I’ve done a fair amount of traveling in my life, and while I’ve had a few strange experiences, I’ve never really felt like my life was in danger or that I was in a situation I couldn’t get out of.
But some folks have run-ins with all kinds of people, places, and things that can be…disturbing. And it can result in some very unique experiences.
Here are some very interesting travel stories from AskReddit users.
1. In Munich.
“I was in Munich and planning to meet up with friends in Prague the following day. I bought my express ticket to Prague, looked at the sign on the train, and even checked with the conductor that this was in fact the express train to Prague.
After about 2 hours the train stops. No one gets off so I figure it’s just a repair or something. Several more hours pass, we pull into a city, and everyone gets off. After waiting for a bit and thinking it doesn’t look like Prague, and I ask someone.
Apparently when the train stopped several hours ago my train was separated into two trains, one heading to Prague and the other to Hof, Germany. End of the line. There were no more trains that night so I was stuck in Hof.
Annoying, but not the end of world. Getting to Prague the next day required a series of connections. Having learned from my previous day’s experience, I opted not to follow the crowds and instead just looked at the signs at each stop.
I was to get off in some small Czech city. I saw that name on the sign, followed by a series of letters and said “f*ck it, gotta follow the signs”. I got off. No one else did. From the look of things I was in some farmer’s field but I figured a small train station must be on the other side of the train. The train left the station and nope – more fields.
Now I’m starting to panic. I have one hour to make my connection that seemingly must be on the other side of the city. Maybe it was a nice city, but as far as I could tell everyone was shirtless and tattooed. Moreover, no one spoke English or German.
To communicate in order to get directions, I start running up to people going “choo choo!’ and making a train motion with my arms. After about 45 minutes of slowly edging closer, I finally see a sign for the station.
Make my connection, meet my friends, get drunk. Also happened to share a room with a bunch of Australians who referred to the lone older guy in our room as “Hitler’s uncle”. I assume Hitler was the only character from olden times they recognized, yet they knew this guy wasn’t him. Thus, it must be his uncle.
Pretty hilarious night when one bro failed to pick up, called his gf, then tried to join his buddy in a threesome with a French girl. “Oi, Frenchie, you’ve been to Paris, right? A spit-roast perhaps? Hitler’s Uncle won’t mind.”
2. Wrong turn.
“Morocco: climbed Mount Toubkal, second highest mountain in Africa.
We were too stingy to pay a guide, took a wrong turn. Boulders gradually became sparse, ground was so un-solid we started slipping down the mountain.
There’s no mountain rescue around there and this was too high up even for donkeys. Hearing our screams an actual climber heard and came to the rescue. He vanished to help the others before I had the chance to thank him but to this day I’m convinced he was a guardian angel.
Bawled like a baby when I was safe, the only time I’ve ever genuinely thought I would die.”
3. Not a fan.
“Paris.
I gagged when I first got within 100ft of the river. Heavily armed army people everywhere. I caught precisely 3 pick pockets have their go at me. Loads of scammers everywhere. Obscenely stupid prices (as in 4.50 euros for a 20oz bottle of coke).
And lastly, I’ll share my experience at an eatery. I intentionally spent the better part of an hour walking away from everything, with the intention of getting more into the “real” Paris and not just the touristy areas.
Went into a nice looking restaurant for lunch. 20 minutes after being sat down, someone came for my order. 45 minutes after placing my order, I got something that I’m 100% sure was made from a packet in a microwave dropped on my table.
Seriously dropped, about a quarter of it spilled, and then the waiter gave me a sneer like I did it.
30 minutes after I finished, the check still hadn’t come so I stood up and left without paying.”
4. Sounds like a hoot.
“Was once almost beaten to sh*t by a gang of locals at a dance club in Central America, as they wanted to “F*ck all my women.”
Apparently I responded incorrectly. In the same area, I also somehow found myself on an abandoned rooftop with no lights, accompanied by a man who called himself cobra, having just met him that night, after he told me that he used to kill people from the bushes, like Scream, with the strength of Achilles.
He then pulled out a knife and told me he knew where I was sleeping that night. Funny thing is, he actually did.
Belize can be a weird place. “
5. Wow.
“Got off a cruise ship with my mom, sister, and Grandmaw.
People outside the port always try to get you into their cabs. Creepy old white guy grabs my grandmaws hand “come for ride in my cab.” He says. My Grandmaw says no.
Without missing a beat he says “I promise I will not taking to my house and r*pe you. Promise.” Nope.”
6. Sketchy.
“In Argentina at a bus station my friend and I noticed some white stuff had magically appeared on our luggage. A man offered his napkin, but we shouted no and ran off to the bathroom.
It’s a tactic some people do there to rob you. They spray your bag with shaving cream, to make you think a bird crapped on it, then another person offers you a napkin while the first person steals your stuff while you’re not paying attention.
It was kind of scary to think we were almost robbed.”
7. Locked in.
“Got locked in a French insane asylum.
I was studying abroad, with two girls who I thought were good friends of mine. We had made plans to do spring break together. However, they told me two days before that they wanted to make it a girls trip.
I said fine, and made plans to go to Scandinavia on the spot, booking some pretty nice hotels for myself, at a discounted rate because I was prepaying. They thought that because I was traveling by myself, that it was evidence that I was going to kill myself, and told our university.
The university made me see a French psychologist (who did not speak English), and because I could not convey to him that there was a misunderstanding, he called for orderlies to take me to an insane asylum, where I spent three days until I got phone access (no one there spoke English either, and they would not call in a translator.)
