Tips on avoiding disappointment when you travel - from travellers & travel bloggers

Here are some tips on how to avoid being disappointed when you travel from other travellers and travel bloggers. These gems of advice were in response to my request for suggestions from readers:
* Cautious optimism and a focus on the everyday and unexpected is what Sandy recommends: “I do think it's much more exciting to be the cautious optimist ... the human observations, stuff like getting a good breakfast and the moments that that brings, or meeting someone who surprises you, is so much more meaningful to me than getting a look at the Mona Lisa, ya know?”
* Look for news ways of seeing from different points of view, Jessie at Wandering Educators suggests: “As a person with disabilities, I am often disappointed that I can't get in, go to, or actually see things close up. What I've learned is to enjoy things from a distance, and also to look around where I actually am. Sometimes, the benches around the Eiffel tower are infinitely more interesting than looking (or going) up.”
* Go with a good travelling companion and a willingness to spontaneous, says TravelMuse: “Having a great travel companion is my way to overcome disappointment. When my husband and I found Tybee Island in Georgia to be disappointing we decided to stop off at an old fort on the way back to Savannah. This last-minute side-trip turned out to be fascinating and a lot of fun. If you stay open to other possibilities you can always find something amazing!”
* Travel with children, suggests Carolina, who says her son is her favourite travelling companion: “I find that my disappointment usually has to do with things other than the actual place. Maybe I ran into a rude person, or I'm overtired, or it's overcrowded. But these instances are rare. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world just to be out and about… Kids have a way of seeing the cool things we often miss, and I've learned to have a much better sense of humour about disappointments. They often make for the best stories anyway.”
* Use your camera to discover the hidden beauty in places is Miss Expatria's advice: “I'm currently HQ'd in a city that is a hugely popular tourist destination, but that I find hugely disappointing. I keep myself from getting too down about it by taking my camera with me wherever I go, and forcing myself to find the beauty to capture. It's worked - so far!”
* Learning about the stories behind places works for Mark at TravelWonders: “I have had the odd disappointment but I try to keep things in perspective and still enjoy the sight for what it is. Trying to understand its history, cultural impact or reason for being helps salve any disappointment as I think there is nearly always some story that makes sense. That being said, I've almost never been disappointed with natural attractions (nature is always impressive to me). A far greater disappointment is when I travel far to see something to find it closed for some unexpected reason or encased in scaffolding or heavily restricted.” Most of the time, anyway!
* Staying in the moment is what Clearly Enlight recommends rather philosophically: “Accepting the moment, and taking the time to absorb the moment will defeat the emotion of disappointment. Avoid expectations and preconceived ideas. I have not been disappointed with anything, because there is nothing to be disappointed about if a person remains in the moment and accepts the precise moment… Remaining in the moment, which the ego hates, is the remedy. Accepting the moment as it is, and not what a personal fantasy, based on ego, wanted it to be. This process works for myself as a long term traveller.”
Now, you'll never be disappointed again, will you?

