Welcome to our home - It's great that you're joining us again - Let's go get a cup of coffee
Why don't you go grab a cup of coffee - And join us for our tale of our biggest travel mistakes wow
our biggest travel mistakes and have we made some whoppers along the way Tina
- Oh yes we are we are Tina and Norm and we talk all things retirement and travel
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- So Tina we did one of those bucket list trips to Australia and New Zealand yes we did it took us
what about 24 hours to get to New Zealand (yeah) it was probably about 35 hours now I think about it
and that was where we experienced Air New Zealand for the first time - It's absolutely wonderful big
thumbs up for Air New Zealand - Probably one of the best airlines we've ever flown with
(yes) so what was our mistake in Australia well we didn't stay long enough (yeah) we
just gave ourselves a couple of days either side of a 2 week cruise and we went all that
way there and we really never thought to put a week at each side at least - Yeah well we did try Norm to
do a back-to-back cruise didn't we but we just couldn't find one that timed in with that - That
was the whole point we were going to be doing 4 weeks of cruising we just couldn't get that second
cruise to tie in with the dates and so we left it too late to be able to put a week at either
so if you're going somewhere for a long time look into the possibility if it's something like a
cruise or a tour to stay in one place for a week or two after all we're all retired aren't we - Yeah
that's true - We have time on our hands - Actually that Norm leads us to another point another
well one of our mistakes was that we let a travel agent book the flights
of the trip that Norm was talking about and what they did was they booked using a low-cost airline
to take us from Sydney to Brisbane when we were coming on our return trip so we thought it was
just like how you would normally get on a plane and your luggage would go from one to the next
no that didn't happen and also the 2 airports were 4 kilometers apart so when we got into one and
we thought the next one - We landed in domestic in Brisbane and had to go to the international
in Brisbane to fly out with Air Canada - And the travel agent didn't know that the two
were 4 kilometers apart and we had to get security people involved we had to get a taxi to go from
one to the other they actually held the plane up - And the trouble with low-cost airlines sometimes
is that they don't run on schedule so they were already late (yeah) and our agent hadn't allowed
a long enough time and that was the only time we've let an agent book
all these flights for us - So after that experience we now book all our own flights don't we
- And we gauge the timing and everything so take control of your own destiny - Absolutely
- Another huge mistake is trying to find travel bargains okay we all love travel bargains and
we buy a lot of them (yeah) but we wanted to do the Baltic cruise we didn't care which line it was we
were looking at Holland America we were looking at Princess - Yeah Norwegian all of them weren't we - But
we kept seeing discount prices coming up but we thought we could do better if we waited
(yeah) and we waited and they never came but you know what did come around - The pandemic came and
now cruising stopped and we can't go cruising and the main place we wanted to go to was Russia - St
Petersburg - Is not a good place to be visiting so no cruises no visiting so we missed it didn't we
- We did so procrastination is your worst enemy if you see it we should have just paid the extra
and gone and enjoyed it and had that experience and we may never get back there we don't know so
don't procrastinate thinking you're going to get a cheaper price when you might lose out - Just pay
that extra bit and do it hey another one of our mistakes that it turns out to be quite a big mistake
is that for the first 4 years of us traveling when we retired we just didn't know and I don't
know why we didn't look into it but we did we always used to try and book our trips we got
31 days on our travel insurance so all the trip had to be go there do it get back count within
the 31 days and we're all fully covered when was it 2 or 3 years ago we decided to do 2 months in
The Algarve so now we had a problem we had to find out how could we be insured for 2 months
so we found out we contacted our insurance company they were good for 31 days but then
we found out we could get a top-up policy from another very big insurance company so we had our
- What we had been doing was shopping around to maybe buy a different travel insurance for that
particular trip (yeah) and just by chance Tina called up TD Insurance in Canada Toronto Dominion
and the person on the phone was asking Tina or all about it and then suggested well we can top
that policy that you already have with your other credit card that was with the Bank of Montreal we
never realized you could do that and we'd been traveling for 5 years until we found that out
- Which in hindsight now we knew that we could do this we could have done this on lots of
the other trips - And that's why this last Portugal trip was 60 days for us because
- We found out we could do that so now going forward we now know we have the ability to go
for longer trips - That's right - By finding a better top-up insurance policy so that was a lesson well
learned don't make that mistake - Exactly good lesson to learn Tina one recurring mistake and
we're going to put this one to bed in future once we get back on the road (yeah) is we will buy those
impulse deals where you'll get a week in Edinburgh or a week in Iceland or a week in
The Azores islands and we've done those the one thing we haven't done maybe because I'm too cheap
is to rent a car for a few days just a couple of days
often times you want to explore like Reykjavik for 2 or 3 days but we could have had
another 2 or 3 days during that week of going out of Reykjavik and exploring ourselves and not being
stuck to buying a tour from a bus company or what have you so we have this reluctance I suppose this
inbuilt fear of renting a car and then having a bad experience when you bring it back
where they try and nickel and dime you for stuff - And I think actually in all fairness Norm that
was one of the reasons we had Googled a lot on TripAdvisor and we had read some horror stories
in places about the car rental so it put us off - It did but it shouldn't have done - Yeah because when
we were there in the hotel and we saw other people doing it by then it was too late - Yeah we were in
Terceira Island and all the hotels have a car rental agency in the hotel
a desk where they come in during the day and they have 2 or 3 cars parked in the secure hotel
parking so it would have been so simple to have done it - So we were a little I guess more scared
weren't we not quite as confident - So what we're saying is if you're going to some of these places
that you may never get back to think long and hard about maximizing your opportunity and maybe rent a
car for a couple of days - And when you were talking to about Iceland Norm I got my Iceland necklace
yeah I see that - Which is for traveling - Yeah Icelandic symbol - So another big mistake we made
was - Tina it sounds as though we go through life making just gigantic mistakes - It's not a
big mistake it's a mistake we took the 24-hour bus trip down to Daytona fantastic deal wasn't it - It
was great - We loved it it was an all-inclusive deal it picked us up right here in our hometown
we got there everything was included the room breakfast happy hours were included
- And it was right on the beach so every morning we went for a walk on Daytona beach
- But what we didn't realize was although this was a custom trip for 2 weeks that we were there
we could have extended the trip by saying to them when we were there because we found out this when
we were there and it was too late to do it we could have found out had they had extra rooms
and providing there was a seat on the bus coming back we could have extended it for another week or
2 couldn't we - Yeah and and the weather there was amazing it was around Halloween time
so it was this time of year it was really hot - Wasn't it - And we should have stayed for
another week or 2 - And we just didn't so learn by what we're telling you if you get the opportunity
make the most of it - So I think the one message that we've learned is that and this is all
about easing into retirement retirement's a new occupation for us that we're still getting used to
and the one thing about being retired is you have plenty of time on your hands so why not invest
that time when you go to places and maybe stay a little longer - Yeah by like doing more planning
hey just that little bit extra planning (yeah) just give you - Just kind of thinking outside of the box
our biggest travel mistakes that we've made in the last 5 years having been retired
and hopefully you could learn a little bit from that and not make the same mistakes that we have
so - We hope you've enjoyed our video - And we hope everybody is staying safe - And keeping well
- And we'll see you next time - bye-bye bye