Bored Panda got in touch with veteran traveler Monica Stott and she was kind enough to share some of her experience with us. First and foremost, we wanted to hear what advice she would give her younger self in regards to traveling. 

“You don’t need all that stuff! Find your favorite travel outfit and stick with it and forget about all the ‘just in case’ items. You never need them. But pay for extra cloud storage and backup your photos and videos. Those photos are priceless, look after them,” she added, and for good reason, every single country in the world has something beautiful to capture. 

When it comes to hotels, everyone has their own philosophy. Some prefer to rough it out and save their money for tickets and activities, while others enjoy living in the lap of luxury. Naturally, given Monica’s experience, we wanted to hear her opinion on when to splurge and when to save. 

“If we lived in a perfect world then we’d all have plenty of time and plenty of money and we’d be free to make the choice about which is most important to us. But we don’t live in a perfect world and it’s not normally a choice. Some of us have one or the other, most of us don’t have enough of either!”

“Just remember that nothing has to be forever. You might prioritize time at one stage of your life (perhaps when your children are little) and then prioritize money for a while (perhaps in your 50s so you can retire young). There’s no right or wrong, we all just do what feels right at the time,” she shared with Bored Panda. 

“I definitely prefer traveling slowly and paying less to do so. But do I have 10 weeks to slowly travel around Europe by train? No, no I don’t. So, at the moment, I’ll be taking a quick flight every other weekend to European cities for a 2-night break!” After all, as this article shows, not all hotels are made equal, so it’s best to know what to look out for. 

We also asked Monica to share her own tips on how to prepare for a trip. “I don’t like to over-prepare because it can take the joy out of stumbling upon things and enjoying the moment. There are a few things I like to do though: Book my accommodation, know how I’m getting from the airport/train station to my accommodation, and roughly know how much things will cost.”

“Have a short list of things I want to see, a few restaurants I’d like to try and plot these places on Google Maps so I don’t get lost.” If you want to learn more travel tips, check out Monica’s Instagram as well as her blog. For those who weren’t turned off hotels and Airbnb from this article, check out some travel ideas for 2024.