Ladies Who Travel: When Things Go Wrong, Keep Calm and Travel On

“The perfect trip rarely exists.” No matter how carefully you plan, travel throws curveballs. In this candid chat, the Ladies Who Travel unpack what happens when plans fall apart: a protest that blocks all roads, weather-cancelling bucket list moments, and train strikes that derail rail itineraries. 

You will hear different coping styles in action - Shelly’s calm in a crisis, Melissa’s quick “meltdown then regroup,” and Tracy’s pragmatic pivots. We also share practical tactics: build flexibility into your plan, book priority experiences early, research potential disruptions, and keep backups ready (including Shelly’s smart two-phone system for solo travellers). 

We also discuss openly the emotions behind cancelled plans and how to move on quickly. As Melissa says, “It’s okay to have your five-minute meltdown, express your disappointment, and then ask: now what am I going to do?” Because so often the best stories start with, “Well, this wasn’t what we planned…”

⭐️ Guests - Melissa (QueenslandTravelGuide.com.au) and Shelly Marie (SoloHerWay.com)
📝  Show Notes - Episode 73 

🎧 Listen to next

• Episode #56 – Essential Tips for Surviving Long Haul Flights [Ladies Who Travel]
• Episode #52 – Travel Safe Travel Smart: Real Tips for Every Type of Traveller
• Episode #65 - Navigating Food Abroad: Tips, Mishaps & Healthy Hacks with the Ladies Who Travel

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Plan B Travel
• 8:08 Travel Plans Going Sideways
• 16:27 Handling Unexpected Protests
• 21:15 Mental Approach to Travel Disruptions
• 24:58 Weather and Transport Challenges
• 31:15 Travel Emergency Preparation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

From long flights to foreign food, travel can do a number on your body and mind. In this episode of Ladies who Travel, we're sharing how we stay healthy on the road, plus the mishaps we've learned from along the way.

Speaker 2: 0:11

Welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is founder of the Global Travel Planning website, tracey Collins. Each week, tracey is joined by expert guests as she takes you on a journey to destinations around the world, sharing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas and practical tips to help you plan your next adventure. Join us as we explore everywhere, from bustling cities to remote landscapes, uncover cultural treasures and discover the best ways to make your travel dreams a reality.

Speaker 1: 0:46

Hi and welcome to episode 73 of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. This week we are talking about plan B or C, or what to do when travel plans go sideways. So, let's face it, not everything goes according to plan when you travel. The weather changes, trains get cancelled, the museum you've been down to see is closed for renovations. So in this month's Ladies who Travel episode, we're talking about the art of being flexible when things go wrong. From our own travel curveballs to how we mentally reframe disruptions.

Speaker 1: 1:13

This is all about rolling with the punches and sometimes discovering unexpected joys along the way. We'll share stories of travel plans that crumpled, the backup plans that saved the day and the unexpected wins that come from letting go of the itinerary. So, whether you're a meticulous planner or more of a fly by the seat of your passport type, this episode will give you permission to pivot and keep your sense of humor when things don't quite go to script. So I've once again got Melissa and Shelley here for this episode. Now we are recording this actually at the end of July.

Speaker 1: 1:43

The episode is going out at the end of September, but because we all have crazy schedules, sometimes we have to try and record a couple of episodes at the same time. So, as I said, this time we're going to be talking about plan B or C when things go wrong when we travel. But hopefully over the next couple of months the travel that we have planned won't go wrong. So, as I've already kind of mentioned in the previous month's episode August episode we are potentially in September going to be traveling around Western Australia or we're going to be in the UK. So I'm not sure I'll tell you at the end of October what we actually did, but what are your plans over the next couple of months, shelley?

Speaker 3: 2:18

Well, tentatively, if everything doesn't go wrong, uh, I'm planning on heading over to albania and revisiting that area I love albania and uh possibly going back to maipulia brilliant so we've got.

Speaker 1: 2:34

Well, we can talk about that end of october. So we'll, we will catch up and find out what the end of october, what we've done. So what about you, melissa? What have you got planned up until the end of september?

Speaker 4: 2:42

um, I've got a a couple of days in auckland, coming up in new zealand, until the end of september. Um, I've got a a couple of days in auckland, coming up in new zealand. I've never been to auckland. I've been in new zealand. I've never been to auckland just going over there, um, for, um, some personal reasons. But I've got some sightseeing planned as well. So, yeah, hopefully that'll go as well. So excited.

