Just for fun - share your vacation horror stories

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our rental car was broken into in Belize, and because we were coming from the airport, they got all our stuff - including passports. Skipped the first night at a resort and instead diverted to the capital city, which is soulless AF. Had the most godawful Chinese food ever, including shrimp that looked like it had been flattened by a steamroller, then spent the next day going back and forth and back and forth between the embassy and town to get the things we needed. They would only tell us one thing at a time: “Pictures! Take them in town.” “$200 cash! Get it in town.”

The rest of the trip was terrific, but sweet Jesus, did that suck.

What is it with Belize and awful Chinese food? They love it!

[Anonymous]

We traveled to England and on the 4th day my husband got encephalitis and was literally out of his senses. He couldn’t speak, just mumbled and was violent and combative, farthest thing in the world from his normal self. He ended up in the hospital for 10 days. I had a 3 yo and a 6 month old I had to leave with a total stranger to get him to the ER. It was a nightmare.

[Anonymous]

I came down with norovirus on an Amtrak from NY to DC and had to hug that bowl the whole way. Can you imagine the horror?

[Anonymous]

We were in Holland visiting my husband’s mother and other relatives. We left our Airbnb for the weekend to go to Paris. Just as we’re heading to the Louvre my husband gets a call that the police have been to our Dutch Airbnb. So have the fire department. We are very worried because we only took a couple of backpacks to Paris and most of our and our kids things are there plus we think we left the Airbnb in good condition.

Eventually we get more information that a pipe burst in the Airbnb and there’s flooding. The fire department turned off the water. The Airbnb’s owner is out of town in the Caribbean. Their parents came and checked it out and said it wasn’t too bad so that sounds good. They asked if we want to stay there when we get back from Paris but there is no water or electricity. Airbnb, the website, cancels our reservation after learning of this while we are still in Paris. We can only find a hotel to stay at back in Holland that has two bedrooms with two single beds in it for ourselves and two kids in the same city as my mother in law but at least we had someplace to go. My husband confirms with the owner that we can pick up our things from the Airbnb on Sunday when we return from Paris.

When we get back to Paris the Airbnb has a padlock on it and we cannot enter. The owner will not respond to us. We escalate the issue on the Airbnb website. My kids are crying because they can see their favorite stuffies through the window and we can’t go in. Eventually the Airbnb owner’s parents come and open it up and we are able to get our things. The flooding was worse than described and our clothes smell from sitting in water for two days. We spend the next day at a laundromat washing our clothes and things.

The next day half the family tests positive for Covid.

My kids first visit to my husband’s country wasn’t the best…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were in Holland visiting my husband’s mother and other relatives. We left our Airbnb for the weekend to go to Paris. Just as we’re heading to the Louvre my husband gets a call that the police have been to our Dutch Airbnb. So have the fire department. We are very worried because we only took a couple of backpacks to Paris and most of our and our kids things are there plus we think we left the Airbnb in good condition.

Eventually we get more information that a pipe burst in the Airbnb and there’s flooding. The fire department turned off the water. The Airbnb’s owner is out of town in the Caribbean. Their parents came and checked it out and said it wasn’t too bad so that sounds good. They asked if we want to stay there when we get back from Paris but there is no water or electricity. Airbnb, the website, cancels our reservation after learning of this while we are still in Paris. We can only find a hotel to stay at back in Holland that has two bedrooms with two single beds in it for ourselves and two kids in the same city as my mother in law but at least we had someplace to go. My husband confirms with the owner that we can pick up our things from the Airbnb on Sunday when we return from Paris.

When we get back to Paris the Airbnb has a padlock on it and we cannot enter. The owner will not respond to us. We escalate the issue on the Airbnb website. My kids are crying because they can see their favorite stuffies through the window and we can’t go in. Eventually the Airbnb owner’s parents come and open it up and we are able to get our things. The flooding was worse than described and our clothes smell from sitting in water for two days. We spend the next day at a laundromat washing our clothes and things.

The next day half the family tests positive for Covid.

