“Relax… Or Not” The Chronicles Of Worst Travel Experiences

Whenever we travel, it is within our expectations to be relaxed or enjoy the scenery. Of course, we didn’t spend money or waste our time just to be disappointed. But what if your most anticipated travel became your worst nightmare?

These stories of people suffering will give you second thoughts about booking your travel vacation. Be ready, as you might just encounter these unfortunate events one day.

1. Rollercoaster Of Awkward Encounters

Ah, when I was young, my parents were splitting up when my dad proposed a trip to a famous theme park with us, his kids. That seemed cool.

Then, the morning of, he picked us up with this woman we had never seen before and her infant child. It turns out that was our new half-brother and my dad's mistress.

We were then trapped in the car with this woman we hated and forced to go to the theme with her. We would fight over who had to sit next to her on rides and get yelled at. We would squirm away from her in pictures.

We were dragged to the theme many times after that with this "new family." Every trip was horrible. I hate the theme park. I can’t think of any place in the world I would dislike vacationing to more than that theme park.

Tuna_pie

The trip was great for me, and everyone else involved until the very end. We went to Jamaica with more than 40 people wedding party.

When we got back to the States, people started texting in circles that everyone had hookworms in their feet and legs. Only about 5 people didn't get them and I was one of the lucky few. Some people had the hookworms travel to their knees.

EIemenop

After 4 years in England, I flew back to the US to Charleston airport. My friend was a no-show, so I rented a car and started driving home.

So much had changed in 4 years that I had to stop at a gas station and ask for directions. 

The person was having a hard time, so I said, "What road takes me East? I can find my way from there."

She responded, "Honey, if you go East, you'll go into the ocean." I was in Charleston South Carolina and was supposed to be in West Virginia.

Bobosmite

It was late and I was sitting at the back of the bus. This guy immediately wrecks the bathroom 10 minutes into our drive.

I had my hoodie on backward with the hood over my face and had to reluctantly remove it for a short breath of oxygen and pure concentrated foul air every 5 minutes or so.

I got tired of it and eventually had to take my hoodie off and try to deal with it as best I could by taking tiny breaths and concentrating on something else. I looked to my right and saw this lady with "the look.”

She had her arms crossed and her posture hunched with a miserable look on her face. I would glance at her now and then for the next 2 hours waiting to see if this was going to happen.

I was thinking of offering her a ginger ale when suddenly, "Blaurgh!" all over the floor directly to the right of me. I wanted to laugh because I couldn't believe what I was witnessing.

The smell transcended into a horrible demon. My girlfriend woke from her peaceful nap on the window seat from all the commotion of angry passengers who were just fed up.

She offered to switch seats because she was unaffected by the whole thing but I let her stay because I didn't want her to step onto the puddle. The rest of the night, I just suffocated myself with my hoodie until we had to transfer.

zEJAYz

I was traveling for work. I had not been feeling well for several days. I had a sneaking suspicion that I might have appendicitis.

I decided to try to fly home and would go to the ER as soon as I landed. I got on the plane, taxi to the runway, and sat in a ground hold for the better part of 2 hours.

At this point, I was feeling bad. I was close to ringing the flight attendant's call button and explaining that I needed to get off the plane.

We were finally cleared for take-off and it was a relatively short flight.

I landed and drove straight to the ER. Three hours later I was in surgery to have my appendix removed. In hindsight, it was an incredibly dumb move to try to fly. If my appendix had ruptured mid-flight.

Geekfly

My wife and I went to the Bahamas and 6 hours after we got there I started having stomach pains. Two hours later we were at a local hospital where they did a CT scan which they said was fine.

My wife happens to be an Oncologist and saw my CT and noticed that my gallbladder was the size of my liver and immediately said we are not staying here.

We paid for a medivac to the tune of $22k and I was in surgery back home in 12 hours. 

My gallbladder was 13cm (normal is 7-8) with a 3.8cm stone in the middle of it.

