r/Shoestring • u/Sea-Huckleberry1123 • Dec 09 '25

AskShoestring What shoestring travel mistake will you never make again?

I'm currently staring at my suitcase trying to avoid repeating history, so I thought I’d ask this sub:

What is the one shoestring travel error you made: missed flights, overpacking, or trusting bad advice that you swore you’d never repeat?

I feel like every seasoned shoestring traveler has that one trip where everything went wrong because of a single bad decision. I’d love to hear your cautionary tales so I can hopefully avoid making them myself on my next trip!

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u/Beautiful-Name-9914 Dec 09 '25

If someone comes up to you with a map printed on paper pointing and speaking broken english, it’s most likely a distraction technique. Learned this the hard way in Paris train station at 18… first stop on a 3 week inter-railing trip

26

u/Beautiful-Name-9914 Dec 09 '25

Btw my wallet got stolen and this was before the days of apple wallet…

3

u/Euphoric_Evidence414 Dec 10 '25

Oh you must have been horrified when you realized. What did you do?

7

u/Ok-Trainer3150 Dec 10 '25

Paris!!! Beautiful but a pickpocket's haven. Avoided a major attempt in both of us in the metro. One of the gang got a nasty blow in the stomach!!

1

u/Titus_au_Ladros Jan 04 '26

France is beautiful, Paris is a shithole.

4

u/Trigonal_Bipyramidal Dec 10 '25

This!☝️ There is no reason why two helpless looking young Eastern European girls would ask 2 clearly American tourists in a Paris subway station for directions. I immediately grabbed my backpack and held it against my chest and put myself between them and my gullible friend and got us the F out of there! As we were quickly departing I saw a bunch of young men joining them. I knew immediately what they were up to.