Speaker 1: 3:00

Well, let's, let's hope that by the end of september, by the time this episode comes out, we'll have managed all these amazing travels that we have planned and we will catch up at the end of October about those. But it kind of works for this episode because sometimes you have these plans and then you need a plan B and a plan C because things don't necessarily go right and you have to be a bit more flexible. So'm gonna, let's start with a story. Let's start with the time when your plans fell apart. So I'm hoping you've all got a story for me.

Speaker 1: 3:30

Um, I'll start quickly with we were in doug and I were in portugal and spain earlier in the year and we planned to take the train which doug was very I cannot tell you how excited he was about this to take the train we actually take the bus and then catching the train around northern Spain and then down to Barcelona. So you have this big train journey planned and train strikes hit. So we waited and waited, and waited, hopefully they'd be called off, and in the end I gave up, booked a flight and an hour later the train, the strikes were cancelled. But I just went and Doug was like well, let's do the train. I'm like I've just paid flights, we'll just fly it. Sometimes you just have to accept the disappointments and I've said to Doug, we will go back and do that again, right? What about you guys? What stories have you had where things have gone a bit awry from your plans?

Speaker 4: 4:15

Melissa, we all know that I've broken my foot a number of times and that made my plans not go to plan. And that made my plans not go to plan. I'm not going to talk about that, because I talk about it all the time. I'm going to talk about something that me and Shelley, we were going on a trip just a few hours north of Brisbane out. We were going to.

Speaker 4: 4:36

Lady Musgrave Island and also we were going to sleep on the reef. Now we live in well, I live in Brisbane and Shelley was visiting Brisbane. We don't have cyclones in Brisbane, but guess what? We had a cyclone when Shelley and I were doing this. So we had to cancel those plans, which was fairly easy to do because we don't have cyclones here. All the operators were very fine about doing that. So then we rescheduled, and then, when we rescheduled, then we we had bad weather again and, um, we weren't able to sleep on the reef, but we decided to still go ahead with the trip and we did what we could do. Um, yeah, look, so it was. It didn't actually, you know, the plan that we had planned didn't all go to plan, but we still had a wonderful time and we just went with it.

Speaker 1: 5:25

Anyway, I think that's the best way to be. So obviously, what about you, shelley? Don't mention the same one that Melissa just talked about.

Speaker 3: 5:33

No, no, no, but I did have that notated, because that was I kind of had notated out of like how to you know, just go with the flow. It out of like how to you know, just go with the flow. Um, so I've had one uh story that I told on a previous podcast about my Italian debacle, but it turned out perfect. But this one, I will not mention the country, but I was in this country for at least a month and then I decided I was going to go to the local mall which I could walk to, and I went to the mall just for like an hour and a half and when I exited the mall there was a full-blown like riot protest in all the streets. I mean, this wasn't like a little like you know, hold up your sign. No, I mean this wasn't like a little like you know, hold up your sign.

Speaker 3: 6:25

No, there were thousands of people in the streets marching, and then there were, I want to say, thousands of police vehicles. You know the big ones like they take people away in, not like the cars I don't know the technical name for that, but anyways, yeah, it was like crazy, and I had just been in there for like an hour and a half. So they always tell you know, I always think in the back of my mind stay calm, stay out of it, don't get involved. So I just kind of just tried to get to my place as quickly as possible. The problem was they blocked off all the roads. So all the roads were blocked off and barricaded and it was.

Speaker 3: 7:12

It was very, very scary because they were all dressed up, all the police were marching, so I was going like a salmon going upstream. I was going, so I kind of just stuck to all the police vehicles and finally got back to my place and then I, you know, text a friend that knew about this country and I'm like what's going on? Do I need to leave? And it turns out it was a political protest, um, but evidently that there were, there was wind, that it was going to happen. So it wasn't like a spontaneous one. I did not know about it, but yeah, that was very intense. But yeah, always remember don't get involved, you know, just walk with purpose and get to where you need to be.

Speaker 1: 8:01

Did you stay in the country after that or did you change your plan to leave?

