From England to Ecuador and beyond

From England to Ecuador and beyond

Sunday 7 December 2014

In retrospect: 5 ways I'd travel differently

This is very much a does-what-it-says-on-the-tin post. You live, you learn: here are five things I would have done differently re: my travels if I could wind the clock back to April. 

1. Don't book everything in advance.

Some people like making lists and plans so they always know what's coming next. I would class myself as one of these people; I like being organised and prepared. However, this just doesn't work for travelling. You can plan to your heart's content but whatever your 'final' version ends up looking like, it WILL change along the way. You'll want to stay somewhere you love for longer (this is what happened to me in Cape Town and I ended up shelling out £90 to change my flight and £20 for the phone call), cut your stay short if you wind up somewhere you can't stand, add new places into your itinerary you hear about from other travellers, stay in a different hostel that's got rave reviews from other people you've met on the road, etc etc. 


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Booking flights is probably cheaper done in advance, but unless you've got a fixed date when you have to be home I'd recommend doing it on the go using a price comparison site like Skyscanner - beats the hassle and the expense of changing a pre-booked flight. Hostels can be booked the night before very easily (some people even rock up to a city with no place to stay and go door-to-door until they find a vacancy), although some of the more popular ones may run out of beds so are often worth booking a few days in advance if you're 100% sure of your dates. 

I'm not saying this based solely on my experience in Cape Town. Because I'd been over eager to book myself a solid itinerary right at the start of my travels, I gave myself just one and a half days in Rio, which is a ridiculously small amount of time to dedicate to somewhere so fricking awesome. I'd booked a group tour in the States which began 12 days after my South America trip ended, so I was short on time anyway especially as I wanted to see New York and Los Angeles beforehand, but I could definitely have spared another couple of days in Rio. Since I've mentioned LA this seems like an appropriate time to say: DON'T go to LA. Or Hollywood. Both are absolute dumps and sorely disappointing. And speaking of group tours...

2. Think twice about booking onto group tours.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of pros to group tours. All of your transport and accommodation is arranged for you which minimises the stress that inevitably comes with self-organising, the quality of accommodation/any food included is generally pretty decent and you get taken to some out of the way places you may otherwise miss if you were limited to public transport. But here's the real pro: you meet some really cool people and make solid friends who you'll keep in touch with long after you finish the tour :)

I booked onto my South America and US tours for two very different reasons. Back in April, when the thought of travelling on my own was a rather terrifying prospect, I thought I'd be safer and less lonely in a group (it's only now that I realise how easy it is to make friends on the road and that I was overly concerned about the safety aspect). And the States: public transport is remarkably difficult to arrange between the National Parks I wanted to visit, and hiring a car on my own would have been a) expensive and b) stupid (I crashed my brother's new car into a pillar, get the brake and gas pedals mixed up and panic at the prospect of driving on the highway). It just made logical and financial sense to book onto a tour - and actually the Trek America tours are very reasonably priced. 

So, with all these bonuses why am I suggesting you may want to think twice about group tours? 

*They're very rushed. I appreciate there's a lot to pack into the few weeks but there are some places that merit more than one or two days of exploration and enjoyment. For example, two days in Vegas is not enough; how on earth is anyone supposed to gamble, drink, relax, party and tan to their satisfaction with less than five days at their disposal? Yosemite National Park is huge and unbelievably beautiful and once again, two days just wasn't enough. And I could have spent a week on Ilha Grande (Brazil), but I only got one full day there out of the two we stopped for because I was sick. That's the other thing - you can end up missing somewhere completely if you fall ill AND travelling while sick is relentlessly unpleasant. There are some places you instantly click with that you wish you could stay in for longer - something you can only do when you're travelling on your own terms.

*You stop in some godawful/pointless places. At the opposite end of the scale, you sometimes find yourself wondering how a particular place made it onto the itinerary in the first place. La Paz (Bolivia's administrative capital) - my GOD. I think the majority of us ended up spending three days in this dire city, the arse end of the earth where we felt unsafe and were bored out of our skulls. In fact, most of the stops in Bolivia failed to pique my interest; Sucre was nice, Potosí was okay and the salt flats were breathtaking, but I probably wouldn't have gone to the country at all knowing what I know now.