The surgeon said it was the biggest she had ever seen. I also got to ride in a Learjet, so I guess that's something.

I have one vacation photo of me on the tarmac standing next to the plane looking awful. I plan on blowing it up and framing it.

Guyincognitoo

I was in Morocco with my parents and they started fighting. The people were looking, it was weird.

Then my mom stormed off 5 minutes before the boat left for Spain, where our hotel was. We couldn't just leave her so we had to wait.

We waited at the dock for multiple hours waiting for her to come back. Then we had to sit there all night because boats didn't go during the night. It sucked.

[deleted]

It was probably when my dad woke my brother and me up in the middle of the night while visiting Grandma and Grandpa to make us walk to the airport.

My dad is a very unstable person, and he can lose his composure at the drop of a hat. I was 11, visiting my grandparents in Florida with my dad. He went out, got piss drunk, lost his cell phone, and decided that we were leaving.

He woke us up in the middle of the night to pack our bags. He cut to the three of us walking down the street with our bags while my grandparents coast next to us begging us to get in the car.

We walked for a little while, then caught a cab. Once we got to the airport, I guess my dad realized he couldn't possibly pay for 3 more tickets home, so he lost it (again), threw his suitcase across the terminal, and left.

Just walked out of the airport. I can still see him disappearing at the top of a hill. My brother and I got our bags and found a maintenance guy (who saw everything but didn't care) and asked where the pay phone was.

I guess we were going to look up my grandparents' number or something. But then they showed up and took us home. In the morning, Dad was there, acting like nothing ever happened. Worst Christmas ever.

JiveBomber

Taking the small fast boat that operated between Portsmouth and France. It was a stormy day but the boat had been given the all clear to go.

After a while at sea, the weather got a lot worse and the boat started becoming pretty unsteady. People began being seasick and then the staff also started hurling all over the place.

Eventually, water was seen coming in the vents and smoke. Turns out the smoke was from a flair that had gone off by accident.

However, I did not think I would live to see another day. We were the last boat to make that trip that day as the company canceled all the other crossings.

HiddenIdentity2

I took a transatlantic cruise back from the Mediterranean to the US on board a Holland America ship, because we thought it might be more fun than just flying back.

As we were boarding we were given notice that there was some kind of severe sickness on the previous cruise with lots of vomiting, basically the whole ship had become a vomitorium. Elevators, hallways, walls, everywhere.

Most of the amenities were shut down, including laundry facilities. Some notices also said the ship was being "deep cleaned" to remove the virus or germs, or whatever the issue was.

But, I didn't see many signs of that, as our room was pretty filthy. 

There was a layer of grime on the phone that made it look like it was never washed.

The sheets looked dirty and stained, and that bathroom was mildew city. We immediately made demands to have the room cleaned again, and it wasn't much better.

After two days on the ship, we started to hear about people getting sick on the cruise, and being quarantined in their quarters. I even saw fresh vomit in the hall.

We were still traveling around the coast of Europe and were at a port in Spain when we decided to nope the heck out of the rest of the cruise, take the loss, and fly back home instead anyway.

RalphiesBoogers

A caravan trip to the north of Western Australia in the 70s. On the way we were headed through a cattle grid (for those that don't know this is where the fence crosses the road and there is a metal grid in the road to stop cows).

There was a dead bloated roo on the grid and a car coming the other way so my father had to drive over the roo. Which burst.

We wound up the windows very fast and at the next town, all the dogs came running and had a great time eating chunks of dead cooked rotten roo off the car.

We then drove over 180 miles of corrugated unsealed road and spent the night in a caravan park, reading bare dirt patch with no power and thunderbox loos for a caravan park.

We had a fire in the caravan that night. When we got to our destination and hooked up the power there was an electrical fault which threw my mother 30 ft.

It was supposed to be a "save the marriage" holiday. I was about 15 and the entire month was hell on wheels.

Trickenzie

In June of 2013, I went on a plane by myself (I was 16) for the first time to France. I had to go from Memphis to Atlanta then Brussels Belgium to Nantes France. When I got to Atlanta I had a four-hour layover.

