7 TRAVEL FAILS AND HOW TO RECOVER FROM THEM LIKE A BOSS

It should come as no surprise that I have made maaaany travel fails over the course of my globetrotting. I am human after all. Most of them were embarrassingly obvious fails that could have been avoided very easily. However, some of them were 100% out of my control. It is normal for shit to hit the fan. Therefore, I am here to share 7 of my biggest travel fails and how to recover from them like a boss should they happen to you.

1. You miss your flight

This is the most common travel fail to happen to you on your journey. Mostly because various factors leading to a missed flight are out of your control. Weather conditions, aircraft maintenance, and passenger illnesses are things you simply cannot plan for. If you snooze your alarm, forget to check-in online, and run to the gate in a flurry, that’s on you girl. However, if you are delayed on your first flight for one of the reasons above, and somehow miss your second, third, or fourth connecting flight, I feel your pain. This has occurred to me multiple times over the course of my travels. Before it became normal to me, I used to immediately resort to panic mode. I am here to tell you, it will all be okay. I promise.

First and foremost, listen to the cabin crew for instructions. If you cannot hear, or better yet understand, what your crew is saying, head immediately to your airline counter in your arrival airport. There should be signs and security guards everywhere if you have questions. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT attempt to make your flight if you do not have ample time. The gates close 15-25 minutes before take-off. And once they are closed, it is like attempting to break the seal of a hundred year old pickle jar. Impossible. Accept you are going to miss your flight and move on. The airline will be more than willing to assist you! Even the budget airlines. Each airline normally has alliance airlines of which you can be placed on the next flight to your destination. If not, however, the airline will get you on a flight best fit for your schedule. If the next flight possible leaves the following morning or afternoon, most airlines will provide you with a complimentary stay at a nearby hotel.

TIP: Consider all available options when choosing your replacement flight. For example, on my last leg of my journey home to California, I missed my connecting flight from Honolulu, Hawaii to San Francisco, California. The next flight I could board would have me landing at home the next day. As much as a free hotel in Hawaii sounded, I was desperate to get home after ten months of living overseas. Flying into SFO was out of the picture for that day, however there was a plane departing in two hours that would arrive at Oakland International Airport. Seeing that the airport was still in decent proximity to my final destination, this option was perfect!

2. You lose your passport

We all tell ourselves, “This would never happen to me”. Especially when it comes to our most prized travel possession: our passport. I know, I said it too. Sadly, I proved myself wrong. I was returning to London after spending two weeks in Indonesia for my 25^th birthday. Having been nearly denied entry into Heathrow the last time I arrived into London, I was petrified when waiting in line for customs. I was sweating, breathing much too quickly, and began feeling faint. Once I was called, and easily cleared through the gate, my entire body went into after shock. I just sat down, ordered some food right then and there in the airport arrival terminal, and took a breather. Unknowingly, I forgot to take my freshly stamped passport and place it back in my purse. I was just clinging to it, and the promise I would live to see another day in London. I must have let go solely to eat the food I so desperately needed and left it in plain sight on the table.

After eating, I immediately raced home to my cozy bed in London, forgetting about all of the trauma I had just experienced. It wasn’t until days later that I realized I had misplaced my passport. I was distraught! All of my passport stamps that held so many memories were now lost forever.

The first thing to do when you lose your passport is to report it missing, whether it has been lost or stolen. This is important! {as I will explain} You can do this on the government website of whatever country you are in. You will then need to apply for a new passport. Depending on how long you are spending time in the country you are currently, you can get a full passport {which takes weeks to obtain} or an emergency passport. These are expensive, but will get you out of the country you are in and on a plane home.

