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Struggles of a Traveler

The struggles of a traveler will, of course, vary from one to the other.

We all travel to different destinations, love to have different experiences and even use different types of transport.

As somebody who loves to travel by road and love to camp, I cannot have the same problems as the guy who loves to fly to his/her destinations and spend nights in 5 star rated rooms.

So the following are my personal struggles as a young and not-so-known traveler. I’ll try and give out solutions of what I think will help in evading those struggles, but feel free to go the other way if you feel it’s not the best solution.

1. Planning:

This has to be my biggest travel nightmare to date. I have never been a great planner even before I started getting interested in travel. A good number of my trips have either been canceled or ended up not going according to the intended plan simply because of this. Late arrival at destinations, unnecessary stopovers, extra budgets are just some of the stuff caused by poor planning.

Planning helps one have everything in order and be prepared for anything. Leaving late for your trip may just be because of a misunderstanding at the airport or bus station, but if you are the one that got there late then my friend you are a poor planner.

It’s good to have a tendency to plan your trips early and correctly, then follow the plan to the letter. Write down the budget, the time you want to take from point A to B, how you’ll spend your days etc. At the end of your trips, you will never have disappointments of not having visited places or having spent more than you ought to.

2. Finance:

I’m not that new to traveling. I have been doing this for some time now. When I started, I did traveling using mostly private means and with older persons hence wasn’t subjected to most of the costs. However, I have grown to not only being one of the oldest in the traveling group but to also love to experience traveling via public means. Traveling using public vehicles teaches you a lot!

This has made me more aware of my spending and budgeting. It also has made me consider camping more than I probably did a few years ago. I buy less and do more myself.

3. Lack of information:

I have learned the hard way that lack of information of your destination is not as adventurous as ‘they’ say. You need to prepare for your travels, thus having information about the destination is one of the most important things you will need as a traveler.

I once had the guts to go for an impromptu hiking I had not planned for, just woke up and was off. Not that I haven’t hiked before, but I was just in one of those moods that day.

I took my usual hiking shoes, my Maasai shuka and dressed light but warm; the usual way I have always done for a hike. The shock on me when I found out that it drizzles all day and night in that part of the world. Thank God our guide had extra raincoats for people like me.

If I had researched a little about my destination, my preparation to combat the weather may have been better.

4. Travel buddies:

Do you love traveling alone or in a group? I can do both, but I just feel warm when with company. And it’s also a moment to know more people and make friends. It’s pretty easy stuff to comprehend; if you have friends who travel much, then you will be traveling much. The struggle arises when your friends aren’t as much of travelers as you are. You are always convincing them to explore new places.

Getting friends who travel as much as, or better more, than you do is a good thing to challenge yourself to travel more. You will learn better travel practices from them and even get to know more destinations.

So, are you a traveler? What are your struggles?

You can also read  more travel stories HERE

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