Travel Tips Round-Up: First Edition

Every traveler knows to seek advice from other travelers who have visited the same country. That’s one reason why group travel is so great-- you have more potential travel friends and resources to pull from. However, if you’re a little scarce in the “traveling friend” department, Wetravel is here to help!

Say hello to our first round-up of tips and lessons learned from awesome travel influencers around the world. We’ve included their Instagram names too, so you can follow along on all of their journeys.

Maxime of @andacoffee tells us, “The most important thing I learned was definitely how LITTLE I need, really. And how many amazing and beautiful places we have on Earth that we need to work so much harder to preserve.” Through her travels to over 40 countries, including Russia, Indonesia, Iceland, and Argentina, she says she has “learned how to be more patient, flexible, creative, and open.” You hear stories all the time about people who shed their material possessions and take to the open road. After traveling in Costa Rica by myself for a month, I could not agree more with Maxime. Your belongings can become a limitation as extra, unnecessary weight. I only brought one duffel bag and a backpack on my trip, but even that was excessive! Outfit repeating is okay when you’re traveling (and in regular, everyday life too), which is something many of us in ‘first world countries’ need to remember.

Another fellow traveler, Nicole of @escapeartistnyc, shares some solid advice and something that I personally believe as well. “Don’t wait to travel until you’re ‘older and have more money.’ You may have more money, but you’ll also have more responsibilities and less free time. Get out and travel now… The world won’t wait for you, and there’s so much to see!”

Many of my friends tell me that the countries I want to visit will always be there, but I find that such a statement is exactly what limits people. “Oh, I’ll make time for it once I’ve settled into this job," and “Not this year…” become all-too-common excuses.

Finally, Sara, a travel blogger for @kissfromtheworld (whose personal IG is @saraalexis), puts things into perspective for us: “Always make sure to research the culture of a place you are visiting before you go and respect the customs of that culture while you are there. Ignorance is not bliss within the world of travel.”

I could not agree more with that final statement, though I will admit that I completed my ‘cultural education’ quite differently in Costa Rica. While I tend to do my fair share of reading about a new city beforehand, this particular trip snuck up on me, and I found myself ill-versed in the culture of the Ticos. However, upon arrival, I embraced the fact that my knowledge was lacking. To catch up, I listened to others and observed.

In this way, I think researching a place is an excellent way to ensure you know what to do and not to do in a country. At the same time, there’s the old-fashioned way of learning through experience. It’s your prerogative as to which learning style suits you. Sometimes the latter is more difficult, as you have to pick up on subtle cues, but hey, it’s all a part of the fun!

If you loved this post, check out the other travel tips that we've highlighted. And make sure to come back next week for our second edition of Travel Tips Round-Up!

Featured Image Source: Ryan McGuire