You’re Wasting Thousands on Travel (And Not Even Enjoying It)
In this solo YouTube talk, Ramit Sethi critiques the common, aimless approach to travel that treats vacations as a series of transactions. Drawing on dozens of personal anecdotes—from hiring local photographers in Copenhagen and Tokyo, renting a camera on an African safari, doing laundry in a Japanese laundromat, to leveraging deep relationships with travel advisors and hotel staff—he illustrates how intentional, experience‑focused spending creates lasting, magical memories. He argues that the most valuable travel decisions are those that prioritize feelings, personal relevance, and unique moments over sheer cost savings. Sethi emphasizes hiring local experts (photographers, guides, chefs), embracing purposeful friction (e.g., doing laundry together), and pre‑arrival personalization to feel understood. He also shows how strong relationships with travel advisors can unlock upgrades and bespoke service, turning ordinary stays into unforgettable experiences. Throughout, he ties these practices to a broader philosophy of using money deliberately to design a rich, guilt‑free life, and invites viewers to join his money‑coaching program for deeper guidance.
Chapters
You want to know my worst travel nightmare? I have this person that I follow online, and she was talking about her 40th birthday trip. She was planning to go somewhere. I said, wow, that sounds amazing. What are you going to do once you get there? And her response was, I don't know, we're just going to get there, and when we land, we'll look up some places to go. Huh? Excuse me? My time is too valuable to travel like that. And frankly, that's why so many of us toss around phrases like, oh, I got to take a vacation after the vacation. No, you should never feel like that after a trip. Now, I've gone on safari, I've gone to Japan, gone to India. I've gone all over the world with my wife, family, friends. And over time, I've been taking notes on what makes a trip magical. And the coolest parts of travel are not always the most expensive, but they are these invisible decisions that a lot of people never experience because they don't even think about them. And once you see that layer, you cannot unsee it. How to spend money on travel so you can create magical memories. You know, it's kind of interesting that when we think about weddings, a lot of people will go, hey, you know, we saved a little bit of money on the flowers, but we really splurged on the photographer. I think that's a great decision for a lot of people. We did the same. Why? Because we knew that those photos were going to be something we treasured every single year. So why don't we do the same thing when we travel? Now, one of the things I love about the trips that I take is that I get to live them 3 times. One, in the planning where I'm looking at all the cool things to do in these cities. Two, when I'm actually experiencing them. And then three, when I'm sharing those experiences with you. And in order to elevate that entire process, my wife and I started doing something that we really love. Whenever we go to a new city, we will hire a local photographer to take us around and take photos of us. We've done this in Copenhagen, we've done this in Tokyo, and I'm not talking about these influencer shots or anything like that. We're kind of wearing our normal clothes. We're doing the things that we would normally do and we're walking around, we're grabbing a snack. What I love about this is it takes us to different parts of the city that we would not know. And when we come back, we are not just looking at selfies of ourselves standing in the same exact pose in 10 different places. We actually are in context. We're eating, we're talking, we're laughing. These are beautiful memories that elevate every time we look back at the photos. And I gotta tell you, at the time it felt a little indulgent. Like, I remember thinking, who the hell does this? Like, why would we get a photographer? I don't really want to be one of these influencers. But I'll tell you something, years later, we love these photos. We look at them, they pop up all the time. We share them with friends. They're not buried in our camera roll. They're actually part of our lives. So this is an example for me that some spending does not reveal its value immediately. It actually compounds years later. When people think about travel, they first and foremost think about transactional decisions. What's the hotel? What's the flight? How many days are we going to be there? Okay, that's fine. You probably need to do that. But I want to think about feelings. I want to think about the memories that we are going to create and the memories that we are going to remember. So that shift alone, how do we want to feel on the trip and afterwards, completely changed how I think about what's worth paying for. Hiring experts to make your travel experience better. When we were on our honeymoon, we were on safari and we were taking pictures of these amazing sites using our iPhone. And the photos and the videos were fine. But then we got to a lodge where they had camera rentals. Rentals. So I went and rented a camera. The next morning, went out, took a bunch of photos. Honestly, they were not very good. So I went back that evening to return the camera, and the camera guy, the photographer, was there. And I said, hey, can I just hire you to come out with us tomorrow? Can you come out and show us how to shoot better? He was like, yeah, no problem. He comes out, and that day he showed us amazing techniques, especially for wildlife photography. The quality of the photos that we took went