My kids first visit to my husband’s country wasn’t the best…

Ugh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were in Holland visiting my husband’s mother and other relatives. We left our Airbnb for the weekend to go to Paris. Just as we’re heading to the Louvre my husband gets a call that the police have been to our Dutch Airbnb. So have the fire department. We are very worried because we only took a couple of backpacks to Paris and most of our and our kids things are there plus we think we left the Airbnb in good condition.

Eventually we get more information that a pipe burst in the Airbnb and there’s flooding. The fire department turned off the water. The Airbnb’s owner is out of town in the Caribbean. Their parents came and checked it out and said it wasn’t too bad so that sounds good. They asked if we want to stay there when we get back from Paris but there is no water or electricity. Airbnb, the website, cancels our reservation after learning of this while we are still in Paris. We can only find a hotel to stay at back in Holland that has two bedrooms with two single beds in it for ourselves and two kids in the same city as my mother in law but at least we had someplace to go. My husband confirms with the owner that we can pick up our things from the Airbnb on Sunday when we return from Paris.

When we get back to Paris the Airbnb has a padlock on it and we cannot enter. The owner will not respond to us. We escalate the issue on the Airbnb website. My kids are crying because they can see their favorite stuffies through the window and we can’t go in. Eventually the Airbnb owner’s parents come and open it up and we are able to get our things. The flooding was worse than described and our clothes smell from sitting in water for two days. We spend the next day at a laundromat washing our clothes and things.

The next day half the family tests positive for Covid.

My kids first visit to my husband’s country wasn’t the best…

Same poster. Forgot to add that when we eventually left it was last summer when Schiphol was having issues and we literally missed our flight by 5 minutes after standing in line for 4 hours. Took two more hours of lines to exit the airport and go to a hotel. Kids were melting down. Did make it home the next day.

[Anonymous]

Got a yeast infection in rural India in 1992 while backpacking.

I thought I would die. It all ended with a sweet woman from the Calcutta consulate arriving in a car to a random town we made it to with a phone- with Monistat.

[Anonymous]

we rented a home in the Poconos for my 40th birthday. some nut across the road didn't like that this home was available to renters. he stood outside our bedroom window and shot his rifle a half dozen times. then he got his coyote whistle (or whatever it's called) and blew that outside our living room windows.

we called the local police department and nothing too much was made of it. like, oh that's just Ralph. he's harmless.

oh - and the place was haunted. we heard walking around upstairs and called out to my best friend's husband. then he rounds the corner into the kitchen. he wasn't up there.

come to find out the original owner of the home was a woman who worked at the local prison. some ex cons broke into this home, dragged her out back and burned her alive.

yep, turning 40 was definitely a great memory /s

[Anonymous]

When I was three, I broke out with chicken pox on an international flight. My parents were like, not much we can do about that now and that was that.

In college, I was exchanging my last big USD with a black market money guy in Russia when the cops came to shake him down. As they were taking him to jail, I played super dumb and like I didn't speak any Russian and went with him -- it was all the money I had and I wasn't about to lose it. As we were walking to the police station, he said to me under his breath "Why are you coming with me" and I replied "I can't lose this money, it's all I have." So he goes, "You're an American, they won't search you, hold this" and start putting all his hard currency in my purse: USD, Deutche marks, pounds, francs....you name it. He then said "They just need a little money to feed their families, wait for me over there" and went into the station.

I am standing outside the police station with god knows how much money for 20 min, then he eventually comes out and is like, let's go for a stroll. He paid them off way less than we would have had to since he offloaded so much cash onto me, and I didn't lose my last $100. He told me he would have come back to complete the transaction and I didn't need to accompany him to the station. I was so flat busted I couldn't take that chance.

Another trip, I was about 10 weeks pregnant and puked in the airplane toilet for about 8 hours over 5 different countries. That was awful.

One time, I was flying alone to Central Asia with a 5 year old and 2 year old. Someone had a medical emergency on the flight, we turned around partway over the Atlantic and landed back at Dulles at 2 AM. I somehow managed to get the 5 year old to haul ass through the airport to the taxi stand with me while carrying the two year old, getting home at like 3 AM. Then I was on the phone another 1.5 hours getting rebooked, and had to head back out to the airport that night with the kids to do it all over again.

