50 Of The Worst Things People Experienced Whilst On Holiday

Seems like every time I go on a long vacation something tragic happens back home. The worst was when I was on an extensive road trip in the Rockies and got a call from my sister that our Mom was put in Hospice. I immediately left my wife on her own with the rental car (which I was loath to do) and flew home. Fortunately I made it just in time to thank her and tell her how much I loved her and appreciated how important she was in my life. She smiled, closed her eyes, and never opened them again. I think she was waiting to say goodbye. Fortunately my wife was fine and enjoyed what was the last two days of our vacation.

My mom died half way thru my last vacation.

Me and five friends were on a package holiday to Greece. Three girls, three guys. One of these guys (let’s call him Fred) had a crush on one of the girls, and one of the days there he admitted his feelings for her, she didn’t feel the same way. Okay, so suppose that should be it, buck up and enjoy your vacation.

One night we were all at the bar of the resort, drinks were flowing. And Fred decides to head to the room us guys we’re sharing, okay no worries man. About an hour had past and I suppose he’s having an early night, our other guy friend (Dean) decided to head to the room briefly to check up on him.

A few minutes later Dean comes rushing back, traumatised. What the hell’s happened?! He goes on to explain that there’s glass smashed everywhere in the room from an empty liquor bottle left in there, and Fred had smashed the bottle, proceeded to cut his own face open to give himself a joker smile!

Dean said to us that when he saw what had happened to Fred, he went to leave the room and call for help. In which Fred tries stopping him, with the broken bottle still in hand. Not knowing what Fred would do to him, especially in his state. Luckily through he was able to get out the room after a little rustle, Dean was able to get back to us. But now Fred has locked himself in the En-suite.

We call our Rep, the ambulance, and police. And we attempt to try and reason with him, to let us in and help him. We didn’t want him to hurt himself any more than he has, or others. All of us are drunk, in an emotional mess as to what was happening. Eventually the police turn up, we could see their batons and guns holstered. We really didn’t want this to turn nasty, finally he opens up the door and comes out peacefully after an hour of talking.

This was getting late, like 1am. It’s mostly a family resort too. So of course many people started to see what was going on with multiple sirens flashing outside. We’re all still pretty drunk, crying, confused.

The ambulance takes him to the hospital, our rep helped us out so much throughout this ordeal. Explaining he would be released the following day, and costs being covered by our travel insurance.
We still had two full days of our holiday, and were the most awkward days I’ve ever felt. Hard to ignore the ridiculous scars now left on his face, luckily it wasn’t as deep as we thought. The blood made it look way worse than it was, we eventually all fly home and I never speak to Fred again. All because of what? A mentally unhinged man who couldn’t take rejection?

I broke my nose and got a concussion while zip-lining in Costa Rica.

I sprained both ankles on day 1 of a 14 day hiking trip to Guatemala.

I got swimmers ear, pink eye, and the flu all at the same time in Panama. My eyes swelled shut. I thought I'd need to be medevaced back, but my tour guide took me to a pharmacy every day to get meds. Was feeling fine a week later...when the tour ended.

On my most recent trip (November) I broke every bone in my wrist on day 2 of my Jordan trip, and had to fly home early to get emergency surgery and spend months in rehab/PT.

(I use to have a travel blog of all the ways I've f****d up and injured myself while traveling.)

I was vacationing in Egypt when the Arab spring broke out. Was staying in a hotel at Tahrir square. Got stuck there for a while and the things I saw. I have had a lot of therapy after and still have ptsd I’m actually amazed I’m writing this comment as it’s something I never ever talk about.

Not my story, but the worst of anyone I know.

A former teacher I knew was in Thailand in 2004 during the tsunami. They were out at sea when it hit, scuba diving or site-seeing or the like. They noticed a bit of a bump while on the ship, and that was it. But when they got back to shore, it was complete devastation.

I went on a year long program to Israel in my 20s. My 1st night there, my backpack was stolen. It had my passport, paper return plane ticket (it was 1999), all contact info of people I knew in the country (also pre cell phone for me), $800 in cash, and a bunch of other sentimental c**p I’d brought.

I reported it, knowing that I was probably f****d because the Jerusalem police aren’t going to do anything about an American’s stolen backpack. But I got damn lucky. They found my backpack dumped on the steps of the chief rabbinate (official religious building). Normally in Israel, if there’s a bag left like that, they bring in the bomb squad and blow it up. But for some reason that didn’t happen, and since I’d filed the report, they returned it to me. Everything was in it except for the cash. Including my Sony Walkman with the favorite mix tapes I had made.

ended up temporarily paralyzed in Santiago, Chile. Had to fly home and learn to walk again.

My mans had a stroke and he did not exhibit the symptoms we are all trained to know. I attributed his off behavior due to physical exertion, unusual amount of booze on our trip and 18 hours of hell in an airport so we didn’t get him to a hospital until almost a full day after we got home. For those lucky enough not to know there is a “golden hour” from onset of stroke to in which if you get medical treatment your odds of recovery increase dramatically. We missed it. Talk about feeling like a friggan idiot. If you ever suspect a loved one is off please drop everything and go to the ER.