Speaker 3: 8:06

Actually, after I spoke to a friend of mine and found out that it was a political protest but, like I said, they had kind of like planned it but not planned it my friend told me it would be safe because it it was something within just that government. I was staying in the capital city, so you know. But I did stay and I I just trying to stay out of things like that. I think it's the best for visitors and and my friend told me it was safe.

Speaker 3: 8:44

So I did stay probably another three weeks and then I left. Wow, okay, so it was intense.

Speaker 1: 8:51

I was going to say it sounds like I remember actually walking back to the Garden Orr in Paris a few years ago. It was in January and there were protests and we had to walk alongside. We couldn't get to the Garden Orr without kind of crossing over this massive protest and of course, all the the french police were dressed like robocops and it was all a bit scary and it would, and also having to cross over.

Speaker 1: 9:13

We had to get back to the garden because we're catching a new star. But I remember at the time thinking, oh my goodness, this is, it's not. This isn't what I signed up for when I came to paris this particular time. So yeah, I think those, when those sort of things happen, it can be, it can be quite scary. But what's your general mindset when something goes wrong during a trip? Do you stay cool and calm or are you kind of? I guess I know you two are going to be cool and calm, but I know some people have meltdowns. Doug had a bit of a meltdown about the train strike. I have to tell you he was just like. He was so upset about it. I really want to do the trains, but generally I just say, because you know you just have to have a plan B or C, and when we have the consults for UK travel we always say have a plan B. Don't plan to catch a train from Scotland to catch a plane out the same day. Do it the night before.

Speaker 1: 10:01

That sort of thing we always say, because you just never know what's going to happen I correct you though, tracy.

Speaker 4: 10:07

You said I know you guys stay calm and all that. No, I don't. I normally have a meltdown, oh I see it yeah, I just you don't know about.

Speaker 4: 10:15

I normally have a meltdown and I cry, and I normally call someone at home, whether or not it might be my boyfriend or a friend, and they're like it's going to be okay, melissa, and they're like it's going to be okay, melissa, and then I'm like it's going to be okay, and then I pull myself together and then I stay calm, but I tend to have a meltdown first.

Speaker 1: 10:34

I did not know that. I honestly did not know that. I thought you'd be like but you've got the strategy. When something happens and you have that meltdown, you have the strategy you phone somebody, get yourself calm, and then you can kind of pick yourself up. And Shelly, obviously on your own. So how do you deal with things when they go like massively wrong?

Speaker 3: 10:54

When they go massively wrong, I tend I think it was due to my old profession I tend to go into very calm, very linear, don't panic, you know kind of status quo I. I mean, especially if it really goes south, I stay very calm. Now that doesn't mean, after the whole situation's over and everything's all said and done, that I don't like go, oh my gosh, what the heck just happened. And you know, just like you know this, when I'm like by myself in a safe place or whatever, but I guess, like it's just been like my lifelong habit of just if things go south really, really bad, I just kind of go into this mode of you know everything's fixable, unless it's life or death. And even if it's life or death, you do your best and that's it yeah absolutely.

Speaker 1: 11:55

What about when we put plans together, like adding some flexibility just in case things do go wrong? Like I mean, I always book free cancellation on hotels because I think that's a no-brainer for me, because it's just I want to have that. What about kind of having backup plans, having that plan b or, you know, giving yourself some buffer days, like you do, I guess, when you arrive shelly, you give yourself that time so you're not straight on to do something and you know you're not having an expectation that I have to go and do this show or I have to go and do this, this work for a brand or whatever it is that you're going to do. You're kind of giving yourself that, that that bit of a buffer zone. But do you guys give yourself that flexibility? Is that we how you deal with things that could go wrong?

Speaker 4: 12:38

the way I, the way I do it and I also do this to the clients that I work with is if you're going somewhere for a particular reason, like you know let's say you're going to go out to the great barrier reef for a day trip you book that on for the first day, or you after your buffer day, if it's like what Shelley was talking about, because that way, if there's bad weather that day or something happens, you know, or if it's a train strike or whatever, then you hopefully might be able to do that the next day or the next day. So you know, and perhaps you were going to plan to do something else on those other days, but maybe they're not as important as your trip to the great barrier reef or whatever.