Fill out the correct paperwork, take two new passport photos, pay the fee {$150ish for a new passport}, and bring it all to the embassy. Now, here is where the importance of reporting your passport missing comes in handy. I had told the embassy my passport was missing, and provided them with copies of my original passport {another thing you should always have when traveling}. At first, they told me they did not have it on record at the embassy and was most likely not going to show up. However, a few hours later when called up for my final steps of purchasing a new passport, two young men working in the office recognized my face and asked if I had a reported missing passport. The stories matched up, my copies of my original passport were handed around a second time, and by the end of the afternoon I was holding my most prized possession once again. I couldn’t believe someone had handed in my passport, and not run off to start a new life in America. Then again, these days, why would they? It restored my faith in humanity. And allowed me to continue making memories with each new stamp.

3. Your bags do not arrive with you

You arrive in a new country after {most likely} hours of flying, connecting flights, and layovers. All you want to do is change into your most comfortable sweats, put on a fresh new shirt, rip off your bra, and say goodnight to everyone and everything in sight. Unfortunately for you, this is not on the itinerary. My living nightmare came to life this past year when I arrived Madrid, Spain. Flying from London, I had a connecting flight in Brussels before arriving to my final destination, Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport. I walked off the plane, ran to the carousel and waited for my bag. And I waited. And then, I waited some more. There were a few other unfortunate souls that had the same bewildered look on their faces. I began following them one by one to the baggage counter.

I found out through broken English that my airline had multiple baggage losses {250 in the end to be exact}. And mine was one of them. Great. Madrid was the first stop on my three month journey through Europe, and already there were hiccups. I was told to go to my hostel and that I would be contacted the following day. I was given a phone number to call and a claim number to reference whenever I spoke with someone at the airport. I had not prepared for this. I was hungover, had just experienced two of the most turbulent flights of my life, and did not even consider what I would do if I lost my baggage.

I arrived at my hostel and desperately tried to convey the importance of answering the phone if it was the airport calling about my bag. Well, obviously they already knew the importance of answering the phone. They ran a successful business after all. I immediately ran out of my hostel and went to the local convenience store. I purchased shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, a toothbrush, and soap. I then stopped by the closest clothing store to pick up clothes for the next day and a couple pairs of underwear. After my daily shop, I saved all of my receipts. I woke up the next day to an angry airport employee telling me he would call me when my bag arrived and that I did not need to keep pestering them. Round two of my shopping began where I bought another outfit for the following day and some shorts to wear to bed. Again, I kept all receipts.

By the third day, I was told my luggage would arrive the following day! Just in time for my train to Barcelona. I purchased one more clothing item and a phone charger as I anticipated the arrival of my belongings.

I was able to get fully reimbursed for all of the items I purchases, with the exception of the phone charger. Keep all of your receipts, your reference/claim number, and email your airline. They should happily provide you with assistance, it may just take a few months to get that jangle back in your pocket.

4. You forgot to book accommodation

Another moment I am not extremely proud to share was the day I forgot to book accommodation in Dubrovnik. I had been planning over three months of flights, accommodation, and travel activities all on my own and I happened to forget to book a place to lay my head at night after a week long journey on a boat in Croatia. Bags were packed, tabs were paid, and I sat there scrolling through my email looking for my booking confirmation for a hostel in Dubrovnik. Of which I never booked. I got off the boat and stood there on my phone as I began searching Airbnb.com and Hostel.com for alternatives. Luckily, Airbnb pulled through as always! Airbnb was my absolute favorite travel resource this last year. Hostels are also a great choice for last-minute bookings. And you never know what you’re going to get with hotel searches for ‘day-of’ reservations. It is going to cost you more than you would normally be willing to spend. However, with all of the housing resources these days, you won’t have to worry about sleeping on the streets!

5. You become extremely ill

If you are traveling for an extended period of time, it is almost inevitable that you are going to fall ill at some point. Consider yourself lucky if it happens to just be a cold. This last year abroad I experienced severe eczema, a blistering heat rash, food poisoning, a staph infection, and multiple colds. These were spread out over Indonesia, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Luckily for me, Australia and the United Kingdom have great health care options and I was seen and treated within an afternoon. In Indonesia, I was in the middle of an island without access to decent health care. Don’t get me wrong, I was forever grateful for the small pharmacy that provided me with temporary relief!

