20 Travel Tips my Kids Learned the Hard Way
One of our favorite pastimes, when we return from our vacations, is to get together and compile updated family lists of what we call our top twenty travel tips our kids learned the hard way. This year’s winner details those “defining” moments in travel that taught them valuable lessons. A word of caution before you start reading: be aware there’ might be some autistic humor involved.
Capri, Italy: Taxi rides can provide more thrill than many theme park rides when you end up selecting the wrong driver. The ride from the port up to Anacapri did provide us with stories to tell around the Thanksgiving table for years to come.
Pisa, Italy: Some activities sound much better in theory than in real life -Climbing seven stories of the tower’s narrow stairs is one of them.
Vienna, Austria: ‘Living statues’ don’t especially like to be touched and could turn around and smack you, even chase you down the street, if you persist
Istanbul, Turkey: Always carry tissues especially when you use public restrooms with no toilet paper
Tallin, Estonia: Flies in your drink don’t necessarily qualify as a reason to complain about the restaurant in some places.We were baffled when the server just calmly fished the fly out of our son’s Coke and handed the glass back.
Tel Aviv, Israel: Quoting a SpongeBob episode in the country’s language doesn’t mean you can communicate with the locals.Our son thought it was cute to invite everyone he met to live in a sponge with him, in Hebrew, for a week.
Paris, France: No, Bidets are not French water fountains!
Guangzhou, China: Using the hotel bathroom before heading on a long day trip is an excellent idea unless you know how to use traditional restrooms that involve squat correctly.
Lanzarote, Canary Islands: Never annoy a camel unless you have plenty of wet wipes to clean off the spit!
St Petersburg, Russia: Buying souvenirs from the first vendor you encounter is a bad idea unless you are ok with overpaying for the item.
Santa Fe, New Mexico: All you can eat red pepper ice cream sounds better than it makes you feel. Our son insisted on replenishing his bowl with the spicy sweet delicacy and ended up with an epic stomach ache.
Shore trip to Nassau, Bahamas: Chocolate croissants shouldn’t be stored in a pocket when you visit beach resorts on a hot day. Needless to mention our son with autism wasn’t happy he had to walk around in a pair of sticky shorts for an entire morning.
Long Haul Flights: Game pieces and electronic devices have vanishing powers on airplanes. Nowadays we use velcro ties to keep wires and small parts attached to each other.
Any Flights: Continued pressing the flight attendant’s button will not bring him or her faster to your aisle.
Airports, anywhere: Luggage often malfunctions when stuffed to the brim. If and if that happens make sure you have plenty of duct tape to close it up.
Do you have any travel tips that you would love to share with us, feel free to add them to our ongoing and growing list
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I can definitely relate to a lot of these… my suitcase tore the last time I traveled. This was a very funny (and informative) read. Thank you!
Thank you, Brittany, for stopping by.
So glad you liked it!
You know the saying that bad experiences make for some great travel stories.