My Worst Travel Moments
Of All Time
My Worst Travel Moments Of All Time
If you’re sitting reading a travel blog, we can assume you love inspiring tales of wanderlust, travels that changed your life for the better and breathtaking vacation photos as much as I do.
But the reality is, behind all those glorious travel moments… there’s a whole lot of travel FAILS.
For every “high-on-life-I-want-to-travel-forever” moment there is that “what am I doing here/why didn’t the bus show up/ I just wish my parents were here to solve this” situation.
And after several years of non stop travel, I have had my share of fails. Some funny, some scary, some weird and some kinda gross. Well here you go, the not-so good, the bad and the ugly of traveling!
Survived 4 earthquakes in Indonesia
In 2018, I spent the month of August in Indonesia. If you remember hearing about it on the news, there were an insane amount of earthquakes that caused mass destruction on several islands and took many lives.
- The first earthquake occurred while we were still in the air flying to Indonesia. We were right about to land in the airport in Bali when it happened. But since we in the sky, we felt nothing. It wasn’t until we landed that we found out an earthquake had happened right below us.
- The second earthquake happened while I was on a sailing ship out at sea. With the rocking waves and being on the water- AGAIN I couldn’t feel that we had just been through an earthquake.
- The third occurred while we were pulling up to a bank. Everyone ran outside yelling and because we are Americans, we thought the bank was getting robbed at gunpoint! So we dashed to our car amidst all the yelling! I mean, we saw everyone running out of a bank looking terrified- what would you have thought?! The employees had a good laugh at our misunderstanding after the earthquake passed.
- The fourth earthquake happened while I was asleep in a villa in Bali. All the other guests were woken up from the shaking except me. Everyone else ran outside to safety. Fortunately, I wasn’t harmed as I continued to snooze through the tremors.
Fell off a villa ledge in Bali
Bali is known for its stunning villas with open, boho-chic designs. I was staying in a villa for a week while taking a blogging course.
And while everyone gathered around a computer during class, I backed up…. without realizing how close I was to the edge.
I fell a full story to the rocks below. It was painful but fortunately I didn’t need serious medical attention.
Missed a flight into Israel by seconds
The first time I missed a flight I was flying out of Los Angeles and because construction was so bad, I got stuck in standstill traffic and missed my flight by a few minutes. I swore that would never happen again.
Fast forward a year and I’m sitting in terrible traffic in Krakow, Poland on my way to the airport about to miss a flight to Israel…
We arrive at the Krakow airport with a few minutes to spare, race through security and manage to arrive at our gate just as the man is closing it down.
Now I love Poland but Polish people aren’t know for their friendly nature or helpful customer service. We pleaded with this man to let us through since we missed boarding by less than 20 seconds. But he refused.
I always arrive at the airport really, really early now.
Got denied at the Israeli border because they believed I was a victim of sex trafficking
After the first missed flight into Israel, we hopped on a train to catch a flight out of another airport in Poland.
We bought our tickets on the train ride there. (Little did we know what a problem that would cause…)
I was with my British boyfriend at the time who was living Poland.
After missing our first flight to Israel, we were highly stressed. Yet we made it to the other airport just in time.
But when boarding began, my ticket flashed a red X across the machine and I was immediately separated from my boyfriend by airport security for questioning.
An Intense Interrogration
“What is the nature of your relationship with this man?”
“Why are you traveling to Israel?”
“Can anyone confirm your arrival?”
“When did you meet this man?”
“Is he your husband? Boyfriend?”
‘How long have you know him?”
The questions didn’t stop. They kept asking me over and over again. Similar questions with slight variations about the nature of my relationship with James. I was scared, crying and super confused about what was happening.
For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why they cared if we were dating until they mentioned that Israel has a massive problem with women being sex trafficked.
And because we bought last minute flights without a tour group and I was an American woman traveling with a British man from Poland to Israel.. it set off all kinds of red flags.
They thought I was being sex trafficked by my boyfriend!
They questioned James about the nature of his work for so long, that we ended up missing our second flight to Israel. And no, they didn’t offer to bump us to the next flight. We had to buy a whole new ticket when they finally believed that we were just a regular couple traveling to Israel for fun.
Since no flights were leaving that night, we had to spend the night in the airport. And the cherry on top? They were testing the emergency alarms all night in the airport.
How to avoid this happening to you?
If you’re flying into a country with a strict border patrol like Israel, you need to arrive EXTRA early at the airport and check-in with someone in person. Don’t do online check-in. If you are a foreigner, questioning may be required. It depends on the airline. But you need to allow for enough time for the potential questioning to take place.
Read: ISRAEL- 11 THINGS I WISH I KNEW BEFORE I WENT
Hospitalized in a horrifying (haunted?!) Venice hospital overnight
While traveling Italy, I woke up in the middle of the night in Venice to the horrifying realization that I could barely breathe. My throat felt as if it was swelling shut.
In hindsight, I should have woken up the people I was traveling with but I didn’t want to bother anyone. So I thought I would just walk myself to the ER and get it checked out.
