13 People Share the Worst Travel Experiences of Their Lives

A vacation is usually something we look forward to. Unfortunately, sometimes planning the vacation and thinking about all the fun we’re going to have is better than the actual trip.

Travel can be stressful and difficult. Packing, airports, rental cars, hotels – there are a lot of unknowns, and sometimes something goes wrong. Add to that the fact that you might be somewhere you’ve never been before which makes it easy to get lost.

One Reddit user wanted to know, “What is your horrible travel/vacation experience?”

Reading through these experiences might make you feel a little bit better about any travel plans you had to cancel due to the coronavirus pandemic. Sometimes it’s not so bad staying home and not chancing a potential nightmare vacation.

  1. Where’s a Hospital?

    hiiammaddie wrote:

    Family went on vacation to Disney World. Arrived very late, very tired, just wanted to get into our hotel. Mom goes inside to talk to the hotel staff about our room/parking, comes out an hour later, we’re all frustrated and tired and start arguing, she whips open the car door and cuts open her face right under her eye and we spent the night searching for a hospital and then waiting for her to get stitches.

  2. Lost Luggage

    Another experience from hiiammaddie:

    France: Drove 2 hours, realized my bag was missing, went back to the airport and it wasn’t there, after days of horribly translated and fractured english phone calls, they tell us it’s lost. Insurance pays out but we’re on an extremely remote island so replacing clothes was very difficult. Bag eventually shows up, I’m ecstatic, open it up and everything is torn to shreds.

  3. Tsunami

    lethargicwalrus shared:

    I was in Thailand, and a tsunami hit. Never again.

  4. Wish I Hadn’t Even Gone

    WhatDidYouSayToMe wrote:

    I went to Germany for 3 weeks for an exchange program. Only me and 1 other guy, 9 girls who were all ‘popular’ (keep in mind this was High School). We went down to Hamburg for a day of shopping and the other guy didn’t go (wasn’t an organized trip, just as friends). As we got to a place to switch trains my host brother and his friend, the only 2 other guys that came with us, decided to get off the new train right as it was leaving without telling anybody.So we get to Hamburg and I’m stuck with about a dozen girls, none of whom I get along with. They decide to go shopping and go into a store to look for underwear and other related articles of clothing. I’m not welcome to join them. So I spend the next half hour wandering through the shopping district of Hamburg, by myself, waiting to meet up with a bunch of people I don’t even like. Even thinking about it now I kind of wish I hadn’t gone on that trip. It was 3 weeks of hell compared to where I could have been.

  5. “Almost Got Kidnapped”

    AmandaJoye shared:

    In-laws went to Mexico for their 25th anniversary, I specifically told them not to leave the resort or drink the water…they did both. Practically got kidnapped getting onto a boat alone with some locals who said they wanted to show them another resort, they ended up far away from their hotel and had to run miles to their resort after these people demanded money. Then when they got home they had diarrhea for two weeks from drinking the water.

  6. Lost Money

    Another Reddit user wrote:

    I once left $2,000 in a hotel room whilst moving across the country only to discover It missing when trying to gas up 400 miles later.

  7. Traveling with an Ex

    Shared by another Reddit user:

    My ex boyfriend and I had booked a trip to Hawaii about 4 months in advance. We broke up two months before the vacation. Since two of our good friends were going as well, we tried to be amicable and just go and try to have fun even though things were difficult between us.Of course, when we got there, the hotel messed up and booked us in a hotel with one bed rather than singles. They didn’t have any more rooms with singles. So I was stuck with my super emotional ex every night bickering about why things will never go right between us/why we’re meant for each other. Needless to say, we kind of ruined the trip for our friends.

  8. On a Tour

    mamurphy shared:

    Left at a concentration camp by my tour group. Worst. Thing. Ever.

  9. Adventurous Eating

    iamintothat explained:

    My family and I all took a trip down to South Padre to spend Thanksgiving break in a beach house. The first night of the trip, we were at a nice restaurant and I decided to be adventurous and try the snails. Around midnight my stomach decided that it was having none of that escargot bullshit and spent the next few hours trying to remove all traces of snail from my body. I spent the next few days living off of alka-seltzer and crackers, and I could barely even keep that down. Thanksgiving day was spent alone in a beach house dry-heaving while the rest of my family went out for a pleasant feast.

  10. Leaky Roof

    mythopoeia added:

    I spent 8 days in Colorado. It rained every day until the day we left. Our cabin leaked so much that it was a maze weaving between all the buckets on the floor inside. And best of all, I tripped while running on a river of rocks and cracked my head open.

  11. Pregnant

    no_talent_ass_clown shared:

    Got pregnant in SE Asia by a SE Asian guy I had known for a month who, it later came to light, already had a SE Asian girlfriend who was already pregnant.There’s more to it, but that’s the gist of my nightmare.

  12. Family Fight

    wepa explained:

    Less than a month after getting married we went on a trip (which had been planed since before we decided to get married) with my whole family. To skip all the drama, husband had huge fight with my mom, cut trip short and had to pay bunch of money on last minute flight changes. Emotionally this was my worst vacation ever.

  13. Tornado

    Donniej525 wrote:

    When I was ten, my family and I went to Myrtle beach, SC. I remember having a blast, because I’d bought a pack of Pokemon cards and got a foil Charzard, which I was super excited about. Then there was a tornado, directly in front of our hotel, in the ocean. I think it may be called a waterspout? I’m not sure. Anyways, after the terrifying ordeal, there were dead fish everywhere, and we went home.