way up. And then we would come back at night and we would do a photo critique. He would say, well, this one, I would do this a little differently. What do you think about that one? The light, the angle, the timing. This became a magical experience. Even outside of the safari, we were learning, we were hands-on creating something tactile and beautiful. And the thing is, we came back and we put those photos on our wall. So every morning we wake up and we see them and we remember. Here's the point: it's not about going on safari, it's not about hiring a photo coach. It is about thinking, how can we elevate our experience by hiring local people who can help us learn something? When we travel, we go on a food tour. We love it. We experience foods we would never know about. We go to places that we would never discover on our own, and we get to understand the culture through the food. Sometimes we hire somebody to take us through a museum. Sometimes it's like an archaeology professor, et cetera, and they actually explain what we are looking at. You don't have to be incredibly wealthy to do this. They're actually very affordable experiences on Airbnb experiences and everywhere else where you can find incredibly knowledgeable people in the city you're going to who can help take you around. We were once in Nairobi and we hired a group of boys who have lived on the street. They were homeless for a variety of reasons, and they have now set up a tour group where they take you around and show you where they grew up, what they eat. They tell us all about it. We were interested. Yeah, we wanna learn. We don't know what that's like. At the end of our tour, we stopped for lunch with him and we were asking him questions about food, like, what did you eat when you were homeless? And what do you drink? Do you drink coffee? And I will never forget, he said, Coffee is for rich people. We drink tea. For us, buying a coffee is something that most Americans do every day, or they make it at home. Just imagine the kind of experiences you have when you are talking to local people and learning about their lives. Not only is your experience going to be elevated and expanded, but you're actually putting money in the local economy. Sometimes cheaper is better. For me, magical travel is not about eliminating all friction. I actually think friction and mistakes and messiness is where some of the magic happens. I wanna give you an example because I was in Kyoto and I was staying at a very nice hotel there. We had been traveling for a long time and we needed to do laundry. So you know those laundry bags they have in the closet? I pulled 'em out, I put my clothes in there. It was like one full laundry bag about this size. And just outta curiosity, I started filling out that form. Usually I don't fill it out. I'm just like, ah, just do this. But I started filling out this form 'cause I had a feeling in the back of my head, Something's weird. Everything's a little too nice. So I'm filling out this form and I look up. It's like the blood has drained out of my face. And I turn to my wife. I say, guess how much this laundry is going to cost? She goes, how much? $325. Now, listen, I don't mind paying. The hotel room we were staying cost thousands per night, but I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $325 to have my freaking underwear cleaned. I'll do it myself. And we find this little laundromat. Oh, we made it to the promised land. Not paying $350 for this. We walk in, everything's in Japanese. It's one of those do-it-yourself places. And we put the money in and leave, go to lunch. We come back, the laundry is done. And at that moment, we looked at each other and we just laughed. We loved it. It wasn't about saving the $300. We can afford it. But it was the fact that we created a mission. We went on a journey together. And after that, we actually decided as much as possible, when we are traveling for long periods of time, we want to do our laundry locally. So we will go somewhere, we'll spend a little bit of time at the laundromat. It actually feels incredibly rich to us. And we have these funny little photos from Amsterdam and from Copenhagen and from all these different places where we did our laundry. And it's become this little thing, this little ritual that we do together. A rich life is not about eliminating Friction. Sometimes friction is annoying. Eliminate it. But sometimes friction adds something special. What are the things that you actually want to do that might be a little uncomfortable, but you will remember them forever? And what are the things that you're just like, I don't need to be thinking about that. Somebody else can help. We can ask the hotel, whatever. That balance between structure and freedom matters a lot more than it sounds, because when it's off, even an incredible trip can start to unravel. When relationships change your experience before you arrive. You know, I learned how much relationships matter in travel when I stopped planning everything myself and I started working with a travel agent. Now, I know a lot of us are like, travel agents, are they still around? But actually they are around, and many of them basically work for free because they take a commission from the hotel or the excursions. I'll give you an example of what happened with our travel advisor. We stayed at a hotel in New York not that long ago. And for this trip, we were working with a travel advisor. And before we arrived, they introduced us to the manager at that hotel. So when we showed up, we were not strangers. There was already context. They knew who we were. They knew that we like this type of food and not that type