re: Worst Travel Mistake

Funny thing is I got drunk in Amsterdam and was supposed to wake up and go to a beer festival in Belgium. Woke up in time to go but I was hurting so bad that I decided to stay in and just go get lunch. After a couple of beers, I felt fine and wished I had just gone to the festival.

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Worst Travel Mistake

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Deciding to not going to a place I want/can afford to go to because I'm "Too busy".

I thought driving in Europe was easier than many major cities in the States

Having another couple talk us into going on a Carnival cruise. Just got back yesterday and I would have rather gone to an all inclusive. That was my first cruise and it took a few days just to get used to all of the rules and how things work on a cruise ship. I was used to going where I wanted, drinking what and when I wanted, etc. The only positive versus an all inclusive was the casino.

I'll say another mistake I made was not checking if my hotel rooms had AC in Europe. When booking you assume that many will have AC however, we learned that it is considered an extra cost.

Almost rented a car for my honeymoon in Jamaica. That would have been a nightmare.

Travelling to Toronto a couple months ago and forgot my passport. I didn't even think about bringing it.

I did miss my flight, but luckily there was another one and only arrived a few hours late.

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What’s the worst travel mistake you have made that cost you a lot of time / money or the chance to see something you planned to see?

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1: Doing any type of pre-planned excursions off a cruise ship. We overplanned our trip doing a cruise around Hawaii. One was ok, but we scheduled something every day over a 5 days trip. I was sick of them after day two and the only got worse.

2: Had to travel to Guyana and Rio in Brazil on business. Checked the internet and no yellow fever shot required for Americans traveling to either. Thought "Ok I'm good". I fly to Rio, do my 3 days of meetings, then get to the airport and check in. THey stop me at the counter because I have no shot and explain that yes, Americans traveling FROM AMERICA do not need a yellow fever shot. But since I'd spent the last 72 hours in Brazil, I needed one to enter. Had to cancel 2 days of wall to wall meetings and rebook a ticket directly home to Houston. Miserable night in the airport hotel and then flight back to Houston the next morning.

Took the shot and had to wait 10 days before I could fly to Guyana. Had major sleepless nights due to side effects but I finally made it there.

My birthday and my sister's anniversary are one day apart. In 2004 she got the idea of taking a vacation together (me, her, and her husband) to the Black Hills. We decided to take her car (full size SUV with much more room and amenities than my Tracker, I had no problems with this. At least not at the start.). At the start of the trip I asked her if she had everything checked on her vehicle by a mechanic before leaving. She said yes and everything is fine, but. "Occasionally after the ignition is turned off it has a hard time starting back up but I think it will be all right." That should have been a warning flag the size of the state of Illinois for me but I Iooked at how much room was in her vehicle and how much room was in mine and I stepped into her SUV and off we went. Sure enough on the 2nd day of the vacation we stop for lunch in Hot Springs, South Dakota and when we come back to the SUV to start back up, it won't start. Fuel pump has shot craps on it. Spend an unplanned night in Hot Springs and a local mechanic there manages to get it started the next morning but we have to detour to a dealership in Rapid City to actually replace the pump. Warranty and insurance small print and all of that. We spend the next day and half in an awful four door Buick rent-a-car driving around the Black Hills. Make another detour to Rapid City to pick up the SUV and then go on to Badlands NP (which is where I wanted to go after the Black Hills) and the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD (where my sister wanted to go after the Black Hills). I thought Badlands was fantastic, my sister couldn't have been less interested. My sister thought the Corn Palace was fantastic. I could not have been less interested. To top it off all through the vacation her husband was having a Texas death match with acid reflux.

There are two morals to the story.

1. If you are planning on taking someone else's vehicle and there are any reliability questions at all, take your vehicle instead.

2. If you haven't been taking vacations with certain relatives in years past don't start now. Chances are half the places you go to you are going to wish you were somewhere else and if you are some place you like someone else you are with is going to hate that place just as much as you like it. I've had far better vacations going by myself where I have complete control over the itinerary and I don't have to deal with anyone else's bodily functions.