Travel Myths – Fact or Fiction?

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Jenn: Hey everyone. And welcome to 2022. What? How did?

Meggan: I don't know

Jenn: where are we?

Meggan: Don't really know. It's a fine question. It's like an existential question at this point.

Jenn: We thought it would be fun to start the year with a travel fact or fiction type episodes that we're going to be chatting about some common travel myths and whether or not they are true.

First of all, Meggan, how was your holidays?

Meggan: They were lovely and we did get to see my parents for a few days, which was nice. And then we've just been relaxing for the last two when we actually started the matrix trilogy. I've never seen it before. So, and there's a new one of those, so we might get to see that.

But yeah, that's what we've been doing for the last couple of days at home. How about you?

Jenn: Very exciting. I also had a good holiday and got, see some family. I saw a, my first James Bond movie and my first Rocky movie.

Meggan: Oh, wow. These are, these are big trilogy, I suppose not trilogy because James Bond, there's like 20 hundred of them.

But Rocky. That's good.

Jenn: I don't know where I've been, I guess just putting those off,

Meggan: but you weren't born yet.

Jenn: It's true.

Meggan: Indeed. Indeed. It sounds like it went pretty well for you then.

Jenn: Yeah. So let's dive in with our first travel myth.

Meggan: Let's do it.

Jenn: Can I talk about, is the myth that travel is expensive, cause this one is sort of true, but sort of not right. Like, I first want to say like expensive is relative, right?

Like what I consider expensive, what you consider expensive. What I considered expensive five years ago to now is completely different than

Meggan: what a millionaire, you know, considers expensive.

Jenn: Yeah. So the word expensive is relative. So. We'll just play with that. But yeah, I do believe that you can travel on a low budget as well.

And for the last two years, we've kind of had to redefine what travel has meant, right? Like it's not just getting on a plane and going overseas. It's also what you do around where you live local trips. Road trips, hotel stays even in your own city is travel as well. And those are less expensive options rather than getting on a plane and flying to Europe,

Meggan: which is all travel was to me, not all, but I'm going to say 80% in my mind before, Was that.

Jenn: Yeah, for sure. And I think, yeah, it's just, the pandemic has kind of forced us to reevaluate what travel is and give us a different perspective on that. So thanks pandemic, I guess,

Meggan: I guess

Jenn: there's also plenty of ways to save money on travel. And I'm not going to dive into that here because we have an entire episode about that way back in episode two.

If you want to go listen to that, you can listen to our, our tips there, but yeah, travel doesn't have to be expensive. It can be within your budget, whatever that budget is.

Meggan: That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And I think the tips that we did in episode two, honestly, are still really relevant. So if you are like the rest of us, hoping 2022 will be different then maybe go and listen now so that you can start to do some of those things before the travel season, hopefully really kicks off.

Next up, I duty-free has great deals. Does that, so the allure of like cheaper things especially for like highly sought after options of like, whether it's alcohol, perfume, jewelry, even. Giant bags of M and Ms. For some reason that really stands out. Um, Well the duty free store, like promises that to you.

So like you we've all been there. You're killing time in an airport, your vacations over the dopamine rush of like doing the things is gone and you're like, Hmm. Maybe I do need a pair of really nice sunglasses. We should go, go check those out. It doesn't mean it's cheaper though. Not always, and not often actually items are like free of duty, so essentially tax, but it also means in most cases, the base price is raised.

So they get their monies somehow. And it's really up to us to figure out what that is. And if we want that item and to do. The word we use in this podcast a lot, which is research. So if there's something that you have in mind, do a quick search online of what it actually costs or research in advance as well.

What the price is regularly versus what it is duty free. I often I don't buy duty free. Peter's got some really great alcohol deals in terms of like the Canada us border. If you're willing to sort of go low shelf there's deals to be had 100%. But just don't go in blind thinking that everything is a better deal.

If it's too good to be true, it often is. So that's kind of the way that I think of duty-free do you often, like, do you browse, do you actually buy things Jenn?

Jenn: I really don't. And we don't drink a lot, so like the allure of cheaper alcohol is like, not even a thing for me.

Meggan: It isn't for me either. I don't.

Jenn: So it's just not something that I usually do. We have stopped driving, like from Maine back into Canada at the duty free to get alcohol for like my parents or whatever was quite awhile ago now. But yeah, I, I would say that I usually don't even look, so yeah,

Meggan: there you have it. Well then you're not getting sucked into non deals.

