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Not all trips are as fun, meaningful, or relaxing as we might like them to be, but an unlucky few end up with experiences so bad that they qualify as downright nightmare material.
One netizen decided to engage in some schadenfreude and asked others to share their absolutely worst travel experiences. So prepare to be happy you stayed home as you scroll through, upvote your favorite tales, and be sure to comment your own experiences below. We also got in touch with Bejal Gosai from Be-lavie.com to learn how to not have a travel nightmare like the people in this post.
More info: Be-lavie.com | Instagram
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
This is an easy one. Friday June 18th, 2004, the day before our 5th wedding anniversary. We were in Disney World with my in-laws for the week. This was our last full day there. Wife was about 6-7 weeks pregnant. It was going to be our first. Early in the morning she started spotting. Later on it got heavier and early afternoon contractions started. She miscarried in a hotel room in Pop Century resort. We cried and comforted each other. Then we got cleaned up and went to dinner and Magic Kingdom with her parents trying to salvage what was left of the night.
The silver lining is that we waited almost a year to try again and had no issues. He's now 17 years old and just started his senior year in high school.
RELATED:
#2
Husband (now ex) and I were slipped roofies in our drinks at a beach bar in St Martin. My ex wandered off back to the hotel we were staying in and left me with a male stranger who I’m certain was the one who drugged me. I am out of my mind and this guy and I start making out! Cut to : a couple from Minnesota who had been watching the whole scenario unfold came to my rescue and was like let’s get you back to your hotel. I was able to tell them where I was staying and they got me safely returned. When I came to the next morning, belongings were missing from my bag but at least I was alive. I think about that a lot and wonder how I would have ended up if those Minnesotans hadn’t intervened. Shout out to them.
Amberlie Mikelsen 1 year ago
Former bartender here. ALWAYS cover your drink! If you can't find/afford a fabric cover, Saran Wrap makes an inexpensive substitute in their elastic edged "bowl bonnets" (I don't remember the actual name of them, but they're AMAZING) that come in packs ranging from 5-50! Also NEVER use a straw! The surface tension within the straw, as well as the difference in density between drink and drug will keep the whole dose of the drug in the straw! Leaving your drink unattended is also an absolute no-go.
#3
I found out my brother died 2 minutes after getting through customs in Cabo for a bachelor party I was the best man for and planned. Had to find a flight back to Chicago immediately.
Chicago was having a terrible snowstorm and we circled midway airport for an hour waiting for a clear window to land. I then had to explain to the American customs why I had stopped in Mexico for under an hour and came back. I then had to wait another 90 minutes to try to get a cab (none were available readily due to the snowstorm). In total I spent about 18 hours traveling that day.
The worst part was all the reservations I had booked for the group (a total of 12 guys) were under my name with my credit card down. So I was trying to coordinate both a funeral and make sure my friends who were still in Mexico made it to their reservations so i wouldn’t get charged no show fees.
Bored Panda got in touch with travel writer and blogger Bejal Gosai from Be-lavie.com and she was kind enough to answer some of our questions and give some suggestions on how to actually have a good trip. But on the topic of regret, we wanted to hear what she would suggest to a younger self if she could send a message back in time.
“Most definitely partake in as much adventure-led activity as possible. Doing activities and experiences that take you out of your comfort zone places you in situations that you are not used to help prepare you for later life. For example, traveling and staying with a local family, volunteering with local social responsibility projects, and physical team building activities like canyoning, and white water rafting aid to push you out of your normal routine, helping you gain some great life skills like problem-solving, applying what you’ve learned as well as helping with recruitment processes.”
#4
My little brother almost got kidnapped on vacation to Gatlinburg, TN in 2010. I was around age 13, making my brother 10 at the time. We were on vacation with our grandparents and were walking about 5 feet behind them on the street. A man came up to my brother and put his hands on his shoulders and started to pull him away before I grabbed my brother’s hand and pulled him in my direction and called for our Grandad. The man didn’t let up until my Grandad heard me call for him and started coming our way. He had ahold of my brother’s shoulders so hard that he left bruises and I’m sure that if I wasn’t paying attention, he would’ve picked my brother up and ran with him. SOOO scary.
#5
A scorpion stung me while I was in Mexico when I was 9. We were in a remote area with no hospital nearby. I almost died.
I didn’t even know what stung me at first, just reached my hand into a couch cushion and felt a sharp pain. A few minutes later I was having trouble breathing. Someone from the resort drove us to the nearest town about 30 mins away. The clinic was closed, so they knocked on doors until they found out where the doctor lived and woke him up. He opened the clinic and hooked me up to an IV. I was unconscious by then.
That was the first night of the vacation. I recovered, but it definitely put a damper on the rest of the trip.
