Instagram vs Reality: The REAL Story Behind My Travels 

Your turn! What has gone wrong for you when traveling? And check out Skillshare - the first 500 people who use this link will get 2 months FREE of Skillshare Premium! skl.sh/allisonanderson

This is probably one of the most entertaining videos you've ever posted. I honestly wouldn't mind if you ranted about how many things went wrong during the actual travel videos. Something always goes wrong, no journey is perfect! And so sorry you were ill in Iceland. Getting ill whilst travelling is one of the worst things that can happen because it can really ruin everything.

Can I just say how much I like the way you talk? You're so articulate! One of the reasons I started watching RU-vid was to improve my English and your videos are some of the best I've found (in addition to being fun and helpful). Thank you for this :)

I remember the first time I traveled alone, I dropped my phone trying to take a photo, and my phone was completely broken and unable to turn on. I had no idea how to contact my husband... or let anyone know what happened. Then I remembered I had my iPad.. but it was soooo outdated that nothing worked on it so I spent the entire night updating it to keep in contact with him and entertain myself. I didn't realize how reliant I was on my phone until I didn't have it while alone in a different state. Couldn't call ubers, research food places, or even know the time while walking through the airport. lol. There are so many things you don't realize you use your iPhone for. lol

I want more of these videos! This was super duper interesting!

It’s so refreshing to hear about what went wrong on your travels because I know I’ve experienced it all on mine. I always tend to fall sick (usually travel for about a month) and while I always take preventative steps it’s quite inevitable. Most recently during my trip to japan I realised how important it is to choice your travel companions wisely and how much I prefer solo travelling. While often things don’t go right, looking back on my travels as a whole I see them through rose coloured nostalgia glasses and would do it all over again just to experience the good parts again.

I enjoyed this video as much as I enjoyed the original travel videos! Your Iceland solo travel video inspired me to travel to Zion National Park by myself after my graduation when I couldn't get anyone else to go with me. It was awesome and nothing really went wrong, but the entire time I felt very dumb and vulnerable. I thought it was just me, so it is really refreshing to hear that your trips have not gone perfectly!!

I’d really love to see a video on how you planned this Iceland trip. I have a dream to go but would have no idea where to start or what to do 💛

LOL! Loved this video. Thanks for sharing your honest experiences. Have you ever considered buying a van (and converting it into your home) or a small RV and traveling the US in it? I've seen so many many videos about people doing this. Then you don't even have to deal with hotel issues. Of course you can go that route when you are going over seas unless you get there and then rent something.

Can you please make a video on your new makeup routine and how you made the transition to minimal makeup? All of your new content speaks to my soul! Also maybe a similar video on minimizing your wardrobe. I know you've done a few videos but more on the mindset aspect of it.

Oh my gosh, I think we were at the same hotel! We left in the middle of the night. It was shocking .... we were traveling with our granddaughter and I wouldn’t let her touch anything. We spent most of our time in Seward and we loved Alaska.

So happy you are posting more - I really love your content!

This video was so entertaining to watch! Wish it was longer haha. Please do a part 2!

I saw your Iceland video and you hide your pain very well!

Omg the rat story was all too real for me...in my first college (I moved elsewhere partially because of this story), our dorms were in a very old, historic building and on two occasions we had a rat in our room. The first time I was standing on a chair between our room and the hallway throwing cheese into the hallway hoping the rat will leave. The second was the worst - I woke up early in the morning to a scratching noise and there on my duvet was a rat. I will never forget that experience 😂🤦🏽‍♀️ It's funny now but at the time it was horrific. P.S. Your Alaska vlog is also my favorite you've done. I frequently rewatch it for the beautiful imagery - I WILL go to Alaska someday. Have to.

I love how real you are!

I really hate how social media influencers filter reality though because it gives people unrealistic view on life how things should be perfect

love your video

i love your solo travels

Hi Allison what a great video ! I'm from France and booked a trip last night to Portugal for September, and in Lagos we are staying in the same hotel as you were (saw it on the bill), did you like the place ? Have a nice day!

WE arrived to our long awaited honeymoon to a hotel in St. Thomas only to find the room we booked looked as if someone had been murdered in it, or at least had an unpleasant stay. Broken furniture, bed not made, something disgusting in the bathroom and it didn't have the view we paid for. It was so disappointing but thankfully we were able to move into a different room and had a nice stay overall.