I crept out of our Airbnb overlooking the canals and began to follow a map to the hospital. Well, if you’ve ever looked at a map of Venice, it looks like a plate of spaghetti. It’s full of twists and turns and dead ends. I’m already not great at following directions. Much less when it’s pitch dark and I don’t speak any Italian.
A seemingly abandoned hospital
When I finally found the hospital nearly two hours later, I was wandering around what appeared to be a deserted building, empty halls and no workers anywhere!
I was calling out for help (“Scusi? Is anyone here? “) but the only sound I heard was the faint sound of opera music coming in over the speakers.
It seemed like something straight out of an apocalypse film.
Finally after walking around the hospital alone in the dark for what seemed like ages, I found a room with nurses, none of which spoke any English. I pantomimed that my throat was swollen and I was having difficulty breathing.
They hooked me up to an IV and had me spend the night in the hospital until they could figure out what caused my throat to swell shut.
They released me from the hospital just in time to see the sunrise over the canals as I walked back to my Airbnb.
It ended up being one of my favorite mornings in Venice. I could breath again and I got to experience the entire city in the soft morning light without any tourists around. Despite the dramatic evening, I was joyous on the walk back.
Followed by a man on the street in Egypt
Of all the solo trips I’ve taken to foreign countries, this was the one time I felt truly unsafe and scared.
I left the my hotel in Cairo, Egypt thinking I was dressed modestly enough but I wandered into a market area where the only women I saw were fully covered in burqas and accompanied by a man.
With my forearms showing, I might as well have been caring a sign that read “SINGLE FEMALE TOURIST.” The amount of attention I received was uncomfortable, but the worst of it was when I realized I was being followed.
Now I can’t speak to this man’s intentions. For all I know he was working up the courage to speak to me. Several men said it was surprising to see a young, Western female alone in the market and naturally, they were curious.
Lost in the market alone
However having this man trailing behind me while I was lost, absolutely terrified me. Turning and winding down different streets, suddenly switching directions, abruptly crossing the street….the guy was still several paces behind me- keeping tabs. On top of that, my phone was dead.
Desperately searching for a taxi to get out of there, I stumbled down a street and saw it was a dead end. I sprinted back the other direction before I found myself alone on an empty, dead end street with my follower.
Finally I dashed across traffic and hid behind a column of a building. When I mustered the courage to take a peak- he was standing in the street turning every which way looking for me.
Confronting the man
Heart racing, I stepped out from behind the column, tossed back my shoulders, made direct eye contact and mouthed “Stop following me!” while holding up my arms in an X shape. Then ran the other way until I could locate a main road and call a taxi.
I spent over an hour lost in that massive, outdoor marketplace. There were no indoor shops to step inside and get away from my follower. And no one I felt comfortable asking for help. I had wandered far from the tourists sights and no one spoke English anyway.
Thank god, nothing happened beyond giving me a scare. When I made it back to my hotel room shaking, I curled up in a ball under the covers and had to take some serious time to myself to decompress.
How to avoid this situation?
Always travel with a charged phone and portable battery. Have your hotel address written down on a piece of paper so even if you don’t speak the language, you can show someone where you are trying to go. Visit the Egyptian markets with a guide or companion.
Important to note
Ladies, please don’t let this single scare I had deter you from solo travel or Egypt in general. I have traveled the world by couchsurfing, hitch hiking, making friends with people I just met… I frequently put myself in the trust of strangers and I am constantly learning how good and kind people everywhere are. After 33 countries and nearly 3 years of travel as a single female, I have only had two encounters that made me feel truly uncomfortable. It is my belief that people are generally good so keep exploring 🙂
Read: EGYPT- 18 THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO
Attempted to cross country ski the American Birkebeiner with no previous experience- OUCH!
You guys, I am a bad cross country skier. It’s fun, but I definitely wasn’t good at it. I had also borrowed a pair of boots/skis that began to crack and break part way up the trail. So now mix my already wobbly legs with weak equipment.
I truthfully spent more time toppled on the ground being passed by little kids than actually skiing. I also ran into a tree or two. (Or three, but who’s counting?!)
I barely made it out of there with all my limbs.
Severely sick after my first time scuba diving
When the company I was working for in Mexico sent me on a free scuba diving excursion, I was thrilled!
I had never been diving and I couldn’t wait to learn.
But truthfully, the class we took beforehand felt a little…incomplete. The instructor also didn’t speak the best English. My two other coworkers opted out of diving because they felt unprepared. Meanwhile, I decided to go ahead with the dive by myself.
While I was slightly anxious the first time they said “Alright, we’ll be down there for 45 minutes. Hop in!” I managed to relax underwater and only had the occasional thought of “oh my god what happens if I can’t get any air and drown down here”. Overall, I loved it.
After the dive was complete, I started walking back to our resort by myself. I was totally on cloud nine from the thrill of my first dive!
Suddenly, I was so weak I could hardly stand
But that’s when it hit me. Suddenly I felt so tired I could barely stand much less walk. I dragged myself to the nearest bench, unsure if I was going to faint. With no cell service and no cars passing by, I couldn’t even hail a cab home.
