Life is not about sailing through our days without ever a stumble or fall, but rather it is about experiencing those mishaps with a smile, and maybe even a laugh, before picking yourself up from the dirt, dusting off your pants and moving forward to your next adventure.

The worst travel experiences sometimes make the best stories; here are ten travel mistakes that you might want to try.

1. Knock on the door of a strange cabin in the woods. While movies that start this way usually end up with a body count, in reality most of those cabins in the forest are populated with jovial fisherman and round-bellied hunters that will feed you a hot breakfast then provide a lift back to town when your canoeing expedition gets a little lost.

2. Step in dog poo in France. It’s good luck!

3. Bust your ass learning to snowboard or surf. The day after your first lesson will be one of the sorest of your life, and you will probably have bruises from your eyebrows to your ankles – but being able to ride the mountain or the wave will be SO worth it. Trust.

4. Run out of road trip music, and be forced into long, philosophical discussions about live, love and death with your traveling partners.

5. Spend WAY too much money on a helicopter tour of Kauai’s Na’Pali Coast or Fox Glacier on the south island of New Zealand. Magnificent.

6. Say hi to strangers in the New York subway; wave at drivers who let you onto freeways in Los Angeles.

7. Party all night long in Jackson Hole and hit the road with your crew on no sleep before the crack of dawn – you might just stumble upon a mother bear having breakfast with her three cubs.

8. Get stuck with a tent partner who snores like a chainsaw killer and end up meadow-crashing under an indigo carpet of stars.

9. Catch crabs- fresh out of the ocean with your hands in the San Juan Islands.

10. Lose the map to your destination and be forced to find your way there by the words of locals. You’ll probably get there faster, and you will make some new friends along the way.

 Make new mistakes every day.   Edward Abbey