I got a little bit hungry so I bought myself a turkey sandwich. Fast forward to the plane. I'm sitting between an elderly German couple who are snoring. I hear my stomach make a noise like a bear having a stroke.

I say, “Oh crap,” and try to stumble over the old dude but I trip and fall on my face. I pick myself up wait five minutes for one of the stalls to be open, then proceed to puke for the rest of the flight.

I get to Brussels and like on the plane my stomach is still heaving. Soon I find a restroom and the one for boys is out of order. 

I pretty much say screw it and go to the ladies’ restroom.

People look at me like I am out of my mind and go to a stall, puke, nod to the two pretty young women in there, and leave. A pretty nice guy gets me through a shorter line than where I was supposed to go.

The next thing I know, I am on my flight. The guy who was supposed to sit with me saw me fill a few bags and was pretty much upgraded to first class. All this time the stewardesses are giving me more bags.

I say thank you, leave, pick up my luggage, and go to some family members' houses. I am then in bed for two days from food poisoning and dehydration.

sfoxx

I went to Rome and ended up in a hospital with a liver infection and no English-speaking doctors were present.

I went to Cambodia and got mugged by a group of guys on motos and my local friends decided to chase them with meat cleavers and machetes. I didn't previously know they owned those.

I went to Australia and got third-degree burns on my foot on the last day of a festival.

I was volunteering and got lots of morphine and my Brazilian friends found a trolley to wheel me back to my hostel in after.

Pick your favorite. The most recent travel album I have was on my social media account and was titled "That Time I Went Abroad And Didn't End Up In Hospital!"

Ilikeroastpotatoes

When I lived in L.A., one night I was watching a late-night show. A commercial came on for a standup show he was doing in Vegas that coming Saturday. I thought, you know what, I'm gonna go to that.

I bought a ticket for the show online and booked a flight and hotel right away. Then, the flight was confirmed, and the hotel reservation was confirmed.

The flight went well, but guess what happened when I got to the hotel? They didn't have my reservation. 

They said that my reservation was confirmed. Yes, but the hotel had sold out since then.

Yes, I'm one of the customers you sold out to. That's not how it works. I got on the phone with the travel agency to get it sorted out. Nearly lost the call as the battery on my cell phone drained out after 40 minutes on hold.

They did get me another hotel, halfway across town, at $25 a night more than the room I had booked, and missed the show. Money spent for hotel, show ticket, and round-trip flight for nothing. I now book flights and hotels directly.

Emilhoff

I was sat in the crying kids section one time on an 8-hour flight. Within 1 seat of me (forward, back, side, diagonal) there were 5 toddlers and infants.

Within 2 seats of me, there were an additional 6.

 Within 3 seats of me, there were 19 total crying infants and toddlers and none had anything to do with me.

They weren't all crying all the time. They took turns. Only about 4-5 or so at any given time so they got better coverage over the 8 hours.

Noneerror

I was flying from Nepal to Europe via a connection in New Delhi (the other connection was via Moscow which would have been even worse).

Kathmandu is just about the crappiest airport you can imagine already (lines everywhere, cramped, no ventilation, often awful weather) but luckily there were no issues with the weather that day.

The issue was the airline I was flying on which was magically delayed two hours. Which was just enough to miss my connection and be rescheduled for a flight 12-hour flight later.

This was awful enough (and, note, you can't leave the airport in India if you don't have a visa in advance, which I didn't) but it took me five hours to get my ticket rebooked by the agents.

Then I went through security again to the general terminal, as after the first hour the staff changed without telling the next group there were still people there waiting for tickets.

Then I realized what was up to get things done, but there were screaming European women who didn't at all get this and thought being rude and direct was going to get it solved.

So, I could never slip the needed bribe and it took four further hours to rebook. No food and water during this wait from hell. It's funny as I've done a lot of stuff people would quantify as awful to have happened.

