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Flying a budget airline. Staying at a lousy hotel. Travelling with the wrong people.

If you have vacation regrets, you may have more than a few for the summer of 2024.

I do. I didn’t plan, and I overpaid my airfare. ($630 for a one-way ticket from Berlin to Stockholm? Come on, SAS!) Even though it was overcrowded, I should have spent more time in Europe, complained less, and eaten more German bread.

“Americans get so little vacation time,” says Kimberly Davis, a travel advisor. “But this summer, they have so many regrets.”

The most common one is the result of reflexively running through a “must do” list during the summer because you’re afraid of missing out on something. In the process, you miss out on everything “because you’re just running through a list”, says Davis.

With summer ending, it’s an excellent time to take inventory of all our vacation regrets. Because there are future trips to plan, such as the upcoming holiday travel season, spring break, and summer of 2025. You don’t want to repeat any of these errors.

But what are these regrets? They fit neatly into three categories.

Travellers are sorry they chose the wrong airline, cruise line or hotel.

Sometimes, you can’t know what will happen. For example, who could have known about the Delta Air Lines meltdown after the massive CrowdStrike software glitch? But some disasters are predictable. All those people trying to save a little money by choosing the cheapest flights or hotels — yeah, those were probably preventable.

A consultant and writer, Alex Wong, booked a ticket on a budget carrier with zero customer service. His flight from Shanghai to Seoul was cancelled because of bad weather, and the airline went silent.

“It was just endless torture waiting around,” he recalls. At one point, passengers started crowding around the gate and screaming at the hapless agent. Wong says he learned an important lesson — don’t cut corners when flying.

He’s hardly alone. This summer, I’ve heard from countless travellers who reserved a room at a hotel with horrible customer service or a vacation rental with none at all. People! You get what you pay for.

Another vacation regret: poor planning

Because time is at a premium, many plan ambitious itineraries that leave little room for error.

“The number one regret my clients are having this summer is not allowing extra time with connections on international flights,” says Heather Herbert, a travel advisor with Heather Concierge Travel.

She says in two cases, her client had a close connection from a domestic airport for an international flight, and weather delays resulted in massive delays.

“In one case, a mad sprint to the international terminal resulted in finding the cabin door closed. The captain, ultimately, did reopen the door in an act of great mercy,” she recalls.

Here’s a related regret: Stuffing your itinerary with too many activities you can’t enjoy. I got so tired of running from one appointment to another that I’ve started limiting my activities to just one per day. That’s right, one activity—preferably in the morning—and then the rest of the day to explore the destination on my own.

Here’s the biggest vacation regret of them all

But there’s one vacation regret that towers over all of the others: the missed opportunity.

Andrew Harper was working on a story about the best wine bars in Venice when he stumbled upon the legendary Cantina do Mori.

“Torn between stopping for a glass of wine and continuing on with my plan of gallery-hopping, I decided to return later — only to find that it was closed and wouldn’t reopen until after I flew home,” says Harper, who edits the Hideaway Report. “It was a good reminder to leave room in an itinerary for serendipitous discoveries.”

How many more summers do you have?

When I started my career as a consumer advocate, I met many readers who had spent their entire lives working and saving up to travel after they retired. Then they booked a dream cruise or a safari, only to suffer a debilitating illness just before leaving (that’s why there’s travel insurance). And then they realized they would never travel.

“The biggest regret is not taking a vacation while you have the opportunity, health, mobility and time,” says Mitch Krayton, a professional travel advisor in Aurora, Colo.

It doesn’t take long for the barriers to pile up—a bad back, an unfavourable exchange rate, trouble getting around. I know what that feels like. A few years ago, I broke my pelvis in two places in Switzerland, and a part of me just wanted to be at home sipping hot chocolate. Instead, I rested for a few weeks in Barcelona and then flew to the Antarctic.

Krayton is right; you only live once.

I guarantee you’ll regret the trip you didn’t take. And the older you get, the more those regrets pile up until you are at the end of your life and have a long list of trips you didn’t take. Don’t let that be your regret.

Elliott’s tips on how to avoid vacation regrets

You don’t have to break bones or get a severe healthcare diagnosis to avoid a lousy vacation decision. Here are some strategies for avoiding a regret-free getaway:

Get professional help. With the guidance of a pro, problems like overplanning, booking the wrong airline, or missing a significant attraction can be avoided. Consult a travel advisor, travel coach, or a well-traveled friend before you start planning your next vacation.

Travel with the ones you love. But make sure the ones you love want to travel. There’s no point in dragging your grandkids on a museum tour of Milan if they’d go to the Magic Kingdom in Orlando instead. (Believe me, I’ve done this. It’s a recipe for disaster.)

Don’t wait. Stop putting off your vacation and go. I can’t remember the last time I met someone who regretted travelling. But I’ve met plenty of people who were sorry they didn’t travel.

The best way to handle vacation regret is a do-over. Planning season starts in just a few months for next summer’s vacations, so why not get started now?