Avoiding disappointment on the road: reflections from travellers like you

I wanted to share with you some more reflections from readers on disappointment on the road that I found insightful. These philosophical responses came in reply to my call for suggestions on how to avoid disappointment when travelling (which in turn was inspired by Eric’s post on TravelBlogs.com) and I’ll post those tips next.
* “… travel is often about the new, and the new needs some preparation, so we have to move ourselves into that zone where we imagine, prepare and then experience… how much research should I do before I get there, will it take away the moment of experiencing and therefore lead to that disappointment… that the expectation then will be either too high or too low, and I guess I'm fearful that expectations become the point of it... how much does it deviate from what I expected... how well am I prepared for this? Should I have brought this, that or the other? Should I have contacted more or less people? And I suspect then for me the disappointment would be in not meeting the expectations that I have of a place. And that feels really pedestrian…" says Sandy O’Sullivan.
* “I think it's important to remember that the icon is just a representation of a place and a time when ‘wonderment’ was not within everyone's grasp. We are a shrinking world. The Pyramids may not appear as huge against the numerous high towers being built today, however, hitching a ride in a lorry to get there, sitting on a crate of figs between the driver and passenger with a chicken on my lap... priceless? Perhaps not, but surely memorable in terms of generosity and storytelling, both by me and I'm sure the driver,” writes Gregory.
* “The only time I remember I've been a bit disappointed was when I came to New York. After reading different travel articles and guidebooks I expected the city to be (even) bigger. Since then I haven't really had any expectations before visiting a new city. I think it's possible to not have any expectations at all - that doesn't mean you don't have any thoughts/views/images in your mind about how a city or certain aspects of the city will be. You just don't expect it - it's all in your head. Not a fact. For example, I have thoughts about how Rio, Sao Paulo, Barcelona, L.A., Chicago and other cities will be. But I don't expect this to be true, so there's no risk that I'll be disappointed - no matter what,” says Erica, from Travel Blissful.
* And from Gregory again: “I grew up 25 minutes from Niagara Falls. I never visited much, because of the tourist trap status. After 20 minutes of watching copious amounts of water tumbling down, you're done. But, now when I go there I get this huge smile on my face as I watch travellers/tourists mulling around the kitsch and tacky commercialism, families with children cramming to see the falls, dropped ice cream cones, picnic blankets spread like quilts over the park. It's a bit of madness and somehow warming at the same time. Don't be disappointed. Don't let your hopes become your expectations. Take it all in, every little visual morsel and watch the spectacle unfold. It's much more than the tower, the building, the natural beauty… it's what the place has been, what it has become, the people who visit, and the people who have made it home…"

What inspiring reflections, and now for those tips...

Disappointment on the road: how I attempt to avoid it

Here's my response to an invitation from Eric over at TravelBlogs.com to reflect upon disappointment on the road:
"Giza’s pyramids were smaller than I’d imagined and their suburban location a surprise, Paris’ Eiffel Tower was little more than an elegant oversized transmission tower, Victoria’s Twelve Apostles tinier than I remembered, and, there weren’t even twelve anymore, and that hot air balloon ride was noisy, cramped, chaotic, and uncomfortably hot. As a travel writer, avoiding disappointment is a constant challenge. Because I know disappointment occurs when expectations are too high. Lower expectations and the chances of disappointment are lower. Raise them and we increase the risk of having a bad time. The irony is the very things we find inspiring – the stirring images we enjoy gazing at, the evocative stories we like reading – are the things responsible for our disappointment if our experiences don’t measure up. To have no expectations, we must read nothing, look at nothing, and listen to no travel tales – impossible for a writer. So the way I counteract disappointment is to seek out different ways of experiencing ‘familiar’ places – to look beyond the main attraction to the overlooked and under-written about (often beneath our very noses or right around the corner), to discover and communicate the wonder of everyday things and people, to write honestly about places, and to encourage others to seek out and appreciate the beauty of the authentic and everyday."

Drop over to Eric's site to see what other travel bloggers have to say, but I'd love to hear from you and find out how you overcome disappointment on the road, or whether you have any tips for avoiding it? Is this even something you think about and are conscious of? Or do you just deal with it when it happens. And if so, how?

Disappointment on the road: When places don’t live up to your expectations

"Expectation is a dangerous thing. The higher the expect- ations, the greater the chance they’ll be dashed," writes Eric over at TravelBlogs.com, "But when it does happen, know this: it happens to many travellers." To prove his point, Eric rounded up 19 travel bloggers (including myself) and asked them to share their thoughts on 'Disappointment: when places don't live up to your expectations' and to reflect on their experiences of trips and places that haven't met their expectations. Drop by and see what they have to say.

But I'm keen to hear from you about your travel disappointments, and why you think they came about. Do you think you might have been less disappointed had your expectations been lower? Or were there are other reasons for things not ending up as you'd hoped? And do you have any ideas or suggestions as to how people can prevent or avoid disappointment on the road? If you do, and you don't mind, I'd love to publish your best tips not just in the comments section, but in a separate post on this blog on 'How to avoid disappointment on the road: cool tips from travelers'. Let me know what you think.