Nightmare Travel Stories

From World Wikia

To add your nightmare travel story, click edit

[edit] Big Barber Blues in the Bahamas

I went to the Bahamas with someone I didn't know very well and wanted to kill her by the time we got back 5 days later.

She was my hairdresser, I will call her Mary. We flew to Fort Lauderdale and took a day-cruise ship to the Bahamas the next morning. Mary had three suitcases for a four day trip. Because she couldn't handle all of them by herself I had to help her with them every time we had to relocate (to the plane, from the plane, to the first hotel, from the first hotel, to the boat, from the boat, to the second hotel, okay, you got the picture). Second major problem - Mary was quite overweight. I don't have a personal problem with fat people but sometimes their fatness gets in the way of things. Like sitting next to her on the plane, I was squoze into about 2/3rds of a seat while she flowed over from hers into mine. Also she couldn't walk for any period of time so that let out a lot of sightseeing jaunts, she had to keep stopping to sit down because her feet hurt and she was out of breath. A disgusting sight was watching her with her 'snacks' while hanging out in the room which would consist of large bags of chips, pretzels, cheetoes, etc., from the shop downstairs eaten in entirety and mechanically while staring at the TV set. Also, not sure if this is related to weight (might just be a symptom of an eating disorder) but it was the thing that freaked me out the most: when eating out Mary would inhale her food LITERALLY WITHOUT CHEWING in about the time it took me to get two bites in and then would get up and walk off to "windowshop" or wait outside the restaurant to "get some air." Final major problem and the straw that broke the camel's back is that she complained. She complained about EVERYTHING. The hotel was too cold, the waiter wasn't nice, the Bahamian people were just trying to take all her money, this trip was too expensive, they didn't have cable, the hot water wasn't hot enough, the air stank, you name it and she bitched about it. On the final day before we went home I finally told her to just SHUT UP and we spent the next 24 hrs not speaking. Thank GOD.

[edit] Crying in Europe

I brought my girlfriend to europe, the idea was to travel on the cheap. We get to a romantic little B+B, check in and go up to the room. After we un-pack, she realizes there is a shared bathroom. Next thing I know, there's an hour of sobbing, 20 different issues emerge and by the time I'm done, we had to sneak out of the hotel and book a room at a much more expenive place. Can you imagine having to go camping??

[edit] We only wanted to go to the beach

See also: Outrageous Road Trip Stories at Amanda Across America, where I posted this story too.

I was at a conference in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. A large group of us decided to go to the beach. Being experienced travellers, we sought local advice, and got a recommendation for "the best beach in the area". We piled into two taxicabs and headed out for the beach.

After about 30 minutes we started to wonder how far it was. After 45 minutes, we started to ask.

None of us spoke a word of Portuguese but with some mangled Spanish and gesturing, we managed to get an answer "30 more kilometers". *sigh* Well, no problem, might as well go ahead.

After 30 more kilometers, we asked again. Again, 30 more kilometers is the answer. Or... well, who knows what we were asking and what he was saying.

After an hour and a half, we got the cab drivers to stop at a convenience store. We bought coca-cola and potato chips. Someone joked that this made it official: our cab ride to the beach had officially become a road trip.

Finally, after 2 hours, we got to the beach. The only problem: I had to catch a flight back later that day. So, I had a 2 hour drive to get 1 hour at the beach, and then 2 hours going back to the hotel, and then another hour to the airport.

Hey, at least we had local knowledge! The only problem was that we sort of failed to specify exactly what we meant by "in the area". :)--Jimbo Wales 09:59, 22 September 2006 (UTC)