海角大神

In 2004, I had the professional opportunity to travel to Mexico multiple times in a short span. On those trips, I had a few chances to visit some of the sights of rural Mexico.

One of the stops that really sticks in my mind is the opportunity to climb up a small Aztec pyramid at Teotihuacan. With some of my travel companions, we climbed up to the top of the pyramid, enjoyed the wonderful view, and also enjoyed the amazing architecture and design of these small pyramids.

Unfortunately, the primary path to reach these pyramids forced one to walk through a quarter of a mile or so of souvenir stands, all of which were hawking some kind of good. Since we were there as a large group, some people naturally finished with the pyramid tour before others and found themselves stuck standing there by all of these souvenir stands.

A few people wound up buying things from these souvenir hawkers. Those that did not were either drawn in to look or spend significant time trying to ignore them.聽

In either case, the souvenir hawkers produced a pretty unwanted 鈥� and in a few cases, expensive 鈥� effect on what was otherwise a wonderful vacation stop.

Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to avoid such tourist traps.

贵颈谤蝉迟,听stick together as a group.聽Naturally, you鈥檙e going to have people who move at different paces in the group. If you find yourself wanting to move faster than the rest of your group, hang back for a moment and wait on them instead of charging ahead. Similarly, if you feel that everyone is waiting on you, hurry up a bit.

How does this help? If you all stick together as a group, you won鈥檛 be stuck at the souvenir or gift shop by yourself waiting on the rest of your group. Similarly, if you鈥檙e all together as a group, it becomes much easier to limit your time shopping for such souvenirs 鈥� or, better yet, skip them entirely.

厂别肠辞苍诲,听acquire memories, not stuff.聽If you want to remember your stop at an amazing place, take a lot of pictures. Record a bit of video. Write about it in your journal. Tell (and show) others about it. A great travel moment lives on in your mind and your heart, not your stuff.

贵颈苍补濒濒测,听bring back only things that聽matter.聽If you鈥檙e going to bring back a souvenir for someone, chances are you鈥檙e not going to find a cool souvenir in a souvenir stand in a touristy area. You鈥檙e going to find something much better off the beaten path in a place you didn鈥檛 expect.

If you鈥檙e planning on buying a gift for someone, put aside a bit of time to do just that and go to a place that鈥檚 genuinely local instead of just grabbing something less interesting from a souvenir stand. It will mean more, it will be far more interesting, and you鈥檒l get more quality for the dollar.

Keep your dollars and spend them somewhere where you鈥檒l get more meaning and value for your pennies. You鈥檒l be glad you did.

This post is part of a yearlong series called 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),鈥� in which I鈥檓 revisiting the entries from my book 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap,鈥� which is available聽at Amazon聽and at bookstores everywhere.