Speaker 1: 13:20

Um, so that way, yeah, put the your most important thing first to give yourself the backup plan for another day actually that's a really good tip, and actually that's because our photographer in london that we work with that's always what she says to people to do if they're there for a week, put the photography session on the first day, because if the weather's bad we can move it back a few days. But if you leave it to the last day and the weather's bad, you've lost your photography session and that's your photos done. So that's an excellent tip.

Speaker 3: 13:47

What about you, shelly, for kind of having that flexibility yeah I, it goes back to setting a admin day or that first day of rest so then I can be refreshed to go again.

Speaker 3: 14:00

Um, another thing is don't overpack your itinerary. I mean, I know, you know people go on two week, three week holidays and they want to see the most they're spending money. They want to see the most they're spending money, they want to check every box. But, honestly, if you alleviate a lot of the fluff stuff and just stick to maybe three things that you really really want to do, your trip is going to be so much more relaxed, so much more enjoyable, so much more enjoyable and it leaves room for some serendipitous little things to happen, because sometimes you meet somebody, or sometimes you know something comes up and something's better than what you would have planned. So, just leaving that flexibility and maybe just having maybe three anchor points and again, like melissa said, we tried to push our trip, you know, back one day, which we did have the flexibility there, but it just sometimes things are just out of your control, so you just got to let it go.

Speaker 1: 15:04

Yeah, no, that's a good point and actually that kind of leads us on to kind of the most common types of disruption and we've talked about bad weather and obviously you guys, your trip was impacted by weather. Now I do, obviously, a lot of travel for the UK, so I would just say there's no such thing as bad weather just bad clothing.

Speaker 1: 15:25

So you know, you just have to be prepared. In the UK, actually, saying that they haven't had a lot of rain recently, maybe they have, I don't know. I lose track but sometimes they have no rain at all and then they have loads of rain. So it kind of goes that way. But I think I guess it's that unless it's going to completely cancel what you're doing, then you know you just prepare like you know take an umbrella, take a raincoat, that sort of preparation.

Speaker 1: 15:47

I don't think I've had anything except flights. I guess I've had flights that have been impacted by the weather. You don't want to be flying out in a bad storm or stuff like that. And also, what about transport issues? Obviously, we had the strike early on there. The UK's had quite a few train strikes. This was in Spain, so it's not just the UK that has train strikes. And actually our flight to Los Angeles last year was cancelled because of a bird strike. Actually the flight came in, hit a bird, so the flight was cancelled until the next day. Yeah, I know, so that happened and we lost the hotel, unfortunately in LA, for that evening. But we managed to move other things forward. But have you had anything like that kind of flight cancellations, train strikes, that sort of stuff happen. Melissa, I haven't had anything.

Speaker 4: 16:32

I don't think too major, but it just got me thinking. Even just last weekend in Brisbane we took some tourists out. We had this wonderful plan that we were going to go on the city car and, you know, on the ferry that is sorry ferry down the river and blah, blah, blah. When we got out there were just people everywhere and we didn't realise that there was a huge international rugby game playing in Brisbane and so all the ferries were packed. You couldn't get on the ferries, we couldn't get where we wanted to, and you know, at first it kind of stressed us out a bit because we'd had this great plan, and then we were like all right, we're just going to have to change the plan. And then it started raining. It doesn't rain that much in Brisbane generally, so you know, when you're an outdoor it just look. Everything we'd planned for the afternoon just didn't happen. You know what? We ended up in McDonald's just eating ice cream. So not very touristy, but that's what we did and we just had to go with it, exactly.

Speaker 1: 17:28

Made the best of the situation at the time.

Speaker 4: 17:31

What about you?

Speaker 1: 17:32

Shelley.

Speaker 3: 17:34

As far as the transportation or weather well, either I can talk about either.

Speaker 3: 17:39

Okay, so as far as, as far as the weather having impact here in the us, especially where some of my friends and family are, uh, on the southeast, we get hurricanes, so I tend to visit around hurricane season. Well, last year the hurricanes were very, very bad, category fours and there was. I was staying at a location where the water I actually got like held in the house because the water came all the way up to the front door. It came all the way up, almost flooded the screen and pool, because the water came all the way up to the front door, it came all the way up, almost flooded the screen and pool, because the storm surge was so much.

