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Someone Asked “What Is The Dumbest Travel Mistake You’ve Made?”, 30 Folks Delivered
Some trips are more breathtaking than others, but he who knows the first thing about traveling would know it to be about movement and change - of landscape, people, sounds, light, and probably the traveler himself.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the most probable and (usually) desired part of traveling is various adventures! And adventures wouldn’t be adventures without their essential element - unexpected circumstances and surprises!
That being said, honest travelers would admit that at least some of it springs right from the traveler’s own hilarious mistakes. (Even if it means being stuck in the exact same spot or paying for the room twice.) Dreadful at the moment, but still funny years later. These Redditors shared their experiences of making such a mistake while hitting the road, answering one Redditor’s question “What’s is the dumbest travel mistake you’ve made?”
More info: Reddit
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On a *very* drunken night out in Thailand I gave my wallet to a lovely couple we had spent the day with on a trip to keep safe as I had no pockets in my shorts.
Needless to say I woke up the next day and the doom hit me.
Kicked myself for the next few days and carried on with my trip with the help of my friends. Mostly transferring money to them online.
A few days later I logged in to a computer at the hostel and found an email from LinkedIn with a connection request and a short message from one of the couple! They had tried finding me on all my socials but the only one that they found me on was LinkedIn 🤣
They managed to post it to my next hostel and it was on my bed waiting for me!
Heroes. 🤩
Sydney, Australia and Sydney, Nova Scotia are not close to each other. I have no idea why I didn’t question why the ticket was so affordable !
Not me but my husband. The night before our first trip to Barcelona he noticed his passport had expired. Hotels were nonrefundable at that point so I waved goodbye and did the trip solo.
What sort of person doesn't check their passport before making travel plans? Some countries insist on at least 6 months before expiry to let you in.
My wife and I traveled to New Zealand for six weeks camping, then flew to Hawaii for a week to visit friends. I had a car and condo rented in Hawaii but in the plane to Hawaii I realized the day we lost going to New Zealand, we we’re gaining back going to Hawaii (International Date Line). So, we had to scramble as we had no car or housing for our first day there. We literally arrived in Hawaii hours before we left New Zealand. Oops.
Borrowed my dad's old truck to do some wilderness camping with a buddy across the Canadian border in Yukon (I'm from Alaska obviously). Told the border agent I had no guns, ammo, etc but they searched the vehicle anyways and lo an behold my dad had a hidden compartment under the back seat with a .357 and a box of ammo lol. They pulled us out and had us stuck in an interrogation room while they called my dad as it was his name on the registration. He confirmed it was his fault as he forgot it was in there and they actually let us go and they kept the gun. We camped for a week lol. My dad had to drive 250 miles to the border to pick up the gun.
Only Americans "forget" they have guns stashed somewhere...
My husband mixed up AM and PM for our flight from Amsterdam to London and I never bothered to double check. We were out happily sightseeing with what we thought were our last few hours in town when I get an email that said “How was your flight? Fill out this survey…”
Thankfully we booked some last minute train tickets. We lost the money on the airfare but at least it was a very cheap flight.
Grabbed my son's passoort, instead of mine, before driving 3 hrs to Chicago for a flight to Cuba early the next day. Thankfully I have an amazing friend who went and got mine from my house and met me halfway. Got back to Chicago at 2:00am, and made my 6:30 am flight. I gave my friend $100 for saving my a**e.
A very funny story from about 30 yrs ago. My grandparents managed to take there son and daughters passports instead of their own! They were driving to France and those days all you had to do was flash the passport and they didn't fully check. So, they kept away from the curve, not close enough for the pictures to be obvious! They got there and back
I booked a trip to Istanbul in December, assumed it would be warm because it was on the Mediterranean and in the Middle East, didn’t check the weather predictions, didn’t pack any warm clothes, and it was snowing when I arrived.
I wouldn't have thought Istanbul got any snow, either. The more you know.
I booked a ticket to the Anne Frank museum tour and stood inline. Ticket was for the following year
Mine was being an inexperienced 19 year old traveler bringing lots of German beer to Liverpool in a duffel bag. About 10 or 12 bottles broke and the bags on the conveyor belt were soaked in beer and the people were angrily mumbling over it. Then mine came, the whole bottom was drenched, and eyes were all over me as I quietly snuck out.