of food. And in this case, we were triple upgraded. Not one level, not two, but three levels. Now, I walked into this room. I said, this might be the biggest room I've ever been in. In New York. It did not feel like a hotel room in the way that most hotels do. It actually felt like a private apartment. And this travel advisor and the upgrade that he managed for us because of his relationship with the general manager was worth thousands and thousands of dollars. This was a moment where I really saw the power of relationships, and I realized this didn't happen because we were lucky. It certainly didn't happen because we paid for the most expensive room. It happened because we were working with the right person, somebody who had relationships with this hotel, and that relationship led to them providing an amazing experience we would not have gotten if we booked it ourselves. Once I saw that, I started paying a lot more attention, not just to where I was going and where we were eating, but who I was working with. When I was a kid, we did not stay at hotels. We hardly ever traveled, and if we did, we usually stayed at motels. My dad would say, stay in the car. He would go in, check in, take us to a room, and he would immediately call and say, can you send a few more towels? They would say, how many, sir? 1, 2. He's like, how about 6? They're like, sir, this hotel room is for 2 adults, not for 6 people. He's like, just send the towels. Bye. I remember that vividly because now as an adult, I love nice hotels. I track them. I know not only the hotel I want to stay, I know the exact room that I want to stay in. I know what I'm going to order. I am obsessed with beautiful hotels. I want to share this because when you look at this room, it looks beautiful. It's a humongous room. That's obvious. Most people can appreciate that. But when you tell them the price of this room, which would be something around $8,000 or $9,000 per night, they immediately go, fuck you. And I understand that is actually an outrageous price for that room. Personally, I actually think it's too expensive, even though it is on 57th Street in Manhattan. But I will say that there are reasons that people who spend this kind of money do. There is a different type of upgrade that I have found makes things magical, and that is being understood. Being understood is the real upgrade. Being understood changes everything about how a trip feels. Because now when I travel, I don't want to be treated like everybody else. I want to be treated like me. So here's how I do it. Before my trip, my assistant sends a pre-arrival letter to the hotel. Nothing elaborate, nothing demanding, just a few preferences so they understand what we actually enjoy. For example, we don't really drink a lot of alcohol. So if there's going to be a welcome amenity, which a lot of these hotels at this level offer, usually a bottle of wine, we tell them we'd prefer fresh berries instead of wine. And I have to tell you, when we walked into this room in Tokyo, they had this beautiful jewelry box of hand-picked berries already waiting. Now, I have to tell you why this is so meaningful to me. When I was a kid, we hardly bought strawberries. They were too expensive. And with a big family, the minute you buy them, you have to eat them because they go rotten. So now to walk into a room and know that I have all of these berries available is actually incredibly meaningful. It feels rich to me. It's like someone is looking over my shoulder and saying like, oh, I think he's gonna like that. I think they're gonna like that. They probably don't need that in the room. And I noticed that when this happens, I feel taken care of. That's an amazing feeling in life to know that somebody is looking out for you. Great experiences do not happen by accident. They happen when you help set the expectations of what you want and what would be magical. Sometimes when you hear people talking about the trips they take, it's really easy to go, why would you spend that much money on a hotel? You're not even going to be in the room most of the time. And I want to share one of these experiences that happened with me. You will never hear about this online, but it actually happened. My wife and I were staying at an Oberoi hotel. Oberoi Hotel is my absolute favorite hotel chain in the world. We were in India. The hotel came around to us the day before we left and they said, "Oh, how was everything? And are you gonna be tired for your car ride home tomorrow?" And we were like, "No, we're good. We're all set." The next day we woke up for breakfast. We had a leisurely breakfast and we go up to the desk around 3:45 for a 4:00 PM car ride. And they go, "Sir, ma'am, your car was here at 4:00 AM and we didn't see you." I said, "4:00 AM? It says—" 4:00. And then we realized they were using 24-hour time. We were thinking AM/PM. Immediately I realized this is our fault, it's not the hotel's fault. I said, oh my God, it's my bad, can you please rebook us a car and bill us? It's our fault. And they immediately shifted into service mode. It was incredible to watch, like a ballet or a military operation. They go, no, we will take care of it, it's our fault for not being clear. We will arrange your car. They arranged the car. They upgraded the car. So the car was even nicer. It drove us back to Delhi. Now, here's where I thought, like, wow, this hotel did a really nice thing. They didn't have to pay for that car. It was our fault. That was so nice. No, the story was not over. We get into the house. 