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Home » Travel Tips

May 28, 2015 by Steve Owen 1 Comment

9 Tips to Set Your Travel Expectations and Avoid a Disappointing Trip

This Isn’t What I Expected!

While walking through Venice, Italy, we heard a very loud voice talking into a mobile phone from a woman standing on one of the many beautiful canal bridges:

“No one told me that I had to walk everywhere! There are no cars here! I have had to walk all day. Just steps and alleys everywhere you go!”

I don’t want to judge (and by saying that I have obviously done so already). She might have had a hurt foot or maybe her travel agent told her there were people movers or golf carts here. Either way, it highlighted to us that people may set the wrong expectations for their trip and why it is important to do some research before you go.

9 Tips to Set Your Travel Expectations
What your friends show you…
9 Tips to Set Your Travel Expectations
What it really looks like

Another example was the man who was standing in a castle on the coast of Ulcinj, Montenegro

9 Tips to Set Your Travel Expectations
Ulcinj Castle

and again, talking loudly enough for all of us to feel his pain.

“I can’t wait to go home! I’m so tired of not having working air conditioning.”

Once again, maybe he had a bad day. Maybe his room was very hot, but here we were in Ulcinj, in a castle, on the coast of a very beautiful setting.

There are many posts about holiday makers complaining about some crazy things, and we all like to laugh about them and at them on occasion. That being said, if you plan on dropping your hard-earned dollars on a holiday, you certainly don’t want to be disappointed.

Why We Whinge

9 Tips to Set Your Travel Expectations
What I put on Facebook. Kissing the Blarney Stone in Blarney, Ireland.
9 Tips to Set Your Travel Expectations
What it looked like. Bring disinfectant…

We all whinge occasionally as it seems to be part of our nature. We got caught off guard in a beautiful area of Nicaragua when we didn’t anticipate the start of local holiday season and spent a week listening to explosions, loud celebratory gatherings on the streets and Christmas music that shook the windows of our apartment. We whinged and then with a head slap realized that we didn’t do the same thing we tell others to do. We didn’t do our research and ask the right kind of questions about where we were going and the best time for us to be there (some people would have enjoyed every minute of loudness). We acknowledged our mistake and then went outside to watch the homemade fireworks land on top of our apartment from seven p.m. till midnight (for about two weeks). Turned out to be fun with some wine and cake.

 

 

9 Tips to Set Your Travel Expectations

So here are 9 ways to set travel expectations for a more enjoyable trip and to avoid disappointment. The “you” below is a general you, not you specifically. Unless it is you.

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Filed Under: Travel Tips Tagged With: holiday disappointments, holiday expectations, holiday tips, travel disappointments, travel expectations, travel tips

March 24, 2015 by Steve Owen Leave a Comment

11 Simple Tips for Eco-Friendly Travel

Eco-Friendly Travel Santorini, a beautiful Greek island, lost some of its shine when we stumbled upon its immense landfill. Bottles aren’t recycled and the trash accumulates quickly on this very popular tourist destination. The landfill reminded us of each small bar of soap, the paper on that soap, the little plastic container of shampoo, the paper, plastic or styrofoam cups (also wrapped in plastic) used by everyone who stays in a hotel each year. The numbers quickly become overwhelming, not to mention a little depressing. For instance, Global Soap, a non-profit organization that recycles hotel soaps globally to improve health in impoverished nations, estimates that U.S. hotel visitors throw away over 2.6 million bars of soap – every day. So here are eleven easy to follow tips for eco-friendly travel that we try to follow and use for business trips, short holidays or a year long career break.

11 Eco-Friendly Travel Tips

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Filed Under: Travel Tips Tagged With: eco-friendly, eco-friendly travel, environmentally friendly travel, reduce waste when traveling, travel tips, trips for travelers

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Albanian Alps. Photo: Eeva Routio.

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  • 9 Tips to Set Your Travel Expectations and Avoid a Disappointing Trip
© Steven Owen, Eeva Routio and Coconut Compass, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Steven Owen, Eeva Routio and Coconut Compass with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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