#6
I got the flu as a single traveler on a work trip.
New job, didn’t know anyone in the city.
Cried on the call to the front desk because I was so sick I couldn’t check out.
Faith in humanity restored when I woke up after my breakdown and a kind soul had left soda crackers and seven-up outside my door.
Upstaged75 1 year ago (edited)
I got massively sick with bronchitis and a horrible cold on a work trip one year. It was completely miserable. I lost my voice too and could hardly talk. (My boss WAS there but she didn't give a damn or do anything for me) The hotel I was staying at arranged (and paid) for a taxi to take me to urgent care and then to stop and pick up my prescriptions on the way back. The driver was SO nice. He waited while I was with the doctor and then again while I was at the pharmacy. I felt awful because I had no cash on me at all and I couldn't even tip him. He totally waved me off saying it was not a problem. (I did take his business card and later left money with the front desk to give to him) The most surprising part of this story is that the hotel was a Hyatt in Orlando Florida!! ;) They really went out of their way to help me and make sure I was OK. Unlike my boss who probably would have just stepped over my lifeless body....
Often enough, it seems like a lot of difficulties and potential pain can be avoided by paying a premium, but we wanted to hear a seasoned traveler’s take. “Many people don’t have the luxury of time to travel as much as they want to so tend to spend more money on having a tighter itinerary built for them when traveling so they don’t have to partake in a lot of the research. Others may feel like they require the pamper factor after working hard and earning money to be able to have the opportunity to get away,” she shared with Bored Panda.
#7
I've had dysentery in Egypt, a missed connection in Kenya that could have meant a month but fortunately only 4 days, and spent 26 hours on the floor of a regional airport in China where there was not enough space to sit cross legged.
But the worst was this June. I had tickets to see a concert I've wanted to see for 30 years. Flight was supposed to land 12 hours before showtime.. I sat and watched two flights scheduled after mine leave while we were delayed every hour, for 14 hours. I cried. A lot. I'm a 46 year old man.
Robert Smith if you're reading this I'll find a way to get to Lima if there's a ticket for me.
#8
Skiing in the French Alps about 10 years ago. Day one: brother broke his arm. Day 2: sister broke her coccyx. Day three: mum did her back in. Day 4: dad did his knee in. Day 5: sisters boyfriend broke his thumb and wrist. Day 6: brothers girlfriend wrecked her leg.
We went home the next day.
Side note: all the above people have been skiing most of their lives. Just one of those trips.
Me: drank too much night one, rested and recovered from trip the next day and skied the rest of the time fine. I was having a great time
#9
I went on a 4-day cruise to celebrate my mom’s birthday. Got excellent rates out of Galveston - it was cheaper than a B&B in Fredericksburg! The trip was great until we awoke on the last day at sea to weird announcements over the intercom system.
Turns out, there was a fire in the engine room, which ended up disabling our ship, leaving only emergency power. So we’re on a floating barge in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. It took the cruise line so long to figure out what to do that we ended up drifting so far east that their plans had to change.
They sent two tugboats from Mexico and started… pushing? our cruise liner to the US. Other cruise ships would stop and give us supplies and we could get wifi signals from them to contact everyone back home. But it was too dangerous to get us off the ship in the middle of the Gulf, so we just waited to get back to shore.
Meanwhile, passengers were going NUTS. The first day or so, food was meager, so people started hoarding, which meant even LESS for everyone else. There was luckily enough power to run the kitchens (and the dishwashers!) so the food situation improved, but we had some weird sandwiches in the meantime.
We had a balcony room, so even without power, we were pretty comfortable. We’d prop open the balcony door and our room door, and the breeze kept us cool. But there were tons of people camping outside on lounge chairs because they couldn’t stay in their rooms.
The worst part for me was the bathroom situation. The toilets would work for a while, but they would back up quickly. They ended up telling us to go #2 in hazmat bags and… leave it outside our cabin door. I made it three days before I finally had to give in and use a bag. My friends and my mom cheered when I came out of the bathroom, and I proclaimed that I would never be going camping lol
Everyone had been making fun of me for how much reading material I’d brought, but they were thanking me for having such a variety by the time we were done!
When we returned to port (in Mississippi, in a shut-down cruise facility), I got my 15 minutes of fame for the one tweet/Facebook post I managed to get out, that I had used to tell everyone in my life that we were marooned. I was on CNN a couple times, the Today Show and several podcasts.
The total time at sea was 5 or 6 days? And upon returning home, I immediately got vertigo, from being slightly tilted for the past week (the boat couldn’t right itself properly). And our shuttle bus to NOLA broke down in the middle of the night and they needed to send another to pick us up. 🤦♀️
Upstaged75 1 year ago
I remember the news about that one. Apparently the bathroom situation was horrifying! It would have given me panic attacks to be trapped at sea like that.