10 minutes later, do you know what happens? There's a delivery driver who delivers an Oberoi cake. Take a look at this cake. And it came in and it said, with our apologies. They sent a cake to our house and apologized for our mistake. Now, this to me is magical. I will never stop talking about the service I've received at Oberoi. And yes, it's expensive. And no, not everyone's going to afford to be able to stay there or even want to pay that kind of money. But for me, this is a perfect example of somebody always looking out for me. This is how I want you to feel at some point in your life. It could be staying at a very luxurious hotel, or it simply could be working with somebody who truly understands you when you travel. When great plans ruin the experience. We took a trip to Thailand that really drove this home for me. On paper, this trip was incredible. We had food tours. We did a design tour as well. We had a lot of places that we were really excited to visit. And I'm looking over the plan, I go, this looks amazing. But once we got there, it started to feel exhausting. We were constantly moving. We were always making sure, oh, are we gonna arrive in time for our next thing? And instead of enjoying the experience, I felt that we were managing it. And it all came to a head one specific moment. I think we had gotten a late start in the morning for some reason. I was like, God, this trip, like, I feel tired. I don't actually even wanna go. I just wanna go to sleep right now. And then guess what happened? We went on the food tour, and the food tour guide was great. She was very nice. I didn't enjoy it at all. And it was a great reminder that when you travel, we often obsess about, are we going to find the right tour, the right hotel, the right restaurant? But actually, we need to be in the right state of mind. We need to be fed, we need to be rested, we need to have a positive attitude. And I didn't show up right. Great trips don't run on these tightly packed schedules. I actually think another way to look at is they run on intention. What do you want to experience at a high level? What do you want to feel like? Once I started noticing pacing of trips, my energy— it is much more advanced and meaningful to create a beautiful, unique itinerary of what feels meaningful to you. Why the best experiences are designed quietly. Years ago, we were staying in Kyoto. There was a brand new hotel that had opened up, the Aman Kyoto, and it was stunning. It was absolutely beautiful. The design, the floors, even the doors. I still remember, you just go like this with your finger and it perfectly tracks, and then without making a noise, it just goes right into the door. I remember taking video of this, just being like, this is the best door I've ever seen. Now, I absolutely loved the architecture. I'm a big fan of Japanese architecture. Now, while we were in Kyoto, we had arranged a private design and architecture tour, and at one point our guide actually surprised us and said, we've arranged for you to visit a couple— and most people in Japan will not invite you into their homes, it's very intimate— but we're going to go there and we're going to talk a little bit about design. Like, okay, that's interesting. We go there and it turns out both of them were architects. So we walk into their house. I've never really been in a Japanese local person's house. We're looking around, wow, this is pretty interesting. And we sit down. I said, can I ask you a question? We would love to show you our room and ask you, what do you notice about this design? Because I'm sure you see things that we don't see. And their eyes lit up. And they said, of course we know you're staying at Aman Kyoto, it's the nicest hotel in town. I showed them the video and there is this beautiful moment where our translator is showing them and translating some of the things I'm saying, and their eyes are wide because you have to remember they could likely never afford to go and stay at that hotel. This is the first time they have been taken behind the scenes into that hotel. But for me, I'm learning more. And then they are explaining, oh wow. We don't usually put bed on the tatami mats. Oh, no. And you can see it's a low table to match the sitting position. This was a magical, incredibly memorable moment. And it stays with me because I loved the hotel, but I didn't fully appreciate it. And now I got the chance to speak to experts who could actually teach me why I was feeling the way I was. The best experiences are ones that hit you emotionally, and then you can actually learn about them. Those moments happen often quietly. It could be a private tour, it could be a food tour, it could be reading a little description of a piece of art that has really struck you and learning why it was painted. You will notice that this has nothing to do with my Amex Platinum access to a lounge. Nothing. This is about beauty. This is about people. This is about slowing down to notice something magical that's happening. That idea that great experiences are often invisible and you might walk right by if you don't pay attention became very real at the end of one of our trips that I'll tell you about in just a second. I am sharing these amazing, magical behind-the-scenes experiences that I've had to inspire you to create magical travel experiences of your own. I'm not the guy who comes and makes you feel guilty about buying coffee or taking a trip or buying a nice sweater. I actually want you to live a rich life. Of course, I want you to know your investment numbers. Of course, I want you to know when you can retire. And also, I want you to live a rich life today and a richer life tomorrow. If you want to join a community of people who will never make you feel guilty for wanting to take amazing