That clever trick you saw on TikTok might just ruin your trip.
The internet is flooded with so-called “travel hacks” that promise to save you time, money, and hassle. They are presented as clever loopholes and insider tricks that will make you a smarter traveler. The problem is that many of these popular tips are, in practice, terrible advice. They either don’t work, come with huge hidden risks, or create more stress than they solve.
Before you try that viral travel hack, it’s worth considering how it might backfire and turn your well-planned vacation into a chaotic mess.
1. Booking the cheapest possible red-eye flight.
The logic seems sound: book the cheapest overnight flight, save money on the fare, and “not waste a day” on travel. The reality is that you will almost certainly not sleep on the plane, and you will arrive at your destination early in the morning, completely exhausted. Your hotel room won’t be ready for hours, leaving you to wander the city like a zombie.
You then end up wasting the entire first day of your vacation in a sleep-deprived haze, as mentioned in Sunmark. You would have been far better off paying a little more for a daytime flight and arriving rested and ready to explore.
2. Overstuffing a carry-on to avoid checked bag fees.
With checked bag fees soaring, the temptation to cram everything you own into a single carry-on is strong. This “hack” almost always backfires. You’ll struggle to lift the overweight bag into the overhead bin, and you’ll hold up the entire boarding process while you do it. The bag will be so tightly packed that you can’t find anything without pulling everything out.
Worse, if the gate agent decides your bag is too big or too heavy, they will force you to gate-check it, often for a fee that is even higher than the regular checked bag fee, according to Frommers. Just pay the fee and check the bag.
3. Using “hidden city” ticketing to save money.
This is a risky hack where you book a flight from City A to City C with a layover in City B, because it’s cheaper than just flying from A to B. You then get off the plane at the layover city. This is a violation of the airline’s contract of carriage, and they are cracking down on it hard.
If you are caught, the airline can cancel the rest of your itinerary, revoke your frequent flyer miles, or even ban you from the airline for life, as per Practical Wanderlust. It only works for one-way flights, and you can’t check any luggage. The potential savings are not worth the massive risk of getting stranded.
4. Trying to see five countries in seven days.
The “Eurail trip” fantasy of seeing a new city every single day is a classic rookie travel mistake. You might get a lot of passport stamps, but you won’t actually experience anything. Your entire trip will be a blur of train stations, airports, and checking in and out of hotels. You will spend more time in transit than you will actually exploring.
This approach leads to extreme travel burnout and leaves you with only a superficial, surface-level impression of each place. The better “hack” is to travel slower, choosing to go deep in one or two locations instead of skimming the surface of many.
5. Relying exclusively on public wi-fi.
The idea of saving money by not getting a local SIM card or an international data plan and just relying on free public Wi-Fi at cafes and hotels is a terrible one. Public Wi-Fi is notoriously unreliable and often incredibly slow, especially when you need it most for navigation or booking a ticket.
More importantly, it is a massive security risk. Public networks are unsecured, making it easy for hackers to steal your personal information, like passwords and credit card numbers. The small cost of a local SIM card is a worthwhile investment for both your convenience and your digital security.
6. Booking the cheapest flight, no matter the airport.
Many budget airlines fly into smaller, secondary airports that are often located far outside the city they claim to serve. That “cheap” flight to “Paris” might actually land you in Beauvais, which is a 90-minute bus ride and an extra 20 euros away from the actual city. That flight to “London” might be to Luton or Stansted, an expensive train ride from the city center.
You need to factor in the extra time and cost of ground transportation from these remote airports. In many cases, paying a little more for a flight that lands at the main, centrally located airport is actually the cheaper and far more convenient option.
7. Following the advice of travel influencers without question.
Travel influencers on Instagram and TikTok are great at showcasing beautiful places, but they are not always reliable sources of practical advice. They are often being paid to promote a specific hotel or experience, and their photos are highly curated and edited, which can create unrealistic expectations. A place that looks serene and empty in their photo might be completely overrun with tourists in reality.
Blindly following an influencer’s itinerary can lead you to overpriced, overhyped, and inauthentic experiences. It’s important to do your own research using a variety of sources, like local blogs and travel forums, to get a more balanced and realistic picture of a destination.
8. Packing only brand-new, unworn shoes.
Buying a new pair of stylish walking shoes or hiking boots specifically for your trip seems like a great idea. The problem is that almost all new shoes require a break-in period. Wearing a brand-new pair of shoes for the first time on a day when you are planning to walk ten miles around a new city is a guaranteed recipe for painful and trip-ruining blisters.
The real hack is to travel with your most comfortable, already broken-in shoes, even if they are not the most fashionable. Your feet will thank you, and you will be able to enjoy your explorations without being in constant pain.