I came down with an horrible bout of the flu while taking my kids to visit family in SC. Stayed in the hotel room for two days then decided I needed to get us home. So I drove home — around 8 hours — while feeling like I was at death’s door. It was awful. Had to pull over many times just to rest

Was once taking a cross country road trip with two younger kids by myself (DH too busy to go). Made it to Biloxi, Mississippi and checked into the hotel on a Sunday night. Caught of a twinge of something not right when I went to the bathroom. That turned into 0-100 raging UTI within a few short hours; blood in urine and everything. Knew I couldn’t last until morning so I called the local ER to see what the wait times would be like. The person who answered replied that since they had a lot of gunshot victims that night it would be a long wait. No special newsworthy shootings at anything, just a typical Sunday night in May in Biloxi it. I called the night line for my gyno and basically begged for drugs to be called in. Then I had to drag two sleeping kids into the car with me and drive over an hour round trip to the nearest 24 hour pharmacy that was open to pick up the medication. I notified the front desk (and housekeeping when they continually tried to clean my room for checkout) that I needed to stay an extra night. Thankfully, within 24 hours the meds worked and we were on our way again.

I’ve traveled through several countries in West Africa, so I have a few crazy travel experiences of things like buses stuck in mud, 24-hour bus rides, etc…
But I think my most memorable “trip gone wrong” experience was just a few years ago, when I had the worst food poisoning of my life in France (!). It was a group trip along the coast of Brittany, and I’d eaten some questionable seafood. As I was eating it, I thought it seemed a little off, but I ignored my instincts (at my own peril). Towards the end of the meal, I knew something definitely wasn’t right, and I sprinted to the bathroom, puking my guts out along the way. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I turned that bathroom into the food poisoning scene from “Bridesmaids” (fortunately for me, I was “only” puking; no diarrhea) — it looked like a crime scene. I speak French, so I called upon my skills to explain to the hostess that I had rendered the bathroom a biohazard. Fortunately, the illness lasted only a day or so, and didn’t ruin the whole trip.

Fly out to take my kids to summer camp after COVID died down, and tested them the night before camp started and one kid had COVID.

Couldn't fly back with one kid ill, so was stuck in a hotel room where the hotel owner left food in front of our door each day until both kids (kid #2 got COVID too) recovered.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a child, my parents took us on a trip to Colombia, South America where my American grandfather was living with his second wife. At some point after dinner there was a big family dispute when my mom found out her dad had been shacking up with the girlfriend (now wife) while her parents were married. I cowered in the corner as voices were raised. Eventually, everyone went to bed very, very late so that we missed our outbound plane the next morning. That plane took off and crashed into mountains. Everyone at home who had our itinerary thought we had died. It was quite a trip.

Now that is quite the story! Was it this flight?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avianca_Flight_410

That is an insane story. I think I'd feel like God had chosen me for something special to have everyone oversleep like that.

It wasn't your time. There was, or is, something you need to accomplish.

I've posted about this here before, but my mom's best friend (and my Godmother) had a ticket to the Air Florida flight that hit the 14th street bridge. She was stuck in traffic (snow) and begged to be let on at the gate but the just denied her.

Then, 20 years later, she had a flight to go see her son in LA. She once again got stuck in traffic and missed her flight despite once again begging to be allowed on.

That plane hit the Pentagon on September 11th.

OMG! What are the chances of this happening twice? Crazy.

I need to remember these stories when I think I'm having a bad time abroad because I'm a little bit hangry.

Anonymous wrote:Misery loves company, right? Just got home from a trip to a bucket list destination for me (Japan). Traveled with someone we've never traveled with before (my sister's new husband), and the whining and complaining and pouting from him nearly ruined this trip for me.

ugh.

One of the best things about being single and traveling single is never having a petulant loser ruin your trip.

