8 Mistakes To Avoid As You Travel In 2023

Some mistakes to avoid in 2023 as you japa from the country. It is always travel season, there is always somewhere to 

As a Nigerian living in Nigeria, or even living outside the country, we all know the japa wave that hit the country because of the situation of things in Nigeria. A lot of young people and even older people are making plans to relocate to another country, some people are leaving the country to get an education and some are the flex jaiye jaiye rich keedz, chop life geng who just want to travel the world, do touristy things, enjoy different cultures and people.

As we all know that a lot goes into the entirety of a travelling adventure which includes but is not limited to visa processing, international passport processing, researching the country of destination, plane tickets and booking, deciding the activities you’ll be getting up to, and all the other logistics that go into the entire process. You want to try as much as possible to make the entire process 

It is always a smart choice to learn from other people’s mistakes so that you yourself can avoid those mistakes and thereby get the chance to enjoy a relatively stress-free travel experience. 

If You’re Travelling In 2023, Here Are 8 Mistakes To Avoid

1. Changing Money At The Airport 

One of the easy mistakes to avoid is changing money at the airport. It may not always be so easy to have every local currency for your travel destination but if you can it is advisable that you get the local currency before travelling or at least try not to change money at the airport as this is always so expensive. Considering the ease that comes with changing money at the airport can provide, it can tempt you to actually want to do it but it is advisable to go to the local change houses and bureau the change to get the local currency. You can ask the receptionist at the hotel or your tour guide.

2. Booking Flight On The Weekend

Tickets are usually more expensive by the weekend because this is usually peak hour and predictable times when people would want to travel and purchase tickets and this might actually prevent you from getting good deals when you’re buying. For both domestic and international trips, there are usually fewer deals available so instead of buying your tickets over the weekend, you can buy them during the week or a long time ahead of when you’re supposed to travel. 

3. Booking Your Tickets Too Late.

There is the situation of a friend that was relocating to London and booked her ticket just a few days before she travelled and had to pay over a million naira and there are people who booked way in advance and were able to get the same ticket for about 300,000 to 400,000 naira. This is for sure one of those mistakes to avoid.

Booking your ticket well ahead of time is a very smart choice and saves you the hassle of spending sometimes double what people who booked way ahead would pay. For domestic flights between 21 to 60 days leading up to the trip are usually the times when the prices are generally the lowest so you might want to keep all of these tips in mind while preparing for your journey to help you know when to book your travel ticket.

4. Ditch The Online Travel Agents 

Cl, plan your trips yourself. Travel agencies are just … especially to Visa free countries. Look for Nigerians who have been and pattern to that. Score the internet for information, TikTok YouTube. It’s cheaper biko.

— ✨ (@_chiisom) February 4, 2023

 A tweet I saw just a few days ago talks about this and really encourages people to book and plan their travel itinerary themselves. Some of the travel agencies would mess up your travel arrangement, some make it so that you’re not even able to get a refund, some of them book the wrong flight for you and some of them also charge really exorbitant charges for their services except they are standard agencies, you will do yourself a lot of good to just book your ticket and arrange your itineraries yourself.

5. Don’t Play With Your Travel Insurance

Other mistakes to avoid as you prepare to travel is forgetting or ignoring to get your travel insurance. Health is wealth and travel insurance will save you a lot of hassle and save you from spending exorbitant amounts on health services and whatever else your travel insurance would cover.

I know that a lot of people do not even understand the importance of travel insurance but we have an article that covers everything right here and you should definitely go through it so that you are prepared against all contingencies that might crop up and mar the beauty of your journey.

6. Arriving At The Airport Less Than 3 Hours Before Your Flight

This might come across as overkill but as a Nigerian, you definitely understand this and you know that you are trying as much as possible to do everything that would prevent your village people from having the last laugh. No, but seriously, it is just better to be safe than sorry and get to the airport earlier than your travel time because it saves you from unnecessary stress and keeps you informed about any other information and announcement that might come up in the course of your journey.

7. Not downloading an offline map 

As you travel to a new country, the probability of you not being able to access Wi-Fi is high especially before you get settled and you are probably able to get a service SIM card for that country. One way you can be prepared is to download an offline map of your travel destination. This helps you and gives you the ease of navigating a strange travel destination that you don’t know much about the terrain and locality.