Speaker 3: 18:21

Um. So, that being said, I think, and then I went to Australia and they had their first cyclone in whatever years, and I'm just like, is this following me? What's happening? Um, I'm, I'm very well versed in this now but, that being said, just making sure, like you're prepared, like when you travel someplace. If you're traveling just for a couple weeks, you may not have a big issue, but if you're traveling a little bit longer, if you're going during cyclone season or during tornado season or some kind of just know that it's almost like looking up the holidays before you travel.

Speaker 1: 19:05

Know what you're walking into, because you know, otherwise you'll you won't be prepared yeah, I know that's a good point actually, because doug's been doing a lot on the uk travel planner podcast talking about sunday travel, um, and saying to people just it's a matter of risk, because people have kind of come back to him and said, well, I didn't have a trouble when I when I've traveled on a sunday on the trains and doug said, well, you might not, but you just be aware that there is a risk of traveling on a Sunday because of potential disruption, because that's when they do the work on the line and obviously staffing, so there's huge issues. I guess it's, having gone into that stuff, if you've got that knowledge, then you know that you can prepare for it and I think that's a good point. What about when things happen kind of like unexpectedly? Do you always have like a plan B or do you just kind of figure out? I mean, I know it's an unexpected thing, but do you have like a, a plan b?

Speaker 1: 19:59

I mean we, I know we talked to people last a couple years ago about the train strikes in the uk because they were a bit unexpected. They kind of knew two weeks before but and and we did a consult with a guy called rob. Actually he was amazing because what he did is he planned his trip, but he also then did the research on coaches as well, so he knew that if there was a train strike he could get the coach, which he ended up having to do actually in Scotland. He ended up catching the coach, but he already had that information, so he'd kind of done that research and was prepared for that. So do you guys do that, or do you more like kind of just deal with it when it happens? What about you, melissa?

Speaker 4: 20:34

Well, I guess you can't really plan for the unexpected. I think it's a bit about just kind of doing your research before, like you know. I guess, like what Shelley was just sort of saying you know, knowing if there's some holidays on, knowing if it's monsoon season or wet season, and just sort of having in the back of your mind, like you know, for example, I see people always in different groups I'm in say, oh, you don't go to like North Queensland during summer and like I don't agree with that, like yes, it's our wet season but it's not gonna, it's not gonna be a crazy storm every day. But if you go, knowing that it can be the wet, wet, wet weather, then you can kind of make plans. So, yeah, I think it's just just not, you know, not having your major meltdown or having your meltdown, but then letting it go and just dealing with it and just yeah, that's life, it's it's life, isn't it? It's not just travel, it's life things.

Speaker 1: 21:31

Yeah, to plan all the time exactly exactly and actually, you know, I actually I think all of us actually do plan for the unexpected and that we always have travel insurance oh yes, yes, yes, yes. That is that is because you, you know insurance, for any insurance, is about the unexpected that's right.

Speaker 3: 21:53

So you know it's not stuff that we plan for.

Speaker 1: 21:55

Uh, what about you shelly? I mean you, I know you're, you're pretty good, and I remember we talked about the time that you ended up in italy one time and the the place that you stayed was awful and it was not what you expected, but you kind of pivoted quite quickly and found yourself alternative accommodation, um, yeah, so I think it's that staying level-headed and kind of going, okay, this isn't what I planned, this is what I hoped, this is what I expected. But now, how do I then make a plan to, you know, change the situation?

Speaker 3: 22:25

Yeah, I think too it's very important, like Melissa said. You know, do preliminary research. You know the holidays, the weather, the train system. You know also we've spoke about this many times Go on your website, your government website in your home country, see if there's any alerts, see if there's things.

Speaker 3: 22:47

Then, once you do all of that, I personally don't put energy into the what ifs, because you could go down a major rabbit hole if you keep doing well, what if this, what if this? Well, I hope this happens. Oh, what if my you know tour cancels. What if I don't get there in time? That is such an expenditure of energy and it also takes away from your trip. So if you've done your due diligence and just like in Italy when that whole thing went awry, you know, now I can laugh at it, but in the time you just have to like think okay, this, this can be fixed, let me do this and maybe it will turn out better. Or it won't turn out better and you know you just kind of go with the flow. But to bring yourself down that rabbit trail of what ifs, sometimes that is crippling for new travelers and they'll skip it all together yeah, I think that's a good point.