*You spend 24/7 with the same people. Don't get me wrong, I met a whole bunch of lovely and hilarious people who made my trips ridiculous amounts of fun! It depends on your personal preferences and how much you value privacy and alone time, but be aware that you don't get much time to yourself, or the opportunity to meet people outside of the group.

*You're limited on dates. Tours only start on selected dates so you have to work around them when building a rough travel plan, which takes the spontaneity out. 

3. Check the weather! 

Weather is unpredictable by nature, so it can be tricky to decide when to go even if you do your research thoroughly. Most places have a sunny and a rainy season, and often the rainy season is hotter or more humid than the sunny season (although to describe the sunny season as 'cool' is probably an overstatement in some countries). Check on various websites when is the best time to go - although if you're travelling to a number of countries/continents in a short period of time you'll be moving through climate zones so it's best to pack for all seasons.


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Sometimes the weather is just impossible to predict, especially where a region has a tropical climate. December is meant to be the beginning of summer here in Australia and I'm currently sitting in front of a roaring fire under a duvet in a makeshift nest we've built on the living room floor! 

Suffocating humidity, 40 degree heat, biting insects, monsoons, cyclones and freezing cold can turn a dream trip into a misery, so it's definitely worth checking to make sure you're going at the best possible time. Weather patterns can also affect opening and closing dates, particularly when it comes to National Parks, so it's worth checking whether camping grounds, lodges and roads will be open at the time you plan to travel.

4. Don't go somewhere just for one thing.

I spent a fair amount of cash flying to Cambodia with the sole purpose of seeing Angkor Wat, but as it turned out I wasn't hugely impressed. There was nothing else worth doing in Siem Reap and I didn't fancy Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city, so it felt like a bit of a wasted trip - although I suppose it's nice to say I've seen Angkor Wat. Don't follow in my footsteps and travel to a new country or city to see just one thing; if you wind up disappointed you'll regret having made the effort & spent the money to go there in the first place. I was happier in Chiang Mai and New York where there's heaps of stuff to see and do - if something leaves you disappointed you've got a ton to fall back on.

On a similar note, don't just focus on the tourist traps: not only will you find yourself rushing to see everything but they're almost always packed with people and below par in terms of expectations. Getting off the beaten track is the way forward, in my opinion; stumbling across hidden laneways, secret cafés and secluded beaches can be a more rewarding experience. Free (tips-based) walking tours are a great way to discover another side to a city, get insider tips and meet some new people.

5. Pack these forgotten essentials.

The idea is to pack relatively light, but in hindsight I wouldn't have minded the following items adding a little extra weight:

*Underwater camera. This would have been invaluable for the Galápagos Islands, where I snorkelled with giant sea turtles and swam with baby sea lions - had I had the foresight to bring one with me. In all likelihood you'll be able to find underwater cameras when you arrive but prices will probably be inflated, especially on touristy islands. Something I did take but only because someone suggested it (thanks mumma!) was a spare battery for my camera, which proved incredibly useful in the middle of nowhere with limited/non-existent electricity and charging points. 


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*Binoculars. It depends on the nature of your trip and how much of a wildlife fanatic you are, but a small pair of binocs could really come in handy. I was lucky to get given a pair of high quality binoculars for free just before I went on safari, but left to my own devices I wouldn't even have thought about it until it was too late.

*iPad. As a blogger, life on the road has become ten times easier thanks to my iPad. Together with an SD card connector, writing posts and uploading photos is much faster and has saved me a lot of hassle. I've wasted so much time searching unknown cities high and low for internet cafés, where the connection is often slow making for a very frustrating couple of hours. Sometimes hostels supply computers but often there are only two or three so you either spend a long time waiting for access or feel bad spending more than 15 minutes online. 

*Power board. Some hostels are genuinely designed with backpacker needs in mind, for instance power sockets inside personal lockers are pretty genius and personal plug sockets next to each bed are useful too. However, there are plenty of hostels out there with a severe lack of electricity points which isn't brilliant when most people have phones, iPods, iPads and cameras that need charging on a regular basis - which is where the power board steps in. 

Globetrotters: Have I missed anything? What would you have done differently if you could turn back the clock?