Three Vacation Habits Russians Need to Leave Behind, According to a Travel Blogger

A travel blogger who has been watching Russian tourists unwind has some advice: stop pinching every penny and start actually enjoying the trip. Writing on the platform Zen under the handle “Valerie Light,” she argues that many travelers are still clinging to outdated habits that ruin the experience.

Take the woman she knows who saved up for a trip to Karelia, only to book a cheap hostel in the countryside and skip all guided tours. “There’s a difference between being reasonably thrifty and being cheap about the journey itself,” the blogger notes. “The first means choosing decent lodging over a luxury suite. The second means skipping the very things you came to see.”

Another holdover from tougher times: crashing with friends instead of booking a hotel. The blogger points out that decades ago, rooms were scarce and getting one felt like winning a lottery. People helped each other out of necessity. Today, she says, you can find a place to stay in 20 minutes, at any price point. There’s no excuse.

Group tours, she adds, have also fallen out of style. They once offered a sense of safety abroad, when language barriers and a lack of information made solo travel daunting. Now, a smartphone with maps and internet solves almost any problem. “The best thing you can do in a new city is take a wrong turn. Walk through a random door. Sit in a café because you like the sign. Get lost and find what no guidebook mentions. A group with a flag can’t give you that,” she writes.

This comes as a recent survey found that 89 percent of Russian travelers feel anxious during trips for various reasons. Perhaps letting go of these old habits could help.