Do you know where you are going?

The title may seem like a silly question, but I came across a post on Tripstar recently that reminded me yet again of the need to be cautious and double check that you actually know where you are going.

"You see we were off to the city of NurNburg in the south of Germany. The town of Nurburg ..."

Place name confusion can happen anywhere and is something all travellers need to be vigilant about especially when travelling in a part of the world that uses a different language. Many, many names sound similar or spell similar (some places even have multiple but similar spellings to confuse even further).

Some readers may recall news stories of people flying to Sydney Australia and ending up at Sydney Canada or Sidney USA instead. Then there's Oakland and Auckland (pronounciation can be rather similar), and Havelock and Havelock North.

Another common mistake is where cities are served by more than one airport - imagine turning up at Tokyo Narita an hour before departure only to find your flight leaves from Tokyo Haneda, for example.