My parents lived in Haiti and would bring vanilla back to us in the USA. At that time the vanilla was in glass 5th bottles. Once trip at least one of the bottles broke. All the luggage coming off the plane smelled strongly of vanilla. It was the best vanilla to use in cooking.
I booked a train from Venice at the trenitalia site. When the train never arrived I discovered I'd booked a bus. We missed it.
I am italian but I would expected booking from trenitalia that would have been a train. BUT there is a possibility is called "servizio sostitutivo" it means that if a very important train connection is not avaliable (there are fixings on the line or other stuff) they change it temporarily with a bus
I forgot underwear on a three week trip to South America. No offense to the Brazilians here but let’s say their men’s style of underwear was not my idea of comfortable.
Not me, but my friends recently were visiting EU (they’re not EU citizens and require a visa to be there) and decided to go on a day-trip from Munich (Germany) to Salzburg (Austria). Never came to their mind to grab their passports as it’s their first time in Europe and they’ve thought “there’s no state borders inside the EU”. They got lucky at the way there, but at the way back there was a police check on travel documents 🙈 they were taken off the train and spent couple of hours at the police station trying to contact hotel so the staff would get into their room and take photos of visas. Ended well though - the police released them once the photos were sent.
Similar happened to me in Dusseldorf! 2019, travelling back to South Africa from UK. Didn't know the travel rules there are different and I spend 5 hours in the airport police station while they tried everything they could to get me on a plane out. Was very scary, but they did help and I made it home 19 hours later, very tired and broke.
We were traveling to two different cities for a week. We needed two accommodations, one for each city, right? Well my dumbass booked not just one air bnb for the one city, but also booked the other for the same city with the exact same dates. Didn’t notice until a week before our trip. I cried when I realize what I did lol. It was an extremely expensive (no refund) lesson to learn to pay more attention when I book more than 1 accommodation at once :/
I have to book a hotel for the night before you leave for the country you arrive the next day, when crossing the dateline west to east. Eg. First flight depts 6:00am on 17th April connecting flight arrives at destination 16th April 12:30am. Due to time zones and date line Both Hotel bookings (one for predeparture and one for arrival) are for the night of the 16th in two countries.
Arriving at 1:00 pm for a 1:00 am flight...12hrs too late. The flight was from India to US so it was a very expensive mistake.
I see a lot of this on this list. Which company does not issue tickets with a 24h clock? I was working as a ground hostess for years and never saw one!
I was travelling in Belfast and then taking a flight to Paris from the Belfast airport. When I get to the bus station, I ask for a ticket “to the airport”. I get my ticket and get on the bus. 30 mins into the trip where we should be getting close to the airport, I check my Google maps and see we’re headed the wrong direction. I ask someone if the bus is going to the Belfast airport. He looks horrified and tells me it’s going to the Dublin airport. Missed my flight, had to get a new, way more expensive flight from the Dublin airport.
Something similar happened to us when we were in Istanbul last February. Twenty minutes into the taxi ride I realized we were going in the wrong direction (Havalimaı instead of Sabiha Gokcen). Luckily we had planned with a time margin large enough to make up for the mistake, but the 40 Euro ride became a 80 Euro trip.
I mentally earmark a few hundred dollars per trip for "mistakes" since I plan my own trips. No one is perfect, and expecting to make a few errors helps me deal with it when it happens.
Recently went to Japan and must have been extremely jet lagged my first night because I threw my envelope of 40000 yen (like 280 USD) into the trash can in the bathroom of the floor of the hostel I was staying in. Was checking the bathroom as a last ditch effort, moved a few pieces of tissue and there it was untouched 😂
Went to the wrong airport in berlin and missed my flight
Backcountry backpacking, had those convertible pants, but left the pant legs at a high elevation lake and had to just wear shorts the remainder of the route. Very cold at night!
Showed up for my flight exactly 24 hours before departure. Luckily they got me on or I would’ve have to go home and repeat the whole process the next day.
Extra vacation day I guess so that was cool.
1990’s. Took a redeye charter to the greek islands. Opened the duty free on the plane and got drunk and wasted, as good 19year olds do on a boys-trip.
Arrived. We saw our two bags on the luggage band. Grabbed them, took the chartered bus to the hotel. Crashed in bed after checking in to the hotel.