“My personal views on this are that individuals should prioritize whatever it is that enables them to travel and explore the world in whichever style of travel suits them. If that means staying in luxury, so be it. It is however critical to balance this with local experiences and add to the local economy while supporting local tourism at a destination. Try and stay in locally owned boutique hotels, use local tour companies, and dine in local eateries for example.”
#10
2022: Got horrific food poisoning in Oaxaca. Flew to Mexico City the next day for my birthday. Neither my husband nor I could eat or keep anything down.
In the middle of the night, I wake up to glass shattering. I reach for my husband and he’s not there. He was in the bathroom and fainted! Through! The! Glass! Door!
Blood everywhere, throw up everywhere, it’s 3am. More fainting follows.
The young man working the reception that night at the hotel saved our lives and got a doctor there within 10 minutes.
This is why I’m forever and ever loyal to hotels, the feeling of having someone there at all times is priceless. I have no idea what we would’ve done in an Airbnb solo.
Second place is also a root canal! In Turkey and they did an awful job so I had to get it done in Bulgaria 🫠
Sonja 1 year ago
Active, medicinal coal is your friend on any trip to hot countries! Thake it from day one! It is proven to severely impact bacterial growth in your digestive tract and will help your immune system during the first days when your vody is exhausted from travel. The first few days have the highest risk to catch a digestive issue, so take it at least the first few days to give your body a head start to adjust to the new environment. Then take a bit whenever you're not 100% sure that the food/water is hygienic or if you start feeling queasy.
#11
Stayed in a bedbug infested hotel room. Apparently I am REALLY reactive to bites and I had hundreds of painful sores. Nobody else in my family ever showed a mark but I ended up looking like I had smallpox and people at the sights on our trip really gave me a wide berth.
Cheshirecasss 1 year ago
This happened to my daughter. It was a level of hell I didn't know existed.
#12
not me, but a guy I bought a car from (Frank) - him, girlfriend and a 2nd couple were driving from the airport to their hotel in the hills in Barbados, I believe.
Brakes failed, car careened down the hill. the other 3 were fine but Frank was pretty severely injured, ended up being air lifted to Miami.
During full body scans (MRI? CAT scan? i dunno) they discovered he had Kidney Cancer - Stage 1.
At the time (early 2000s) there was no early detection test (I don't think there is, still, but i'm not an MD), so the car accident ended up saving his life!
Now, some of the issues listed in this article came down to just bad luck, but many were also avoidable in hindsight. Naturally, as with so many things in life, doing one’s due diligence ahead of time is almost never a bad idea, so we asked Bejal what she would suggest focusing on when gearing up for a trip. “Being fully researched and aware of their destination of choice. For example, local customs, what to wear, and respect for the local culture.”
#13
I got detained at a border crossing and then quarantined in an Ebola hospital in Tanzania on suspicion of having Ebola. Spoiler alert: I didn’t
#14
Got into an argument with a family member and they cancelled my flight back home (we had the same confirmation code). Didn’t find out til I got to the gate and my ticket wouldn’t scan anymore. I didn’t even know you could cancel a ticket after checking in
#15
I was in Mumbai during a terrorist attack. It was on the train line I was supposed to take back home, which I luckily was late for, so I had to hop in a cab but was stuck in it trying to reach my friends for 4 hours. All the phone lines jammed. Everyone thought I was dead. It was pretty scary and chaotic.
In Mongolia we camped next to a lake and in the wee hours of the dawn a pair of very drunk Mongolian guys attacked my friends’ tent and beat them up (they were also Mongolian). Also on that trip a yak broke our van.
Stardust she/her 1 year ago
26/11 was very scary and it could’ve ended even worse because of the journalists who were live recording the whole thing
“Having a rough itinerary and plan of action is always a great idea but not over planning and leaving a few days to partake in spontaneous local activities. After all, it is vacation time and it's good to be fresh and alert rather than completely worn out with too many things to do,” she suggested. You can find more helpful information on the Be-lavie website here and on their Instagram here.
#16
I was on day one of a 10 day Hawaiian vacation when an old root canal went back. Spent the whole vacation smacked out of my mind on painkillers. I lost entire days.
But the winner is Greece. Coming back from Greece, I started getting sick on the plane, and barely made it off at my layover in Germany before I started throwing up. Somewhere in the airport, I also noticed my makeup bag was gone out of my carryon. It had my luggage key in it. I struggled to the hotel, where I experienced a violent, 12 hour stomach flu. I still couldnt get into my luggage, but I did not honestly care because I wanted to die. The next day, I headed back to the airport in my only clean clothes, (which were my pjs), makeup free, looking exactly like I had been throwing my guts up. Then security picked my luggage to search, which I still could not open, so I had to check it for a ridiculous additional price. I made it home in my pajamas, looking like hell, to find that my luggage did NOT arrive with me, and my car wouldn't start. Zero stars. Would not recommend.
