That’s something I realized a few years into traveling, and now I’m trying to accept it. It is not easy, especially for someone as perfectionistic as I am. The ideal trip is when everything goes smoothly, what I planned steadily becomes reality, and nothing goes wrong. Does that ever happen? Sometimes. But that is what I would call unremarkable.

Some trips turn out even better than planned. Flights arrive early, we get upgrades, or someone gives us a subway card or unused tickets. Other trips, though, I just want to get through because I am stressed out and wish I had stayed home. It is normal, I guess, to think afterward: I should never have paid for that service. I could have done it myself.

Why would I take a private airport shuttle for $60 when I could take a big, comfortable bus for $3? I think, well, the bus will take longer, I will have to adjust to a schedule, and it will not take me directly to my hotel. But after taking the bus on my way back, I realized how easy it was. Getting on a schedule is fine; it is all about planning. It only took 20 minutes longer, and I was not scared to ride it, because the private car driver drove like crazy, as many do in Turkey. I had to walk 10 minutes from my hotel with a bag, and that was the worst part, but I only paid $3.

Sometimes there is also a sign, but we keep ignoring it. And I cannot call myself a superstitious person. Once, we went to the Dominican Republic and booked a car. We got to the car rental center, and there were dozens of people waiting. The rental company had no cars, and everyone was waiting for someone to return one before they could give it to the next customer. The lady at the desk was pretty indifferent to our questions about when it was going to happen.

And we were only there for the weekend, so we felt like we could not wait around for hours and waste our precious time on the island. So we asked them to take us back to the airport, where we got a cab. All in all, it cost us less money to take a cab than rent a car, but we had thought we would be able to go somewhere and explore.

So the next time we went, we rented a car again. We felt like now we needed to go and do our thing and drive around. It is pretty expensive there to rent one, I need to mention, almost $300 for 4 days. We also booked a diving and snorkeling excursion in a marine park for $80 per person. One day, we decided to drive around, and we were very disappointed.

Everything is private, gated, with buildings everywhere. There are not many public beaches, and we were not allowed to enter one of the ruins in La Romana because we were not staying at the hotels located in the archaeological zone.

What a bummer. They limited the ruins to hotel guests only. We also got pulled over by a policeman who did not speak English, and we did not speak Spanish. It was a stressful drive.

So in the end, it was very disappointing to have a car, pay for it, and not really even use it. It would have been cheaper for us to take tours. We could have done two full-day tours for that money, and we would not have had to drive. So that is my Dominican Republic regret.

But it is also a lesson. I cannot say that there are no people who benefit from renting a car there. But not us. And that is okay. What is good for me is not always a good fit for someone else.

Sometimes it is wise to get cash right on arrival and avoid losing money on bad exchange rates. Or not wait until the last minute to buy souvenirs, only to find yourself rushing, or buy them right away and later discover something better and cheaper. Even something as simple as carrying an umbrella around all day can become one of those travel decisions you second-guess.

There are many situations like that, and many times you will find yourself wishing you had done something differently. That is part of life, and even the most careful plan will differ from reality. To me, the most important thing is time. It is something you cannot get back, and once it is wasted, it is gone for good. Money is hard to lose, of course, but it is much better to pay for troubles with money than with anything else.

Maybe one day I will become so advanced that my travel will be spotlessly perfect. But for now, it is time to go, make some mistakes, and learn from them.