What Would I Do Differently?
Well, first and foremost...I would've kept a much tighter grip on my cell phone on the Tube in London.
Hindsight is 20/20, and looking back, I can see exactly what I did wrong. I had become a little complacent by that point in the trip and wasn't paying nearly enough attention to what was happening around me.
I was standing there looking at the Tube map with my phone in one pocket and my power bank in another — visibly connected by a cable.
Basically, I was a pickpocket's dream.
It was my last real day of travelling and, for the first time on the entire trip, I was with someone else. I let my guard down.
Not an excuse. Just an explanation.
There are definitely a few other things I'd change too...
Those Flight Times...
I put an enormous amount of thought into where I was flying.
I should've put a little more thought into when I was flying — and how far the airport was from my hotel.
My flight from Nairobi to Istanbul was scheduled for 3:35 AM.
Great idea, Laurel.
The day before, I'd left my hotel at 5 AM for my safari, spent several hours driving each way, explored all day and eventually made it back to the hotel with barely enough time to relax before my driver came to take me to the airport.
I think I arrived around 10:30 PM.
Then my 3:35 AM flight was delayed until around 5 AM.
Other than an hour or so of sleep in the safari vehicle on the drive back, I'd basically been awake for more than 24 hours.
And apparently I didn't learn my lesson immediately.
My flight out of Istanbul left at 6:50 AM.
When I booked it, I hadn't really considered that Istanbul Airport was about a 45-minute drive from my hotel. That meant leaving shortly after 3 AM...after another full day of sightseeing.
Sleep was apparently optional on this trip.
I survived, obviously, but now I try to look at more than just the flight price. Departure time, airport location and how much sleep I'm sacrificing all matter too.
Do I always follow my own advice?
Not exactly.
I'm still a sucker for a cheap flight.
Hotels — I'd Actually Keep This the Same
Hotels are probably the one area where I wouldn't change much.
Could I have saved a little money by checking more booking sites? Probably.
But I'm a devoted Booking.com user, and I booked every hotel for this trip through them.
I still researched each hotel on several different sites and read plenty of reviews before booking. I just liked having all of my reservations sitting together in one app.
The Genius rewards didn't hurt either.
Sometimes convenience is worth a few extra dollars — especially when I'm moving between countries every day or two and already have enough information floating around in my head.
Getting From the Airport...A Few Lessons Here
Ground transportation gave me a couple of my more expensive learning experiences.
Santiago
When I arrived in Santiago, I wasn't wearing my glasses when I paid for my taxi.
You can probably see where this is going.
I was rushing because I wanted to catch a Hop-On Hop-Off bus that was about to leave, so instead of stopping, getting my glasses and actually checking the payment terminal...
I paid it.
And ended up paying about ten times more than I should have.
Thankfully, my credit card company reimbursed me.
Still. I absolutely should've known better.
Dubai
Dubai was a completely different kind of transportation mistake.
I originally booked a car to take me from the airport to the Dubai Frame, then the Burj Khalifa and back to the airport.
The trip was supposed to cost around $45 CAD.
My driver asked if I wanted him to show me a few other places around the city.
Well...of course I did.
Before I knew it, I was getting my own little sunrise tour of Dubai.
The final bill?
About $146 CAD.
Did I get ripped off?
Probably.
Do I regret it?
Not really.
I had an awesome time, saw places I never would've seen otherwise and got some fantastic photos and video from my first visit to the Middle East.
My driver even helped me out when security at the Burj Khalifa wasn't quite sure what I was doing there so early in the morning. He held my GoPro while I took photos with my phone and we had a great conversation as the sun came up over the city.
I even tipped him on top of the fare.
Could I have arranged something cheaper ahead of time? Absolutely.
But I hadn't planned on taking a city tour at all.
Sometimes the unplanned stuff ends up being one of my favourite parts.
Transit Passes — Useful, Even When I Didn't Use Them
A lot of my city passes included local transit, and in other places I bought Hop-On Hop-Off passes.
Then I proceeded to walk everywhere.
Very logical.
In Istanbul and Prague, I barely touched the transit even though I had access to it. I'd deliberately booked hotels close to the attractions I wanted to see, so walking usually made more sense.
Still, I liked knowing transit was there if I needed it.
Berlin was probably the one place where I could've skipped the Hop-On Hop-Off bus and just bought the regular transit pass. I used both, but I also walked quite a bit between attractions.
That's something I look at more carefully now — whether I'm buying a pass because I'll actually use it or because it feels reassuring to have it.
Packing...Oh Boy
This is where I could've made some serious improvements.
I brought too much.
Plain and simple.
By the end of the trip, my backpack and travel vest were absolutely bursting at the seams and weighed about 45 pounds combined.
For someone supposedly travelling light with only a personal item, I had somehow missed the "light" part.
Most of my overpacking fell into three categories: clothing, electronics and accessories.
Clothing
I wore flip-flops on the plane.
Yes, I know.
And yes, that meant walking through airport security barefoot a couple of times.
I also packed a pair of running shoes that stayed in my backpack for almost the entire trip.
