How To Handle Small Annoying Problems While Traveling

Long-term travel is like anything else: there’s highs and there’s lows, and then there’s the middle stuff.

Not a major catastrophe, and not a sublime experience either: it’s something small and annoying that makes your day just a little worse than you’d like it to be.

After being a full-time traveler for going on 3 years now, I’ve run into quite a few small annoying things all over the world.

Nothing major, nothing vital to my overall enjoyment of a particular place. But just small things that are…really annoying. Like an itch right in the middle of my back.

Here’s some of what I’ve run into, and some ideas for getting past it! Have you run into any of these problems during your own travels?

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Post Contents

Nasty coffee/tea as a hotel amenity

This happens at every kind of hotel, from 2 star no-name budget to 4 star brand name fancy places. I understand that they need to buy in bulk to save costs, but some of their coffee/tea offerings are so bad I can’t even force myself to use them.

Worse are the places that don’t give you any coffee or tea at all!

Solution: I carry my own tea and a few packs of instant coffee. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough to tide me over until I can get to a grocery store.

If you’re particularly picky about your coffee or tea, you’ll probably want to carry around a small kit. Depending on your preferences, that might look like the following:

Mug
Heating coil or collapsible hot water kettle
Tea infuser (silicone ones squish down better)
Coffee press (some come with a cup already so you’re good to go) + accessories
Instant milk or coffee creamer, sugar, coffee

The nice thing about carrying your own coffee or tea around is you can try different kinds from local places! I highly recommend trying Indonesian tea, and Vietnamese coffee was my favorite by far.

Showers that don’t have a shelf or hook inside

This is my main problem with showers, especially shared ones in hostels. They’re highly trafficked, so it’s typical for hooks or shelves to be broken and never replaced.

Having nowhere to stash my shampoo and soap? Annoying!

Solution: I use a tote bag and foldable hook combo. All my shower stuff goes in the tote bag, and then I use the hook to hang it from the door.

There’s different styles of hooks you can get, but I use a basic one like this. It fits over most doors just fine.

Finding something dirty in an otherwise clean room

This makes my skin crawl. It’s unavoidable in hotels that can’t or won’t hire enough housekeepers to do a thorough job cleaning, but considering most of them made a big stink about “anti-COVID-19 cleanliness” procedures to lure in visitors only a few years ago, it’s icky that they haven’t kept up with that level of clean.

Sometimes it’s just a mistake, something accidentally missed by the cleaning crew, but often it’s just lack of time to deep clean.

Solution: Do a quick clean with bacterial wipes, check mattresses for bugs (ALWAYS!), and if something is truly nasty, notify the staff so they can fix it or move you to another room.

Forgetting to disinfect the TV remote before touching it

On a related note: this is one of the things that NEVER gets cleaned, so you really need to clean it yourself. Unfortunately for me, I always forget to do this!

Solution: Bring a Ziploc bag and make it a habit to stick the remote into it as soon as you get checked in.

The time between check-out and check-in

Not as much of an issue if you’re spending part of the day traveling between locations, but I almost always end up with extra time before I’m allowed to check-in to the next hotel.

When I stay at a hotel or hostel I can always just drop off my bags for storage, but when I’m going from AirBNB to AirBNB that’s not possible.

Solution: Find public spaces to hang out in OR some place to store your bags. I’ve had good luck at train stations for both: they have lots of travelers and nobody minds if you sit around with your suitcase for a while. The bigger ones often have luggage storage as well, for a fee.

You can also try to find a storage place with Radical Storage, though I have yet to use it myself. They subcontract with stores and hotels for storage space, which could be a good option if you want to dump your luggage and roam around town.

Leaving something in a suitcase that’s needed enroute

I’ve gotten better at this as I’ve gotten better at packing in general, but I still have a bad habit of leaving something in there. Usually a charger, a mask, or Tylenol. Nothing that’ll ruin me if I don’t have it, but something that I would’ve liked having. It’s even worse when it happens on a plane, as there’s no way I can get into my suitcase then!

Solution: Make a list of what you’ll need during your travel day, and move that stuff to your daypack. Every time you pack, be sure that stuff is IN your daypack.

Having a list will keep you from forgetting something, and you’ll be able to check what needs refilling or replaced. Keep doing it enough times and eventually it’ll just be a habit.

Forgetting something at the last hotel

And not remembering until I’m at the next one. Again, I’m lucky that I haven’t forgotten anything REALLY vital! But it’s annoying when it’s something small. I tend to forget bathroom items, which at least are easily replaced.

Solution: Have a packing list, if you’re super organized. Otherwise, do a double-check of your whole room before you leave, even in the places you “know” you didn’t leave anything.

For people with bad memories: Record a video of you going around the room checking drawers, closets, etc. and confirming that they’re empty. You can watch it back again to make sure you really did remember everything.

Not having a spatula in a shared kitchen

You’d think a spatula would be a standard kitchen utensil in any shared kitchen, but I’ve been in plenty of stays that’re missing one. Any other utensil I can buy easily and for pretty cheap, but spatulas can be weirdly expensive if and when I find them. I’ve had to get creative on flipping my fried eggs in some AirBNBs!

There’s other stuff that tends to be missing in AirBNB kitchens or hostels shared spaces, but spatulas are the worst culprits.

Solution: Carry around a set of kitchen utensils, perhaps? Or more likely buy a set when you get to your destination. Maybe only if you’re going to stay somewhere for a long time and KNOW you need one. Dollar stores have decent enough stuff that works well enough for short stays. I’ve got a veg peeler from Daiso that works really well, and it’s small enough to take with me.

Final Thoughts

While none of these are make-or-break travel problems, they do tend to pop up at the worst times. The more I travel the more I know how to handle situations like these, and surprisingly the less annoying they get once I know the solutions to fixing them!

What’re your small travel annoyances?