Linda431

The best: Since I can't sleep sitting up, the best was from a friend that told us to do whatever we had to do short of selling the kids to fly up front on an overseas trip. We have now turned accruing Skymiles into an art form.

The worst? Our very first trip to France we took somebody's advice to get a seat in the back of the plane because it would be quieter. Ha. Not only did it turn out to be the gathering place for all the smokers who were sitting in not-smoking seats but our seats did not recline.

Anciana

BEST travel advice I got from my mother many, many years ago, when we were onboard a Moscow-Bejing train: "can't you see I am working?" she said (she and my stepfather were a part of a government delegation and were really working pretty hard during the entire trip) "Please go pester somebody else for the next two weeks, please". So I went to pester mostly Russian passengers in other train cars: had a blast, learned a lot about Russian habits, their love for nosy children, their samovars, tea and raspberry confitures served with that tea, also about their zakuski of all sorts ( no, no, they did not treat me to nay vodka, not even vodka with raspberry sirup) and ... an amazing amount of Russian. When we got stuck on a trip to the Bajkal sea (the train made stops of 6 and more hours and passengers who so wished were transported -in lorries, lol- to some amazings sights on the way) I could easily understand the instructions the Russian only speaking guide gave us to get back to the train on time.

The WORST travel advice was from my daughter last year, when I informed her about my plans to live in one of the poorest Central American countries for part of the year: You want to live WHERE??? Mom, are you INSANE???
PS. Now she actually likes to visit there, after she learned that Manolo Blahnik's shoes are not a useful attire in the heart of the rain forest... especially in the rainy season. ;-)

laclaire

Best: I was getting ready to go abroad for the first time (Sr. year in high school) for what was to be an entire year. I was freaking out and my Spanish teacher (who had studied abroad herself) said: "If after two months you have learned nothing, cried every single day and not made a single friend, then you can start to think about the possibility of maybe coming home." She was totally right!

Worst: On a train from Madrid to Segovia with my mother. We had met this girl and her boyfriend and were talking when they said "here it is" and I said "No, Segovia is way further than this (we had been on the train for about 20 minutes) and she said "I guess we have to change trains, then, because the sign just said Segovia and this station name. They started pulling our bags off the train and my mom said "Honey, step it up." So, I did and we got off, and found out that the girl (Shelley) was wrong. We had to wait 2 more hours for a train, which was just painfully annoying at the time.