I woke up with mildly crusty eyes, a telltale sign of pink eye. I thought to myself, “I only have a couple days left in Spain, I can probably wait it out until I’m stateside.” Boy was that stupid. Over the next couple days and the flight back, it got sooo much worse. Both eyes were puffy, red, and crusty. The infection had spread into my upper cheek, so they were starting to puff up too. At its worst I could barely open my eyes because it looked like I had been attacked by a swarm of bees. I looked absolutely horrible and felt just as bad.

Once I got back home I went straight to an emergency clinic at 1am to get some meds to start treating it. It’s kinda remarkable how quickly I started to feel better. This all being said, still had an awesome trip, but I do not recommend a transatlantic flight with severe pink eye.

Two years ago in Hawaii, I did not properly hydrate when hiking up Diamond Head. On the way down I tripped and fell down in the worst pain of my life. I had a muscle spasm/cramp? on the back of my leg. I could not get up nor could I walk. I was very lucky a nurse was walking down the same time as me and help me stretch and get to a bench to get rehydrated. Spent the rest of the trip basically limping when I was not in the water. I used to not really believe that the pain was that bed when football players, for example, would fall to the turf and grab the back of their leg. It’s un godly. Lesson learned on hydration.

On vacation in Hawaii in January 2018 when we were awoken by our phones blasting a warning that there was an incoming missile and it was not a drill. Spent a few hours trying to figure out if it was true but there was little to no information that was credible on twitter and other sites. The hotel had an intercom system where they were giving us instructions to stay inside the bathroom while we were frantically making phone calls to loved ones.

Was very real and very scary for what felt like forever. After it was confirmed that it was all a mistake, I crashed super hard and took the deepest nap on the beach from all the adrenaline wearing off.

Hmm I’m notorious for hurting myself on vacay:
- allergic reactions
- jelly fish stings
- infection from a new tattoo
- broken tooth
- abscess from recently pulled wisdom tooth
- lost my wallet day one with $500 usd in it.
- narcd during my first deep dive
….😬

Luckily this past trip I just ate s**t because I slipped on slippery tile after it poured. Some bruises and a little blood. Least painful one yet.

Always buy travel insurance.

London. 1999. I started having UTI symptoms, as always happens when I travel, and I took Azo (the little red pills for urinary pain relief). I threw up about 30 minutes later and it stained my teeth orange. Bright Orange. Oh the humanity.

A stupid accident on the M-4 to LHR made me miss my flight, my boss threatened to fire me if I didn't make it to work at 8 a.m. on Monday.

I had to get very creative with the routing, bought a new ticket with a connection in EWR to LAX, then the flight came in late, making me miss my connection. Flying out the next day was absolutely out of the question.

Managed to find a late flight to Vegas that left at 9 p.m. and arrived in Vegas around midnight. The only car they had was an overpriced and tiny Geo Metro convertible. $129 a day. A compact would have been $25 a day, luxury for maybe $60, but Geo Metro? C'mon.

Left Vegas at around 2 in the morning, made it to work at 8:00 a.m. wearing the same clothes from London.

Didn't get fired.

my dad suffered a heart attack and died while were in europe on holidays. it was the worst experience of my life. dare i say traumatic.

I was attacked by a madman on a bus outside of Athens. Fortunately, he then removed his clothes and ran off into traffic. Also fortunately, he was not hurt and neither was I.

My mom had a vertigo episode on day 1 of our big trip. It was just the two of us and I was the one in charge of planning/navigating. She literally collapsed in my arms on the street and I had to pull her onto a chair. I just kept tipping an uber driver while running into different doctor's offices. I didn't speak enough of the language to really communicate. Eventually the front desk at our hotel helped us get her to the right kind of doctor. Shout out to the EU healthcare system.

Lame vacation but alright none the less

Driving a 4 wheeler all messed up had to go off road. Bump knocked my gf off then the 4 wheeler flipped on top of me and pinned me under in a
foot of water.

would of drowned if it wan't for my gf.
i stayed very calm and waited after a min i heard her screaming trying to flip the machine off me. She couldn't budge it.

Finally i heard her count to three and i was able use one leg to help.

Saved my crazy life.

I could barely walk on that leg for the next couple days due to what i assumed was a last ditch effort of strength

I was about 13-14 at Disney world with my family, followed by a Disney cruise. A couple days in, I started getting a side ache. My parents assumed it was just from the rides, but it kept getting worse so we went to urgent care. Ended up getting an appendectomy. Oh, and our cruise wasn’t about to happen anyway, people were evacuating for hurricane Frances. We were able to get a flight out with medical priority, so I was on a 5 hour flight the next morning after surgery. Last part is, I had gotten up to pee early that morning and fainted. Broke my tailbone as well. We ended up with a big screen tv with the cruise refund. Got on the news too.