2022 was a spectacular year of travel. We took two different trips with Escape Campervans so we could try out vanlife, had some big work-related trips, snuck in a family vacation, and visited 9 different National Parks. I can look back on my photos from this year with so much joy and appreciation for all we were able to do. Like anything in life though, nothing is ever perfect, and we definitely ran into our fair share of travel snafus, missteps, inconveniences, and let’s face it, even a 2022 travel fail or two (or three if we’re being honest).
As much as I love dwelling on the “rose-tinted” side of every situation, I’ve become more and more focused on the fact that social media is one enormous highlight reel that more often than not makes the observer feel like they are lacking. Whether in style, cooking prowess, adventures, work savvy, the list goes on and on – it’s hard not to compare your life and feel “less than” what you are seeing from everyone else. Personally, I use socials mainly for education. I spend a lot of my time looking up things like “What are cool places I want to see? What do I need to know before we do this hike? How many days do I need to fully enjoy (insert place here)?” Because of my own habits, I’m trying to make a focused attempt to provide information and education to others since that’s what I love seeing on platforms. That includes sharing when things go wrong, my planning fails me, or conditions are suboptimal for a variety of reasons.
With this in mind, I set out to write a bit about our biggest travel fail (s) from 2022 and the lessons that we learned from them that we (and hopefully some of you) can take into the future.
Travel Fail #1 – Booking experiences right after we were due to arrive.
You think that living through a massive pandemic that caused us to change nearly everything about how we lived, worked, and traveled would have taught me to always keep flexibility in my plans, right? Not so with the quite strict timelines that I often create for our travels. I’m always eager to squeeze in as many amazing experiences as possible, and so I load each day with a focused (yet manageable) plan for exactly what we will see/try/accomplish. This expert planning that often works so well on trips failed not once, not twice, but a full handful of times this year.
After cancelled or postponed flights on three different trips, we ended up missing out on (nonrefundable and quite expensive) excursions on a few trips. Had I planned a buffer day, in case of travel difficulties, or just so we could relax and adjust to our new locations on day one, we likely could have avoided these issues entirely. Losing out on our first day of multiple trips was a bummer, especially because our schedule was already preplanned for the rest of the trip and we couldn’t move things around to reschedule the activities we had missed. The biggest disappointment was when we missed our connecting flight due to weather on the way to Las Vegas. The day after we arrived was supposed to be a full day kayak tour of the Colorado River, featuring a trip to the Hoover Dam, and culminating in a hot springs visit. We ended up in a hotel in Chicago that night, didn’t arrive to Vegas until the following evening, and were unable to rebook the experience. Considering we were most excited for that part of the Las Vegas visit, it was hard to start the trip on such a sour note.
Lesson Learned: Having flexibility in your schedule is good.
What I’ll do differently going forward:
Honestly, this one is hard for me to want to change. The real fault here comes down to the fact that our plane took forever to de-ice on our first flight. Though we technically made it in the nick of time to our second flight (thanks to a mad sprint through O’Hare airport), they had already closed the gate and would not let us board. However, I can admit that adding a day or two of flexibility with our plans or building in some downtime is probably a good call for future trips. Not only will that give us some wiggle room if we need to reschedule things, it might add in some more spontaneity with our trips, which is often lacking due to my need to have everything mapped out well in advance.
Fail #2: Feeling guilty about changing plans.
This could actually describe multiple experiences on our trips this year (overcrowded 8+ mile hikes, anyone?), but one sticks out more than all the others. We ended our second van trip outside Salt Lake City, Utah with a trip to Antelope Island State Park. Having checked out the photos and reviews of this park and having visited Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada earlier in the year, which had been a fantastic experience, I was decently excited for Antelope Island. The views looked incredible, we snagged a dirt cheap yet great looking campsite, and we even booked a sunset E-bike tour so that we could check out the entire island.
Perhaps the lack of other campers and visitors should have tipped us off, but we arrived at the Park naively excited for our tour and our last night of camping before flying home the next day. After a quick stop at the visitors center, we drove out to our campsite. Between the two minute walk into the visitors center and the approximately 45 seconds that I spent outside of the van checking out our site, I realized we had a huge problem: mosquitoes. We’ve backpack camped in deep woods, next to waterfalls, near marshland – all places that host mosquitoes, sometimes in droves. The mosquitoes at Antelope Island were like nothing I have ever seen. Layers and layers of bug spray did nothing to dissuade them. Every time I smacked at my legs, arms, head, my hands came away covered in dead bugs and blood, but hundreds more mosquitoes quickly arrived to take the place of any that I managed to vanquish.
