Skipping meals.

Many times I get back to the hotel after work, thinking that I am going to change my clothes and go find a nice restaurant. But then I sit down for a minute and can't talk myself into going out again (especially if I have a good parking space....)

By the end of the week I am often down to just eating breakfast (maybe).....

If I'm going to be honest, getting hammered in a premium cabin and eating too much food. Happens every time.

Eating too much garbage food in the lounges around the world.
Followed by drinking Coca Cola.

1. Bringing back too much airplane and hotel junk that I don't need or use.
2. Buying souvenirs I have no place to display or keep.

Now that you say it, that is one of my regrets. I travel to many places with people struggling to make a living depending on tips and I always wish I had left more. I like to think I made a difference.

I regret not enough hookers and blow.

Lining up too many car destinations within the metro and trying to hit them all. Could be food, could be shopping (record stores are a weakness), could be a museum or some tourist site. Thanks to the Internet it's easy to research beyond your time capacity and try to do too much.

If you superimpose that onto a real sprawler city, like Dallas or Houston or Phoenix or even Kansas City, the trip will inevitably become too drive-bound and the traffic stress will get to you. Just like commuting at home. @:-) Places like New York or Paris or Bangkok have transit alternatives that would save a lot of the stress.

With food I try hard to avoid the chains and find something unique. It leads to eating too much but you want to make the calories count (i.e. no McFood).

Kinda reminds me of that Kardashian episode where they went all the way to Phuket and everyone but Bruce just wanted to treat it as a decompressive beach stop. Bruce made 'em go out and see/do at least a thing or two that was uniquely Thai.

Not taking the time to visit the city I'm working in.

I get up, work or go to the conference (usually in the same hotel I'm staying in); eat dinner in the lobby bar/restaurant (hate room service!) and go back to my room to work or read/watch TV.

Instead I should take my down time and visit a landmark or attraction; HECK! Just find a nearby restaurant to try.

Its the eating but more the snacking! I find myself stopping by coffee shops, food carts, etc just for a quick taste...

I'm the opposite. Not so much with tips, but with the street vendors and the kids selling stuff. They need to make a living, right? Sometimes I think I'm a sucker for every young person who comes up to me. One of my frequent travel companions is a Class A shopper, and she's a bad influence on me! It's much worse when she and I are together than when I'm with any (non shopping) companion. I'm especially susceptible at the beginning of a trip, when the trinkets are new and I'm high on the adventure of the journey. Then, I end up with a bunch of unshakable street vendors trailing me and regret the whole thing. I buy the trinket, postcards, scarves or whatever, sometimes at top dollar. Like, really, do I need to negotiate that down from $2 USD to $1.50??? There is a rub, though, when you see a pricier item for 50% less from another vendor. See the big red "sucker" target centered right on my forehead? The vendors see it too! Luckily, I am a "no checked luggage" traveler, so I am self regulating after a point, and limited to small, hopefully lightweight items that will fit into my carry on.


I did get a lecture in Cambodia about buying from the kids, a local person clued me in that if the kids are making money selling trinkets, they don't go to school. If they don't make enough on the streets, then they'll go to school. That was a quandary for me, but I did say "no" for a while.

Say no, and walk fast... I must learn to do this better!

I used to feel ashamed about wanting to go to the same restaurants in a given town when I traveled. I felt like it was a dirty personal habit, something I had to hide from others. But then I realized it was empty guilt. There's nothing wrong with going back to the same place(s) repeatedly, especially if they're genuinely enjoyable. I decided to make them part of the trip. "Hey, when work requires me to visit this remote suburb a few times a year, I'll stop by for lunch at this really awesome pizzeria nearby!"

Plus, I discovered that quite the opposite of it being a dirty personal habit I needed to hide, my coworkers all liked it, too. Sure, they teased me about wanting to eat lunch at that pizzeria each time we were in the area. But they always went along happily and enjoyed the food every time!

I'm understandably much worse about this in third world countries.

I like my chocolate and Red Bull. Don't have them every day, far from it, but particularly when I'm in the middle of nowhere, I start craving a bit of chocolate and Red Bull. There are adequate Red Bull substitutes, but what's on offer in the chocolate department can be pretty dire. In rural China, a friend and I broke down and settled for Oreos with neon fillings to try to get our chocolate fix. I've seen (and bought) Snickers bars in Africa that looked and tasted like they pre-dated the pyramids.

So funny.... When I goto third world countrys I always bring my own energy drinks and chocolate.

Souvenirs I have no room for at home.