Jenn: Go me!

Meggan: There's that. What's next?

Jenn: The next one, we're talking about money again, to get the best deal you should book months in advance.

So there's like so many myths out there that I've heard. Booking your flight on a Tuesday at 2:00 PM. is like the best deal you can get or something crazy, which I think used to be the case, like way, way, way, way, way back in the day

Meggan: came from somewhere.

Jenn: It came from somewhere, but it's just not the case now.

And then there's plenty of myths about booking like nine months to a year in advance to get the best deal. And that's not necessarily true either. There's no, like magic time to get the best deal. Like, especially with airlines and flights, like they're constantly changing their prices based on people booking and like it's supply and demand. Right. So, Just kind of what it is. For the most part, airfare and hotel stay pretty steady until about three weeks before travel and then they start to go up mostly because they assume those people are business type things that are booking last minute until they'll Jack up the price for.

Meggan: Right, right, right.

Jenn: And then they'll generally go up. So I'll say that the caveat to this is Disney cruise line. When prices are released for Disney cruise line, they will never go down and they do release them a year or more in advance. So for that booking, as soon as they come out, that is the lowest deal you're going to get.

They're never going to go down. They're only going to go up. I don't think that's true for other cruise lines, but I know that's definitely true for Disney. You're just not going to get a deal.

Meggan: Right.

Jenn: So, yeah. When, when would you say that you usually book, I guess for normal times, not trip over and over again.

Meggan: Right. What I was actually going to say about this and I think you're right. Like there's no magic bullet. If there was, it would go away pretty fast. Cause people would figure it out. Like the world doesn't work like that, especially anymore. The only thing I would say about booking in advance is getting what you want.

So that's the biggest key for me. So I'm not saying we usually book. And typical times if we're traveling in June to Europe, we book in October,

Jenn: right

Meggan: only because I have FOMO. Like I have a fear of missing out on what I want in terms of rental car and where I want to stay. I'm not so much concerned about the price and not that I'm not concerned about it, but I book that far in advance because I want it.

I want what I want. So. That's what I would say about booking in advance. And sometimes it is cheaper, especially with car rentals. If you wait until right before you probably will get screwed. So that's another, another key I would say, would be you know, car rentals for sure. Money-wise and then where you want to stay just for vacancies.

That's that's my that's what I do.

Jenn: That definitely makes sense. I would say we usually book probably. Six-ish months out maybe. And I feel like it's been so long since I've planned like a big trip that I have no concept of time anymore. But the last couple of trips that we did were Disney, which we did book a year-ish in advance, but the good thing about Disney is as discounts come out, you can apply them to liketo yourDisney world resort type stay is especially nice. If you have a travel agent, because they'll just do it for you and you don't have to call

Meggan: plug, travel agents.

Jenn: So yeah, I think yeah, I guess all this to say there's no magic time to book a trip to get the. It's just not going to happen.

Meggan: I think it's comfort level at this point in terms of when you book. So so the next one, it's definitely a hot topic between the two of us. So it is that jet lag can be cured by getting a lot of sleep. Like, like, no, is the answer. Like, don't get me wrong. That's not really true.

But we've done several trips overseas. You know, we've taken two different approaches. So meaning we've driven from the airport to our Airbnb, our very first stop. We've gotten to check in early, I've gone to sleep immediately. Like I can't tell you how immediately and then gotten up sort of late afternoon and then filled the rest of our day with supper and seeing things now the painful one for me that we have done twice.

And it was both in London for me. Getting there and pushing through. So pushing through and going to bed at a regular time, which is definitely recommended, especially for your circadian rhythm and just really to stay on track. But I am a zombie. Without proper sleep. Like I can't even talk properly and I'm cranky, just, just a smidge.

And yes, I understand too, by doing it this way you lose some time, so like three or four hours in the afternoon, but for me to not be a zombie, it really does make up for that. And so that's why I do it. Peter would probably be like you if he wasn't with me. But since he is, he does go to sleep with me and then we get back up and have the evening.

So that's kind of the way that I approach it, but that's only because that's the way my body works. You know what I mean? What about you?

Jenn: Yeah. So I am the opposite. I am not a napper. I cannot nap. If I go to sleep in the afternoon, I am done for the day. I am more of a zombie trying to get up from a nap then.

