When I picked out Morocco and Spain as the next big trip, I got straight into planning. I knew I needed to get tickets to Alhambra in advance, I knew I wanted to book some of the small riads, or guest houses, in Marrakesh that fill up quickly, and I knew I’d need to plan some internal travel to get between countries.
Despite my intentions, not everything went as expected. It was a great trip, but I learned some lessons along the way—which you can perhaps learn from!
In an attempt to organize the disorganization of my trip, I rated my personal travel fails on a scale of 1 to 10. Here 1 is a mistake that’s worth it or has such a silver lining I’d do it again, and 10 is an extreme travel mishap that’s hard to bounce back from. Check out my list of travel fails and lessons learned:
- Following someone who says they’ll help you find your hotel (3/10). This is a costly mistake, but a relatively benign one. We knew that we didn’t want this random man to show us to our riad in Marrakesh. Even though we had a map, he managed to stay one step ahead of us because our taxi driver told him where we were going and he didn’t have luggage to carry. He demanded payment, and we had to give him cash to get him off our backs. It was a mistake to not get rid of him sooner and one we’d been warned about, but I admire the hustle so I’d rate it a mid-level mistake. Lesson learned: Don’t tell your taxi driver your exact destination and/or just walk the other direction to get rid of someone.
- Losing a passport (9/10). As a rule, this is a very bad thing to do. Governments don’t like it. Police departments don’t like it. Luckily, I lost mine in Spain, a relatively small country where the government recognizes emergency passports (Some countries are big! Some countries don’t recognize emergency passports! Try extra hard not to lose your passport far away from the capital city or in a place like France where they don’t recognize emergency passports). Unluckily, we had to make a pricey day trip to Madrid where the U.S. issues emergency passports, but it’s a nice place to visit. It doesn’t take that long to fill out the paperwork and they don’t charge much to get a same day emergency passport, but you can be scrutinized extra hard when coming back into the U.S. It was a hassle, but I had an understanding travel partner for which I’m grateful and honestly, it could have been worse. Lesson learned: I don’t think I learned my lesson. Frankly, there weren’t enough consequences to compel me to start wearing a travel fanny pack.
- Not finding the most famous attraction (4/10). Somehow we booked advance admission to Granada’s famous Alhambra fortress and palace complex, printed our tickets, got in line at our time slot to visit the most famous and beautiful palace, and didn’t visit the palace? It turns out we went to the wrong ruin and after hours getting lost in the huge grounds, we left. Lesson learned: Read the signs. But also, you can always tell yourself you’ll go back to visit.
Looking for Nasrid Palace
Not the famous Nasrid Palace
- Getting the train timetable wrong (5/10). Generally speaking, if there are enough trains running, this shouldn’t be an issue. For us, it caused us to miss our flight back home. Lesson learned: Don’t trust online timetables.
- Missing a flight home (8/10). This is pretty darn bad, mostly because it can be expensive. I’d never missed a flight in my life so it was an experience for me! We were lucky and only had a $100 change fee per person, but we had to book an extra hotel night. Lesson learned: Plan to get to the airport early. Even if you arrive before your flight leaves, there are rules for some airlines that prevent you from checking in. I also learned I’m capable of putting on a show for the airline staff in French! They weren’t particularly moved by my tears.
- Booking a bad hotel (2/10). Our last-minute hotel after missing our flight was fancy (thanks, Hotel Tonight), but happened to have a terrible sewage issue. It’s hard to sleep if you’re not sure if you’re sniffing sulfur… or something else. Lesson learned: Read the most recent one-star reviews. Temporary factors like construction, traffic, health hazards, or yes, sewage smell seeping into your walls might not affect the average ratings right away, but might be the very reason that a place has availability or a discount.
- Finding out the flight you missed ended up delayed (9/10). Now this caused me agony. It was bad enough that we knew the plane hadn’t left yet and they wouldn’t let us through security. I never wanted to know this and the anger I feel about this will probably never go away. Lesson learned: Don’t ever let yourself or your loved ones look into flight status after you miss your flight. Let what’s in the past stay there.
- Eating food that makes you sick for days (1/10). I’d do it again. The food in Morocco tastes great and it would be more of a mistake to not eat adventurously. Lesson learned: Gatorade packets and mini mouthwash are great travel companions.
I definitely hope to visit both Morocco and Spain again, but maybe I’ll review this as advice to myself first.
Have you made some major travel mistakes? I’m sure I have more ahead of me, so share your lessons learned in the comments.
Kayla O'Neill 