Speaker 1: 23:51

That is true. Now, what about? Have you ever any of you and I had to think about this one actually have you ever had something like come out of something that was a disruption but ended up being actually better than what you had actually planned?

Speaker 3: 24:07

Well, that's me in Italy, right there.

Speaker 1: 24:11

Well, I was actually going to say the thing that actually crossed my mind and this was about you, shelley is that when we were in Kuala Lumpur I know you were in Thailand and your friends weren't there, so you just said I'll come and visit you guys in Kuala Lumpur, which is really cool. So then we went out, had a meal and got to meet up, and I know that wasn't something that you had planned. It was kind of a bit of a okay, you know what, I'm going to come down to see you guys, because it's not it's not worked out here at this precise moment to what I planned. So that, so that was really cool. What about you, melissa, then? Have you got anything?

Speaker 4: 24:39

that kind of come out of it nothing. Nothing comes to mind. I have no doubt there, probably there probably is, um, but look off the top of my head, I can't nothing. Nothing comes to mind, sorry that's all right.

Speaker 1: 24:52

I was struggling. Actually. It was one of those questions I thought well, you never know, we might have had something that really good come out of of things that have been cancelled.

Speaker 1: 25:00

But I think mainly is it's kind of just going with it and not getting too stressed, and you know, and you know that that's, that's the best way to deal with it now, what about, in like, do you have a kind of personal travel emergency kit so that could be like something you take with you and that, or practices that help when you go, when things go wrong? Now, I doug always does a medical side, so, in terms of having a physical medical kit, doug's great for that and actually when we went to india, you were really good on that, melissa. You had all of our kind of medication things sorted. Um, I always make sure that I have a working e-sim. Now, for me, being able to stay connected is a huge, huge issue. So I want to have that and obviously, as we've talked before like, insurance is a non-negotiable. That is part of my. You know, if you have an emergency, you want to have that insurance. But what about you guys? What do you? What? Do you have your kind of, like, you know, emergency kit?

Speaker 3: 25:57

I have um, I have kind of a different one. I take, you know, obviously, all my supplements and, uh, you know all the knowledge from where I'm, where I'm going to, but I carry, carry two phones and and I leave one in the where my accommodations are, and then I have my primary phone with me because if it gets stolen, it gets broken, it goes in the ocean Okay, that has happened. Um, if it, if it just gets dead, uh, then I can always go back to my accommodations, I can deactivate the current phone, whatever happened to it, and then I can back up all my cloud information. So I'm never left without a phone, because, as a solo traveler, I have to always be watching out for myself and making sure people know where I'm at.

Speaker 1: 26:54

And, yeah, so that's, that's one of my. You know, I think I've often said to Doug, if I lost my phone, or my phone broke or dropped it, it smashed or it got stolen, I would be absolutely lost because everything is on my phone. I use my phone to pay for everything. I take cards, but. But so that's a really smart idea, expensive idea, but a smart idea, because at the end of the day, yes, yeah, no Well yes, yeah, and it doesn't have to be like the like minor equal, but it doesn't have to be that way.

Speaker 3: 27:27

You could get maybe you know they come out with phones like every 10 minutes. Now I mean you can yeah, you can get have a phone maybe a year old that maybe you were going to trade in or something and you end up keeping it. You know, it's just something that has really served me well over the last two years.

Speaker 1: 27:48

So do you put eSIMs on both phones? I'm now curious about this Do you put eSIMs on both phones?

Speaker 3: 27:53

Yes. So what I have on my plan is I have a global plan, so I will have a global plan on the secondary phone and then on my primary phone. When I land I put the eSIM on that so I get a local number. The secondary phone is always just for emergencies, so that's always just in my accommodations. It's always activated, it's always connected. I won't have a local number on it. So I'm not paying for two SIMs, but I am paying for two different ones.

Speaker 1: 28:29

Well, now we know about Shelley's burner phone. What about you, Melissa?

Speaker 4: 28:36

What do you have in?

Speaker 1: 28:37

your personal kit.