Good morning Allison, did you use your drone in Dubai and are there any laws taking a drone to Dubai?

Love this video!!

Good video 👍👍👍

I would be terrified if a rat was in my hotel room!

Did she explain how she takes solo pics? Like does she use a tripod?

You should 100% share these things next time you’re traveling. People love seeing the real moments, not just the highlights. And it wouldn’t mean you “complaining” but just showing things as they are. The good and the bad.

I really like ur smile. God bless you and your family. I am Adeel Riaz from Karachi

This is funny, but yea, travels are not always that glamorous, but we don't always complain about it since I mean common, lol don't wanna taint the air, but a RODENT! I get what you mean though, I wouldn't want to post a beautiful picture and complain about something and would prefer to speak about the positive stuff because then it makes me feel like a pessimistic or ungrateful. lol oh... the world.

Took a big trip to Japan with my boyfriend, we traveled from Sapporo to Osaka by train over a month. But the ONE DAY of bad weather and raining hard was the only day we were at Mt Fuji lol I have some lovely pictures of clouds. THEN, we both got bad respiratory/sinus infections and lost our voice at the end of week one. Could not utter a single word without coughing! We sounded like toads trying to speak underwater..Then, I got sooo sun burnt including my eyelids-- which turned into a double eye infection (my fault for leaving sunscreen at the airbnb). Plus, I had about 30 mosquito bites from walking through the jungle. I was literally a mess...............and I had an absolute blast, even though I felt physically miserable!!! When I got home I was still sick for another month and needed steroids to recover lol. Lesson Learned: BRING EMERGENCY ANTIBIOTICS WITH YOU IF YOU GO OVERSEAS! I bring a whole dang first-aid kit now haha

You are so cute... 😍 ❤️

Please tell me you left a scathing review online for that hotel in Alaska 😂😳

WAIT THIS IS AN AMAZING IDEA!!! Behind the scenes stuff is definitely something I love watching and I do like ranting videos in between regular more positive videos

Loved this video! I think it would be great if, after every trip, you posted your normal travel video and then a “behind the scenes” or something with what went wrong or what went really right. It could be an opportunity to rant about the bad and to give the good, and also travel advice specific to that destination :)

Your impression of the front desk manager! OHMYGOD AHAHAHAH

Dang! You would’ve never known you went through some pretty awful situations through your travel videos. They seem like literal perfection. Thank you for being real with us, it’s much appreciated. Also...the rat situation. OMG I can’t believe you actually made it through the night at that place, that’s CRAZY!

Forever envious of all of Allison’s travel adventures! ❤️ it’s so true though that travel is not always relaxing and glamorous! I cried the first day I arrived in Europe from Canada because I was so overtired, hungry and stressed from trying to find my way around hahah!

this made me feel so much better....i just got back from my first solo trip and so much went wrong lol. i almost had to evacuate my airbnb because of a wildfire, i booked a tour and went to the wrong address, etc. i still had a good time and made the most of it but seeing how you’ve continued to solo travel for years even after a rough start is so inspiring to me!

Really enjoy the reality of the trips. Great idea !!!!

Loved the stories in this video! I would say though - when I watch your videos, everything seems to perfect and your life looks amazing. Being more real like this would make me feel a lot less inadequate after watching one of your amazing trips! I would personally enjoy it if you were more real, even when you're trying to showcase the destination :)

I really enjoy your success as a RU-vidr. Important for me to see the downside also.

I love your storytelling skills :) I'm sure I'm not alone- we want more

I appreciate the honesty. So many people looking at Instagram or RU-vid form their own expectations for their own lives based on what we see, so it’s nice to see what is real for once.

Love the transparency :) am looking forward to booking a trip ASAP once it’s safe to. Recently stumbled upon your channel and love what you’ve been posting!

