we don't always get it right
For all of the traveling we’ve done, we don’t always get it right. Three examples of this:
Story 1: When we went to Bali in 2015, we wanted to stay in an Airbnb away from the busy tourist areas. We did not plan to rent a car because we had heard that driving in Bali can be terrifying. (I can now confirm that simply being a passenger in Bali can be scary at times.)
If you ever go to Bali, be ye not so foolish.
To be clear, definitely don’t drive, but don’t also then stay out in the middle of nowhere while also being totally reliant on hiring drivers to take you everywhere. Because that’s what we did and we’ll never make that mistake again.
Story 2: On another trip, we went to Las Vegas for a couple of days in 2013, which was the start of a trip mostly spent exploring state and national parks in Nevada, northern Arizona, and southern Utah, but we were flying into and out of Las Vegas. For Vegas, we planned to just explore the Strip area and also expected that we would walk everywhere, as we do in other cities.
In retrospect, we were woefully uninformed about what to expect in Sin City.
We stayed a short distance from the Strip and quickly learned that we’d have to drive that very short distance just to explore, instead of the walking we thought we could do. Then once we got to the Strip and found parking, we realized that walking along the Strip was not like walking in most cities, as car infrastructure was prioritized over pedestrian access. Crossing roads was challenging and crosswalks were few and far between.
Still, we tried. The first day we explored up and down one side of the Strip, then the next day we explored the other. We did make use of the monorail, which was fun, but did not cover the full area and certainly did not make crossing the Strip any easier.
Also, we are not interested in gambling and, frankly, the casinos were depressing and smelled strongly of cigarette smoke and stale alcohol.
Oh well, live and learn.
Story 3: In Italy, not only did we learn to make sure we have excellent directions to our accommodations AND not to drive in Rome, we also learned that Naples and Pompeii are not short, easy drives from the Amalfi Coast, no matter what it might look like on maps. That was three very important lessons in one week.
What about you? What’s an important lesson you’ve learned while traveling?
In college, my friend and I booked lodging outside of Prague because it was significantly cheaper and we were frugal college students. We arrived only to find it was pretty remote, difficult to get to, and very awkward accommodations. We stayed one night and promptly went to the hostel in city center.
On our trip to Italy, we learned that it is anxiety-inducing to drive through Milan in the rain at rush hour and that drives in the countryside can be slowed by herds of sheep 🐑 using the road. (We preferred the experience with the sheep.)