I was charged by an elephant, a gorilla punched me, and I've had more than one person try to rob me but that at least has an interesting story at the end of it and a bit of adventure.

This though? This just sucked and there was nothing I could do about it. It also doesn't leave me with a huge urge to return to India properly ever, cause I feel I got a decent taste of a lot of Indian culture out of that (if not the better parts).

Andromeda321

When I was about 11 or 12, I was invited to spend 2 weeks in Florida with my best friend's family at their condo.

My best friend, Michelle, and her mom would spend the whole summer down there, while her dad would fly down just for 2 weeks, so he could maintain the family business. I was to fly down with Michelle's dad.

Now, I don't want to give up too much information, but Michelle's dad has a name very similar to a convict who was wanted at the time of our flight. Seriously, it's one letter off.

Being 11 or 12, my bags, tickets, etc. were all in his name. We were stopped at every single airport and searched. Even on our layover. People kept looking at the name on the reservation and had this look of panic come over their eyes.

Little did they know this was just a nice guy who ran a movie rental store and his daughter's best friend trying to go on vacation.

[deleted]

I was in Barcelona with my friend and we were supposed to catch a flight to Paris the following morning. We got wasted that night but figured we'd just set an alarm to get up, taxi to the airport, and then catch our flight.

I woke up still drunk with my friend in the same bunk as me and our flight was leaving in 15 minutes. We hadn't packed and were not making our flight.

We showered, packed, checked out, and quickly cabbed it to the airport. While in the bathroom, my friend thought she booked backup tickets for us to Paris and it would only set up back a few hundred dollars. Whatever.

We got to the airport and apparently, the reservation had not gone through. A few desperate phone calls to our parents in the States and over a grand direct deposited into our accounts later, we were en route to Paris.

You know those scenes in movies where people buy plane tickets at the airport? It's not romantic or fun. Don't ever do that unless you hate money and want to see it die.

westsideasses

Throwing up for 7 hours on a local bus in Borneo. I had just climbed a big mountain and pretty much went from lunch at the foot of the mountain straight to the bus.

I got super bad food poisoning that came on about 15 minutes into the bus ride. It came on quickly and I had no plastic bag or anything so I just threw up everywhere in the aisle.

I then was handed a plastic bag and continued throwing up for 7 straight hours. Also, there was this French chick on the bus (the only other white person).

She looked at me in disgust, ripped her awful tourist map in half, and sort of discarded it to help me clean up the aisle.

Andoooooo

Missing my train from Switzerland to Italy while having a fever from tonsillitis. I also ran out of phone minutes from talking to the train company.

Then having to pay $170 for another ticket and got delayed in Italy before I could get to the place I was staying.

Then being on trains for 14 hours with a fever. Everything together was just a complete mess and being alone didn't help. Not as bad as some of the others, but still sucked.

WaltAndJD

I took our family to a campground in Rural Oklahoma. Huge natural springs with camping, hiking, and other stuff. It was our worst vacation ever.

Our minivan’s transmission was broken halfway there. We had it towed to a transmission shop and a new tranny was $3500.

There were ticks. We couldn't control them. It was insane. We'd wake up covered in ticks, go outside, and pull them off, we even had them crawling up our legs as we sat at the picnic table.

No amount of repellent sprays would deter them. A ranger said we were in a Tick Bloom and she had never seen anything like it in 20 years. I went out and pushed by kids on a tire swing and came back and picked off 3 ticks.

Water from the tap in the campground had a noxious, sulphur smell. We gagged even brushing our teeth and had to hold our heads out of the shower to breathe. I got an Uber to take me to a gas station so I could load up on jugs of water.

Firebolt164

It was in downtown Vegas, in 2019. It has been a few years since I'd stayed there, it was never as fun as the Strip, but now it's like a dive bar. Kind of fun for one night, but I was there for 3.

The hotel and casino was dirty and smelled like cigarettes on the non-smoking floor.

 Never found a place that was enjoyable to drink at.