Meggan: Right.

Jenn: I had the nap. So my strategy has always been to push through, go outside. be in the sunlight, if there's any and push through and go to bed maybe a bit earlier than earlier home, but not not nap in the afternoon. Now, Ryan is also a zombie without sleep and need to sleep. So I think I might've told the story in the podcast before.

I can't remember, but on our honeymoon to. Iceland. We flew over there and we got there very early in the morning and we couldn't check into our hotel because of course it wasn't ready because it was like 7:00 AM. And I'm like, cool, let's start the day. Like, let's go and Ryan

Meggan: let's do this.

Jenn: I can't tell you how grumpy Ryan was.

He sometimes helps me edit this podcast is going to hear that told the story, but anyway,

Meggan: it's okay. It's the truth. Tell it.

Jenn: Anyway, we went to a coffee shop and I got a coffee and a scone and Ryan fell asleep in the booth and I just let him sleep there for like two hours while I like read them.

Meggan: Well, that's so nice of you though.

Jenn: I also took a picture of it. So I'll see if I can post it on social media. I

Meggan: Now that I suggest getting permission for that part.

Jenn: Well, I will anyway. Yeah, I'd say maybe I need to travel with Peter and you need to travel with Ryan when there's jet lag involved.

Meggan: It's true. Or if we travel the four of us, then we know he needs to like get there and go out and who's going to slump. Yeah.

Jenn: Yeah. It's a, it's really funny, but yeah, that's that's my story and that's,

Meggan: that's a story on them. What's next?

Jenn: All right. So the next one we're gonna talk about is the myth that hostels are only for the younger party type crowd.

And when you think of hostels, you probably think of people in their late teens, early twenties that are like traveling on their gap year after high school. And they did used to be called youth hostels.

So that's you know, it's understandable that that's where people get their vision. But there are definitely hostels that cater now to an older crowd, to families and to couples and hostels, aren't just all open rooms where you're all sleeping on the floor or whatever.

Cause that's what I would have thought. If you wanted to talk to me about a hostel so you can get like private rooms in hostels there's gender specific rooms, so you're with your gender. And then there's, you know, you can meet new people. It's great for solo travel. Of all ages. So yeah, I have never stayed in a hostel personally, have you, Meggan?

No,

Meggan: So no, and. No, I've stayed in places with shared bathrooms, which I would assume would be kind of similar. I would have to say, but it's more, you know, specifically hostels. So no.

While they're are no longer just for the younger party crowd, I think it's a hundred percent would be a last resort for me, Gabriel traveler, that I've mentioned that we do follow he's in his late forties at this point and travels the world. He does now make more money, so stays in less hostels, but does make that choice at times and they look fine.

And I think too, if you are someone who likes to make connections on the road, I do think it's a great way to do that. Especially if you're a solo traveler. And there may be people going in the same direction as you, or even as a couple, you could still tag along with others and see things. I think there are advantages, but it's still something I'm not over in my mind yet.

Jenn: Yeah. That's totally fair.

Meggan: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. All right. So next up is you'll need an international driver's license to drive overseas. This one is a maybe. So it depends on the country and therefore you need to do your research. I can't list all the countries here and all the requirements. But even one I Googled is Italy as an example.

They do require Americans or Canadians to have an international drivers permit. Most of European countries, it's fine. If you have your home country license and your passport, you're good to go. But again, you'll just need to do your research to be sure you have everything you need, because that would suck to get there.

Think you're doing a road trip and then being like, Hmm. Actually, no. So that's one of those things like having your passport is going to be really important to have if you need it, have you, you guys, haven't done an international road trip. We haven't needed this in Iceland or Ireland, either of those.

Jenn: Yeah, no we haven't rented a car anywhere outside of like Canada and the U S so it hasn't been something that we've had to actively look into, but I actually thought at one point that that was what you needed to drive outside of your home country, that you would have to do that. So it is good to know. Sometimes it's not the case, but sometimes it is to have to look into it.

Meggan: Oh, for sure. And I honestly feel like I'm glad it isn't the case, but like countries where you have to drive on the opposite side of the road, I feel like those should make you do like a little course or something. I mean, ain't nobody got time for that, but it seems like it would make sense.

Jenn: It seems a little dangerous. Just be like, here you go. Good luck.