Greece was amazing though.
Kel_how 1 year ago
I was supposed to fly to Vancouver, Canada, but there was a terrorist attack in Belgium and all international flights out of the US were delayed. Last minute, switched my flight to Denver, Colorado. The next day, we got caught in a blizzard. The only place we could eat was the hotel, where we got food poisoning. When we got to the airport, we kept getting bumped from our flight home (flying standby); and I kept puking/dry heaving every few minutes. We finally get home after like 10 hours. Then a month later, the rental car company contacts us about damage to our rental car. We barely drove due to the blizzard, so I'm still not sure how it was damaged. But we had to pay $900.
#17
On my way home from Italy one time, I missed a connecting flight and wound up on a later one. Got on and the middle seat was empty, thank goodness. Right before the cabin door closed, a guy came running in, and sat in the middle seat.
He promptly began sneezing, coughing, and he had a very runny nose. It was disgusting. He should have been wearing a mask. Even though he said it was allergies, I had some suspicion.
About one week after I got home, I came down with covid. This was back when you had to test negative to come back to the states, from abroad. I was certain I got covid from the sick guy.
By the time I got well from covid, I came down with a blood clot, from my groin, to my ankle. Diagnosed as covid induced, I am still on blood thinners from it, to this day.
#18
Two summers ago I went on a week long trip to Hawaii with my sister. On the last day we went on an 8 hour photography tour around the island. About 4 hours in, my sister slipped on some rocks and broke her foot in five places. We got her back to the van and found some ice and she refused to let the group cut the tour short, so it took another 4 hours to get her to the hospital. It was right at the end of COVID so they wouldn't let me go in with her so I spent the evening sitting in the parking lot. Our flights were changed up last minute so we had three layovers and almost 24 hours to get home with her drugged up and on crutches and me lugging all of our bags.
Last summer that same sister and I took my kids to the beach and on the last night my oldest daughter and I were swarmed by fire ants in the outdoor shower at our rental and bitten several dozen times each before we could get clear. The blisters lasted for weeks.
This year I took my mother on a cruise for her birthday. She got a sunburn day one, caught a stomach bug on day 2 that lasted through day 3. Day 4 she slipped on the ladder in the pool and hurt her foot but it was still so sunburned that she didn't realize it was injured until it started turning purple and green on day 5. Day 6 we went through a storm and she ended up seasick. Day 7 we flew home. She swears it was an amazing vacation and she wants to go again next year.
I have decided that it is probably not in the best interest of anyone's health to travel with me.
#19
I was backpacking in New Zealand with a friend right after college. We were staying in a little beach town, Kaikoura, which ended up being the epicenter of a 7.8 earthquake at 12am one night. It shook for what felt like 2 min straight. We had to haul a*s to the top of a hill due to a tsunami warning. We were frantic and didn’t grab warm enough clothes, we sat up there freezing for almost 12 hours. The roads had all cracked and we ended up stranded there for 3 days.
There was no service, electricity, or running water. Our hostel owner happened to know someone with a spring, so we got fresh water. He also let us stay the three days for free, super nice dude. We ate food from Red Cross stands and called our families with wifi at the hospital. People were getting choppered out by priority (elderly, kids, health issues.) On the third day, our tour bus company coordinated a chopper out for us to a nearby town and then bussed to Christchurch. We immediately called the airlines and changed our tickets to go the hell home the next day lol
#20
My grandpa died when I was in Vietnam. I found out when I was staying in a hostel with a bunch of random people and was just sobbing with a curtain shut to my bed. 0/10.
#21
Seems like every time I go on a long vacation something tragic happens back home. The worst was when I was on an extensive road trip in the Rockies and got a call from my sister that our Mom was put in Hospice. I immediately left my wife on her own with the rental car (which I was loath to do) and flew home. Fortunately I made it just in time to thank her and tell her how much I loved her and appreciated how important she was in my life. She smiled, closed her eyes, and never opened them again. I think she was waiting to say goodbye. Fortunately my wife was fine and enjoyed what was the last two days of our vacation.
FeelingFrisky 1 year ago
I would have gone with him, if I had been his loving wife. I would not let my husband go through that alone and I didn't even like my MIL.
#22
My mom died half way thru my last vacation.
#23
Me and five friends were on a package holiday to Greece. Three girls, three guys. One of these guys (let’s call him Fred) had a crush on one of the girls, and one of the days there he admitted his feelings for her, she didn’t feel the same way. Okay, so suppose that should be it, buck up and enjoy your vacation.