The Waffel store in Container Park was the saving grace of the trip, raspberry sorbet wrapped in a chocolate bubble waffle for the win, and the staff was always amazing.

DoppledBramble3725

I have to say everywhere I've been to has been great, but, speaking for my ex-wife, I'd have to say Jordan. She surprised me for my 30th Birthday with a trip to Jordan. She wanted to prove that the scene in Indian Jones was real.

The hotel staff was very condescending to my wife, looking at me to "take over" and handle it. Kept asking me questions while she was standing right in front of them.

At one point, she went down to get money off the credit card and they refused her. I took her, not my, credit card and they gave me money without batting an eye.

The tour guides were very unresponsive to her questions, meanwhile, the tour guide engaged me in the conversation.

We decided to head out a day early, not much to do after ruins and Petra. She called the airlines, and they refused to change the tickets, informing her there was no room.

She went into Karen mode to no avail. Frustrated, she hung up the phone after probably 30 minutes. Then I thought I should call them. I called right after her, and they were more than happy to put us on an earlier flight.

We got extra security when we left. We were used to random questions and passport checks. Comes with traveling the world.

First, an armed guard did the passport checks, asking us all sorts of “Why” questions. Why we went here, etc. Very aggressive. Consulted with another armed guard and let us go.

Then, while sitting down, a uniformed military person say down next to us and started questioning us. Would go again, but would advise my significant other about the experience.

ReticenceDriftshadow

It was the destination wedding at a resort in the Dominican Republic. We have already paid full price for a room that wasn’t as nice as advertised in the pictures (jungle view is actually a vista of more tall buildings).

They wouldn’t even stop pestering us to attend timeshare sales meetings. I could say that it wasn’t safe to venture off the resort. We are never going back.

BlueLarkspur_1929

It was in Liechtenstein. It wasn't that *bad,” just not a very interesting one. Also, both my friends and I got horrific food poisoning when we ate in a café before heading to the airport to fly home.

We all had diarrhea after that and I even ended up vomiting into the x-ray tray when going through security, causing me to miss my flight. It was not my finest holiday.

TheWouldBeMerchant

It was in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, Tennessee I went a few times in the 90s and it was great. Nice hiking, beautiful views, and a secluded cabin. Just nice and relaxing

I went again in 2018 and you couldn’t pay me enough to ever go anywhere near there again.

Traffic is a nightmare, tourist trap, awful food, crowded hiking trails, the views are littered with McMansion-style “cabins.”

Our “secluded cabin with mountain views” was down in a valley with 10 other cabins. Our mountain view was out of one window on the top floor if you looked up at the right angle. Worst vacation ever, I couldn’t wait to leave.

Phobiatoybox

It was in Las Vegas. The Douchebag Capital of America. When all our kids were in summer camps, my wife wanted to go on a lark. I've been to multiple conventions here, so it's an old hat.

The weather was unusually mild for late June, so there were no complaints there. But, having been to Las Vegas on both business and pleasure now, every visit follows the same pattern.

Day one, oh, cool. Neon! Wayne Newton! Weird architecture! Naked excess! Day two, Okay. Seen that and done that. And no, I don't want to deal with a gauntlet of guys handing me titty flyers as I walk down the street.

I just want to have a drink in peace without somebody's rowdy bachelor party going on two tables over. I am bothered watching that 80-something woman feed quarters into a slot machine for fourteen consecutive hours.

She was there this morning, she was there when I went back to my room, and now she's there at 10 tonight. It's like she's grown a taproot or something.

That woman's the real Las Vegas, not what you see in the ads. This place is like a really hot Gatlinburg with slot machines.

Day three, get me out of this place. Red Rocks. The Hoover Dam. Any place but this soul-sucking, tacky, gimcrack place. Short of Gary, Indiana, or a Calcutta slum, this has to be the most depressing place on the planet.

AnybodySeeMyKeys

This happened in Hong Kong. An old dude walked in front of my luggage trolley at the airport, and I wasn't quick/strong enough to stop it knocking him down.