There was really only one time I would've liked to have them — at Taronga Zoo for the Tree Walk. Unfortunately, I didn't think about changing into them until after I'd already locked my backpack in the airport locker.
Perfect timing.
So, for almost 200 kilometres of walking, I wore my approximately $15 Temu thong flip-flops.
And you know what?
They were great.
I used to swear by my Columbia flip-flops because they had almost hiking-boot-level tread, but they stopped making them. I eventually found two pairs on Temu for around $30 and loved them.
My runners didn't take up a huge amount of space, thankfully, but I honestly would've been fine without them.
Too Many "Just in Case" Clothes
I never wore my windbreaker.
It lived inside my stuffable neck pillow, so it didn't really bother me, but in future I'd probably bring a lightweight rain jacket that packs into its own pouch instead.
I also brought disposable rain ponchos and never touched them.
After seeing what those ponchos are actually like, I don't think I'll bother again. A packable rain jacket can handle rain and work as a regular jacket.
One item. Two jobs.
Much better.
I also brought three long-sleeved shirts — two thin ones and one slightly thicker one.
I could've brought one.
If it got cold, I already had a hoodie.
Same thing with pants. I probably only needed the pair I wore while flying.
Of course, my brain immediately says, "But what if something happens to them?"
And that's how overpacking starts.
One "just in case" item doesn't seem like much.
Twenty "just in case" items suddenly fill an entire backpack.
And Then There Were the Accessories...
Oh, the accessories.
I brought a ridiculous number of camera accessories.
Several selfie sticks.
A three-metre Insta360 invisible selfie stick.
GoPro mounts.
Attachments.
Microphones.
Adapters.
Basically every little gadget I could possibly convince myself I might need.
And most of it never left my bag.
That giant Insta360 stick was particularly annoying because it would only fit diagonally across my backpack.
Did I use it?
Nope.
Because this was my first vlogged trip, I wanted to be prepared for absolutely everything.
Instead, I carried everything.
There's a difference.
I still have a tendency to bring some of the same accessories on trips and never use them, so this is clearly still a work in progress.
My new approach is to look for multi-purpose accessories — one selfie stick or mount that works with several cameras and my phone instead of carrying separate pieces for everything.
I Also Needed Better Organization
Even some of the things I did need were surprisingly hard to find.
I had a cord organizer and various little bags, but somehow I was constantly digging around looking for something.
Especially on flights.
I'm pretty sure I brought a Bluetooth adapter so I could connect my AirPods to the in-flight entertainment.
Did I ever figure out where it was and actually use it?
No.
I also seemed to spend half my flights hunting for my corded earphones.
The solution isn't necessarily fewer organizers.
I think it's better organizers...and actually remembering which pocket I put things in.
My Dad's Travel Vest
My travel vest was incredibly useful, but it became another storage problem.
It had so many pockets that I was constantly patting myself down trying to remember where I'd put things.
Passport?
Nope.
Power bank?
Wrong pocket.
Earphones?
Good luck.
It also became ridiculously heavy because I was using the pockets to spread out the weight from my already-overstuffed backpack.
But I don't regret wearing that vest for a second.
It had belonged to my dad, who passed away less than two weeks before I left on this trip.
Taking his vest with me meant I got to bring a little piece of him around the world.
I took him places he'd never had the chance to see.
So no matter how heavy that vest became, that is one thing I wouldn't change.
So...What Would I Actually Change?
Mostly?
I'd bring less stuff.
By the end of the trip, I couldn't even squeeze chocolates into my backpack without turning them into one delightful Belgian chocolate ball of goodness.
I would've loved a little more empty space for souvenirs.
I still managed to bring home keychains for my daughter's collection and plenty of pins for mine, so clearly I found room when properly motivated.
I'd also like to say that I'll plan better flight times from now on.
Except I've planned several trips since this one and...well...
I'm still working on that.
At least now I pay more attention to the timing and not just the price.
Would I change any of the places I visited?
No.
There are some places I may never go back to, but I'm still glad I went.
That's part of travelling for me.
Every trip teaches me something — what I love, what I don't, what I need, what I absolutely do not need and what I'll probably ignore my own advice about the next time.
Apparently, travelling is one very long learning curve.
And I'm still learning.
Electronics
This category got heavy very quickly.
I brought:
- a 13-inch PC laptop
- an iPad Pro
- my iPhone
- a GoPro
- an Insta360
- several power banks
- and enough cords and accessories to open a very small electronics store
I brought the laptop because I needed the ability to remote into my work computer if something came up. I couldn't reliably do that from my iPad.
In the end, I barely used it.
I also barely used my Insta360.
I'd bought it shortly before the trip and hadn't really learned how to use it properly yet. This was also my first attempt at vlogging a big trip, and I quickly discovered that trying to operate an Insta360, a GoPro and my phone while also actually experiencing the place I was visiting was a bit much.
Learning one camera would've been enough.
I brought several power banks too — a MagSafe 5K, two other 5Ks and a 20K that could charge multiple devices.
My future goal is to simplify all of this.
Fewer electronics. Fewer cables. More things that can do multiple jobs.
At least that's the plan.