As a professional full-time travel blogger, I get a lot of inquiries from my readers looking for travel tips and advice. Most of them refer to me as a “travel goddess” or “the female Rick Steves” and they typically end with something like “why don’t you have a show on the Travel Channel yet?”
But I didn’t always have the words “travel expert” on my resume in large, bold, italic, underlined letters. You may not realize this, but during our year-long honeymoon, Jeremy and I actually made a LOT of silly mistakes. How naive we were! How accident-prone and clumsy! Obviously that’s all in our past and definitely not just indicitave of who we truly are at our very cores.
So now that we’ve grown into mature post-honeymooners, I wanted to write a tongue-in-cheek post featuring a few of our favorite terrible travel tips. Some of these are based on our own misguided decisions, and others are inspired from beloved friends, travel companions, and family members that we’ve had the misfortune of traveling with. Please don’t try any of these at home!
![[MACHU PICCHU FAIL] I remember it vividly: we're sitting in a restaurant in Aguas Calientes, the gateway to the Inca Ruins of Machu Picchu. Around us are five couples, two solo travelers, and two tour guides. All of them are tired, dirty, and covered in dried sweat. They just finished the 4-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu hike and experienced a life-changing experience, an incredible physical and mental challenge that had bonded them as lifelong friends. Two of them got engaged at the sun gate. It was the most rewarding trip of their lives!
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... And then there's us. Nobody here remembers our names, but we're doing our best to smile and laugh along as everyone drinks celebratory beer, retells stories, shares inside jokes, and adds each other on Facebook.
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"Awkward" is putting it mildly.
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What was supposed to be a spiritual pilgrimage turned out to be one of our biggest travel fails ever. Instead of hiking to Machu Picchu, we turned around and hiked back after the first day. Here’s the whole embarrassing story, an excerpt from part 2 of our epic Year-Long-Honeymoon podcast series!
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You can listen to the full episode and subscribe to the Practical Wanderlust Podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts, or your favorite Podcast app; or just click the link in our bio to listen to complete episodes on our blog.
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Psst: Ratings & reviews are super important for podcasts, so if you're enjoying listening, please leave us some love in your favorite Podcast app! 😍 .
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#podcasthost #podcast #podcastlife #podcastersofinstagram #podcaster #podcastaddict #podcastmovement #podcastcommunity #podcastlove #travelcouple #coupleinlove #adventuretogether #coupleslovetravel #adventurecouple #globetrottingcouples #coupleswhotravel #romancetravel #travelduo #travelustcouples #MoreThanTravel #machupicchu #cuzco #incatrail #visitperu #perudestinations #cusco #perutravel](http://scontent-amt2-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/p640x640/83892884_172338654179092_1273679426234836823_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-amt2-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=104&_nc_ohc=Lb0ZdkQlPqcAX_sBvep&oh=e0a4fda7c25fca7a9910cf9f483328c8&oe=5E5A03DF "[MACHU PICCHU FAIL] I remember it vividly: we're sitting in a restaurant in Aguas Calientes, the gateway to the Inca Ruins of Machu Picchu. Around us are five couples, two solo travelers, and two tour guides. All of them are tired, dirty, and covered in dried sweat. They just finished the 4-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu hike and experienced a life-changing experience, an incredible physical and mental challenge that had bonded them as lifelong friends. Two of them got engaged at the sun gate. It was the most rewarding trip of their lives!
.
... And then there's us. Nobody here remembers our names, but we're doing our best to smile and laugh along as everyone drinks celebratory beer, retells stories, shares inside jokes, and adds each other on Facebook.
.
\"Awkward\" is putting it mildly.
.
What was supposed to be a spiritual pilgrimage turned out to be one of our biggest travel fails ever. Instead of hiking to Machu Picchu, we turned around and hiked back after the first day. Here’s the whole embarrassing story, an excerpt from part 2 of our epic Year-Long-Honeymoon podcast series!
.
You can listen to the full episode and subscribe to the Practical Wanderlust Podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts, or your favorite Podcast app; or just click the link in our bio to listen to complete episodes on our blog.
.
Psst: Ratings & reviews are super important for podcasts, so if you're enjoying listening, please leave us some love in your favorite Podcast app! 😍 .
.