-Bed bugs in London
-Long time Delayed, then finally Cancelled flight in London
-Food poisoning from oysters in Destin FL

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a child, my parents took us on a trip to Colombia, South America where my American grandfather was living with his second wife. At some point after dinner there was a big family dispute when my mom found out her dad had been shacking up with the girlfriend (now wife) while her parents were married. I cowered in the corner as voices were raised. Eventually, everyone went to bed very, very late so that we missed our outbound plane the next morning. That plane took off and crashed into mountains. Everyone at home who had our itinerary thought we had died. It was quite a trip.

Now that is quite the story! Was it this flight?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avianca_Flight_410

That is an insane story. I think I'd feel like God had chosen me for something special to have everyone oversleep like that.

It wasn't your time. There was, or is, something you need to accomplish.

I've posted about this here before, but my mom's best friend (and my Godmother) had a ticket to the Air Florida flight that hit the 14th street bridge. She was stuck in traffic (snow) and begged to be let on at the gate but the just denied her.

Then, 20 years later, she had a flight to go see her son in LA. She once again got stuck in traffic and missed her flight despite once again begging to be allowed on.

That plane hit the Pentagon on September 11th.

I was in a Cesna in Costa Rica that was piloted - and crashed- by a 17 year old kid. Luckily no injuries but we waited in the jungle for 17 hours for trucks to reach us.

Anonymous wrote:These stories are good reminders why I never travel to third world countries. I would never have gone to Cameroon to begin with.

On behalf of all Third world countries, thank you for your service.

These stories are good reminders why I never travel to third world countries. I would never have gone to Cameroon to begin with.

I posted about this on the places you did not like thread….but I went to Uzkbelhistan in the 90s to see Samarkand and Bukhara. Due to hyoerinflation and shortages, they could not purchase fuel for our return flight. So they said when they got fuel, they would give us 1 hour notice of the plane leaving. We moved to an awful hotel near the airport so we coup get there in time. I had the choice of a room with no lock on the door or one where the bathroom had no light and the toilet only flushed if you poured a bucket of water in it. I then promptly got something I call the Uzbekh measles. High fever, large red itchy spots all over my body, and diarrhea. I felt so awful. You couldn’t even get like a sprite or saltines there. One of my friends found me an electric green bottled sweet drink (labeled “Beverage”) to at least keep me hydrated. We were there days. I lost count. We finally took a bus to tashkent and by then I was feeling at least better enough to sit on the bus. I remember we stopped at the border and I bought a pepsi. Best f—ing Pepsi ever.

There were other awful things about that trip including being arrested on false pretenses for a bribe and being assaulted in the marketplace.

Anonymous wrote:This isn’t a worst trip scenario but a stupid thing I did that could have resulted in my death scenario.

I got caught in a riptide off the beach in Rio. I was pulled out to sea and was repeatedly dragged down and popped back up by the waves. My body scraped the ocean floor- obviously not super deep at that point. I thought I was dead. I remember thinking, well, this is it I guess.

I was too tired to physically panic and somehow I was ragdolled closer to shore. At some point I started swimming again. People ran into the surf to help drag me on the beach. It was a bit embarrassing. I have no idea how my bikini stayed on.

We saw multiple people being rescued from the ocean by helicopters on our 3 day stay in Rio. I'm glad you were ok.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I got food poisoning so bad in Taiwan that I didn’t know how I was going to get on the plane home. Thank goodness it eased right before I left for the airport.

My hotel was bombed in Mumbai.

We went to one of the most “biologically intense” places on earth and saw a squirrel. Food was good though.

As someone else who also spent an entire vacation feeling like the stomach virus was never going to stop , I totally understand why the hotel being bombed in Mumbai was only the second thing that came to mind for you

LOL and agree. I ended up in the middle of a narco turfwar gunfight where 30ish people were killed and I had to hide out on the ground in a filthy alley for hours but that also doesn't top the list compared to the stomach issue nightmares.

We need to hear this story PP. And, one of my worst experiences was when I got sick on a work trip to Sri Lanka, and could barely leave the bathroom floor. After I recovered from that, I developed a sinus infection, and had to keep plodding through the work trip. So glamorous!