My guests share their travel mistakes and mishaps, so we can learn from them.
Always Get the Address! by Penelope’s Odysseys
Seeing the sign “Penny” outside of baggage claim calmed my jittery nerves. It had been a rough flight from LAX to Miami, and we had been delayed a couple of hours in Miami before we arrived at Puerto Plata, DR with the sun long down. The sign was held by an employee from our rental car company. We had chosen an SUV Suzuki large enough to fit myself, my husband, adult son, adult daughter and her husband along with luggage. On first sight of the quite dilapidated car, my husband began snapping photos of the many scratches and holes where rust had bored through along with a cracked and scratched windshield. He also took pics of all the warning lights that came on when the car was started. It was the responsibility of the car rental company to give us our directions to our small five bungalow hotel Secret Garden (the name was prophetic) in Cabarete. There was a small hitch. The owner of the rental company had gone home when our flight was delayed and left two young men in charge. They were happy to dispense directions to our hotel based on the word Garden or Jardin, giving us elaborate instructions: Go to Jardin Deportiva, pass Samson’s gym, turn left, turn right, go straight.
We took off and luckily, we noticed that our gas tank was empty. I was later told this is customary in the DR for rental cars. We traveled for over an hour up and down the main road and in and out of dark neighborhoods with dirt roads. We asked strangers for directions until the fourth stranger warned us it was dangerous to ask for directions on dark roads. We turned our phones off Airplane Mode to call, but we got absolutely no service. To make things worse, the traffic on the two-lane highway reminded us of Bangkok where tiny motorcycles carrying up to four people including babies darted in and out of traffic passing on all sides. We even saw motorcycles carrying mattresses and full size refrigerators. My son, the driver, expertly weaved in and out of impending accidents while my husband intoned, “Slow down, Nick! I recommend you slow down!”
Everyone we asked gave us different directions—the Dominicans would rather give bad directions than disappoint you. Finally, we stopped at a resort and my daughter and I marched to the lobby where we were able to obtain Wi-Fi. I sent an email to the hotel owner with the subject line URGENT! WE ARE TOTALLY LOST. I was ready to hit send when my daughter insisted on writing a message, “We don’t know the address. Can you please give us directions? We are on the main road in Cabarete.” Thankfully, we were able to locate the approximate location on Trip Advisor and with more elaborate directions from the security guard we left our Wi-Fi and backtracked to a left turn we had passed long ago, a gated community called Perla Marina. Unfortunately, the security guards had not heard of Secret Garden and were blocking us from entering when a car pulled up and a voice asked, “Are you Penny?” It was the owner who alarmed by my email had decided to look for us on the road. A mile later, we were happily at home at the very “Secret” Garden.
Solution: How easy would it have been to have gotten the directions from the more than obliging owner of the hotel? Always bring a hard copy of the printed directions.
Which Train Station?
by Stacia Minter
While visiting Milan with my younger sister, we decided we would rather take an Uber to the train station instead of the metro, which took an incredibly long time with multiple line changes. So, we took our time getting breakfast, packing up our belongings, and saying goodbye to Milan. When I called the Uber, the price said around €40. However, I had entered the wrong train station. Luckily, the driver caught my mistake and had me change it as we left. The new price was over €150! I had no idea the actual train station was so far away. At that point, it was too late to take the metro and we were stuck with the Uber. Oops!
Solution: Be better at researching and looking up the correct airport/train station before deciding on transportation to get there!
Stacia’s blog is Stumble Safari
Always Research Visas
by Chelsey Schultz
I want to start off by saying that I am fortunate to be an American in that it is very easy to travel. There are many countries in the world that I can travel to hassle-free. A couple years back, I was living in South Korea for a job. At the end of my contract, I decided to spend six weeks backpacking through Southeast Asia before returning home.
At this point in my travel career, I had never needed to get a visa. I had only been to European countries, South Korea, and Japan. While I needed a work visa for my job in Korea, Americans didn’t need visas just to travel there. Therefore, I was utterly clueless as to how the visa system worked.
I spent months preparing my trip through Southeast Asia. I had booked all of my flights, hostels, long-distance buses, and tours in advance…I’m kind of weird like that. I also researched which visas I would need to travel. In Thailand, Americans can go visa-free for up to 30 days. In Cambodia and Laos, you get visas on arrival. After doing all this research, I somehow got it in my head that Vietnam was also a visa on arrival country. I soon learned I was wrong.
On the first day of my planned trip, I was supposed to fly from South Korea to Hanoi, Vietnam. I went to the airport, backpack in hand, and went up to the check-in counter with my ticket. When the gentlemen behind the desk asked for my visa, I must have looked like a floundering fish. I stuttered in shock that I thought I could get a visa on arrival. He told me otherwise and sent me out of the line.
I nearly had a breakdown at the airport. I slumped against the wall in utter disbelief that I could make such a stupid error. I had everything laid out, was on a strict timeline, but was denied boarding my flight. What’s a girl to do?