Meggan: Good luck to you. We hope to see you at the end of your journey.

Jenn: don't smash the car. Yeah.

Meggan: Yeah, exactly. Or hope you have the insurance. Goodness. Well, what's next.

Jenn: All right. So the next myth is I should always exchange my money at the airport. And the answer to this one is never, if you can help it, we chatted about this in a travel tip Tuesday, a couple episodes back about using ATM's abroad, but your bank at home is always basically going to be the best deal that you're going to get, because you're a customer of that bank and they want to keep you happy. So yeah, the, airport's not usually a good idea, but if you do need to exchange money while you're traveling, see if your bank at home has a partnership with a bank in the country that you're in.

Sometimes they do. And sometimes they don't. But it's a good option. I know when we were in London, I can't remember a bank. It was, but we did have like an affiliated a bank with, we usually book bank with Scotia bank. So we just went to that banks ATM and took out money and it was good. So yeah, and a local bank or an ATM, it's just likely to give you a much better deal than like a currency exchange at the airport.

And I think that. Also, you should look into your credit card and what the exchange rate is on that. If you don't need cash, sometimes obviously you do, you do need cash some places, but your credit card might be an even better exchange rate. So it would be advantageous to look into that as well.

Meggan: There's somewhere we traveled, I'm going to say Mexico, where we actually went into a bank and got money. And the exchange rate was really good. Like we, we were able to get a good rate, but yeah, I mean, hospital air has. Please don't get money at the hospital, but airport in a pinch. I mean, whatever you need to do, if you are in a situation, but it's just really should be last resort. Of course,

Jenn: we got money out of bank in Iceland, both times that I went, like we landed and went to the bank to exchange money. And then the only time I've used the airport, like currency exchange was we were leaving London to go to Paris. Or something like that. And we had only like a little bit. Of like pounds left, I guess we were leaving London.

So we only had like a little bit of pounds left and I just wanted to exchange them for euros it was a very like small amount of money. Like probably, I don't know, less than $50 Canadian. Right. So I wasn't really worried about the exchange rate because I was going to come home with this cash that, what was I going to do with it?

Meggan: Right.

Jenn: I just exchanged it for the year I was at the airport, not the best deal. It's better than coming home with like a bunch of money that I can't use in my home country either.

Meggan: Oh, well, a hundred percent. And I think that's actually, you know, not a bad time to use it because if you're going from one European country to another, you may need money right when you arrived. So it's good to have a little bit of cash on hand. So I don't think that's a bad situation to have used it anyway.

Jenn: Yeah, I agree.

Meggan: Cool. So next up is cruises are all inclusive. So. You know, I think for like luxury travelers, they likely always were like, I mean, they're probably paying for the package that included everything. And we can't really think COVID for much. Um, But one thing I think it's really done is maybe pushed purveyors to change their offerings, to attract guests or travelers. And one of them is for cruise ship lines to now maybe offer all inclusive on their ships, make it more affordable for the average person to have that package, or even just sell those packages upfront.

The thing with cruises and, and, you know, the end of them is always, what am I going to owe for someone, especially who enjoys drinking in the evenings or during the day, or whatever your fancy. Um, And if you're not keeping track of it, or you're not checking at the desk periodically during your cruise, it can be like a really big shock.

So if having your drinks included matters you can certainly include them with a higher end package on higher end ship if it's not offered immediately. But I would definitely suggest trying to look for one or have your travel agent look for one. That is now sort of more affordable, which they are doing and do your research as well.

They're not always included. That's a huge bummer when they're not, but again, it is something that's happening more frequently now. And I think probably cruise ships have been hit really hard in this pandemic. And they're trying to make changes to maybe keep up with all inclusives, but people are definitely still doing even now.

So I think that that's sort of something that's going to be a changed on whether that will stay long-term who knows, but take advantage of it while you can.

Jenn: Yeah, I will say so. I've only done one actually completed one. Despite having more than one booked. But anyway,

Meggan: right.

Jenn: One cruise that I did, we went with Norwegian and it was a short three night cruise and it was all inclusive and it was advertised as like a free open bar cruise which is what it was premium. Alcohol was of course and a surcharge. But they Norwegian does or did in 2019 do it with very short, like Bahamas cruises. And not only the drinks, I will say, like not all the restaurants are included either on the ship, so, and then you have excursions and all of those things.