One night we were all at the bar of the resort, drinks were flowing. And Fred decides to head to the room us guys we’re sharing, okay no worries man. About an hour had past and I suppose he’s having an early night, our other guy friend (Dean) decided to head to the room briefly to check up on him.
A few minutes later Dean comes rushing back, traumatised. What the hell’s happened?! He goes on to explain that there’s glass smashed everywhere in the room from an empty liquor bottle left in there, and Fred had smashed the bottle, proceeded to cut his own face open to give himself a joker smile!
Dean said to us that when he saw what had happened to Fred, he went to leave the room and call for help. In which Fred tries stopping him, with the broken bottle still in hand. Not knowing what Fred would do to him, especially in his state. Luckily through he was able to get out the room after a little rustle, Dean was able to get back to us. But now Fred has locked himself in the En-suite.
We call our Rep, the ambulance, and police. And we attempt to try and reason with him, to let us in and help him. We didn’t want him to hurt himself any more than he has, or others. All of us are drunk, in an emotional mess as to what was happening. Eventually the police turn up, we could see their batons and guns holstered. We really didn’t want this to turn nasty, finally he opens up the door and comes out peacefully after an hour of talking.
This was getting late, like 1am. It’s mostly a family resort too. So of course many people started to see what was going on with multiple sirens flashing outside. We’re all still pretty drunk, crying, confused.
The ambulance takes him to the hospital, our rep helped us out so much throughout this ordeal. Explaining he would be released the following day, and costs being covered by our travel insurance.
We still had two full days of our holiday, and were the most awkward days I’ve ever felt. Hard to ignore the ridiculous scars now left on his face, luckily it wasn’t as deep as we thought. The blood made it look way worse than it was, we eventually all fly home and I never speak to Fred again. All because of what? A mentally unhinged man who couldn’t take rejection?
#24
I broke my nose and got a concussion while zip-lining in Costa Rica.
I sprained both ankles on day 1 of a 14 day hiking trip to Guatemala.
I got swimmers ear, pink eye, and the flu all at the same time in Panama. My eyes swelled shut. I thought I'd need to be medevaced back, but my tour guide took me to a pharmacy every day to get meds. Was feeling fine a week later...when the tour ended.
On my most recent trip (November) I broke every bone in my wrist on day 2 of my Jordan trip, and had to fly home early to get emergency surgery and spend months in rehab/PT.
(I use to have a travel blog of all the ways I've f****d up and injured myself while traveling.)
#25
I was vacationing in Egypt when the Arab spring broke out. Was staying in a hotel at Tahrir square. Got stuck there for a while and the things I saw. I have had a lot of therapy after and still have ptsd I’m actually amazed I’m writing this comment as it’s something I never ever talk about.
#26
Not my story, but the worst of anyone I know.
A former teacher I knew was in Thailand in 2004 during the tsunami. They were out at sea when it hit, scuba diving or site-seeing or the like. They noticed a bit of a bump while on the ship, and that was it. But when they got back to shore, it was complete devastation.
Upstaged75 1 year ago
I heard several stories about people who were out on scuba sites when the tsunami passed right over them. Some of the people had family members back at the beach/hotels that they never found. :( That's devastating.
#27
I went on a year long program to Israel in my 20s. My 1st night there, my backpack was stolen. It had my passport, paper return plane ticket (it was 1999), all contact info of people I knew in the country (also pre cell phone for me), $800 in cash, and a bunch of other sentimental c**p I’d brought.
I reported it, knowing that I was probably f****d because the Jerusalem police aren’t going to do anything about an American’s stolen backpack. But I got damn lucky. They found my backpack dumped on the steps of the chief rabbinate (official religious building). Normally in Israel, if there’s a bag left like that, they bring in the bomb squad and blow it up. But for some reason that didn’t happen, and since I’d filed the report, they returned it to me. Everything was in it except for the cash. Including my Sony Walkman with the favorite mix tapes I had made.
Dorothy Reiser 1 year ago
Israel...my son's bar mitzvah. A friend doing a year there forgot his backpack at the wailing wall. His final term paper was in it. He figured it was going to get blown up. Thank heavens he made a copy
#28
ended up temporarily paralyzed in Santiago, Chile. Had to fly home and learn to walk again.
#29
My mans had a stroke and he did not exhibit the symptoms we are all trained to know. I attributed his off behavior due to physical exertion, unusual amount of booze on our trip and 18 hours of hell in an airport so we didn’t get him to a hospital until almost a full day after we got home. For those lucky enough not to know there is a “golden hour” from onset of stroke to in which if you get medical treatment your odds of recovery increase dramatically. We missed it. Talk about feeling like a friggan idiot. If you ever suspect a loved one is off please drop everything and go to the ER.
