7 Dumbass Travel Mistakes You Need to Avoid Making

As I travel the world, I see travellers and tourists alike making these seven dumbass travel mistakes.

Are you guilty as charged? Here is what you should be doing instead.

I haven’t included things like avoiding drinking tap water or having ice in your drinks.

Even things like overpacking don’t get a look in.

As the title suggests, DUMBASS TRAVEL MISTAKES.

The travel hacks detailed here are part of my How to Travel the World PDF/eBook, which you can download for free.

As I travel the world, I see travellers and tourists alike making some pretty classic travel mistakes, and sometimes I find myself asking, “What did you expect?”

Yes, I am Nomadic Backpacker, a seasoned traveller, backpacking the world on a budget since 1992, that’s more than 33 years, through 130+ countries and territories.

Guys and gals, are you guilty of making these very common travel mistakes?

Don’t forget to visit my Budget Travel Hacks hub page.

1. Walking around with your phone in your back pocket:

I’m going to be blunt here. You are asking for trouble!

This drives me nuts. Phone theft is rampant, yet tourists, travellers, and many locals still walk around with their phones in the back pockets of their jeans.

Solution: put it in your front pocket, in a zipped cargo pocket. I favour putting it in my zipped chest pocket on my favourite travel shirt by Craghoppers.

2. Phone on the table:

Another very dumb thing I see many people do is to take a table at a busy sidewalk cafe and leave their very expensive phone just sitting there on the table.

“The hand is quicker than the eye”.

Don’t make it easy for the opportunist.

Just avoid doing this at all costs.

3. Working on your laptops in a cafe on a busy sidewalk

Doubling up on point 2 above, so many travellers, bloggers, and digital nomads sit at the table on a sidewalk drinking their low-fat almond latte, bashing out their latest story on their 1000+ USD laptops, as people who are down on their luck and perhaps struggling to put food on the table at the end of the day, stroll past, inches away.

Plenty of rich people love stealing, too, but come on, use your brain, and don’t tempt people.

Sit inside, away from passing pedestrians! And when you need a comfort break, take your laptop with you. Inconvenient for sure, but then, buying a replacement laptop is something you probably can’t afford. Don’t get complacent.

4. Wallet in the back pocket:

Putting your wallet in your back pocket is just plain dumb. As dumb as walking around with your phone in your back pocket.

Why are you even still travelling with a wallet? You can’t have your wallet stolen when you don’t have one!

Your passport, bank cards, emergency cash stash should be carried out of sight, out of reach.

Money for the day should be in a front pocket, zipped if possible. If you need to access some more cash or your bank card, get off the street and try to be as discreet as possible.

5. Using ATMs on a busy street

Do not use an ATM on a busy street or in a metro station and definitely not at night.

Try, whenever possible, to use the ATM inside the bank. Less risk of the ATM having been tampered with. You can put your bank card and newly acquired cash away without everyone seeing.

6. Wearing a security belt on the outside of their clothing

Nothing like telling everyone where your passport and other valuable documents are.

Security wallets should be worn under your clothing at all times.

7. Walking down the street with your phone out in front of you

This annoys the fuck out of me. Plenty of people do this.

It seems everyone does it

Not only do you risk having your phone snatched from your hand, but there are the uneven pavement/sidewalks to deal with, other pedestrians, cyclists, drainage holes, and open sewers.

For travellers and tourists, there is nothing like advertising that you have no idea where you are going, walking down the street, with a heavy backpack, with your phone out in front of you.

Heavily laden, in a foreign location, AND trying to avoid bumping into people, trying to avoid falling into the open drains, twisting an ankle on the sidewalk, getting hit by a motorcyclist going up the street, the wrong way.

A bit like when we used to walk down the street with the Lonely Planet out in front of us, navigating the city using the maps.

Need the phone for navigation? Use your brain, memorise the map a little, or step into a shop just to check the route.

Can’t wait to message someone? Then you have a serious problem!