After 1 hour got woken up by the tour guide knocking on our door. He had two identical bags in his hand. He informed us we took some other guests bags at the airport. Opps 🙄
Why would they want his organs Kitten? He's already admitted he was pickling in alcohol.
Booked my rental car for the wrong day (flight landed at 1am and I booked for the previous day). The rental company was completely inflexible, so I ended up shelling out $500+ *twice* for a 4-day rental. Then I discovered a cab to and from my destination (where I didn't need a car anyway) would've only cost like $150 😩
For some reason I had us flying out of St Louis a day earlier than we were. Didn't find out till we tried to check in at our day before flight hotel. Called our travel agent to tell Bush's screwed up in booking the hotel as they didn't have our room. She checked and said you're not flying out till 2 more days. So we had to spend the time and more money for the extra day.
"How hard can it be to get from Heathrow to Gatwick ... *very late at night*? It's still the same city."
Gatwick is part of the London network of airports but it's not actually in London. It's in Sussex. Stansted and Southend are in Essex. Luton is in Bedfordshire. Heathrow is in Greater London. City airport is in central London. Basically Heathrow and Gatwick are not in the same city.
Spent an entire month in London and never once ventured outside of the city. I was a dumb 20 year old American who didn't realize the ease of train travel there. I remember the only day trip I had looked into was a coach tour bus to Stonehenge and it was super expensive so I didn't do it.
When you live in a country that requires a personal car to just get out of the city at home, it's hard to get out of that restrictive thinking and realize how much freedom you have when you're somewhere with ample public transportation that goes all sorts of places outside of the cities. My last trip to UK, I regret not going other places.
I left my passport in the Uber in Rio luckily I have family there so I just said “hey again it’s me” I got my passport within 2 days from the driver!
Listened to my mom and a poorly worded/outdated travel site convincing me I can fly to the Bahamas with a passport card. On the way to the airport I felt a sense of doom and found out they were very wrong.
Mom and dad continued on to the airport and I caught the next Amtrak home. Lesson learned the hard way.
Everyone get your Passport book!!!
Before I knew skiplagging was a thing I had a flight to Budapest with a connection in Frankfurt. Found out some friends were in Nuremburg so I decided get off in Frankfurt and take the train to meet them. Luckily I had planned to check my bag so I asked ticket agent to just tag my bag through Frankfurt. That’s when I got educated on what happens when you intentionally miss a leg on your ticket. My return tickets would’ve been canceled and I would’ve been none the wiser until two weeks later on my way home. I ended up paying $300 in change fees to modify the ticket.
I always hate this stuff . You're already landing there. Just don't check bags. I wonder what they would do if you had a medical issue like food poisoning and couldn't make the flight connection (hint hint) but could catch a bus later to the next city. Also they don't seem nearly as upset when they make you miss connection flights. Like "oopsie I guess you're on your own, hope you have insurance, because were not giving you a refund""
Skiplagging is when you buy a ticket, to some other city, that has a layover in a city you actually want to go. Sometimes those tickets are cheaper than buying the direct flight to your city. Then you just don't get back onto the plane to continue your flight. It used to be a "travel hack" but airlines get all pissy about it now and have started to punish travelers that do that.
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Almost nobody reads the contract of carriage. When you buy airline tickets (or anything else, FTM) you're entering into a contract and agree to the terms. If you breach the contract the rest of it is automatically void.
Skipplagging is how used to fly from usa to Africa in an affordable way.
My best friend sashaying through Jemaa el-Fnaa in kitten heels with her bright red open-mouthed bucket bag dangling casually from her elbow after I warned her about thieves multiple times. She got pick-pocketed and I ended up having to pay for a lot of s**t that trip. She did pay me back but FFS.
We (newly married couple) landed in Vegas and asked a "cool" taxi driver what his favorite spots were cause we thought he was cool and we wanted original spots. He took us to his favorite spot and drove round back to park so he could join us.
He didn't join us. We paid $20 per person for a cover at a nasty strip club that served s**t food and was too far away from the actual Vegas strip that we had to catch another taxi back. Pretty sure he got commission.
I agreed to carry a parcel of 🥩raw meat🥩home to LA from some acquaintances in Dhaka. I had gotten ill in Dhaka so I was in no mental state to question why the f**k they would want me to do that.
It leaked blood inside my luggage which ensured the customs officials wanted nothing to do with it. I still wonder what that was about.