Suddenly there was a crowd of less than 50 people around me yelling and wagging fingers. Thankfully an English-speaking local came and mediated.

All this happened as my partner and daughter were coming back from the toilets thinking, "What the heck has he done?"

I moved my way through the small crowd, who were telling me how old the floored guy was. I used all my strength to prevent him from being knocked down, but his age didn't alter the physics of momentum.

I changed shirt and jeans afterward, worried I might end up in some prison there.

Hong Kong is a hard pass for me from now on.

EvilBosch

A preteen tried to rob me with a knife in Brussels. I lost track of my drunk new friend group in the process (long story, pre-smartphones), and met a couple of dudes who said I could stay at their place.

When I went to buy smokes, they used me as a distraction to rob the convenience store. They were staying at a big gymnasium shelter for Africans without visas.

The person in charge of the shelter came and kicked me out after about 15 minutes and I slept in a park. The next day I went to a cyber cafe and got in contact with the couch-surfing host who'd mistyped a phone digit the night before.

Thinking about it now, she actually stole a bunch of stuff from the supermarket and a chair from a bar, too. We ended up traveling to Germany together

Disabled_Robot

It was Paris for me. I always dreamed of going for some reason and went a few years ago. The roughest and most unsafe place I’ve ever been, expensive as all heck.

The people are trying to seek your things nonstop. Pickpockets and muggers everywhere, literally saw someone get pickpocketed at a train station right in front of me. Shocking place! I wouldn’t go back if someone paid me

Gilkes01

I went to Washington, DC. Not that there was anything wrong with the destination itself. But Dad’s idea of going someplace cultural is.

Then, he would drive by slowly and say, “Look, kids! It’s the White House/Pentagon/look further and you can see the Lincoln Memorial.”

We didn’t even stop at the Smithsonian which at least would have been interesting.

We only stopped at two places. Arlington, which was interesting and humbling, but then we drove to Monticello and spent the whole day there. I was 8. It was beyond boring.

Drachenfuer

In San Francisco. California, wildfires knocked out power to our accommodation for more than a day, it was smoky and hazy the entire time we were there, and everything was super expensive.

The Golden Gate Bridge was crowded, and the city streets stunk like piss and garbage. The number of homeless folks was the most I'd ever seen in one city. No idea why so many people choose to live there.

SyFyFan93

In Cancun, some resorts are nice, and others are garbage. The water will make you sick. The sun is ridiculously strong and there's no shade anywhere.

It's full of loud, drunk sunburned tourists (hey, I'm often sunburned and drunk on vacation but at least I'm not loud). The locals clearly despise the tourists and make little effort to hide their disgust.

All of the excursions are rip-offs and it's hard to get good food. The city is kind of dangerous so you just want to stay on the strip.

The clubs are disgusting and full of drunk teenagers and predators. The police will absolutely mess with you if they feel like it. It feels like everyone is there to make a buck from you etc.

You're just out in the middle of the jungle in plasticky resorts with locals who hate you but want your money. No thanks. Come to think of it, I've never had a good vacation anywhere in Mexico.

Hiro111

On vacation driving an RV to Florida from Massachusetts. The thing broke down twice on the way there and then once more on the way back.

We were stuck on the return drive north at a gas station in North Carolina for about 2 hours when my dad decided it was the right time to announce that my parents were getting a divorce and this vacation was a “last hurrah.”.

You know what, dad? I couldn't give a crap about your marriage right now, get me out of this 100-degree gas station parking lot.

Why the heck did you think this was the right time to say it? My mom was so livid that she had my sister and I drive the car we were towing back home.

My sister was bawling her eyes out and my mom was fuming so I drove the remaining 14 hours or so home. Around 11 pm it started torrentially raining for the last 5 hours.

I was exhausted, so I couldn't even speed home to get away from my bizarre, awkward family. Also, the time I was in a plane over the Atlantic that hit a microburst and quickly dropped altitude. That sucked too.

