Guest post courtesy of Liza Cornfield:

Like any millennial, I’m fairly attached to my phone. So I naturally noticed pretty quickly that it had gone missing. After searching all over the hotel, I decided to try the Find my iPhone app only to discover it was in Bethlehem, about 30-45 minutes away. At first I thought it must be a mistake. I wrote a message through the app in several languages and then pressed for the sound to go off over 25 times. After a little while, I was notified that the phone had been found and would be returned to me. When we met up with the culprit and her tour guide, she told me (in Portuguese) that I shouldn’t be putting my phone in other peoples bags and then walked off. Because millennials are clearly known best for stashing their phones in strangers’ bags, especially while traveling in a foreign country.

Pro-tip: The Find my iPhone app is incredibly useful if you ever find yourself without your lifeline.

Guest post courtesy of Emily McDermott:

For our trip to the Black Hills, my family and I packed and checked our bags as usual. However due to weather, our connecting flight from Chicago to Rapid City was cancelled. And since it was a small jumper plane to a small airport, there were no additional flights. So, when we got a different flight to another airport we thought all was well, even if we did have to drive 8 hours across the state to Rapid City. However, the universe had other plans for my parents’ luggage. Unfortunately, it never changed flights and was still in Chicago when we landed in South Dakota. Three days and many trips to Walmart later, we were ready to leave South Dakota for Colorado, just in time for their luggage to arrive.

Pro-tip: If you are taking small jumper planes or going to remote airports, have a carry on with essentials with you just in case. Those airports don’t have the frequent flights or the resources to accommodate mishaps like main hubs do. Better to carry on than to shop at Walmart for three days to buy all new clothes.

Guest post courtesy of Ruthi Pratt and Hamer Farag of @twogetoutside:

We were so excited for our visit to China. Unfortunately, bureaucracy got in the way and our visa was denied. So instead, we had to get a little bit creative and spent 7 extra days exploring Japan.

Pro-Tip: Always remain flexible while traveling. You never know what can pop up, especially when dealing with a foreign government. Make the most of your experiences, despite the unforeseen challenges.

Guest post courtesy of Amy Rothschild:

In Yiddish, there are similar terms: shlemiel and shlimazel. A shlemiel is clumsy or inept and a shlimazel is someone who is plagued with constant bad luck. In other words, a schlemiel is somebody who often spills his soup and a schlimazel is the person it lands on. In this particular case, I think I might have actually qualified as both. While visiting Israel for the first time ever, I was excited to explore a land that I had been learning about for my entire life. I might have been a little too excited, because I wound up crashing into street stanchions everywhere I went. It became a running joke in my family and to this day, they feel the need to alert me every time a stanchion is in my path.

Pro-tip: Always be aware of your surroundings, especially if you’re in unfamiliar territory or if you’re traveling with people who will ridicule you for the rest of your life.

Guest post courtesy of Ruthi Pratt and Hamer Farag of @twogetoutside:

Having flown Royal Air Maroc before with less than great results, we knew going into this experience that it was going to be rough. In fact, the only reason we chose to fly with them again was because we had gotten refunded tickets from our previous trips. We knew to expect that they wouldn’t leave on time and that it would be poorly managed. However, we did not expect that they would mess up our reservation by switching our first and last names, make us wait an hour to receive our boarding passes, make us wait on an additional line in passport control, try to trick us into sitting separately, take off almost 2 hours after the scheduled departure, and then lose our luggage (and everyone else’s) due to a strike. We waited 2.5 hours to report that our bags were missing, and were without our bags (including essential clean clothes) for 3 days.

Pro-tip: If you’ve got the opportunity, utilize the airport lounge. The one that we went to had a ton of amenities including the ever-essential wifi password, a variety of hot and cold foods, showers, and extra comfy work stations. It’s a great way to relieve an otherwise very stressful experience. Also, don’t ever fly Air Maroc.

Guest post courtesy of Liza Cornfield:

After studying in the broad for an entire semester, I was soaking up my final day in the beautiful city of Rome. I went to meet a friend at the local library and on the way I took a pretty gnarly tumble down some marble steps. In case you were wondering, marble is quite hard. And it causes all sorts of fun and interesting bruises and hematomas that last up to 6 months. I guess that was a souvenir in its own way.

Pro-Tip: Even if you’re reaching the end of your trip, always remain vigilant and on your guard. You’re not safe until you’re back home. And probably not even then, because houses have steps too.

Guest post courtesy of Ruthi Pratt and Hamer Farag of @twogetoutside:

We found out that we were unable to rent a car to go to the mountains in Romania. It was a situation that was really out of our control and we had no option than to cancel our trip to the mountains and spend the next 4 days in Bucharest. Although it was tough to hear at first because we both were so excited for hiking we took the time to look at the good in this. We had been non-stop on the road for the past 2 and a half months. We had not had a single day where we just rested. We usually went on adventures all day long and spent the time at night to edit and write. We decided to take this time to continue editing, learning, planning and definitely resting before we took the rest of the world by storm.

Pro-tip: If there has been one thing we have learned most from our travels it’s the ability to be resilient and patient.

Guest post courtesy of Amy Rothschild:

I was extra excited to visit Salzburg since the Sound of Music is one of my favorite movies. We visited several of the sites shown in the movie and even stayed in a picturesque hotel where they filmed the now infamous lake scene. All of this would have been fantastic if not for the fact that they put us in the attic of the building with virtually no air circulation. The grounds were beautiful to explore, the garden exceptional, but when it came time to go back inside each night, I wound up mainly staying in the lobby. We tried switching rooms, we tried opening windows (which were tiny), we asked for multiple fans, nothing helped. I tend to have a low tolerance for heat and was so uncomfortable that I wasn’t able to truly enjoy the experience.

Pro-tip: Try not to stay on the top floor of a hotel, especially an old one, if you can avoid it.

Guest post courtesy of Amy Rothschild:

When you’ve been traveling, there is nothing quite as restorative as a shower to wash off the adventures of the day or to prepare for a new one. And while it’s difficult to predict hotel amenities until you’ve actually experienced them, you never really imagine that water would be considered a luxury ticket item. Imagine my surprise when I got into the shower, turned on the water, and nothing came out. There was just enough water trickling from the sink faucet to brush my teeth. Apparently brand new hotels aren’t immune to boiler problems. “They’re working on it,” I was told.

Pro tip: Don’t book a brand new hotel, give them a few months to work out the kinks.

Guest post courtesy of Liza Cornfield:

I was incredibly lucky to be on a free spring break trip while studying abroad. After visiting Prague and Berlin, my luck unfortunately ran out in Amsterdam. Our group was hanging out in the bar of one of our hostels. I walked about 10 feet away in order to make a call and had just hung up the phone when out of nowhere a man came running at me, grabbed my phone, and sprinted off. I took about 2-3 running steps before I froze (realizing that it would probably be a bad idea to chase after him). The bartender leaped over the bar and chased the guy for a while and the police arrived within minutes. We watched the surveillance and they found an apology note he left for me saying he’s sorry but needs the phone more than I do. I went down to the station to make a statement and didn’t stop shaking until several days later.

Pro tip: When using your phone in public, try to use two hands and have a tight grip. Also in general, be aware of all surroundings, especially in unfamiliar territory.