I certainly didn’t quit! This was my first big solo adventure, and I wasn’t about to let it go to waste over my mess-up. So, I pulled myself together and asked myself, “What would my mom do?”
I marched my butt back up to the counter and asked the kind gentleman behind the desk how I could fix this. He told me to go back home and get a “super-priority visa.” He explained that I could get the visa back that day as long as I went straight back and did it before noon. Then he told me that while he couldn’t get me on a flight today, I could catch the exact same flight tomorrow. He told me that he would be here tomorrow, waiting for me to come back and would set me up.
I did precisely that. I rushed to my boyfriend’s house and ordered the priority visa. All it took was going to the Vietnamese government’s visa website and filling out a straightforward form. While it was a hefty price, it was worth it to maintain the rest of my trip as planned. I was emailed my visa order within a few hours with instructions on how to get it put into my passport once I arrived in a Vietnamese port. I contacted my hostel about the delay and was able to push a tour back a day.
The next day, I was back again. Same clothes, same backpack, same me, but with a visa order and a lot of hope. That kind gentleman was indeed there and recognized me as soon as I walked up. He gave me my boarding pass and wished me a wonderful trip.
Thank goodness for that kind man, and thank goodness for super-priority visas. I may have made an egregious error, but I was lucky that I could fix it. In all honesty, I am so happy that it happened. It helped me to get over my fears of screwing up while traveling. Not only that, but remember that tour I had to delay a day? Well, because I was a day behind, I ended up on a tour where I made a fantastic friend that I saw multiple times throughout my trip. In addition, he introduced me to another girl who I will be friends with for life and even wrote for my book.
See accidents and errors happen, but as long as you persevere, you will get through it all the wiser and with a hilarious story to tell!
Solution: Do your research about visas, you may be surprised which countries allow you to roam free, which ones you can get a visa on arrival, and which ones take a more prolonged process!
Chelsey’s travel blog is The Ninja Gypsy. She also has a book Inspired: The Story of Nine Female Solo Travelers
Summer in Ireland
by Gabriel Dupén
Everything was inside my baggage for a one-year trip to an incredible island. Sunglasses, swimwear, sandals, my favorite T-Shirts, my running gear, and miscellaneous skin protectors. For at least three months, I would have a perfect European sun tanning.
Suddenly, at my arrival something went wrong. It was raining, windy and freezing. Umbrellas were shaking in every wind direction, passengers were wearing their heavy jackets, scarves, while others had gloves for their hands. Me, I was chilled, shocked, and wet. My outfit was a T-shirt, flowered shorts and running shoes. Nobody at the airport could understand whether I had flown in from a Caribbean destination or if my flight had accidentally stopped there. Apparently, this was not the fashion during the “hottest summer” in Ireland.
I had to start a tour booked in advance to visit Swords, Malahide, Howth, and Dún Laoghaire. In other words, the green and coastal landscapes of north Dublin. After searching my luggage, I only found jeans and a sports water-proof shirt, just in case of rain. The first thing purchased was an umbrella, which lasted only ten minutes after a strong wind broke it. During the ninety minutes of the tour, I was still that strange fish on the bus who had no coat. Some might have assumed that I had woken up after an Irish pub hangover. By the end of the ride, I was completely wet, shivering, and overwhelmed. The taxi driver laughed at me, the house mates at the residence, too. The stores were closed, thus, I had to wait for a new day to buy warm and abundant clothes for Ireland.
The plan of the trip was simple, to study journalism in Dublin. Although I knew beforehand about the power of the Irish weather, some local newspapers had announced the warmest summer in decades. My arrival in the city was in August, one month before my kick-off at college. During June and July, I was traveling through Italy, Spain, and Portugal where the climate was really hot. Therefore, it was assumed that according to the news, and what my body felt in those countries, Ireland could be similar.
Searching for a Floridian sun in Ireland was embarrassing, stupid and funny. On the other hand, it was comical to be known as the ‘fool of the sun’ among mates. That first day was unforgettable to see the people’s shocked faces while I was walking through Dublin Centre. Locals, especially tourists, were really struggling in the middle of that summer’s tsunami.
Nowadays, everywhere I go, a warm jacket, sweaters as well as thermal trousers, travel with me. You never know exactly how the weather in the place you’ll explore is. It’s also because I never know what’s going to happen in Ireland when I return. In the meanwhile, every arrival in Dublin airport brings more ‘fools of the sun’ searching for hot temperatures. Hence, I was not the first, unique, or the last one.
Regardless of my first inaccurate impression of the Irish climate, it demonstrated to me how blissful the rain can be. To transmit a warm hug when the day is chilling. To understand that the wind makes me focus on every step I take. After years living in Ireland, surviving one of the coldest summers was the beginning of a mindset that does not allow me to make the same stupid mistake traveling again.
Gabriel Dupén is a travel journalist, and a musician based in Ireland. He has traveled through more than 25 countries. He has completed two full marathons running 42 kilometers in Rome and in Buenos Aires, where he is originally from.
You can follow his trips on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/gadupen.83/