[deleted]

I have a few of these actually, I tend to have the worst luck traveling. But I will share the most interesting story I have.

I was 16 and I was heading to England, France, and Spain for 10 days on a school trip. During these 10 days, we had multiple ridiculous things happen to us.

The first hotel we checked into in England was completely gross, and after our first day of sightseeing, we were taking the train home when the conductor announced that we wouldn't be stopping at our stop due to a large fire.

We all made jokes about like, "Haha! The hotel burnt down." Shortly we found out that our hotel was on fire and that many of our things had water damage.

Next, we moved to France, and in Carcassonne, France our tour bus got robbed. .

 A man actually broke into our parked tour bus and rummaged through all our stuff 

He stole many people's valuables, even one girl's passport. Our tour bus driver caught him in the act and ended up getting beat up by this man.

Last was Spain, and in Spain, we got into an accident with another tour bus, no one was hurt luckily. On top of that, the girls and I were sharing a room.

We got harassed in the middle of the night by a bunch of Spanish men who creepily listened to our conversations, learned our names, and kept calling our room at 3:00 am.

All in all, it was an eventful trip, and even though we experienced some bumps I still had the time of my life!

mally92

My Mom and Dad are truckers. While one drives, the other sleeps so the truck is always moving. One time at their old job, they decided to take me with them out to California (from Kentucky) just so I could see some of the sights.

They had 2 bunk beds in the back of their truck so one of my parents would sleep on the bottom bunk and I'd sleep in the top bunk. 

The thing you don't realize is how bumpy the road is, especially in different states.

I don't think the top bunk had as many shock absorbers as the bottom bunk so I was bouncing all over the place. For 3 days I couldn't sleep for more than a few minutes. It was pretty miserable honestly.

[deleted]

I got to the airport to fly from JFK to Rochester (a 1-hour flight). I'll be there about an hour early. About 20 minutes before boarding an announcement is made, saying that a part on the plane has broken and they're trying to get a new one.

About an hour goes by and they make another announcement saying that they found a new part but have no way of getting it to the plane.

 They keep updating that same thing for the next few hours.

Finally, after 8 hours of waiting at the airport, I got to board my plane. I could've driven there in the time it took me to wait for my plane. 8 hours of waiting for a 1-hour flight.

StormiNorman818

It was an 8-hour flight from the U.S. to Germany. A woman dressed like a gypsy had a toddler with her. That little kid cried like a banshee for 8 solid hours while she just sat there oblivious to it.

It's not that the mother allowed it to happen. What actually happened is that she didn't attempt to console the child in any way, she just let her cry for 8 hours straight.

Tim_Teboner

I was stuck in a Tunisian airport for 12 hours while my grandpa passed away back home. First, I had to sit around for a few hours with absolutely nothing to do in a small airport.

Then I received a call from my cousin that my grandpa had passed away. So now I'm sitting in a small airport with nothing to do while crying. And I still had to sit there for like 10 hours.

After approximately 200 eternities had passed, it was already morning, and I still had not gotten any sleep because all the blankets and mats had been given to children and women.

Then the plane arrived, and I thought "Great, I can finally get some sleep!" Nope, this plane was not only small but was also filled with annoyed people, including sleepy children, who wanted to do nothing else but scream and cry.

The food was crap. The movie was crap. When I finally got to my destination airport, I still had to wait for 2 hours to get my baggage.

Finally, to top it all off, an hour's drive home, which however led to the brightest moment of the trip, since my family knew, so they had come to pick me up.

Hamfraigaar

Only a short flight from Vienna to London, but with a grumpy two-year-old and a wife with food poisoning. We finally got to Heathrow and had to queue for almost an hour to reach the passport desk.

Despite the fact I was a UK passport holder flying in from an EU destination, being a grown male carrying a child meant I got pulled aside.

I was questioned over whether it was my child, where the mother was (over there), why she wasn't carrying the child, and what was our purpose for traveling.