Then there was a time when a bomb went off at CDG when I was there (pre-internet days). Total chaos, all systems manual, missed my flight. Had to spend 24 hours in the airport with $5 to my name. That was not fun.

A few years ago a cop in Ghana waved my taxi driver over and hopped in the front seat with a rifle. My colleague's eyes got huge. I just smiled widely and said "Hello there!" All he wanted was a ride closer to the station, it was hot as blazes out there and he didn't want to walk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow some of these are….something. Our worst experience was blowing out a tire on the way to the airport (BWI) east of DC early morning. We couldn’t get a larger Uber to accommodate our stuff plus two kids at that hour, so had to get two Ubers. We had to throw our giant car seats into the Uber (we weren’t going to take car seats on the plane, and didn’t feel safe going that far in an Uber without car seats) and then had to lug them onto the plane. They were those big Britax convertibles and each weighed like 25# plus. We waited as long as we could for roadside assistance and eventually gave up and drove our limping car to the nearest Chrysler dealership and called them to replace our tire while we were gone. They were really nice about the whole situation. (And before you ask, we have an electric hybrid van that doesn’t have a spare tire, and the damage to the tire was too bad to be repaired with the can of sealant included in the repair kit…we tried). I don’t know how we made our flight on time. It seemed time was standing still.

What a long boring story. I hope you don’t tell this at parties.

I have several vomiting and diarrhea stories from Central America and Mexico,, too, but those felt pretty well covered already.

Anyone going to Mexico these days is asking for trouble. In truth, there are no “safe spots” right now. Don’t delude yourselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Got a yeast infection in rural India in 1992 while backpacking.

I thought I would die. It all ended with a sweet woman from the Calcutta consulate arriving in a car to a random town we made it to with a phone- with Monistat.

Wow, you couldn’t procure that yourself? That is not at all within a consulate’s duties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Got a yeast infection in rural India in 1992 while backpacking.

I thought I would die. It all ended with a sweet woman from the Calcutta consulate arriving in a car to a random town we made it to with a phone- with Monistat.

Wow, you couldn’t procure that yourself? That is not at all within a consulate’s duties.

DP here. Most likely not. Awesome of the consulate the help out. Good for them.

We lived overseas for years attached to an embassy. I advised newcomers to consider throwing a box or two of Monistat in their luggage, just in case. It was an awkward convo but way less awkward than trying to procure it where we were and when in pain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Got a yeast infection in rural India in 1992 while backpacking.

I thought I would die. It all ended with a sweet woman from the Calcutta consulate arriving in a car to a random town we made it to with a phone- with Monistat.

Wow, you couldn’t procure that yourself? That is not at all within a consulate’s duties.

DP here. Most likely not. Awesome of the consulate the help out. Good for them.

We lived overseas for years attached to an embassy. I advised newcomers to consider throwing a box or two of Monistat in their luggage, just in case. It was an awkward convo but way less awkward than trying to procure it where we were and when in pain.

I don’t buy it. There are pharmacies on every corner in India and the developing world. No way there isn’t something equivalent available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hired a driver to take us from Accra to Cape Coast Castle. The road was nothing but potholes and on the way back, he blew a tire.

He called someone and about 20 minutes later another car pulls up. It's getting dark now. Our driver climbs into the passenger seat of the other car and shuts the door.

My wife practically threw herself on top of the hood screaming "You are NOT leaving us here by the side of the road!"

We ended up driving with them back to Accra with the blown tire in our laps.

Okay. Ghanaian hospitality is not what it used to be.

[Anonymous]

Gosh, I have nothing terribly compelling. Mainly annoyances.

I've been way too close to a coup - or rather attempted coup.
My hotel was bombed in Mumbai while I was out shopping.
The obligatory food poisoning the night before a long flight home.
One kid throwing up at Hong Kong Disney and their reaction to the "bio hazard." My kids throwing up basically across the globe.
One kid getting a bug in his ear in SE Asia and screaming nonstop until we managed to figure out what the heck he was saying and getting saline solution to squirt in there.