This is a great opportunity to introduce travel insurance! Which is something everyone should purchase before traveling the globe. My travel insurance covered me for any upfront cost of seeing a General Practitioner in a foreign country. Even though it only cost me about $60 USD in Australia and was free in the UK, knowing I had reimbursement if I wanted it was great. And if anything more serious were to happen, I would be covered as well! Up to thousands of dollars! I used World Nomad Travel Insurance based off of recommendations from other travel bloggers.

6. You are stopped by customs

This may not have been as relevant ten odd years ago, however immigration is a hot topic at the moment all over the world, and the chances of being stopped by customs is increasing. And like all of the previous travel fails on this list, I have some first-hand experience. Flashback to Heathrow Airport, February 2016. I had just taken two flights traveling from California, to begin my year-long travel journey around the UK and beyond. Wide-eyed {okay more like glossy eyed} and fearless {also, not really true but I had somehow believed this to be so}, I approached the woman at the UK border. I had all of my documents prepared and I was more than willing to answer any question she may have. My confidence was enough to make her raise an eyebrow. Without going into too many personal details, she was unhappy about the information she received. A quick radio call turned into holding me to the side of the border patrol line which then turned to me being detained in a separate customs department which eventually led to interrogations and a lot of down time while I waited to find out whether or not I was going to be deported. There were tears, fears, and many a fingerprint documented that day. I wound up being detained for close to five hours. I was eventually allowed to stay {thanks a lot Heathrow, cue eye roll} THAAAANK GOD. But now I assume you must all be thinking I have a criminal record, or some other ghastly thing that would enable the UK border patrol to keep me hostage. The simple fact remained that I was not a criminal, I simply wanted to visit the land across the pond. However, I do not blame them for doing their job. Towards the end of my visa, I was thinking of every which way I could muster up a few more months in the country. In the end, maybe they should have deported me. Because now my #lifegoalz are geared towards finding a way back to London. And I am sure customs will have a field day once they see my eager face again.

7. You get robbed

Depending on where you are traveling to, this last travel fail may be more or less relevant. However, bad things happen everywhere you go, so it’s always good to be prepared.  While celebrating turning a quarter of a century in Bali, Indonesia, my hotel room was ‘broken into’ and I had some possessions stolen. I use the term ‘broken into’ loosely seeing as the door to my villa was left unlocked by *cough, cough* me. And that’s embarrassing. Lesson number one: no matter how fancy, secure, or secluded your hotel may feel, always lock your doors. I didn’t expect someone to have access to my private villa, but I woke up in the morning to find my sliding glass door fully open. My partner at the time had a few major possessions stolen which landed us at the Ubud Police Station for half an afternoon as we attempted to translate the events that took place leading up to the robbery. If you have travel insurance {which you will, because I have now given you TWO reasons as to why you need it}, you must file a police report stating that your belongings were stolen. This way the insurance company can verify that you are telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth when you tell them your $1000 + laptop went missing. And you would just loooove for them to replace it, please and thank you. Keep receipts of anything you wish to claim for insurance purposes as they company will always as for a proof of purchase! Luckily, most things are verified online these days so just flag the receipt in your email.

We all make mistakes when traveling. I do not proclaim to be a perfect traveler, even now, and you can see by this list I was far from it when I began life as a full-time traveler. But that’s one of the marvelous things about adventuring out into the world. You are faced with obstacles and forced to handle them. I learned something new about myself in each of these less-than-ideal situations, and will forever hold on to the lesson it taught me. You can believe I never board a plane without an extra set of clothes, I triple check that I’ve locked my doors, and I have every kind of antibiotic on speed dial. When it all comes crashing down, keep in mind that one day it’ll make for a great story. #NoShame

What are some of your biggest travel fails?