Brickie78

Traveling to London from Toronto. The flight there was okay, long, but okay. As soon as we got to our hotel. My nose started to bleed pretty badly, it didn't stop for at least a few hours.

I had to go to the hospital and miss a trip to the London Bridge. 

Then on our way back from Frankfurt to Toronto, I got food poisoning from the airline food and was throwing up from Frankfurt to Toronto, then from Toronto to Vancouver.  

The kids laughed at me when I had to walk to the back of the plane with a bag in my hand getting ready to throw up

lindseysomerset

I went to New York for something a while back and had just gotten married. I got on the plane and a Guido was sitting in my seat. Ask him to kindly move and he refuses.

I figure he's busy, whatever. I put our bags in the overhead and he freaks out, screaming we put our bags on his 600-dollar leather coat. I tell him to pipe down and we'll move our stuff.

Meanwhile, folks are trying to get on the plane and they can't because he won't get out of their seat. I call the flight attendant and she asks him to move. He doesn't.

I'm like, look buddy we just want to sit down can ya be so kind as to allow us? He snaps and starts threatening us. He's cussing and I hear him call the wife a bad word.

He's a large man and I am not. But I mustered all the balls I had to tell him, "You can yell crap at me all you like but you are not going to call her that name." The flight attendant returns and hauls him off.

I think he rode in first class. I get off the plane in Newark nervous as two long-tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs thinking we are going to get whacked. We didn't. I earned the unending and undeserved love of my wife, though.

[deleted]

In Amsterdam for a long weekend with a bunch of kids from college. We were studying for a month in Germany and had long weekends to travel.

We get to the small hostel we would be staying at for the night, drop our bags in our room, and promptly proceed to go out and get hammered. Came back late to other people sleeping in our beds.

The hostel had sold our beds and we ended up sleeping on the hardwood kitchen floor, thankfully none of our stuff was stolen. We woke up to other travelers who were staying at the hostel cooking breakfast and staring at us.

The hostel gave us almost all of our money back, but things did get heated, and we could tell they certainly had no intention of giving us anything.

The next night we got a new hostel, and our friend who had been to Amsterdam a few times was playing tour guide for us. We go get trashed again, and he bails.

He left my other friend and I with no idea where we were. All I could remember was the name of the clothing store across the street from the hostel.

So after about 3-4 hrs of searching and unsuccessful cab rides, we ended up at the police station asking for the address of said clothing store.

Turtleguts

A few years ago I took a trip from Seattle to Illinois. We were short on money, so we decided to take the bus. Not only were we promised a safe ride, but also wifi and outlets for our phones/laptops.

When we got on the bus, it was horrible. No outlets, no wifi, and a horrible odor. We thought sitting by the bathroom would be better, not sure why we did that. Yes, I had access to the bathroom, but the smell was just unbearable.

This was just the start. When there were stops, they were at gas stations and the food/snacks were just hard to sustain. 

Mini tacos are not good at gas stations in the middle of nowhere.

We arrived at the one place I could get some sort of food. This was 3 days into the trip, and the place was a sandwich shop. I could have sworn I ate four sandwiches. This made me hate the sandwich shop.

Another bad thing was the prisoners. Once in a while, people with ragged clothes and a brown package of their belongings from the police station would hop on the bus.

All in all, this trip was the worst trip I have ever had. Though, the vacation was awesome!

Farm_is_Nasusary

Went deep-sea fishing for the first time in Mexico at age 8. 2 hours in and 30 miles offshore our boat began to take on water.

The life vests had never been used and needed to be set up, our crew hardly spoke English, and we couldn't get a hold of any other boats. Suddenly the captain tells us to walk around the boat up to the bow.

On our way there the boat goes out of equilibrium, flips over to the side, and capsizes, sending everyone flying out underneath the boat.

After sitting in the water in my pants for 30 minutes, hanging on to our spilled bait coolers in shark-infested waters, we were rescued. They took us back to shore and gave us a 40% refund and some free T-shirts. Best fishing trip ever.

LittletonLegend