Ken Beattie 1 year ago
I'm pretty sure flying if you've had a stroke is not a good thing either. They're damned lucky.
#30
I woke up with mildly crusty eyes, a telltale sign of pink eye. I thought to myself, “I only have a couple days left in Spain, I can probably wait it out until I’m stateside.” Boy was that stupid. Over the next couple days and the flight back, it got sooo much worse. Both eyes were puffy, red, and crusty. The infection had spread into my upper cheek, so they were starting to puff up too. At its worst I could barely open my eyes because it looked like I had been attacked by a swarm of bees. I looked absolutely horrible and felt just as bad.
Once I got back home I went straight to an emergency clinic at 1am to get some meds to start treating it. It’s kinda remarkable how quickly I started to feel better. This all being said, still had an awesome trip, but I do not recommend a transatlantic flight with severe pink eye.
Shark Lady 1 year ago
They should have gone and got treated by a clinic in Spain, it's not a third world country.
#31
Two years ago in Hawaii, I did not properly hydrate when hiking up Diamond Head. On the way down I tripped and fell down in the worst pain of my life. I had a muscle spasm/cramp? on the back of my leg. I could not get up nor could I walk. I was very lucky a nurse was walking down the same time as me and help me stretch and get to a bench to get rehydrated. Spent the rest of the trip basically limping when I was not in the water. I used to not really believe that the pain was that bed when football players, for example, would fall to the turf and grab the back of their leg. It’s un godly. Lesson learned on hydration.
Ken Beattie 1 year ago
If that limp lasted more than a few days/week it's possible they not only cramped but actually managed to get a moderate hamstring strain. Normally if it's just cramp the pain is immediate but goes away very quickly, so for it to last days they've probably managed a strain as well.
#32
On vacation in Hawaii in January 2018 when we were awoken by our phones blasting a warning that there was an incoming missile and it was not a drill. Spent a few hours trying to figure out if it was true but there was little to no information that was credible on twitter and other sites. The hotel had an intercom system where they were giving us instructions to stay inside the bathroom while we were frantically making phone calls to loved ones.
Was very real and very scary for what felt like forever. After it was confirmed that it was all a mistake, I crashed super hard and took the deepest nap on the beach from all the adrenaline wearing off.
#33
Hmm I’m notorious for hurting myself on vacay:
- allergic reactions
- jelly fish stings
- infection from a new tattoo
- broken tooth
- abscess from recently pulled wisdom tooth
- lost my wallet day one with $500 usd in it.
- narcd during my first deep dive
….😬
Luckily this past trip I just ate s**t because I slipped on slippery tile after it poured. Some bruises and a little blood. Least painful one yet.
Always buy travel insurance.
Astrophile 1 year ago
I remember the first time I heard the term “ate shît” without knowing what it meant. I was like 8YO on the school bus and heard one of the popular high school girls in the back say “yeah I totally ate shït on the front stairs,” and I was horrified lmao 😂
#34
London. 1999. I started having UTI symptoms, as always happens when I travel, and I took Azo (the little red pills for urinary pain relief). I threw up about 30 minutes later and it stained my teeth orange. Bright Orange. Oh the humanity.
#35
A stupid accident on the M-4 to LHR made me miss my flight, my boss threatened to fire me if I didn't make it to work at 8 a.m. on Monday.
I had to get very creative with the routing, bought a new ticket with a connection in EWR to LAX, then the flight came in late, making me miss my connection. Flying out the next day was absolutely out of the question.
Managed to find a late flight to Vegas that left at 9 p.m. and arrived in Vegas around midnight. The only car they had was an overpriced and tiny Geo Metro convertible. $129 a day. A compact would have been $25 a day, luxury for maybe $60, but Geo Metro? C'mon.
Left Vegas at around 2 in the morning, made it to work at 8:00 a.m. wearing the same clothes from London.
Didn't get fired.
#36
my dad suffered a heart attack and died while were in europe on holidays. it was the worst experience of my life. dare i say traumatic.
Sandra Morison 1 year ago
Was on a dream 3 week trip to Australia and father in law died travelled for 46 hours to get home
#37
I was attacked by a madman on a bus outside of Athens. Fortunately, he then removed his clothes and ran off into traffic. Also fortunately, he was not hurt and neither was I.
LavenderHippoInAJar 1 year ago
"Fortunately, he then removed his clothes and ran off into traffic." That's a sentence I thought I'd never read...
#38
My mom had a vertigo episode on day 1 of our big trip. It was just the two of us and I was the one in charge of planning/navigating. She literally collapsed in my arms on the street and I had to pull her onto a chair. I just kept tipping an uber driver while running into different doctor's offices. I didn't speak enough of the language to really communicate. Eventually the front desk at our hotel helped us get her to the right kind of doctor. Shout out to the EU healthcare system.
