^{The Harding Letter}

23rd Sept 2023

The last thing you want to be doing on your travels is making mistakes.

These mistakes can cost YOU time and money.

Time and money are also two of the biggest key factors that allow you to travel.

Making these mistakes can have an impact on your adventures and can sometimes even ruin your trip.

Whether you travel once a week, once a month or even once a year, the time you take to immerse yourself in your adventures should be enjoyed to the fullest.

So how do you know what mistakes to look out for?

If you’ve seen any of my YouTube, Podcast or other social content, you’ll know Ive been in the long term travel space since 2012/13.

I have made all the mistakes you can think of!

To help you with your upcoming trips, Ive created 10 of the most common mistakes that applies to all sub-categories of travel:

• Backpacking (solo & group travel)

• Seasonal (both summer and winter seasons)

• Holidays/vacations

• Business trips

• Events, expeditions & more

So let’s begin!

1. Overpacking

Its so tempting to want to pack your whole wardrobe (don’t worry, I’ve been there too) but remember, you are going to need to carry your bags the entire trip.

This means lugging it across all the different terrain you’ll be passing through:

• Beaches, boats and ferries

• Cities & airports

• Mountains, hills and slopes

So keep this in mind with how much to pack, how you’ll be carrying your bags and what terrain you’ll be travelling through.

Helpful tip: Packing 7 days worth of clothes then re-wash every week!
I like to leave space in my bag to pick up items on my trip (for nostalgia & the memories)

Also airlines are known for additional fees when going over specified luggage allowances.

2. Not informing your credit/debit card company of your travel plans

Ok, I will definitely own up to this one!

In June 2010 I went on my first group holiday trip back with my friends from school, we spent a week in Kavos, Greece. I completely forgot to tell my bank and they froze my card the day after.

My Barclays debit card, locked out - not good.

So had to ring them to UNLOCK it and provide them with my trip details

Again, this was time wasted on my trip and money spent in ringing them up

Back then international calls cost me a fortune too - also not good.

Its a small task to complete and can save you so many issues down the road.

Helpful tip: When talking with your bank, ask them if any foreign card fees when using your card.

Also check if any fees for withdrawing money from foreign ATM machines.

3. Not checking your cell phone plan

Its super helpful to know what your cell phone plan covers (calls, texts, data etc) and especially in the country you’ll be travelling to.

The LAST thing you want is to get billed double or 3 times the amount of your plan because you’ve used up or gone over your original plan.

This happened to my brother James when he went on his last trip to Kos, Greece. His bill was over £149 - Ouch.

Helpful tip: Use wifi in public areas: restaurants, cafe’s, lounges etc

Be careful when using passwords on public networks, be safe with your delicate information.

Also download all your itineraries, maps etc to use while offline.

4. Not checking your visa requirements

This HITS me so hard in the feels.

This happened to me last year due to not checking the small print on my visa, as a result I got locked out of Australia for 6 months.

Being turned away at a foreign checkpoint or boarder will be time consuming, expensive and can even put an end to your trip!

So to avoid this happening, research the visa requirements for the country (or countries) you’ll be travelling to.

For Australia we have the home affairs website, here’s the link below:

Home affairs website for visas (click here)

For more locations across the world, check the link below to help with your search:

https://www.visahq.co.uk/citizens/

Helpful tip: The more research you do the better you’ll feel travelling to your desired country as you know whats expected of you.

No nasty suprises, you’ll feel more confident, excited and adventurous when going to that country.

5. Not buying travel insurance

Travel insurance covers important features that you’ll definitely want to consider for your trip. For example:

• Cancellation fees

• Lost luggage or gadgets

• Accidents, injuries

• Travel delays, cancelations etc

For the sake of 30 minutes of your time & to avoid future stress of something that could go wrong. Get covered

Here’s some providers that I’ve used in the past & recommend

https://www.safetywing.com (insurance for nomads)

https://www.insureandgo.com (Variety of cover)

Helpful tip: Some plans will offer emergency health expenses for your trip.

Check out this type of cover for your policy if you need.

6. Not keeping track of your reservation details

It is such an unnecessary task to locate your reservation details via rummaging through all your bags.

Skip this time-consuming task all together and simply put it in a specific area of your bag.

This will help you to feel less stressed with losing it and provide a faster method to give to your chosen accomodation provider.

Helpful tip: Add more flexibility to this and download a digital copy to your phone or laptop, just incase you lose the paper copy.

7. Not grabbing some foreign currency for your destination

You’re going to need some foreign currency for the place you’ll be travelling too.

Most vendors do accept cards BUT its always a good idea to have a backup of cash.

Taxis, food & drink, and in case of emergencies.

To get the best exchange rate for your money, research the rates for:

• Banks in your local hometown

• Post office or supermarkets etc

Helpful tip: To assist you in finding the best exchange rate, download “XE” on the app store.

Benefits:

• Compare multiple foreign currencies from across the world

• See what is the best rate to get for your money

Here’s the link if you want to have a look at it:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/xe-currency-money-transfers

8. Not setting enough time aside to commute to flights

Ok, this is a BIG ONE!

Have you ever seen that one person sprint across the airport to get to his departure gate before the door closes? YES, I have done that. In Melbourne airport specifically.

Don’t worry, I just about made it with seconds to spare - close call.

To avoid this, arrive early to your chosen airport and check into your flights online if possible.

Take into consideration how long it’ll take you to commute from your house to your chosen airport, consider:

• Traffic and public transport delays

• Check in times, what time you can drop your bags off

Helpful tip: For easier access, download your flight companies app (or the browser), check-in in advance and consider the size of airport you’ll be using.

9. Packing in too many excursions & activities into one trip

This one sounds a bit counter-intuitive right?

Surely you’d want to do as much as you can in your trip?

For me, I’ve experienced both sides of the coin with this.

I love doing new experiences and unlocking new travel adventures - 100% TRUE

But the more excursions I’ve done has certainly taken away that time to fully immerse myself in those experiences, to meet new people and to enjoy every bit of those moments.

This happening to me when I was travelling Queensland, Australia. I did 4 different excursions in one week in Airlie Beach and by the end I was shattered!

This will vary massively with what you desire to do on your trip but I always like to say less is more

And its easier on excursions that cancel and takeaway (the latter often costs time and money also)

Helpful tip: As recommendation start with 1 trip, 1 activity, 1 excursion

See what you like, see what you feel, see who you meet on that trip

10. Not keeping your valuables safe

This is ONE of the worst things that can happen to you on your travels.

Whether it be theft, loss or damage to your valuables, you need to look after them.

In todays world we put so much trust into our phone, laptops, gadget and items.

For example, imagine losing your phone that has access to the following:

• Important documents (reservations, taxis, flights)

• online banking (log in details, passwords)

• Pictures/videos (For memories)

There are always ways to avoid this, for example purchasing an anti-theft backpack or bag.

The bought one of these 2 years ago and its honestly been one of my best investments for my travels (I take it everywhere I go daily)

For all the products that I’ve used for the last decade of travel, see my amazon shop below:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/benjaminhardingx

Helpful tip: Lastly backup your photos and videos to icloud and download “find my iphone” on the app store.

If you have android or Samsung then source similar app to help.

So there you have it!

Thats the full 10!

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this one, my friends.

See you in the next letter 🙂 

Have a great week.

- Benjamin Harding