So yes, there are a lot of upcharges on cruise ships that you're maybe not expecting. And yeah, that, that is kind of the bummer of the cruise ship is like getting to the end and you're like, oh, I have to pay this bill.

Meggan: Then I've already paid for the cruise.

Jenn: Yes. Yeah. So yeah, I, I hope that I think a lot of cruise ships probably already do offer like drink packages and that sort of thing.

And hopefully that will become more than normal rather than per drink.

Right.

Meggan: Exactly.

Jenn: All right. And kind of cruising, cruising.

Meggan: Ooh, look at you. I'm going to segue

Jenn: on with that. Talking about packaged deals, always being the cheapest. So packaged deals are tempting. Everything is bundled together for you, and it might seem like the cheapest deal and it is sometimes true.

Sometimes not true. And it, it depends, I guess, is the truth. But for example, with cruise lines, they will offer to bundle your flight with your cruise package. And that is often not the best deal on. But if you're talking about going to Cuba, obviously an all-inclusive package to cuba is much, much better deal than trying to like all a cart book, a hotel in Cuba and a flight to Cuba. Like that's not going to happen basically. Um, It depends. I've booked packages out of convenience, especially to Disney. Is it the best deal? Maybe not, but. It's all in one. And I only have one person to contact if something goes astray

Meggan: and if it matters to you to not have to do the work, then go for it. Even if you in your heart of hearts know, you're probably paying a little bit more if it's easier for you when you can pay that. I mean, I'm for convenience when I can.

Jenn: Yeah. And yeah, it's right now it's a comfort level for everything, right? Like. Getting your money back from one supplier instead of three. Might be worth it. So

Meggan: Isn't it so sad that that's how we think now, how can we get our money back when this doesn't happen.

Jenn: It's true. Like something's going to change. I'm going to have to change something to do with this trip. And how easy is it going to be to contact them? And,

Meggan: yeah.

Jenn: Hopefully, someday we won't think like that.

Meggan: I hope so, too. And our last travel myth is that English is a second language everywhere. I think it's really rude when like travelers, especially from English speaking countries, travel internationally and assume, or get upset when people in their own country don't automatically speak the language you speak like that is a mind boggling for me because you're a guest, like, never forget that when you're visiting other people's countries, there are many nations of course, where English is taught in school like French is in Canada or Spanishes in the us, but be prepared just in case like knowing important phrases, have your phone handy for translations or good old fashion language dictionary, like a book kids.

It's a book. So you don't like seem ignorant as an example every Iceland. Icelandic person Icelander that we met and interacted with. They knew English and they spoke it fluently, but go to France where I spent a month, one year or India. And you may find a few folks that do, which is, you know, always great, but then there are people don't want any part of English and they of course expect you if you want something to be able to speak or communicate with them. So really it comes down to doing your research again and being prepared. And if someone can communicate in English, great. And if not, what are you going to do about it? Kind of thing. So I think that that's your, that has to be your plan B and it's up to you not up to them.

Jenn: Yeah, absolutely. I know, like we haven't spent a whole lot of time in countries where English or French wasn't spoken and both my husband and my husband's much more fluid in French than I am, but I can get by and I can definitely read quite well.

I did French immersion all through to grade 12 and it, some of it stucks. And yeah, it, it is. I know my husband's been to south America. When he was in university and he was luckily traveling with people who spoke very fluent Spanish. So he didn't have that problem because he had somebody there.

But it's, it's up to you. It's not really up to them. You're you're the one visiting them. So you should not expect english of them, but yeah.

Meggan: I mean, hopefully it all works out for everyone, but just be prepared I guess.

All right. Well, let us know on social media, if you've believed in any of these myths before or any that you want to share?

I know that we probably, I used to believe one or several of these. So hopefully we broken some of these and made you think a little bit deeper. You can visit us on our website at travel mug, podcast.com, always chat with us on Facebook and Instagram.

We love to hear from you at travel mug podcast. And if you wouldn't mind leaving us a review, it'd be amazing way to kick off 2022.

Jenn: Yes. And Spotify has now kicked off reviews on Spotify. It's not just apple podcasts. So if you're listening on Spotify, you're up, it's your turn. Give us a five star review

Meggan: and we're so cute. We would love it. How could you not want to like rate us? So thanks so much for tuning in here's to a great 2022 everyone bye!