By Mashum Mollah
Being a tourist is a wonderful thing. It gives you the chance to leave your home country and explore the world that lies beyond the borders. It is a wonderful chance to interact with different people, different cultures, try different foods, and taste life in a way that you may have not been used too since you’re born.
However, being a tourist also comes with quite a number of challenges and some you have to watch out for if you want to get a good experience in the places you will be traveling to. With that said, we would like to highlight a few mistakes that tourists make when they travel to foreign lands, and if this could be avoided, then you may have a very wonderful experience during your expeditions.
Planning too much:
Planning is important when it comes to visiting a new country, and as a tourist, you have to ensure that you plan every aspect of your trip. The problem, however, comes when you want to take too much time in the planning and you want to go through every item in finer details to prepare for the trip. This may sometimes be a complete waste of time because you may reach your destination and find that things have changed or they are not as you had expected them to be. The best thing would be for you to consider some planning but not spend too much time on it. This may breed inaction which may not be good for your trip.
Trying to see all the attractions:
It is also very common for many tourists to try and see every attraction available in the destinations they headed to. In the end, they normally end up just visiting a few of them, of which they don’t usually get a very good experience because they were in a hurry to jump to the next destination. You should know that there are a plethora of destinations in whichever places you will visit and sometimes it is not realistically possible to visit all of them and get the most of them.
The best thing you can do is to plan and select just a couple of places and visit for maximum pleasure. When you try to visit every other available place, you stretch yourself thin and you will not have the contact time you ought to have with each place to get the most out of it. Remember, you can always plan another visit and come and tour the places you might have not had a good time during your initial visit.
Exposing your items for theft:
It is always sad to lose your items during your travel. Whether its money, your phone, or your travel documents, losing these can sometimes be devastating and they can interfere with your entire traveling experience for that trip. However, a good number of tourists are never careful with how they handle their personal belongings especially their mobile phones, the laptops, and their money while on the streets.
You need to remember that bad guys are almost in every place and if you’re reckless with your items, you’re giving them an invitation to come and take them. Therefore, as a tourist in a foreign land, you must take every precaution necessary to ensure that none of your belongings are exposed to unnecessary risks.
Changing money at the airport:
It may sound convenient to exchange your money the moment you land using the exchanges at the airport. However, this is not a very good idea if you want real value for your money. Most of the exchanges that the airport usually have very high rates and when you exchange your money with them, you will essentially be losing a good part of your money.
The best thing to do is to wait and go to the exchanges in downtown or visit any of the commercial banks to get the local currencies. The rates you find with these ones are relatively low and you can be sure that you will find good value for your money. How convenient and inviting it may be, always make sure that you don’t use the exchanges at the airport.
Being unfriendly to the locals:
Visiting a foreign country and being unfriendly to the locals is not only rude but exceedingly annoying. As a foreigner, you have some degree of duty to show respect to the locals in the places that you visit. It is just fair that you be kind to them and you talk with them nicely even if you think you’re coming from a superior country than their or you are well endowed economically and so you think of them as being poor. If you want a good experience with the locals, all you have to do is to be kind and be nice to them. Don’t look down upon them for any reason or in any way. This the only way you can get the most out of your visit and learn as much as you possibly can from the cultures of the people that you visit.
Not having travel insurance:
The number of things that can go wrong when you travel is uncountable. Some of these things will imply that you will have to spend a lot of money you did not plan for. The best protection against such expenses is to have travel insurance. However, a good number of travelers never consider going for travel insurance even though its importance has been preached over and over again.
Things such as emergencies at home requiring you to cut short your trip will imply that you will need to get air tickets that you did not plan for. Falling ill or running into any medical emergency may also imply that you will have to get some money from your pocket for the medical care. In the end, you may end up spending so much money and not having a very good experience from your trip simply because you failed to have travel insurance.
If you want to have peace of mind and not worry about losing money when traveling, always ensure to board the plane with travel insurance. This is just like walking into a minimum deposit casinos and playing without a plan. You are exposed and you will lose a lot of money.
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