#39
Lame vacation but alright none the less
Driving a 4 wheeler all messed up had to go off road. Bump knocked my gf off then the 4 wheeler flipped on top of me and pinned me under in a
foot of water.
would of drowned if it wan't for my gf.
i stayed very calm and waited after a min i heard her screaming trying to flip the machine off me. She couldn't budge it.
Finally i heard her count to three and i was able use one leg to help.
Saved my crazy life.
I could barely walk on that leg for the next couple days due to what i assumed was a last ditch effort of strength
#40
I was about 13-14 at Disney world with my family, followed by a Disney cruise. A couple days in, I started getting a side ache. My parents assumed it was just from the rides, but it kept getting worse so we went to urgent care. Ended up getting an appendectomy. Oh, and our cruise wasn’t about to happen anyway, people were evacuating for hurricane Frances. We were able to get a flight out with medical priority, so I was on a 5 hour flight the next morning after surgery. Last part is, I had gotten up to pee early that morning and fainted. Broke my tailbone as well. We ended up with a big screen tv with the cruise refund. Got on the news too.
Astrophile 1 year ago (edited)
I got my first ever period at Disney World. Magical. I also ended up in the hospital with sun stroke because my Canadian a*s couldn’t handle the amount of sun and heat. Good thing we had travel insurance lol
#41
Breaks went out on my motorbike whilst driving through the mountains on an island off the coast of Vietnam. Went off road, down a mountainside and hit a tree. We were staying in a jungle lodge. After getting back and cutting my pants off it was clear I needed medical attention.
There was a war-era hospital in town but no one spoke English. We had to bring the host of our hotel to translate and hire a driver a night in a rural town. The hospital had no crutches, no wheelchair ramps. They did an X-ray in a storage room and luckily no bones were broken but the pain was insane and my leg was so swollen it doubled in size.
They offered me 2 paracetamol which obviously was not enough. My boyfriend went into town and negotiate 4 codeine tabs with the street pharmacist that I needed to ration. Luckily there were 3 Americans at our lodge who had a weed vape which helped.
We hired private transport back to the mainland, but still couldn’t find crutches. We were luckily able to find 3 more codiene tabs that lasted me until my flight the next day.
I will say a wheel chair escort is the fastest way to get through customs at LAX.
5 years later, my thigh is slightly disfigured, with patches of dead nerves, but otherwise fully functional.
#42
My boyfriend and I went to Cabo for our 1 year anniversary. Despite trying to be very carful, we both got terrible dysentery. We couldn’t hold anything in from either end. We were taking turns vomiting and s******g in the toilet. I started having blood in my s**t so we went to the hospital. As they were wheeling me back, my bf felt so ill that he decided he needed to check in too.
For some god forsaken reason, they put us in what I like to call “the honeymoon suite” - a larger room with two hospital beds next to each other, not even separated by a curtain. I had no control of my bowels and had to constantly call the nurse to help after s******g myself. They hooked us up to IVs and couldn’t tell us in English what was in the IV. We had to stay the night and missed our flight home. We had to pay for a new flight and they almost wouldn’t let me on because I looked so beat. Thankfully the drugs worked and I didn’t have much incident on the flight.
After we got home, we realized they put the IVs in horribly. My bf’s vein in his hand was totally killed. They hit a nerve on me and my arm couldn’t straighten out for a month. I walked around with my arm bent at a 135 degree angle like a Barbie for a whole month. I know Mexico can be great, but I’m not sure I can ever go back.
#43
Migraine at Disney. Hot, humid, thunderstorm and then add screaming kids, people everywhere, it was hell. This was before I had meds, and Tylenol didn’t do much.
Helen Downey 1 year ago
Oh god I got a migraine my first day there, in Magic Kingdom. Vomiting rings round myself
#44
I used to travel to Asia a lot for work and was geeking out on flying in all the major heavy aircraft body types. I found a flight from Taipei to San Fran on a 747 and, as it was for work, could book business class. So imagine my excitement when I got a seat on the upper deck. I was so excited.
Only problem was I ate a s**t ton of seafood the night before and the cholera kicked in about the same time we took off. I spent literally 90% of the flight in the bathroom dying. Literally the only thing keeping me together was the flight attendant funneling me Gatorade and the sympathetic look of the passengers when I sadly traipsed back to my seat.
#45
Covid took away 12 days of our 14 day trip to Hawaii....spent a week in a tiny Airbnb with my husband, quarantined and both super sick. It was fun.