OMG! Sounds like my trip to Iceland. My flight from NC was changed the day before leaving. I went from a 4 hour layover in Texas to 12 hours. When I got to Iceland I met my friend and we were booked on a tour starting the next day. We toured Reykjavik that day then left on the tour. After the first day on the tour we had dinner and went to bed. That’s when things went down hill. I started having pains in my side/back area. Long story short, I had a kidney stone. Never have I ever had a kidney stone before. Our tour guide got up with me and my friend and got us an EMS unit and they took me to a hospital. After about 3 hours traveling back to the hospital and 5-6 hours in the hospital I passed the stone and was discharged. I then had to take a taxi back to the tour which was 3.5 hours back to the tour and it was $500.00 for the taxi and $800.00 for the hospital. So unexpected, but I did get back to my tour and my friend. I absolutely loved the tour and only missed one activity. Everything started during the night, which when we were there it was summer and 24 hour daylight. So I really didn’t miss a lot. That was my first time traveling solo from the states. I met my friend in Iceland but she is from Canada. We travel a lot together and I so enjoy it. Love your videos and you also inspired me to go on my own. I’m a widow ( in my mid 50’s). I met my friend Jan while I was in Ireland with another friend. I’m not sure if I could do the “complete solo travel” but now I have the confidence that I can travel internationally by myself (even if I’m meeting someone there) and enjoy the experience. Thank you.

Totally agree with Alaska it far surpassed my expectations and we will never forget it.

Iceland was my first solo trip (from Seattle!) too - AND I had a cold! The 8-hour delay was on my second trip, though, and it was on my way home :) Tip for anyone who might feel sick before going to Iceland: Take cold medicine with you! Unless things have changed since 2016, you cannot get OTC cold medicine like you can here in the States. Thankfully someone in my hostel (who was also from Seattle, small world) had some Airborne-like tablets from Poland that she shared with me, otherwise I would have been completely miserable on my trip.

Cool idea. Samantha Ravndahl did this recently and it was quite interesting.

Well...that just confirmed why I’ll never travel alone! lol

I absolutely loved this video!! Who doesn’t travel and have horror stories like this?! Honestly though they’re the best memories aren’t they?

One of my worst traveling experiences was when I flew from Canada to Las Vegas to go to a tour to the Grand Canyon completely on my own. At first I was just gonna spend 1 day in vegas and then 1 day in the grand canyon but I just randomly decided to add 1 extra day in vegas for no real reason. Thank god I did that because the company I was gonna take the bus tour with to the GC cancelled on me at like 5 am in the morning on my second day in vegas so atleast I could book a tour with a different company for the last day. That last day tour was amazing and prob the best day ever for me but if I wouldnt have had that extra day in vegas I'd probably break down and start crying lol

Allison- Shoutout from Seattle (QAnne) ; I came here a LONG time ago to finish up college....and still here. Enjoy your travels.....because I can't! ps: FWIW: It's NOT a rant if you don't drop F bombs. It's just Life.

Oh my gosh I need to share my Iceland story because it’s a similar level of misery as yours! It was one of the first trips my boyfriend (now husband) and I took after graduating college and having adult money. Three days before we left my husband started feeling sick, he had a fever, and then a couple days into it his neck got really tense and he could barely turn his head. Of course, doctors are worried he has meningitis. We planned to take a red eye flight and the night before our flight we were in the emergency room while he got a spinal tap. Luckily it was just a virus and he was starting to feel a little better, so doctors said we could still go if we wanted to. We got on the plane the next night, his back still sore from the spinal tap, and we sat there, in our seats on the plane. For hours. Air traffic control in Iceland went on strike. We were supposed to arrive in Iceland at like 2AM, check into an airport hotel and sleep until 10AM. Instead we landed at 7AM and slept for two hours. We rented an airbnb in Reykjavik and the owner was out of town so his friend let us in. The listing said it was a private Airbnb. We went to the grocery store and bought some (very expensive) food and stocked the fridge, and then went out to explore. When we came back… there were people in our airbnb. Three women that started screaming at us in French. We called the host’s friend and she explained that the Airbnb was not a private Airbnb but rather a private room, but was mislabeled (intentionally or not, i do not know) on the website. Trying to explain this to the french women was difficult because neither us nor the host’s friend spoke french, but eventually we were all on the same page. We went into the kitchen to find out they had thrown away all of the food we just bought because they thought it was a private Airbnb as well and were confused about why there was so much food in the fridge. They proceeded to smoke indoors for the rest of the trip. The story keeps going and involves being caught in some seriously inclement weather on an 8 mile hike, and then having our rental car, which contained our passports, disappear. Turns out we had parked illegally without knowing it and it was towed… trying to figure out if it was stolen, towed, etc. and then finding it without having a car was stressful but some very friendly icelandic people helped us out. I planned a return trip to Iceland this September with my mother and sister that has since been cancelled by COVID. Maybe one day I will get my redemption!!!