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#podcasthost #podcast #podcastlife #podcastersofinstagram #podcaster #podcastaddict #podcastmovement #podcastcommunity #podcastlove #travelcouple #coupleinlove #adventuretogether #coupleslovetravel #adventurecouple #globetrottingcouples #coupleswhotravel #romancetravel #travelduo #travelustcouples #MoreThanTravel #machupicchu #cuzco #incatrail #visitperu #perudestinations #cusco #perutravel")
![It took me a few weeks to pull together my thoughts on last year. I ended 2019 at a lower point than when I started it, and I needed some time to recover.
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2019 was a year of huge growth in our business, saying "yes" to as many opportunities as I could, and traveling more than I ever have in my life. It was also the year that I leaned into my role as a voice of ethical and sustainable travel more than ever before.
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2019 is also probably the only year in my life I'll ever be able to say that I flew literally all the way around the world on a fully hosted trip. (Both because I doubt it will ever happen again, and also because that amount of over the top, carbon-producing air travel makes me cringe.)
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This year was nuts, y'all.
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But 2019 was also a challenging year personally. I lost my grandmother at the beginning of the year, and it hit me harder than I ever could have expected. And later, after 26 consecutive trips - which would have been even more, had we not decided to cancel 2 international trips at the last minute - burnout hit me HARD.
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But despite the challenges and setbacks of last year, we hit some pretty amazing milestones. In 2019, our humble little blog:
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🏅Was read by 2.5 million people
🏅Received 4 million page views
🏅Launched a Podcast
🏅Launched a YouTube channel
🏅Earned an annual revenue that allows me to say "I am a multi-6-figure earning travel blogger"
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That said: in the interest of being transparent, as I always strive to be, I want to be honest about the behind-the-scenes of our blog, and what those exciting achievements don't tell you... [TO BE CONTINUED]
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Or, if you can't stand to wait, just head to our year in review blog post. Link in bio ;)
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What were some of your achievements and challenges in 2019? Drop us a comment below!
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#TravelAwesome #BestVacations #DameTraveler #girlslovetravel #gltlove #femaletravelbloggers #dametraveler #darlingescapes #girlaroundtheworld #globelletravels #ladiesgoneglobal #sheexplores #sheisnotlost #thetravelwomen #wearetravelgirls #winterwonderland #speechlessplaces #travelblogger #travelbloggerlife #travelbloggers #travelblogging #travelbloggerlife](http://scontent-amt2-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/c0.168.1440.1440a/s640x640/81719695_700064167192744_6216659177353752129_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-amt2-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=104&_nc_ohc=EGTlvY3fleEAX9m7czS&oh=323b349dc4558d58d9b0a4731c966222&oe=5E8BE127 "It took me a few weeks to pull together my thoughts on last year. I ended 2019 at a lower point than when I started it, and I needed some time to recover.
.
2019 was a year of huge growth in our business, saying \"yes\" to as many opportunities as I could, and traveling more than I ever have in my life. It was also the year that I leaned into my role as a voice of ethical and sustainable travel more than ever before.
.
2019 is also probably the only year in my life I'll ever be able to say that I flew literally all the way around the world on a fully hosted trip. (Both because I doubt it will ever happen again, and also because that amount of over the top, carbon-producing air travel makes me cringe.)
.
This year was nuts, y'all.
.
But 2019 was also a challenging year personally. I lost my grandmother at the beginning of the year, and it hit me harder than I ever could have expected. And later, after 26 consecutive trips - which would have been even more, had we not decided to cancel 2 international trips at the last minute - burnout hit me HARD.
.
But despite the challenges and setbacks of last year, we hit some pretty amazing milestones. In 2019, our humble little blog:
.
🏅Was read by 2.5 million people
🏅Received 4 million page views
🏅Launched a Podcast
🏅Launched a YouTube channel
🏅Earned an annual revenue that allows me to say \"I am a multi-6-figure earning travel blogger\"
.
That said: in the interest of being transparent, as I always strive to be, I want to be honest about the behind-the-scenes of our blog, and what those exciting achievements don't tell you... [TO BE CONTINUED]
.
Or, if you can't stand to wait, just head to our year in review blog post. Link in bio ;)
.
What were some of your achievements and challenges in 2019? Drop us a comment below!
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#TravelAwesome #BestVacations #DameTraveler #girlslovetravel #gltlove #femaletravelbloggers #dametraveler #darlingescapes #girlaroundtheworld #globelletravels #ladiesgoneglobal #sheexplores #sheisnotlost #thetravelwomen #wearetravelgirls #winterwonderland #speechlessplaces #travelblogger #travelbloggerlife #travelbloggers #travelblogging #travelbloggerlife")