Made two very dumb mistakes when I was younger.
1) Left my 500 dollar camera on a table with my drunk friend (aka not being watched) and when I returned it was gone.
2) upon arriving in Rome I went to get a metro card and met a lady standing next to the car machine. I thought she worked there. Nope. She was just your local neighborhood Roma swindling dumb tourists like me out of a few bucks.
Beyond that I’ve been pretty good about avoiding terribly stupid mistakes.
I sat down and ordered from a restaurant that didn't list prices on their menu. Needless to say they tried to charge me an exorbitant amount of money for mediocre food
Every experience I have had at a restaurant without prices on the menu has always been average at best. The venues were usually visually appealing and some had enjoyable music/entertainment. However, the staff almost always had an air about them as if they were trying to convince me that I was in some sort of incredibly sacred / exclusive / posh environment which appeared to be justification for the exorbitant pricing. And, of course, the food was disappointingly subpar.
Accidentally booked an international flight for July instead of June cause I misread 'Jun' and 'Jul' on Skyscanner
Went on a weeklong hiking trip to the Grand Canyon in college and I forgot to pack a single pair of underwear 😩 I had to end up going to the doctor when I got home I had such a bad rash on my s*****m
Rolled into St Pancras to catch the Eurostar about 20-30 min before our train. Thought it was just like any other train we’ve taken in Europe and just show up right before. Yeeeeaa the Eurostar employees were not happy with us and pushed us through security and passport control quickly and we made it
what? Check in closes 30 mins before the train leaves. If you're too late they wont let you in.
I do a really stupid thing almost every time I travel!
Most notable: leaving all cash and IDs in my safe in the hotel room in Mexico and going into town with only one credit card. Didn’t realize it until I had to try and get a ride back to the hotel and no one had ability to take credit. No banks would give me cash advance obviously. Had to beg a shop keeper to charge my card for cash - he charged me $80 and gave me $30.
My first ever international trip was Thailand.
I went to an ATM and put my bank card in (RBC, a Canadian "big five" bank), the machine wouldn't accept it and kept giving me an error message.
I assumed my bank card wouldn't work, so I put my visa in to try a cash advance since I needed cash. It worked.
I spent the next three weeks doing cash advances on my credit card. On our last stop before heading home my friend and I stopped at a bank machine. She went first and put her RBC bank card in. Confused I told her mine didn't work. She said did I try other machines because she's been using hers all over Thailand without an issue.
I tried my bank card and it worked.
I did cash advances for weeks when I didn't need to
That's another one of my mistakes, similarly. Next time, I'm opening a travellers account, so I can put away money and have it pre-converted to the currency of the country I'm going to. Won't have to guess how much I'm spending CDN vs GBP then.
Learned the hard way that they cancel the return flight if you no-show on an international departure. Unfortunately, I didn’t find this out until I tried to check in 24-hours before the return flight. That was a costly and exhausting mistake.
Not only are Tasmania and New Zealand missing from that map (as always), but so is Japan, all of South East Asia, UK, Ireland...
1) I had a flight to catch at 8 in the morning, on a Sunday, so I set the alarm to 5 am...but I didn't realize the alarm was set for working days. Luckily a friend of mine came to bang on my door and woke me up, or I'd have missed the flight.
2) I booked a hotel room for the right day and the right month, but somehow the wrong year... I found out once there!
I ate a meal with raw vegetables at a gas station on the bus from Kathmandu to Delhi. Big mistake, was ill the remainder of the trip.
dysentery from vegetables washed in dirty water. Having spent over a decade in S.E. Asia, I can promise you that this is unavoidable.
Not paying the train fare in Munich and getting busted by the secret ticket inspectors
Hour layover at CDG
Layovers in CDG needs to be at least 4 hours, that will give you time to go to the wrong terminal once, and if you are lucky the strike you were told was starting in an hour to be postponed, and with a bit of luck your luggage might make it to your next flight. I recommend to try changing flights in AMS or CPH if possible.
I booked flights with kiwi.com
I had never heard of it, so I looked at productreview.com.au and wow, it certainly pays to do your research first. The only reason it has so many one star reviews is that they don't allow zero star reviews
I think there was someone who literally went to the wrong country. Instead if booking Puerto Rico he went to costa rica or aomething like that.