Speaker 4: 28:38

No, I don't have a burner phone. Just to go off track a little bit, I once went to um, hawaii with my daughter she was really this is a long time ago, she was only four at the time. We got there and my phone wouldn't work, got off the end, it would not work, and I really panicked because you know, we had so much on our phone now and it was just me and her. But I went and this is probably a bit of a shout-out to Apple I have an iPhone, like most of the population, and I went straight and found out where an Apple store was in Waikiki and went there and the phone was reasonably new and they just gave me a new phone and then, because of, like you're talking about the cloud, I was then able just to download it and then like, so that yeah, it was.

Speaker 4: 29:29

I panicked so badly because I was like, oh my gosh, everything is on this phone. What am I going to do? I'm in a different country and, yeah, when it was just Apple was really good and just sorted it out. So you know that was a country like Hawaii. I mean, if you're going somewhere else although there's Apple shops everywhere in the world you could probably get a new phone anywhere these days, but yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:53

So let's end this episode with the always the same question what would be the one tip you'd share for staying calm and flexible when travel doesn't go to plan? What helps you keep perspective and turn things around shelly? I think it comes back.

Speaker 3: 30:04

For me, it comes back to attitude and it comes back to just being confident that everything can be worked out. And yes, flights have been delayed, I've missed flights, luggage has been lost. But escalating and taking out on other people or lashing out on other people sometimes when we get frustrated and we all do it I think it only makes it a little bit worse. So if I was to give somebody a traveler advice is give yourself plenty of time so you're not rushing around, and really really just think of that person as maybe your son, your daughter, your aunt, the standing behind there, and how you're going to speak to them and keep it very calm and you will be surprised how much further you'll get.

Speaker 1: 30:59

Let's go Talk about you, my son.

Speaker 4: 31:02

I think you just have to expect that the best plans don't always work out and you can put plan B, C, D, E in place and it's just still not going to happen. So you've just got to be prepared that that's going to happen and be able to let it go. And, like I said, it's okay to have your little meltdown. Just maybe let yourself have a five or ten-minute meltdown and go. Right, I've done that. I've expressed my disappointment. Now what am I going to do? And just go?

Speaker 1: 31:27

with it. Yeah, no, I agree with you guys totally. I think it's um, it's staying calm, just thinking rationally at the end of the day. You know, I always think what will I think about this in 12 months time or 10 years time? Will it really matter? Probably not. If that, if I miss that, or you know, even last year with a flight, we, we were disappointed. The flight was delayed 24 hours, but he, you know what. It's one of those things. Doug has got over the fact that there was a train strike in Spain when he went to that show because he'll go and do it again.

Speaker 1: 31:57

I'm like we'll just go back and do it again.

Speaker 1: 31:58

So it's one of those things I think. Do your research. So if you know there's a potential, like I mentioned, the train strikes in the UK it was useful to have a little bit of knowledge about okay, there are, this bus company can do it if it happens, and I've got that. So I'm not panicking on a holiday, especially if you're travelling with a family, and you just think I need to have that little bit of knowledge. So, maybe a little bit of research. Do a consult. We do consults for the UK. Melissa does consults for Australia, for Queensland. You know, if you want to speak to a local about to prepare you and you can ask all those questions, prepare you and you can ask all those questions. But generally, I think, just go with the flow and just, um, just enjoy it if things change, just you know there's not much you can do about a lot of things out of your control. So being flexible I think is is the key for sure. Oh, as always, it's great to catch up with you guys and we've got, we've got. We've got a few more episodes planned until the end of the year. But if you're listening to this episode and you're thinking, oh, I really would love to hear melissa, shelly and tracy talk about this topic. Then leave us a message on speakpipe, because we we want to hear some topics that that would be of interest to you, uh, that we can talk about and say we're all very experienced travelers in different ways. We all travel differently, but we have a huge mix of experience and knowledge. So get in touch and let us know what you'd like us to have a chat about. As always, you can find the information that we chat about in the show notes for this episode, which are at globaltravelplanningcom.

Speaker 1: 33:24

Forward slash, episode 73. But for this month, it's a bye from me and the rest of the ladies who travel. Bye guys, bye, tracy, bye Shelley. This month it's a. It's a bye from me and the rest of the ladies who travel. Bye guys, bye, tracy, bye Shelley, bye. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the global travel planning podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanningcom. Remember, if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app, because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts, just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always, happy global travel planning.