It's better to walk away from a situation that makes you uneasy than to give in to a fear of missing out on some random travel adventure or fun story.
Do what you want, and don't feel bad about "wasted days."
Speaking of fear of missing out, don't feel bad if you ever spend a day doing nothing but sitting in your hostel room, writing a journal or some postcards, or watching endless Harry Potter movies in the lounge. Travel is exhausting, and it's ok to give yourself time to refuel. A person needs a mental health day every once in awhile and it's totally ok (and necessary!) to give this to yourself on the road.
Your worst hangovers will happen on travel days.
At least, this has ALWAYS, without fail, been the case for me. I think it's because when I'm leaving a city, I sometimes want to have one last hoorah there before moving on. This means painful wakeups the next day, even more painful bus rides, and possibly vomiting in the streets of Athens in front of a supremely nice couple from Germany and Belgium who insist your nausea must be because of "the heat."
Ocean water solves everything.
If you are traveling in a place that's almost always hot and/or sticky, and you find yourself and/or your travel buddy mysteriously becoming increasingly irate, get ye to the nearest watering hole and dive in (provided you are close to water, of course... if you're not, sucks to be you). Without sounding too evangelical, there is something obviously super cleansing and rejuvenating about letting yourself float in a body of water. I can almost guarantee doing this will dispel any pent up negativity you were feeling before. For me, even the promise of a refreshing dip is enough to make me feel giddy when I'm so physically and emotionally exhausted I want to curl up and do nothing for the remainder of my trip.
Keep a journal of your travels.
When I'm away, especially on longer trips, I try to write in a journal every day. Sometimes every day is not doable, but if you have the time, it's totally worth it to jot down what you did that day, how you're feeling, and whatever you've been experiencing. Years later, whenever I reread these, I am reminded of more specific aspects of my time away that I may have forgotten, and it always makes me smile (and sometimes cry). I am always thankful for this!
Carry yourself with confidence, but don't be afraid to look like a tourist.
This is a big one for me - I hate looking like a tourist... which I realize is ridiculous because, of course, I am a damn tourist! Sometimes you will need to ask a local for help, or stop to look at a map, and that's totally allowed. The real problem is when you're fumbling and bumbling around, looking like you can't tell your ass from your oh-so-discrete passport fanny pack. Thieves and scammers are opportunists, and if you make it obvious to them that you're an easy target, then an easy target you will become. If you keep your wits about you, stay aware of your surroundings and your belongings (in other words, if you make it difficult to be taken by surprise or taken advantage of), you will largely be left alone.
The more someone badgers you for your business, the less you want to give that person your business.
Someone following behind you, repeatedly crying out "tuk-tuk tuk-tuk tuk-tuk" is not only annoying (and who wants to encourage that kind of behaviour?) - it is a sign that you should keep walking until you find someone who isn't so obviously keen to rip you off.
Eat where the locals do.
Ask your taxi driver, hotel concierge, or someone walking down the street where they eat. Pay attention to places that are busy and full of locals - that's where you want to be!
Stock up on all the drugs.
Take Dukoral before going to a place known for dodgy water, dodgy food, and dodgy bowels. I've spent a lot of time in such places, and the worst I've experienced was one day of sort of questionable (though not urgently uncomfortable) poops in India and a one-night close call of food poisoning due to bad seafood in Phuket. I attribute my strong constitution while traveling to Dukoral, god of digestive issue prevention.
Bring water purification tablets - they make the water taste like chlorine, but you never know when you're going to be somewhere bottled water isn't easily accessible.
Bring diarrhea medication, in case the Dukoral and water purification tablets fail.
Know your body and what it might need under certain uncomfortable or extreme circumstances. I myself am a huge fan of Gravol.
You will at some point vomit and/or poop your pants.
You can be as diligent as you want with the medications, but shit happens... sometimes literally. Clean up and move on.
Traveling is just getting from one place to another.
Before my first big solo trip to Europe, I'd lay in bed terrified, thinking to myself "What the hell am I doing?! How am I going to pull this off?" I had to remind myself that traveling is literally just finding a way of getting from one place to another. I still have this same moment of panic before a big trip, and I still have to remind myself of this. The only difference between getting yourself to your job every day and getting around while traveling is that you're in a different, unfamiliar place (also, that working is lame and traveling is awesome).
You can't just talk about traveling - you have to take tangible steps toward doing it.
This is one of my all-time biggest pet-peeves... I HATE hearing phrases like "I wish I could travel," "one day I'll get to (such and such a place)," or, my favourite, "you're so lucky!" Ok, I am lucky to have been born a privileged white woman in Canada who has the opportunity to make my dreams a reality... but chances are, you also have this opportunity. But unless you start saving, sacrificing, and planning, you will never get to travel, you will never get to wherever it is you want to go, and I can guarantee that. I live a really simple, sometimes boring existence when I'm at home, because I am always saving for travel. I don't go out and party all the time, I don't spend money on fancy coffees every day, I can't remember the last time I went shopping for new clothes. (I also don't have children, just sayin...) I make my travel goals a priority and I make those goals happen, which is something anyone is capable of if it's something they really want to do. This goes for any goal a person has, really. Stop talking about it, and, in the immortal words of the insane genius Shia Laboeuf - JUST DO IT.
People don't actually want to know the intricate details of your trip...
...and you may not want to talk about it anyway.
Aside from maybe your parents, when someone asks you about how your trip was, they probably don't expect you to launch into a lengthy summary of your time away. Unless they ask you specific questions, you can assume that their interest is pretty minimal. I often don't want to talk much about it after the fact anyway, for a few nebulous reasons. I get pretty bad "travel hangovers," meaning I'm often really unhappy when I get back from a trip. Getting back to your life and realizing that nothing around you has really changed, while you have definitely changed, is a very weird thing to sit with. You have amassed all these unique and amazing experiences and perspectives, and now you're back to the same old thing. How do you explain this feeling to people? I would just rather not. Being a pretty severe introvert I would generally rather keep my memories and experiences to myself. And that's ok.
Don't take travel advice as gospel.
Figure it out yourself!
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