As for my self not a mistake but really sucked getting covid overseas and be isolated in a foreign country and couldn’t get back home.
I'm NOT a travel advisor. This list gave me horrible anxiety 🤣😂🤣
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When I was at university in Nottingham, UK, I went to get a train back home to London. I had the correct ticket but I misread the departures board and accidentally got on the train to Lincoln. Fortunately the train conductor was very understanding and let me get the train back to Nottingham without having to pay for a Lincoln ticket.
Sort of a travel mistake. I got an email from Bands In Town telling me my favorite metal band was playing our local arena, which is a mile from my house. Jumped online and bought two tickets. A few days later, I looked at the tickets and was confused that they said the show was in a town a few hours away. Went back to my bands in town email and it still showed it in my town. Checked the band's website and it is in deed in a town a few hours away. So now two concert tickets turned into a hotel room, gas, and meals.
Drove all night to Vegas for a wedding that was late morning or early afternoon. Got there in time and after the quick wedding decided to take a nap in our motel and go out after dark. Woke up at 7 the next morning and had to drive back because I had to work, and did not make it in time for my shift.
I had a friend who was taking a train trip to visit his wife who was on a jobsite to Vancouver. He was in the Seattle area at the time, there is a Vancouver to the north in BC Canada and one to the south near Portland OR. He got on the train, it took him over an hour to realize they were heading south, not north as he wanted. Yes, he bought his ticket for the southern city, not the northern. Not sure why it took so long, he'd grown up in the area and should have realized after the first couple of stops.
Wasn't a huge deal, but I once booked a cruise for the wrong year. Fortunately I realized it before booking flights, etc. I just ended up booking another cruise for that winter and went on the other cruise the next.
I went on a trip with an ex shortly after starting a relationship. She lied about booking the rental car and the hotel room after assuring me she would handle everything. Of course I learned about this as we land at our destination. Not booking in advance cost around 1500 USD extra and she refused to even split the difference. I had a great week in the Keys and she had a very awkward flight home at the end of the week.
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my travel mistake was taking an unofficial taxi from Domodyedevo airport in Moscow RU. $150 USD. (it was from the far south side of Moscow to north of the Ring 2). My Russian being very poor didn't help. 2nd trip I discovered at Sheremetyevo the Airports have a dedicated train into Moscow stopping at a train station that have a direct connection to the Metro. train and Metro got me to my hotel for $9 USD.
1. My worst mistake was not catastrophic but still a learning experience. At one point when younger I booked the cheapest possible flights to visit my Dad in Thailand. That meant a stop for about 10 hours in Singapore. Not really long enough to leave the airport, especially when the flight arrived at about 10pm. Singapore airport is awesome but it does mostly close down over night. So instead of being able to wander round and look at the cool stuff, get some duty free and a meal then grab a few hours sleep, spent almost the entire 10 hours me kicking myself because everything was shut. Managed to get breakfast at the airport Maccas because it was the only thing open before my flight. Dozed on and off, getting about an hour sleep total because I was worried about missing the connecting flight and the chairs were uncomfortable. Just to rub salt in the wound, as I made my way to the gate I needed found a small lounge that had huge massage recliners that I could have slept on. More...
2. By the time I reached Bangkok and met my Dad I'd been awake for something like 36 hours, minus that one crappy hour of sleep at the airport. Was pretty much wrecked and still needed to travel a couple hours to get back to where he was living. So yeah I learned that you either book direct flights or you make the stopover long enough to actually get out of the airport and stay in a proper hotel for a night (or more).
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Went on an overnight cruise to the Bahamas to then stay for a week and cruise back. Our luggage was collected from our ship, which was then transported to customs. Unbeknownst to us, we were supposed to collect our luggage as we passed through customs. We arrived at the resort, but our luggage was never brought to our room. That when we were informed of the proper procedure. What really messed us up was that we arrived on Easter Sunday. The port had already closed and was closed the next day for Easter Monday. We had to buy clothes,personal items, everything to last 2 days. On top of that, the island was recovering from a devastating hurricane the year before, so there was basically no town, no grocery store, and no shopping except for the local vendors in the market. We actually got some cute outfits, and the people were very kind. Overall, the trip was wonderful. We just laughed and took it in stride.
we once missed the Eurostar because i messed up by taking the wrong train from home, getting out of the wrong trainstation in Brussels, and then taking the wrong corridor in the right station. Arrived 3 minutes after check in closed. They did put us on the next train without extra cost, but had to wait 4 hrs and it was very frustrating knowing that the train was still there and that we could have easily made it -_- edit: stupiest thing was probably losing my passport in a bathroom stall at JFK. I put it on the TP holder and forgot it. It was found by a German woman who went the extra mile to find the right owner. Forever grateful!! (esp as i was on my own) Lession learned!