And then a day and a half more until my father could fly over to France to get me out.”
8. Insult to injury.
“Went to Mammoth Cave for our honeymoon. I cut my finger badly on a can and passed out.
When I fainted, I fell. When I fell, I slid. On gravel. On a mountain. With my face. I slid about ten feet. This happened about three hours after we got there.
I took out the right side of my face and shoulder. It was over 100 degrees outside and I had to slather Neosporin all over my face. It melted immediately and I had a layer of grease over my face.”
9. Russia.
“I went with a group of church kids to Russia when I was 13 and had my passport stolen on our last day there.
I had to stay with random American missionaries for what they initially told me would be two months until I could get a new visa, but ended up being 2 weeks.
I think I lost something like 10-15 pounds over that time. No offense to Russians, but not really the place you want to be stuck for an indefinite amount of time.”
10. Sweat lodge.
“I went to Peru with a group from my University, and for the last few days we were in the rain-forest.
I got a fever of 102, and the lodge we were staying at didn’t have any medicine. I ended up sweating the fever out using 6 or 7 alpaca blankets.”
11. Stuck in Rome.
“On a wonderful 2 month long backpacking Euro trip but one day went into Rome for the day to find out we missed the last train home.
Having no money for a hotel, we spent the night in the main train station waiting for first train out with a homeless roma family (gypsy), racist, homophobic eastern euro guy and grossly watched security drive around in a golf cart trying to convince young women with no where to go to go f*ck them to let them spend the night in the station.
It was sad.
Anywhere around the St. Peters overnight is filled with literally crazy homeless religious fanatics.”
12. Almost kidnapped.
“I was almost kidnapped by a Tuktuk (tourist taxi) driver in Bangkok.
He asked me when I got in if it was ok if we made a stop on the way to my destination and I told him no problem, especially since he told me I’d get a discount on my fare.
But after the stop, he was driving in the wrong direction. I had been in Bangkok for a week and was getting a bit familiar with certain areas if the city. I realized I didn’t know where I was anymore and made him stop and I got out.
It took me several hours to find my way back to an area I knew.”
13. Lay off the booze.
“I was traveling in Bruges, Belgium once and had decided to try to drink as many different beers as I could. When night time came around I was hammered and met with a couple of cute girls and a guy from my hostel who all wanted to go out to a nightclub for drinks and dancing and of course I was all for it.
At this point I was already drunk and don’t remember going out that night. I remember bits and pieces thanks to photos like these. We went out for food and pre-club drinks and because of my earlier drinking (which included a Belgium beer festival) I was already smashed.
We finally ended up at a local club that I later found out had a reputation for getting tourists into trouble. I don’t remember the club so I am going to skip to the point where I do remember, waking up.
The next day I woke up with a hangover to end my humanity. I sat up in bed looking around and noticed I had 3 room keys and nothing else. There was 3 things I ALWAYS carried on me: my wallet, my phone and my camera.
Also, for some stupid reason I usually keep a “backup” credit card in my backpack at the hostel but I just happened to have it in my wallet this day because I had to use it. I was missing all of these. I searched around my bed, looked under everything and couldn’t find anything. I started to worry and mixed with my hangover I started to puke.
I walked down the stairs into the street in front of my hostel and there was my phone on the ground smashed into a thousand pieces. I don’t even know why. I searched for the small data chip to try to at least save my pictures from the phone but it was lost.
I go into the front office of the hostel where upon entering the girl behind the desk starts laughing at me. I ask her why she is laughing at me and she starts explaining to me how last night I was beyond smashed and that I kept coming to the front desk for a replacement key to my room.
Apparently I kept coming back to her because I thought I had lost my key, 3 times(3 room keys), and she thought it was funny so she kept giving me a new one. I didn’t explain to her my situation and decided to go sit out on the curb for a bit. I had lost all my money, credit cards, camera and now my phone was broke.
You ever get that deep gut feeling of just being totally f*cked? Stranded in a country with no money, no nothing, at this point I started thinking of how I was going to call my mom or dad and explain to them my trip was over and I needed emergency funds to get home. The whole thought of everything made me puke even more.
Sitting outside on the curb the girls and guy who I went out with walk up to me. Finally I thought I might get some answers as to what happened last night and this is what they told me. Apparently, at the club being as drunk as I was I started dancing with some local girls and drinking more.
At another point I had told my friends that I was leaving the club with some random girl I met. They didn’t approve of me leaving and tried to get me to stay but they didn’t know I was blackout drunk because I can put on a decent drunk/poker face, so I ended up leaving with this random girl.
Sitting on the curb listening to all this the girls are laughing at me. I told them about my situation about losing all my stuff, how worried I was and ultimately how screwed I was. That’s when one of my friends takes from her purse my wallet and camera and hands it back!
She told me before I left the club last night that I told her something bad was going to happen to me and I needed her to hold my things! I had given her my wallet and camera! Drunk me at least did something right, stupid, but at least it worked. I was so relieved I started puking.
More witnesses I found out also saw me in front of the hostel that night arguing with whom I suppose was the girl I left with from the club. Apparently the girl had smashed my phone because I didn’t have any money to pay for the taxi or any money in general (I think now she was trying to rob me?). But I was drunk enough at this point to irresponsibly hand off my stuff to my friends before which saved me.
So yea, got my stuff back. Lost a phone at the end of it all. So that’s one of my traveling getting “too drunk in Europe” stories.”
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