We pushed aside the idea of making dinner as standing outside with our van doors open to cook was obviously out of the question, as not only would we be eaten alive, our van would fill up with mosquitoes and then we would have no chance of sleeping at all between the constant bites and the obnoxious omnipresent buzzing. We ate granola bars inside, sweating a bit as we realized we wouldn’t even be able to crack a window. Setting out for our E-bike tour, we held out hope that the assail was short-lived. I am so conflicted about writing the following, because our tour guide was one of the nicest humans I’ve ever met so I hesitate to say anything at all negative.
The Antelope Island E-bike tour travel fail:
The tour was amazing. And awful. The E-bikes were fun, our guide was super knowledgeable about the local geography, flora, and fauna. At one point, we came within 5 yards of a buffalo that was lying down near the road, which was both terrifying and amazing. We saw the best sunset that we had seen our entire trip. And the mosquitoes persisted with us through every second. The only saving grace was going as fast as possible on the E-bike so at least I couldn’t feel the bugs landing on me for short bouts of time. Every “photo opp” we stopped at featured me frantically slapping at my body and realizing that thicker denim or hiking pants would have been much more solid choices than my thin leggings.
While we managed to survive (and mostly enjoy) the tour, there was no way I could face the idea of staying at our campsite. I got in the van after our tour, looked at Bryan, and told him I would personally pay for a hotel and buy him a nice dinner if he didn’t make me stay at the Park. He was very much on the same page, and we got out of there immediately. We stayed at a very average hotel, and I have never felt such luxury in a simple shower, queen sized beds (especially after ten days of sleeping in the van), and just being indoors for a bit.
Note: If I have not scared you off, or if you visit at a different time of the year, I do highly recommend booking the Sunset E-bike tour from Antelope E-bikes. The sunset views are insane and the wildlife spotting is plentiful.
Lesson Learned: Experiences can be both incredible and miserable at the same time; it’s okay to change your plans.
What I’ll do differently going forward:
I had read a few comments referencing the bugs, but I was nowhere near prepared for what we encountered. To be fair, it seemed like the locals were also thrown by the clouds, mentioning that they were usually not this bad. I think there are two possible courses of action here: first, we could have been better prepared with bug spray, meals to eat inside, or just general toughness. Secondly, I think I would actually keep the same course of action, and tough it out for the tour and then feel absolutely no shame getting a hotel. It’s okay to bail on your original plan if it wasn’t what you thought, if you aren’t having fun, or honestly for any reason you want – it is your trip and it should be whatever you want it to be.
Fail #3: Getting stuck on what I ‘wanted’ rather than what I got.
To be totally honest, sometimes (often) the best part of travel for me is the planning. I adore the anticipation of researching new places, creating itineraries, and envisioning what each day will look like. I spend a lot of time and energy putting plans together, so when things go haywire, it’s disappointing. Nowhere was this more true than our family vacation to Florida at the end of the year. Anticipating a great getaway in the sunshine state and some quality time with family, the reality of this trip was not at all what I pictured. First, each day we spent at Universal Studios was plagued with rain – we spent so much time in the chillier than expected weather soaking wet that we all ended up with colds. These colds eventually bloomed into full blown Covid, leaving more than half of our party too sick to get out of bed, much less leave our hotel for days of park-hopping and riding rollercoasters.
The sickness would have been enough, but it was Florida in November, so we also were treated to a hurricane.
(Let me take a second here to mention that I am fully aware that being stuck in a nice hotel during a hurricane is not actually a problem. Sure, it wasn’t what we had planned, but we didn’t ever face danger, fear for our home, or lose any property. I feel for anyone who was negatively affected by the storm.)
The storm meant that the airport was closed, so our flights to South Carolina were cancelled. We were supposed to fly direct to SC for the wedding of a good college friend of mine, a half marathon in Charlotte, NC, and a few more days of sight-seeing. Instead, we got three additional days in a Florida hotel. Not the worst case, but not what we were hoping for, especially because again, we lost out on a bunch of nonrefundable deposits.
Lesson Learned: Plans change, roll with the punches and remember how much worse things could be.
What I’ll do differently going forward:
This one isn’t so much a planning or habit change as it is a mindset. Sure, the vacation we ended up with is not at all what we had planned. I’m sad my family was sick and unable to fully enjoy our trip, but honestly it could have been so much worse. Looking back on the photos, we still were able to create some fun memories, and we all stayed safe and were together. It’s a great reminder to actually look for the positives here (there’s that rose-tinted mindset coming back!) and to be thankful for what we have. If you are going to end up too sick to do anything but lay around, why not do it in the sun with strong cocktails (to kill the germs of course!)?
Looking ahead to 2023’s travel, I’m hoping not to duplicate a single travel fail, but I know that few things are more unpredictable or everchanging than the travel industry these days. I’m not convinced that we won’t have more to add in a post next year, but I’ll keep looking for the lessons learned if (and when) we do.
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