The next non-fiction book on my list is The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. From the blurbs I’ve read, the author discusses the importance of certain keystone habits (like making your bed each morning) that provide a foundation for success in business and life.
This lead me to consider whether or not I’ve developed keystone travel habits.
I was able to identify this positive one. No matter what, I never forget the magic phrases that every preschooler knows by heart and too many adults have forgotten: “Excuse me,” and “Thank you.” I also flash a withering smile that says, “Please. I am so friggin’ lost that if you don’t walk me to the train station I may perish here in the piazza.”
As for negative travel habits, I routinely get suckered into paying too much for a hotel “experience.” I only need one thing in a hotel room – it must be clean. That’s it. I don’t spa, or exercise and generally never eat in 5-star hotel restaurants. So why do I constantly find myself in a $250 room when an $85 one would be just fine? For example, last winter I paid $275 to stay at The Peabody Hotel in Memphis. I wanted a front row seat for the hotel’s famous duck walk. (See the video below – the ducks literally EXPLODE out of the elevator.) But I could have stayed at the downtown Econo Lodge or Hampton Inn and simply sat in the lobby because the duck walk’s a public attraction, a fact I somehow missed in my research.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T97pv97V7Kc&w=420&h=315]
After reading the book perhaps I’ll gain some insight into my travel behaviors and attempt to eliminate this negative habit.
What are your travel habits?
How frustrating! Our hotel selection is always controlled by whether they have secure, off-street parking for our van full of animals. We’ve stayed in a wonderful selection of places from the sublime to the downright basic 😉
I hope the Peabody duck walk wasn’t offensive. I can assure you. These ducks live a very luxurious existence. Interesting to see how different needs drive the choices for accommodations
Oh no, not offensive at all – we laughed out loud!
I visit the Peabody ducks every time I am in Memphis. I can’t explain it. They’re kind of adorable. Never stayed there, though. Since I have little kiddos, a nice pool has become an important feature for us. And inexpensive is okay as long as I am convinced it’s safe (and clean, of course).
Adorable is the word. As are the kids sitting along the red carpet. One of those particularly wonderful moments. Thanks for visiting.
I too have a habit of using please and thank you with my most adorable-please-help-I’m-so-lost look. I also tend to pay a lot more attention to where I am and where I’m going. Negative habits – forgetting to pay attention to my budget and forgetting that travel within the US is a viable option.
A major one that gets me, unfortunately, at odds with hotel or just opportunistic people in many parts of the world is that I *always* handle my own luggage. Worst moment was first time in Mumbai where a guy in front of the airport was so insistant on providing that service for me (well, at a cost) that I had to literally tackle him away.
Didn’t feel good – but he wouldn’t take any of nine polite no thank yous at face value…