Why Most Vacations Suck and How to Travel Better
Have you ever spent thousands of dollars on a vacation just to come home needing another vacation?
Because somewhere along the way, travel became stressful. Airport chaos, overpacked itineraries, matching T-shirts, a family argument in the TSA line before 6 a.m. Somehow, we accepted this as normal.
I’m Samantha, and this show is here to help you travel smarter, vacation harder, avoid tourist traps, and actually enjoy your vacation again.
Welcome to the very first episode of Talk Travel with Samantha, sponsored by Fabulous Adventures Travel. This show is your weekly escape from boring vacations and a little bit of chaos.
Let’s talk about travel red flags.
Stop Trying to See Everything
Everyone has the best intentions when they go on vacation. You spend a ton of money and think to yourself, “I want to see everything. I want to go on everything. I want to visit every landmark and every popular place.”
But honestly? That’s a red flag.
If your vacation itinerary looks like a military operation, you’re doing too much. I promise you this. Vacations should have some relaxing and wandering built into them.
I love wandering. I like having time where I can just say, “Okay, I’m in this city. Let me wander around.”
That’s how you find the little coffee shop with the best hot chocolate on the planet. Or the tiny market with fresh bread, cheese, and fish where you get to see how locals actually live.
One of the biggest things I tell my clients is: don’t try to see everything.
If you’re going to Rome, I understand wanting to see it all. You think, “I’m never coming back here again.” But if you miss something, it’s honestly not that big of a deal because you’re probably going to discover something even cooler while wandering around.
Go watch the random sunset you weren’t expecting to see. Talk to the local you didn’t know you were going to have an amazing conversation with.
That’s the stuff you remember.
Vacationing for Instagram Will Kill Your Trip
Another huge travel red flag is vacationing for Instagram. Leave that to influencers.
Go off the beaten path instead.
Don’t choose Santorini just because everybody on Instagram posts it. Choose someplace like Corfu or Kefalonia.
Santorini is packed. I can’t even begin to tell you how crowded it is.
The lesser-known places are just as beautiful, but you get more culture, more local influence, fewer crowds, and a better experience overall.
And honestly, it’s kind of fun coming home and telling people:
“No, I didn’t go to Santorini. I went to Corfu.”
Tourist Trap Restaurants Are Almost Never Worth It
Do not fall for tourist trap restaurants.
The food usually isn’t even that good, and you’ll wait forever.
Talk to locals. Ask people where they eat. That’s how I do it. I literally walk up to people and ask:
“Hey, is this place actually good?”
Most of the time, that’s how you end up finding the best meals.
The Venice Story
One of my favorite travel memories happened because I completely changed my plans at the last minute.
I was in Vienna for a travel expo and originally planned to go see Neuschwanstein Castle. But then I thought, “What else is nearby?”
Turns out it was super cheap to fly from Vienna to Venice, and I had never truly experienced Italy before. So my travel partner and I booked a last-minute flight and hotel and just went for it.
We landed late at night starving, wandering through these tiny dark alleyways in Venice trying to figure out where to eat.
A local recommended a place called Aqua Pazza.
We found it using Google Maps and ended up having some of the best Italian food I’ve ever had in my life. Pizza, pasta, mozzarella and tomatoes — everything was unreal.
That experience happened because we didn’t overplan everything.
One of the Best Travel Decisions I Ever Made
One of the best travel decisions I ever made was starting to cruise.
I know cruising isn’t for everybody. Some people would never step foot on a cruise ship, and I totally understand that.
I didn’t go on my first cruise until my early twenties when my mom wanted to celebrate her birthday with a family trip on Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas.
Now I love cruising for one major reason:
You get to experience a lot of places without constantly repacking and moving your stuff around.
The ship becomes your hotel, and you get to sample all these different destinations.
That’s actually how I discovered that I love lesser-known Greek islands more than places like Santorini and Mykonos.
Cruises are amazing for helping you figure out where you want to go back to later.
Shoulder Season Is the Travel Industry’s Best-Kept Secret
Let’s talk about a travel hack that actually matters: shoulder season.
Shoulder season is the sweet spot between peak season and off-season.
Peak season means:
Bigger crowds
Higher prices
Extreme heat in some places
Off-season means:
Cheaper prices
Lower crowds
Possible weather issues and closures
Shoulder season gives you the best balance:
Better prices
Fewer crowds
Good weather
Better service
A more relaxed atmosphere
For Europe, think April, May, September, or October.
Once you experience Europe during shoulder season, you’ll never want to go back in the middle of summer again.
My Favorite Travel Hack: Fly Non-Stop
Here’s another travel hack I swear by:
Fly non-stop whenever possible.
I know people are super loyal to their airlines because of points and status, but non-stop flights reduce so much stress.
No missed connections.
No changing planes.
No dragging bags through another airport.
I just want to get on the plane, settle in once, and arrive at my destination.
That’s my style of travel.
Go to Kefalonia, Not Santorini
If there’s one place I want people to visit after this episode, it’s Kefalonia.
Kefalonia is for people who want Greece without standing in line to look at Greece.
It feels romantic, relaxed, and undiscovered.
Think:
Turquoise water
Sleepy harbor towns
Long lunches
Boat days
Fresh seafood
Wine by the water
Zero urgency
We visited Kefalonia on Celestyal’s Heavenly itinerary, and I immediately fell in love with how laid-back and gorgeous it was.
One minute you’re driving through mountains with goats, and the next you’re looking at beaches that literally look photoshopped.
The water there is offensively blue. It’s unreal.
One of the coolest things we did was visit Melissani Cave, this underground cave lake where sunlight shines through a hole in the ceiling and lights up the water in this glowing electric blue color. You ride through it on a tiny rowboat, and it honestly felt like something out of Phantom of the Opera.
Kefalonia isn’t about nightlife or beach clubs.
It’s about slowing down.
It’s about sitting by the harbor drinking wine with locals until midnight and wondering why life can’t always feel like this.
Final Thoughts
Kefalonia feels like somebody accidentally left the old Greece unlocked.
And honestly, that’s kind of the theme of this whole episode.
The best vacations happen when you stop trying so hard.
Stop overplanning.
Stop chasing Instagram moments.
Stop trying to see everything.
Leave room to wander, talk to locals, eat somewhere random, and discover places you never expected to love.
That’s where the magic happens.