I half stumbled to my hotel room as the nauseous was setting in. When I got there, I vomited. Immediately after, I crawled into and slept for a full 24 hours.
I felt fine the next day but I’m still a little unsure what happened. Was I just dehydrated? Or did I come up too quickly and get the bends? Either way, it was scary.
Hopelessly lost in Germany
I have been lost in a lot of countries. But for some reason, I have spent more time lost in Germany than anywhere else. Fortunately people have always helped me out.
Whether it was walking me to my train, letting me use their cell phones or helping me read a map entirely in German… I have a lot of people to thank for getting me all around Munich, Berlin and Stuttgart!
Crushed my laptop on a train to Milan
While traveling from Rome to Milan with my travel buddy Morgan, I cleared my spot to allow another couple to sit down.
As I was shuffling our things around on the train, I sat back down in my seat…only to hear the crunching sound of a broken laptop beneath me. It was broken beyond repair.
Bed bugs in Turkey
After working at an Oktoberfest campsite for two months, we were exhausted and really in need of a nice shower at a good hotel. When our group arrived in Turkey, Morgan and I couldn’t wait to go to sleep. We’d been camping for 6 weeks in Germany without a proper bed!
Finally, we got to the hotel…collapsed into bed with all our clothes on …. and accidentally slept all through the day, the night and into the next morning… that’s how sleep deprived we were!
But in an unfortunate twist of events, the first real bed we slept in for two months had a bed bug infestation!
The good:
Because we were so exhausted, we didn’t even touch our suitcases or unpack. They sat a safe distance away from the bed in the corner, untouched by the bed bugs. So we didn’t bring them with us to the next hotel!
The bad:
Because we were so tired, we slept in that bed for nearly 18 hours. Imagine how many bug bites you can get in 18 hours! Poor Morgan had it worse than I did and was itching her arms throughout our time in Greece.
Getting the 24 hour bug in Mexico and vomiting on the streets of Akumal
We all know you’re not supppsed to drink the tap water in Mexico. I foolishly brushed my teeth in the shower one morning and hopped on a crowded, bumpy bus to Akumal.
The bus ride was horrible. I was unsure if I was going to have to ask the driver to pull over so I could crawl out and vomit on the side of the road. Somehow, I managed to make it to the town of Akumal.
But the moment I stepped off the bus, I vomited everywhere all over a crowded street to the reaction of many disgruntled pedestrians and stray dogs. I spent the rest of the night alone in a hostel throwing up.
It’s no fun being sick but especially when you’re alone in a foreign country.
Robbed in Mexico
Oh no, Mexico makes it onto the list for the 3rd time!
While staying in Tulum, my credit card AND debit card were stolen.
I’m unsure how it happened. Either they were stolen from my hostel room or I was pickpocketed.
Without my cards, I had no way to access cash for the last two weeks I was there. It was incredibly inconvenient. I was having to borrow cash from people in my hostel and Paypal them back until the Western Union transfer from my parents came through.
Thank goodness for money orders!
How to avoid this happening to you?
Always store your cards and cash in different places. Never bring all your money/cards out with you at once. Have a backup hidden away in your suitcase with a lock!
Read: TOP SAFETY TIPS FOR TRAVELING TO MEXICO
Driving Blue Ridge Parkway with zero service, a crying baby and only the 8 minute remix of ChaCha Slide on repeat
Alright this one wasn’t so terrible but it was pretty funny. I went on a camping, hiking, road tripping adventure to the Great Smoky Mountains with my best friend and her baby, Presley.
YEP! We took that little nugget all on sorts of crazy adventures. She did remarkably well, loved the time outside and hardly ever fussed. But when you’re driving along Blue Ridge Parkway, you hit some massive elevation gain.
Presley is used to being at sea level in Florida so we think the fact that our ears were popping had her feeling upset. She did well on the way up the mountains but…
Picture this scene…
The sun is setting uh-oh… we wanted to be off the roads by dark because the roads are so winding and narrow! Our ears are popping like mad and Presley begins to cry either from the altitude or the fact that the grown-ups in the car are visibly stressed.
It’s taken much longer to drive Blue Ridge Parkway than Google Maps suggested.
Leigh was also pregnant at the time and experiencing mood swings. So she’s crying, Presley is crying and I’m freaking out about being stuck on a mountain in the dark with a car that suddenly has failing headlamps.
Finally Leigh suggests that music usually calms Presley down. But because we are in the mountains, we have lost service. And for SOME UNKNOWN REASON, the only song Leigh has downloaded on her phone in the ChaCha Slide. You know the one….
To the left
Take it back now, y’all
One hop this time
Right foot, let’s stomp
Left foot, let’s stomp
Cha cha real smooth
So for the next hour as we stress and panic, the only thing that keeps Presley happy is the Cha Cha Slide on an endless loop.
I can’t hear that song at weddings anymore without thinking of being lost on a mountain in the dark with bad headlamps and a crying baby.
Read: GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK – 18 THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO
Well there you have it. Some of my worst travel memories.
Want to hear about my best ones now?
Read: AFTER 2 YEARS OF NON-STOP TRAVEL, THESE EXPERIENCES WERE MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE!
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