As a Belgian, i am so sorry you got off in the wrong train station in Brussels
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I've got these all beat. I was going to NYC to visit friend. I had two weeks holidays and I was going in the second week. Because I was on vacation I didn't shave for the whole first week and so when the time came to leave for NY I needed to shave off the beard. Somehow in the middle of shaving, my mind wandered, I cleaned the soap off my face, I guess, and that's how I went to NYC, with half a beard and a full mustache. I'm in no way young enough or handsome enough to get away with that as a trendsetter. It was an early flight and you can't check into the hotel until 4 so I walked all over NYC like that. I didn't find out until I got in my room and the whole wall was mirrors. I was so mortified that I snuck down a back staircase and out the fire door, went to the nearest bodega, bought one Bic razor, and dry-shaved myself in the alley behind the store.
😂 i once ALMOST went to breakfast with gigant pink curler roll still in my bangs, but found out just as i left my room. Was in Vegas though, so probably no one would have blinked an eye.
Load More Replies... Not really me traveling, but earlier this year I was going to pick up my boyfriend from a business trip at London City airport. For the past few days I had been researching and booking us a holiday flying from London Stansted airport. I drove most of the way to Stansted before I realised I was going in completely the wrong direction. London City airport is in London. London Stansted airport is not
Three of us rent a house in Florida every Spring. We make sure it's a nice house, with a pool, not tub, chef's kitchen, lots of bedrooms and bathrooms. Once we book it, we ask different friends to join us. The deal is that we all split the house, the food and beverage bill equally. The house part is paid within a week of them agreeing to go. When we arrive, a few take a list of food, beverage, booze and beer and go shopping. At the end of the trip, we tally up the food and beverage and split it evenly. We usually stay for six nights and the food/beverage bill has never cost each of us more than $100, which is totally reasonable. This has never been a problem. Never. One year, we invite a brother and sister who are good friends of ours. They agree to share a bedroom (two queen beds) and they each only had to pay half for the house than the rest of us because they were sharing a room. They agreed to the food/beverage deal as well. I should add, that neither of these two people make
a lot of money. And they told us they probably wouldn't join us at the bars and the meals we ate in restaurants. Which was fine. The house was beautiful, had a huge tv, full cable, huge pool and hot tub. Outdoor kitchen and we were stocked on food, beer and booze. When it came time to divide up the food bill, each of us owed $75. That was it. One guest was a chef so we ate like kings that week. They threw a fit about the food bill. Didn't help us clean and bitched the whole way to the airport. At the airport I felt like a mom, I sat them both down, told them to grow up and stop throwing tantrums and reminded them of the agreement and showed them the email. I told them if they didn't pay their share of the bill in a week, I'd blow them up on social media. They paid me on the spot, as each of them had a few hundred in cash on them. Oh they also bitched at us every time we went to a bar or restaurant. We aren't friends with them anymore.
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Lots of mistakes. A memorable one was not setting my alarm for a PM flight from Korea to Japan the next day. Jet lag kicked in and I slept for 15 hours straight. Missed the flight.
1.Taking the bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka, I threw away our tickets while on the train, not knowing that you had to use them to exit the station. The train employees assumed we snuck on. We were hassled but eventually released. 2. ordering Turkish coffee in Athens. 3. Ordering rice soup with egg in Bangkok (I think I can speak some Thai, but the tone was wrong on the egg so I ordered testicle in error.)
We do not suffer travel 'mistakes'. Everywhere new is an adventure. Savor it... unless it's too costly. Then moan, groan, and go elsewhere. 8-)
I remember a time when I got stuck in Portland Maine for 13 hours and then had to take a 2 hour cab ride to Boston and then wake up again at 3am to get molested by TSA because of my belt. There was another time when I got my palm read on L*D and Molly came around. Lord, I had to lock myself in my brother's vehicle for a couple of hours to calm down
I'm NOT a travel advisor. This list gave me horrible anxiety 🤣😂🤣
Load More Replies... When I was at university in Nottingham, UK, I went to get a train back home to London. I had the correct ticket but I misread the departures board and accidentally got on the train to Lincoln. Fortunately the train conductor was very understanding and let me get the train back to Nottingham without having to pay for a Lincoln ticket.