The rat story makes me LIVID!!! I grew up in a small apartment and at one point, we had a mice problem where they would sneak in our kitchen and that’s what developed my fear of mice and rats. I would be pissed if I stayed at that hotel!!!

I'm genuinely curious about how you decide to add an anecdote to your video or not. I begin on RU-vid and I though I would say everything about an adventure, but now I hesitate ^^

I went to Zion National Park in Utah in May 2021 to do some canyoneering. Stayed in a hotel in nearby Hurricane, Utah. It was a typical 2-3 star hotel. The hotel manager gave me a badge to access my room next to the office. I opened the door and there was a woman sitting on the bed in the room with food all over the bed and she was watching television...looked like she was on a food binge. I quickly said, 'oops, sorry about that' and quickly closed the door. We were both very surprised. It happened about 2:00 in the afternoon. They gave me another room. It made me wonder if someone would accidentally give me access to a wrong room, would they do that to me too? I kept my room deadbolted when I was in there so it wouldn't happen to me. Never staying at that hotel again...

I can totally relate to this. A friend and I had so many bad experiences when we went to Scotland just getting there we had two canceled flight! A flat tire the first day we got there and on and on it went. We got to the point where we started laughing about it. Thinking ok what else do you have for us. It makes a great story and tons of laughs!!!

I enjoyed this video, but I find it a little sad too. That there is somuch going on and people arent "feeling ok" about sharing the real life stories. It should be OK to post a bad photo or say that you have a bad day during a vlog or travelvideo. Why are people trying to live a "perfect life online" when real life just isnt perfect...never, for no one. I believe it is better to accept that and be yourself than to try to "have a perfect online presence". :) no hate btw, just my opinion. i understand that you want your videos to be uplifting and happy :)

OMG I had a train wreck experience in Iceland too in January! And it was my THIRD visit to the country that I love! Ended up spending thousands of dollars trying to save my trip. Many lessons learned. I think Iceland is cursed! LOL

It would've been funny if the guy at the hotel in Alaska would've said "Oh that's Jeff he's cool"

My bf was going to surprise me with an Alaskan cruise for our anniversary but unfortunately covid has just broke out so it got canceled. I hope one day to go on that cruise and have an unforgettable experience

“...I was bunking with a RAT!” 😆. I got a kick out of you saying that! 😄

my girlfriend and i live here in seattle and she is interested in doing travel writing/blogging as a career. i’m always so interested in supporting her in whatever way i can. this video was so helpful, especially considering i do a lot of traveling with her. there are definitely woes to traveling that we like to scathe over 😬 is there any way i can get her in touch with you two to talk some time??

@14:45....the worst part about the rat in a room story is that the hotel front desk clerk didn't tell you it was a double occupancy.

Do you only stay in hotels when you travel? Do you ever stay in hostels? Love your videos thanks for sharing!!

Love this video and I love travel! I subscribed..!!

Well not gonna lie I really like her blue eyes and damn those reddish cheek."hey hey Monica hey hey Monica".

Got so excited to see another video of you on my feed!!

I’ve done a few mini solo trips and I love hearing other people account their “oh shit” moments while traveling alone.

I like the idea of doing the "reality" separately but I would love to see more of these videos, too! I love the cinematic trip vlogs and then adding a "behind the scenes" video after. This was so enlightening and helpful!

Do you ever wish your husband was with you on your travels?

Wow your Iceland trip is literally so similar to how my trip to Ireland went! Looking back I definitely remember everything that went wrong and I was not a happy camper at the time but overall I had a great trip so yes traveling has its moments, honestly I don't think anything ever goes exactly right but you make the most of it and it's still worth it all in the end!

I am both jealous and terrified of your life.

