5 Things I Used to Do While Traveling That I NEVER Do Anymore

Once upon a time, I was a budget backpacker, traveling carry-on only (which I still do often), flying cheaply, and going at top speed that I perhaps needed a vacation from my vacation.

I was young and had the energy so it makes sense. But now, as I reach my mid-30s, while I’ll still crank out 30,000 steps while wandering the streets of Paris, there are things I won’t do anymore. Part of it is getting older, and part of it is having a bit more flexibility with time/money than I used to, but here are 5 things that I used to do while traveling that I pretty much never do anymore.

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Little baby me on my Europe backpacking trip at 22. This evening, I partied with my friend who met me here until 3 am, came back to my hostel, packed, and left for the airport to go to my next destination. 34 year old me could never.

1. Fly Home the Day Before Going Back to Work.

You won’t catch me flying home on a Sunday night unless it is absolutely necessary. Which sadly, on my last trip to the Galapagos, that was the only time we could fly home. And Monday was rough.

But if the choice is to come home late Saturday night over coming home on Sunday, I’m choosing Saturday every time. Why?

I need a buffer day between travel and work. Years ago, I could hop off my flight on Sunday night, quickly unpack/shower, and go to work the next day with 5 hours of sleep.

Now, I need my 8 hours. I do work for myself so I can be more flexible, but I still like to work during the week and enjoy my weekends, especially as Chris works during the week.

So these days, we’re usually getting back home on a Saturday so we can sleep in on Sunday, relax, do laundry, maybe run some errands, and get mentally ready for the week ahead. That buffer day is honestly clutch after a big trip, and especially important after a long day of travel.

Pro-tip: Clean your house and sheets before travel and it makes that buffer day even sweeter!

2. Book the Cheapest Flight Possible.

I used to book flights that were the cheapest possible either with points or cash. Even if it had 3 layovers and took 30 hours (which yes, I’ve done before to get to Italy when I started my backpacking trip after college).

Now that I’m a little older and have a bit more flexibility with money, I do love a good deal, but I’m not going out of my way for it.

If it’s the difference of $200 for 1 layover or 2, I’m taking the flight with just 1 layover. If it’s the difference of $300 but the travel time is shorter and I get in at a good time? I’m picking that.

I’ll even pay a bit more for a better airport layover (I avoid Atlanta at ALL costs!).

Convenience is part of the puzzle these days, especially now that I fly more than I ever have before. It just doesn’t make sense to lose a whole day to travel when I can get in during the morning, have most of the day, and get to bed early.

Or I don’t want to land home at midnight if I can get home at 5 pm, unpack, shower, have dinner, and get to bed at a reasonable time.

I realize I sound old saying all this, but it’s so worth the money to have a more convenient flight.

3. Stay in a Hotel Without Reading Reviews

Thankfully, this castle hotel had great reviews!

I learned from this mistake early on. Again, I used to pick the cheapest priced hotel/hostel and just go.

After my first trip to Italy, where half the hostels were honestly terrible (and one was even black mold covered), I learned my lesson.

ALWAYS READ REVIEWS. I’ll go to Booking.com or TripAdvisor and read recent reviews, read the worst reviews, and even look up keywords in reviews like “bed bugs” just to filter out hotels with issues.

Now, most hotels will have some bad reviews. I’ve rarely found a perfect hotel with all 5-star reviews unless it’s a brand new place. More established hotels may have had incidents with staff, some incident happened 5 years ago, etc. It happens. But reading the reviews you’ll quickly learn whether it was the hotel’s issue or the guests and whether things have improved since.

Bonus points if the hotels/hostels respond to reviews because it shows that they care and take notes to improve!

4. Not Save Up For a Trip Ahead of Time

For an African safari, I’m saving a year+ for this.

There was once upon a time where I’d have money for the flight, and I’d put the rest on credit cards as I went, knowing I’d eventually pay it off.

Now this was quite a while ago, and since then, I’ve learned to save up for the trip in advance.

Especially now that I have a lot of travel credit cards. Many of these cards have super high interest rates so I make sure to pay my cards in full each month. This means if I have a big travel purchase coming, I plan ahead of time so I can pay it off.

I budget for trips months (even years sometimes) in advance and start saving. This makes it far less stressful when you’re on the road and you know that you’re able to pay for everything rather than accruing interest.

5. Not Allowing Time to Wander

We had so much fun wandering Paris between Olympic games.

Look, I can still be bad about this. I want to see and do everything I possibly can in a place. I’ll go all day exploring and finding fun stuff. I’ll find myself taking photos constantly and filming for the blog, social media, etc.

But I started to find myself feeling like I was traveling for others and never for myself. And that is a problem.

So I try to create more space to enjoy a leisurely meal, a coffee at a cafe, or just time spent walking around for fun.

No camera, no phone, nowhere to really be. I’m not saying I do this all day, but it helps to just have time to wander and explore.

It helps keep me more in the moment, and I appreciate those times. One of my favorite moments doing this was grabbing coffee with Chris in Paris in the morning and walking along the Seine as Paris was waking up.

Yes, getting a bit older certainly has changed my travel style over the years. I used to do anything to save money and travel more. And when you’re young and don’t mind running on fumes, it can be fun!

But now that I’m older, I’m a little more high maintenance when it comes to my vacations. I’m thankful to travel a lot more than I used to, but with that came some self-reflections on what I was willing to do and not willing to do in order to enjoy my travels.

What things have you stopped doing while traveling over the years?