Sort of a travel mistake. I got an email from Bands In Town telling me my favorite metal band was playing our local arena, which is a mile from my house. Jumped online and bought two tickets. A few days later, I looked at the tickets and was confused that they said the show was in a town a few hours away. Went back to my bands in town email and it still showed it in my town. Checked the band's website and it is in deed in a town a few hours away. So now two concert tickets turned into a hotel room, gas, and meals.
Drove all night to Vegas for a wedding that was late morning or early afternoon. Got there in time and after the quick wedding decided to take a nap in our motel and go out after dark. Woke up at 7 the next morning and had to drive back because I had to work, and did not make it in time for my shift.
I had a friend who was taking a train trip to visit his wife who was on a jobsite to Vancouver. He was in the Seattle area at the time, there is a Vancouver to the north in BC Canada and one to the south near Portland OR. He got on the train, it took him over an hour to realize they were heading south, not north as he wanted. Yes, he bought his ticket for the southern city, not the northern. Not sure why it took so long, he'd grown up in the area and should have realized after the first couple of stops.
Wasn't a huge deal, but I once booked a cruise for the wrong year. Fortunately I realized it before booking flights, etc. I just ended up booking another cruise for that winter and went on the other cruise the next.
I went on a trip with an ex shortly after starting a relationship. She lied about booking the rental car and the hotel room after assuring me she would handle everything. Of course I learned about this as we land at our destination. Not booking in advance cost around 1500 USD extra and she refused to even split the difference. I had a great week in the Keys and she had a very awkward flight home at the end of the week.
Load More Replies... my travel mistake was taking an unofficial taxi from Domodyedevo airport in Moscow RU. $150 USD. (it was from the far south side of Moscow to north of the Ring 2). My Russian being very poor didn't help. 2nd trip I discovered at Sheremetyevo the Airports have a dedicated train into Moscow stopping at a train station that have a direct connection to the Metro. train and Metro got me to my hotel for $9 USD.
1. My worst mistake was not catastrophic but still a learning experience. At one point when younger I booked the cheapest possible flights to visit my Dad in Thailand. That meant a stop for about 10 hours in Singapore. Not really long enough to leave the airport, especially when the flight arrived at about 10pm. Singapore airport is awesome but it does mostly close down over night. So instead of being able to wander round and look at the cool stuff, get some duty free and a meal then grab a few hours sleep, spent almost the entire 10 hours me kicking myself because everything was shut. Managed to get breakfast at the airport Maccas because it was the only thing open before my flight. Dozed on and off, getting about an hour sleep total because I was worried about missing the connecting flight and the chairs were uncomfortable. Just to rub salt in the wound, as I made my way to the gate I needed found a small lounge that had huge massage recliners that I could have slept on. More...
2. By the time I reached Bangkok and met my Dad I'd been awake for something like 36 hours, minus that one crappy hour of sleep at the airport. Was pretty much wrecked and still needed to travel a couple hours to get back to where he was living. So yeah I learned that you either book direct flights or you make the stopover long enough to actually get out of the airport and stay in a proper hotel for a night (or more).
Load More Replies... Went on an overnight cruise to the Bahamas to then stay for a week and cruise back. Our luggage was collected from our ship, which was then transported to customs. Unbeknownst to us, we were supposed to collect our luggage as we passed through customs. We arrived at the resort, but our luggage was never brought to our room. That when we were informed of the proper procedure. What really messed us up was that we arrived on Easter Sunday. The port had already closed and was closed the next day for Easter Monday. We had to buy clothes,personal items, everything to last 2 days. On top of that, the island was recovering from a devastating hurricane the year before, so there was basically no town, no grocery store, and no shopping except for the local vendors in the market. We actually got some cute outfits, and the people were very kind. Overall, the trip was wonderful. We just laughed and took it in stride.
we once missed the Eurostar because i messed up by taking the wrong train from home, getting out of the wrong trainstation in Brussels, and then taking the wrong corridor in the right station. Arrived 3 minutes after check in closed. They did put us on the next train without extra cost, but had to wait 4 hrs and it was very frustrating knowing that the train was still there and that we could have easily made it -_- edit: stupiest thing was probably losing my passport in a bathroom stall at JFK. I put it on the TP holder and forgot it. It was found by a German woman who went the extra mile to find the right owner. Forever grateful!! (esp as i was on my own) Lession learned!