We were so lucky to be able to do the ice cave tour in iceland. I had a friend who was there at the same time and their tour the day before ours was cancelled. It's so hit and miss with the ice caves there, but it was such a cool experience

I’m like Patrick in the spongebob episode where they visit grandma STORYTIME STORYTIME STORYTIME

Yay!! I suggested this, SO happy you did it! 🥰

I loved your Alaska vlog, my fave one of yours!! You need to start sharing all the real unglamorous stories in your travel vlogs! People appreciate that and would give them a more real look at solo travel, loved this share!

While driving back to Phoenix from Sedona at night (to get there in time for a morning flight), with a girlfriend, a police car came up in back of us with flashing lights. We thought it was strange because we weren't speeding, there were no other cars or town/city lights for miles, and it was pitch dark. Arizona has no people living between towns for miles and very little lighting on their highways at night. We decided not to stop and continued driving until we could reach a well-lit city area, after a while, the "police car" drove around us and continued on its way. Afterward, we did not think it was a real police car. If we had stopped I think we would have been in danger. Ladies, if you're by driving yourself in the middle of nowhere and a police car wants you to stop, if you have done nothing wrong drive somewhere safe before stopping. www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/08/06/aa.is.it.a.cop/

Omg please make more of these types of videos! So funny!

Can you make these a regular series? Great video!

So fun and real. Love this

did you say $8 a gallon for gas ?!?! omgggggggggggggggg

I really enjoyed hearing your stories, especially since I'm not doing much travelling these days. And sidenote, I love the length of your hair in your Iceland clips 😍

I have been enjoying your content so much Allison, I just recently rediscovered you! I used to watch your beauty videos ages ago and honestly I am happy to see you pivoted and you seem happier and more yourself. Honestly keep up the good work! You are encouraging me to take the bold step to downsize my life. God bless You!

I love your background!

Great video ! 🥰🥰

Oh Iceland 🙈 I visited this February just before Corona and we also had a trup cancelled due to severe storm and we had to sit in the hotel for most of the day bc it was sooo bad 🙈🙈🙈 but still loved the trip 😊

Oh gosh, yup, welcome to Iceland!! We live with these things allll the time and the cost of it all. But it's a beautiful country and a wonderful life to be able to give our family. I am so glad you picked Iceland as your first solo adventure...I guess it could only get better from there on xx

Haha, I was sick during a safari I paid much more than 400 dollars for. I could barely eat something at night, because I felt so miserable, and the chefs were always offended, because it was a very exclusive trip. They thought I wasn't enjoying their food. But it was still a magical trip.

Oh my gosh that Alaska story is terrible! I can't believe they acted like it was no big deal. Love this video though! I've definitely had my share of travel fails haha

ik you are currently using the Sony A7iii, but I was wondering if you would ever review the fujifilm xt-4 for video and photo quality. Because I know you used the xt-2/3 and the quality on the photos were pretty good.

I'm sorry you had those experiencies. I'm sorry for what happened in Portugal. Being Portuguese and living in Portugal all I can say is sorry. Hope you consider to come back one day and have a better stay :)

During a solo trip in Ghent, Belgium I had a similar experience. I checked into the hotel - which was actually quite nice - but got a VERY bad vibe. So bad, in fact, that after a few hours I asked if I could cancel my 2nd night stay. They said I'd be charged so I decided to stay. That first night, I hear the distinct sound of scurrying!! I laid there listening for a moment, hearing it scamper around the window and across the room, my heart beating wildly. I finally flipped on the light and saw it dive into the drapes! I dashed out to the lobby and told them there was a mouse. They waved it off, saying they've NEVER had a rodent problem and I was mistaken. I went back to my room and found a massive flying insect hanging out on the lamp. The next day, I DEMANDED to check out without being charged. They allowed it, but were very rude. Later, I left a review on TripAdvisor about my experience and they actually responded saying I'd made up the rodent/bug story simply to get out of paying my 2nd night. UGHHHH!!!! I was so angry. It was the Hotel Harmony, btw. Worst experience ever!

Always nice to see/hear about the real stuff that happens too not just the glamour parts. Okay, how on earth did you even feel like you could close your eyes in that hotel even after changing rooms? I would have slept outside. LOL. Back in the 90s a friend and I went on a trip to Margarita Island, Venezuela. First mistake was going in May......soooooo hot and humid but I could live with that. Absolutely beautiful hotel, brand new and very classy. We were robbed during the night while sleeping. Fortunately, all the took was whatever cash was in our wallets. Passports, cameras, jewellery were all left untouched as were our travelers cheques. We were very lucky that was all that happened. What really upset us was when we reported to hotel staff all we got was when front desk opens, cash travellers cheque and pay room bill. What? Seriously!

