Meticulous holiday planning can actually amp up holiday stress – and this is why

Much misery is generated by committing to expensive arrangements that lose their appeal – there’s more value in booking late than many realise

“I doubt too many people write in to let you know that they’ve had a lovely time,” said Joel Dimmock, The Independent’s Voices deputy editor. He was commissioning me to write about the most frequent travel issues I deal with from readers.

Sometimes I get positive messages. Phil, for example, emailed from Tbilisi on Saturday morning to thank me for some advice I had provided on the former Soviet republic of Georgia. “A family fed us, entertained us, and put us up for the night, but refused to take any money,” he reports.

Usually, though, the electronic mailbox is full of problems. I hope by running through the most common I might avert some.