As a Belgian, i am so sorry you got off in the wrong train station in Brussels
Load More Replies... I've got these all beat. I was going to NYC to visit friend. I had two weeks holidays and I was going in the second week. Because I was on vacation I didn't shave for the whole first week and so when the time came to leave for NY I needed to shave off the beard. Somehow in the middle of shaving, my mind wandered, I cleaned the soap off my face, I guess, and that's how I went to NYC, with half a beard and a full mustache. I'm in no way young enough or handsome enough to get away with that as a trendsetter. It was an early flight and you can't check into the hotel until 4 so I walked all over NYC like that. I didn't find out until I got in my room and the whole wall was mirrors. I was so mortified that I snuck down a back staircase and out the fire door, went to the nearest bodega, bought one Bic razor, and dry-shaved myself in the alley behind the store.
😂 i once ALMOST went to breakfast with gigant pink curler roll still in my bangs, but found out just as i left my room. Was in Vegas though, so probably no one would have blinked an eye.
Load More Replies... Not really me traveling, but earlier this year I was going to pick up my boyfriend from a business trip at London City airport. For the past few days I had been researching and booking us a holiday flying from London Stansted airport. I drove most of the way to Stansted before I realised I was going in completely the wrong direction. London City airport is in London. London Stansted airport is not
Three of us rent a house in Florida every Spring. We make sure it's a nice house, with a pool, not tub, chef's kitchen, lots of bedrooms and bathrooms. Once we book it, we ask different friends to join us. The deal is that we all split the house, the food and beverage bill equally. The house part is paid within a week of them agreeing to go. When we arrive, a few take a list of food, beverage, booze and beer and go shopping. At the end of the trip, we tally up the food and beverage and split it evenly. We usually stay for six nights and the food/beverage bill has never cost each of us more than $100, which is totally reasonable. This has never been a problem. Never. One year, we invite a brother and sister who are good friends of ours. They agree to share a bedroom (two queen beds) and they each only had to pay half for the house than the rest of us because they were sharing a room. They agreed to the food/beverage deal as well. I should add, that neither of these two people make
a lot of money. And they told us they probably wouldn't join us at the bars and the meals we ate in restaurants. Which was fine. The house was beautiful, had a huge tv, full cable, huge pool and hot tub. Outdoor kitchen and we were stocked on food, beer and booze. When it came time to divide up the food bill, each of us owed $75. That was it. One guest was a chef so we ate like kings that week. They threw a fit about the food bill. Didn't help us clean and bitched the whole way to the airport. At the airport I felt like a mom, I sat them both down, told them to grow up and stop throwing tantrums and reminded them of the agreement and showed them the email. I told them if they didn't pay their share of the bill in a week, I'd blow them up on social media. They paid me on the spot, as each of them had a few hundred in cash on them. Oh they also bitched at us every time we went to a bar or restaurant. We aren't friends with them anymore.
Load More Replies... Lots of mistakes. A memorable one was not setting my alarm for a PM flight from Korea to Japan the next day. Jet lag kicked in and I slept for 15 hours straight. Missed the flight.
1.Taking the bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka, I threw away our tickets while on the train, not knowing that you had to use them to exit the station. The train employees assumed we snuck on. We were hassled but eventually released. 2. ordering Turkish coffee in Athens. 3. Ordering rice soup with egg in Bangkok (I think I can speak some Thai, but the tone was wrong on the egg so I ordered testicle in error.)
We do not suffer travel 'mistakes'. Everywhere new is an adventure. Savor it... unless it's too costly. Then moan, groan, and go elsewhere. 8-)
I remember a time when I got stuck in Portland Maine for 13 hours and then had to take a 2 hour cab ride to Boston and then wake up again at 3am to get molested by TSA because of my belt. There was another time when I got my palm read on L*D and Molly came around. Lord, I had to lock myself in my brother's vehicle for a couple of hours to calm down