trips like this, you can join my money coaching program. In fact, I did a live event on how to use money to create magical travel that goes into even more detail than this video. To join the money coaching program, you can scan the QR code on screen or click the link in the description below. What it feels like when everything is taken care of. Now, not everyone is going to experience this, but I just want to share this with you because I've never stopped thinking about it. At the end of one of our safari trips, something magical happened. We had been moving between lodges, and on our last day, they packed up our bags, loaded up the Jeep, and we were getting ready to go. On the way, as we were driving over to the airstrip, we saw a bunch of elephants drinking water. So we stopped. Just the last part of our safari that we had not even expected on the way to the airstrip. And then, of course, I'm already thinking like American Western-style schedule. Oh, like, What time does our plane leave? Are we gonna miss the plane? What are we gonna do? Our guide was not concerned at all. He was just sitting in the front. His name was Peter, just watching the elephants with us, just telling us about what we were seeing in their behavior. I remember saying, do we need to go? And he said, you can tell me when you're ready. And we said, okay, we think we're ready to go. So Peter turns on the Jeep, he drives us towards the airstrip, and as we turn the corner, we see the airstrip with one plane that was just waiting for us. I thought we were going to be on one of those planes where a bunch of people load up. That's what I thought. No, somebody back in the US was thinking about us and figured after this one experience, they're going to be tired. They're going to want something just to themselves. It's their honeymoon. Let's arrange this one private flight. Now, again, I'm not used to having a private plane sitting on an airstrip waiting for me. That's not a common thing for me. But that's what it feels like when everything is taken care of. But this feeling is actually achievable. You know it because you've had it when you've gone to a nice restaurant and the waiter understands that you have a gluten allergy and they're already substituting things for you. Now, as incredible as that moment was, it still was not the most meaningful, incredible travel experience I've ever had. That came from somewhere very different. By the way, if as you're watching this, my style of travel, of thinking, of money resonates with you, make sure you are subscribed because this channel is where I break down how to build a rich life without guilt, without guessing, but making an actual plan. What a rich life is really about. One of the most memorable travel experiences I ever had was when my wife and I decided we wanted to go on a tiger safari in India. and we invited my mom and my aunt. My mom and aunt grew up in India, but they had never been here, and we decided to stay at one of my favorite hotels, the Oberoi Hotel. When we arrived, we had made sure to send some instructions ahead of time. So we arrive and they do this very elaborate greeting ceremony. It's really fun. And as soon as we got there, we told my mom and aunt, your bags are already taken care of. Just head on over to the room, they'll show you, and we have a massage waiting for you. We'd been on a long train ride. We knew that we wanted to relax, and so we had arranged that ahead of time. They looked shocked, like, what's the catch? Like, there's no catch, just go enjoy it. And as we ate that night, I realized I want to do something even more. So I sat down with the chef. I became friends with him, and I told them, can we do a special dinner? And he said, of course. People who work in hospitality love to say yes. They want to delight you. So he was thrilled. We sat down, we actually planned out the menu together. I told him, this is where my mom and aunt grew up. This is where they later moved. I wanna make sure we have dishes that represent their life journey. I wanna make sure that my wife who loves paneer, we have that on the menu as well. He took all of that. He started building a menu around it. I didn't tell anyone what was happening. I just made sure that we had one night open. On the schedule. When that night came, a golf cart pulled up to our rooms and it drove us through the property. So where are we going? And we turn a corner and suddenly you see this ancient-looking amphitheater with hundreds of candles lit, Rajasthani musicians playing music, the chef over there cooking on the tandoor. And I remember looking at them and seeing their reaction and All of them were in disbelief. We then sat down and the chef came over and explained the menu dishes inspired by the city they grew up in. And I remember my aunt saying, "Why did you do this for me?" And I just love that memory. That memory, I didn't even capture it on camera. I just saw it right here. I'll never forget it. There is nothing better than surprising people and making them feel heard. If you've watched this video, the number one thing I want you to take away is that you deserve to create meaningful experiences when you travel. You deserve to create those amazing moments of awe in your daily life. Sometimes they might be expensive, sometimes they can be free, but I want you to approach the world beyond what flight am I gonna get on? How many days am I gonna stay at this hotel? Think about how do I want to feel? How do I want my loved ones to be seen? And if you wanna explore how to design your life with that same level of intention, then watch this video on how to design your rich life in 2026 next.