#46
I went to Italy when I was 14 with my mom and caught a bug in Assisi. It just got worse and worse, and 4 days later I had to fly home (SF via DC). One of the worst flights of my life. Once I got home I was so sick I couldn’t stand up for over a week. I went to the doctor and they prescribed Vicodin, that’s how bad it was. But first I had to take anti nausea medicine up my butt because I couldn’t stop throwing up. All in all, I was incredibly sick for 2 weeks. Italy was great though.
Upstaged75 1 year ago (edited)
LOL, I really could have done without the details of the kid's rectal meds. But I suppose when you're 14 you're extra focused on anything embarrassing or having to do with your butth0le. My nephew once told us that the highlight of his 4th birthday was when Aunt Upstaged broke the toilet in the Airbnb. :) For the record I didn't "break" it. There was a crack no one noticed and I just happened to be the unlucky one sitting on it when the tank decided to split in half and douse me with water.
#47
Horrible stomach flu in Paris. Took me out for days. Had to book a new flight and hotel room because I was too sick to fly home. Sprained ankle in Aspen. Bitten by a parrot in Colombia. Those are the ones that come to mind haha
FeelingFrisky 1 year ago
I was bitten buy a wild monkey in Honduras. Had to get shots. Joking told nurse I was craving bananas. She didn't find me funny.
#48
I got robbed on the first day of my last solo trip in Portugal. I was sitting at the restaurant with my bag (wallet, credit card, ipad, passport, freshly withdrawn stack of cash, airpods, etc) by my feet and someone just grabbed it without me noticing. I found the bag down the street half an hour later and thankfully they had left my passport in. They took every other valuable thing. And even had time to use my credit card. Let’s just say that was a rough start!
Roan The Demon Kitty 1 year ago
Rule #1 of travelling. ALWAYS have your bag/valuables within hands reach, never just leave it at your feet.
#49
I'm lucky, off the top of my head it would be: -In Normandy for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day celebrations. I thought I could drive stick, by the time I made it to Ste-Marie du Mont from Caen I'd burned out the clutch. Lost a day in Normandy so I could get to Rennes the next day to pick up an automatic (and damn lucky to get it, god bless the French train network). -Jet lagged and mildly sick after arriving in London, fell asleep during a performance of Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch. -Let myself get scammed out of 50 euros in Paris while on my first ever trip to Europe. -Spending a couple days in Northern England, meant to back up my laptop before I left and I plain forgot. It's a Macbook Pro, never had an issue with any of the ones that I've owned. Shortly after getting to Durham via London it sh*ts the bed, badly. Lose some time going to Newcastle to the Apple Store there, and all they can do is wipe it and reinstall the OS. I lost years worth of stuff.
LadySparre 1 year ago
Killing a clutch between Caen and Ste Marie du Mont! WOW that takes some skills 😲
#50
Left my wallet overnight at a museum while on a solo camping trip 20 miles away from the park. I was getting ready to risk driving through Texas without a license
What do you think ?
Katja Katze 1 year ago
Not as dramatic as illnesses, injuries and deaths. But for almost 20 years it has always rained when I'm on vacation. I've had rain in the most unusual places in the world. Locals always say they don't remember it ever raining at this time of year. Rain when camping, hiking. Rain in Egypt and Greece. 30 degrees / 86 Fahrenheit, I arrive, it's thundering and raining from the hour until departure. I send this message from a wet tent. And please don't tell me you love rain.
Diolla 1 year ago
You have a super;power! You can do so much good in the world, just go and take holidays in places where there's droughts. Make it into a career :-)
Load More Replies...
cerinamroth 1 year ago
Paris terrorist attacks, 2015. A short carefree break with friends turned into something very memorable for all the wrong reasons.
margarita pizzaaaa 1 year ago
when i was 8 i went to france. we were going to some castle thing but something told me not to go. i shouldn’t of listened to the feeling and as soon as i stepped off the bus i fell down a manhole. still scared to step on them to this day.
Katja Katze 1 year ago
Not as dramatic as illnesses, injuries and deaths. But for almost 20 years it has always rained when I'm on vacation. I've had rain in the most unusual places in the world. Locals always say they don't remember it ever raining at this time of year. Rain when camping, hiking. Rain in Egypt and Greece. 30 degrees / 86 Fahrenheit, I arrive, it's thundering and raining from the hour until departure. I send this message from a wet tent. And please don't tell me you love rain.
Diolla 1 year ago
You have a super;power! You can do so much good in the world, just go and take holidays in places where there's droughts. Make it into a career :-)
Load More Replies... cerinamroth 1 year ago
Paris terrorist attacks, 2015. A short carefree break with friends turned into something very memorable for all the wrong reasons.
margarita pizzaaaa 1 year ago
when i was 8 i went to france. we were going to some castle thing but something told me not to go. i shouldn’t of listened to the feeling and as soon as i stepped off the bus i fell down a manhole. still scared to step on them to this day.
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