I studied abroad in Senegal early this year. A group of us were on the same flight from JFK to Dakar. We'd all had just had a long day and night of travelling and we landed in the early morning. Basically the first thing we did in the country was get the key stuck in our hotel door! Most of the group's things were in that one room because the other rooms weren't ready when we arrived, so we were stuck without any of our things. We had no local money and didn't speak the language very well yet so we didn't have the confidence to go anywhere and we ended up sitting in the lobby for hours before the door was fixed. All we wanted to do was change our clothes and take a shower because it was so hot! We all loved our experiences afterwards but the first day was rough. Another fun story: the day we got to our airbnb for spring break was the day we found out we all had to go home because of covid. That night, we scrambled to find flights and decided to enjoy the last few days there as much as possible. We had a great day the next day, but found out that night that Senegal was putting a travel ban on flights to and from Europe in just a couple days, and most of us had layovers in Europe. So then we all scrambled again to book earlier flights or direct ones, which was very difficult with the extremely slow wifi and no open flights. Some members of our group had to go to the Gambia(a bordering country) to get a flight out. It was crazy! Again, a good experience overall but it was a rollercoaster, especially with covid.

I was traveling alone in Austria, and was stopping in the town of Melk between Salzburg and Vienna. I had been DYING to see Melk Abbey, which is high on a cliff overlooking the Danube. Because it was winter, they were only open for 1 tour per day. I was planning to stash my suitcase in a luggage locker at the train station, but when I got there, the station was under construction and they had no lockers!! Time was short, so I set off, dragging my suitcase. I got to the base of the hill I'd have to climb, and it was several switchbacks and covered in snow. As I started to drag my suitcase up this hill, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to make it all the way up carrying a bag. I knocked on the doors of a few hotels to see if they'd let me store my bag for an hour or two, but no one was around! It was like the city was deserted! As I'm trying to figure out what to do, the abbey's bells start ringing, signaling that I am now LATE for the tour I needed to be on, and at that moment, an old lady threw open her window to try to see what I was doing, and I started yelling to her in my broken German what my issue was. I have no clue why, but I just started bawling. So here I am, on an icy hill, carrying a suitcase, crying to this really old lady who has no clue what I'm trying to say. I called it quits, went back to the train station, and headed into Vienna. I didn't get to see the Abbey, but it just means I'll have to go back another time to see it!! In the summer!!

I never would have guessed that all that was going on! But I know from my fair share of travel experiences that things are not always as they appear. I remember my first major trip in Europe was through Germany, Austria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic and during my trip in Budapest my friends and I stayed in a hostel and the morning that we packed up to leave and check out all my makeup and some of my toiletries were stolen! I kept checking and rechecking my bags and all over the shared room (8 person mixed room) and I remember there was a girl whose bunk was under mine and I swear she took it. But there were no cameras in the rooms and the staff was apologetic but couldn’t do a lot for me so I moved onto the next stop bitter and angry because makeup was expensive and I had nothing except for a lone tube of mascara and lip balm for the rest of the trip. I was self-conscious about pictures and always paranoid about leaving my stuff whereas before I was more trusting (I think my stuff was stolen off my bed because I remembered that my locker was kind of broken so I thought it would be safe to leave stuff under my sheets and pillows and close the curtains, and I was in a hurry so I didn’t want to mess with the locker (BIG MISTAKE!). I definitely have more horror stories too but that doesn’t detract from the overall amazing experience itself (:

You're story about Anchorage is hilarious. I lived there, got married there, had my first baby there, and will still admit that it's ghetto AF.😂 I had drunk people loitering outside my apartment all the time. I had to take mace with me just to check my mail. It's beautiful, but I don't miss it.

I can't believe I missed this 3 months ago. Maybe the notification didn't come through. We would have never known but thanks for sharing these unfortunate calamities that you managed to survive with grace and humor. You rock!❤👍⛸

On Instagram the posts are esthetic for the eye, it's normal to be like that! Beautiful places are like a cure for depression.