Things you 'hate' yourself for doing when away
 

On my last trip aboard (to Portugal), I found myself once again doing 3 things I hate myself for doing:

1. Watching TV, particularly if it's a movie or TV show I would never watch at home. Add in ad breaks in a language I couldn't understand, and I might aswell as just slept in instead.

2. Going to Irish pubs. I don't go for the 'craic' or to see if I can make new friends, but I do go because there's a better than average chance that they'll have my favourite tipple. Even if that tipple is twice the price of all other beer and been on the shelf since it was purchased by the bar in 1987. I have managed to reduce this to an occasional 'treat' and will seek out local bars as much as possible.

3. Going to the same restaurant. This is one I'm actively discouraging myself from doing, but if there's a nice restaurant near your hotel, and you're back in your room at 8 at night and hungry after a day of hiking/sightseeing/sitting by the pool, it's so difficult for me not to just keep going back. I make it slightly more exciting by having a different dish each time, which might be just enough :P

reading a book by the pool for hours at a time. I can do that at home!

Eating and drinking too much, and exercising too little.

Hookers and blow !! :D:D:D

Seriously -- laying in bed and watching tv which I never do at home.

Not working out regularly, but I also use my trip as a way to heal myself.

Not getting up early enough to enjoy a walk on the beach before it gets crowded.

Not talking to locals enough, or at all

My downfall, too.

Not wearing ANY formal attire. Being a college student who travels 50'000+ miles a year, wearing a hoodie, wool coat, and paired with jeans didn't make for many approachable conversations :P

Bought a light blazer and some at least clean looking pants today. Hopefully I won't sweat in 100C anymore either!

Raiding the minibar. I know it's outrageous and unhealthy but something about the mini cans of Pringles. And I don't even like Pringles!
I also do not exercise and eat and drink too much--but I feel that is the purpose of vacation.
A successful vacation is 4-5 books read while horizontal and staring at water, preferably alternated with naps.l

Sleeping in. Spending too much time in my hotel room. Not talking to locals enough. Not eating street food.

[deleted] hookers and blow!! :D:D

But for real I wish I would spend less time in the Hotel room.

Do more exploring in areas that I know nothing about.

Not repeat the same restaurants so much.

Not being as generous as I should be.

I go through a lot of cities not making eye contact, shaking my head, saying "no, thanks" or the local equivalent. It's a learned response.

But then I get home and I realize that I live a life of relative luxury, and that I should be more generous when I'm away.

Not all the time, of course. But sometimes.

Not bothering to check work emails. Or, wait, is that good thing?

I don't drink much but when traveling guilty as charged on the other two.


When I was in Mexico last fall I got up the first day to walk along the beach and take pics of the sunrise. I was going to get up before sunrise to take more pics but never did.

My husband always tells me I should just go on holidays to a town an hour out of Sydney and sit in a hotel room there instead of reading in a hotel room on the other side of the world with business class airfares! He said it would be far cheaper for the same result.

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.

On Work Trips
 

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.

Eating too much bar food and drinking too much beer. I make time to run, but the good of that seems to be offset by the weak resistance to offers of "just one drink with us in the bar." I go to a lot more conferences than most people in my field so for them the chance to have a drink in a hotel away from family is rare while for me it's a regular occurrence.

Drink Starbucks like a fiend.

When I'm at home, I have it once maybe twice a week tops. When I am flying I seem to have it at pretty much any airport I'm at, and almost daily. I even sought it out in Australia last month. I don't really drink coffee otherwise. I constantly get met with typical Starbucks hatred from people, but I don't care (I do make it a habit to try a coffee from a local place too)

Working in my hotel room instead of going outside and enjoying the local scene. With enough discipline and planning, it's usually work I could have finished before embarking on the trip.

Planning and thinking about the days/week after the trip rather than taking it all in while I'm on the trip.

These apply to solo leisure trips to far-flung destinations:

Spending too much time in the morning psyching myself up for the day by reading the guidebook, even when I've read those sections already and have the day planned out. It may be only 15 minutes but that's 15 minutes I'm not spending exploring.

Staying up a little later watching a trashy rom-com or something that happens to be on in English (Star World in Vietnam, for instance). I have to remind myself that it's OK to relax a bit and not be culture-immersed every moment!

Seth

Oh, that brings back memories, and not good ones!

My parents started traveling in Russia (5 trips) and eastern Europe (2 trips) and China (2 trips) in the late 70's through the 80's. Mom would bring back all sorts of little souvenirs and Dad would bring back a bar or two chocolate from every country. He and I would split them. Possibly the nastiest thing I've ever tasted was a Russian "chocolate" bar that tasted like grit in dirty wax. It was more grey than brown, and clearly had nothing remotely connected to a cacao bean in it. Dad compared it unfavorably to the "non-melting chocolate" that he got in his rations in WWII.

Not being able to leave when I want to.

Am I the only one who sees humor in the idea of a thread entitled "Things you 'hate' yourself for doing when away", started by someone with the handle "psychokilla"?

Eh, I thought that too, tried the blazer and slacks, didn't make for any approachable conversations either. Might as well save the $$$ and go back to something that's more comfortable.

My policy is when traveling, I'm always dressed in sweats and a tshirt. That equals maximum comfort.

Being impatient with the less-than-frequent masses.

I tend to forget that most travelers do so much less than those of us here. It's usually some elderly lady looking completely lost at the airport that brings me back to the reality.