toedtoes

My first trip to Ottawa, I was driving along the Rideau Canal (on a street with no stopping allowed) when I saw a beaver. I was so excited to see my first beaver. I drove back and forth along the street trying to capture a photo of the beaver through the driver's window.

That night, I met a nice couple and told them how I saw my first beaver. She asked where. I told her. She asked if I saw the tail. I said no it was in the grass. She said "I don't know how to tell you this, but you saw a groundhog."



(You did say "most stupid" not "most expensive"...)

Melnq8

Believe me, I've made more than my share of travel mistakes.

Arrived in NZ for a three week self-drive holiday only to discover I'd left my driver's license at home in Indonesia.

Arrived in Switzerland in the middle of the night after a 10 hour train journey only to discover the hotel I'd booked had closed for the night.

Hopped on a bus in Honolulu convinced I knew where I was going. Ended up at a deserted strip of businesses in the dead of night on the other side of the island, where the driver told me 'this is as far as I go' and laughed himself silly when I told him where I was headed.

Best laid plans...

Carrabella

I had asked for a window seat on a flight from Saigon to Paris, and was issued with boarding pass 9C.

Realising "C"could not be a window seat, I took it back and had it changed. Too late, I realised I had previously been upgraded to business class, on a long, long flight, and had now successfully downgraded myself. The check-in lady had said not a word, either time, but it was my mistake for not realising. Too stupid for words!

brando

I have stated this many times not seeing David in Florence. I have become a fan of art especially Michelangleo and Caravaggio(sp).

Come to think of it, I should have more of Caragaggio's work in Rome. Damn it.

Rhea58

As we were touring in Cyprus late on a Sunday evening, realized that the 1:00 a.m. flight was for Monday & too late to pack bags & get to airport.

Upshot: Had to stay until Thursday to get next flight out. Charged $100 ticket change for my airfare but husband's was free (had bought his @ an charity function) but the honeymoon suite we had so loved (again bought @ auction) was gone so had to settle for broom closet-type room.

Upshot: Extra vacation days altho friends who were waiting to pick us up @ airport now refer to my travel expertise as call 1-800-Oh-S**T!!!
Haven't lived that one down yet.

emd

These stories are so good I am almost glad I made the mistake just so I could hear them (not). But they are funny and I definitely do not feel quite so stupid and alone now.

I think if I had gotten upgraded to business on an international flight (how often does that happen) and screwed that one up by changing to a window seat, I might be more bummed than I was about my $950 mistake!

travelenthusiast

I forgot my purse in a cab in Cancun. We had the hotel call the cab company and we made a report but no one ever turned it in. It had our digital camera in it and my wallet. Now I always but my purse over one shoulder and across my body when we go out at night on vacation.

MsE

My stupid was when I was flying to FL to visit friends. I drove the 40 minutes to the parking lot where I'd leave my car and shuttle to the airport. As I pulled in, I realized that I had left my suitcase home in the garage.
Luckily, because I'm always very early, I was able to speed home and get the suitcase and return to the parking lot, and still make my flight.
But it was still a stupid thing!
~~~~~~~~
Now my sister was flying to FL one time to visit her friend. She fell asleep shortly after boarding, and when she awoke, deplaned and headed to baggage claim. That's when she realized that she had gotten off at the wrong airport, should have stayed onboard, as the plane was just stopping in Atlanta, and had already taken off again for FL.
Now this sister always has lost luggage, but this time, her luggage made it to FL, where her friend saw it, but no sister!
She also had some good luck though, because when she was explaining her problem at the desk, some nice people told her they were flying to Miami and she could come with them in their private plane! So she did arrive shortly after her baggage.
`````
And the one that did not involve flying, was a friend who made hotel rez for herself and her whole family at a nice little town where there is a lake and all kinds of nice attractions. She got directions from the rez agent, and when the time came, they got in their cars and followed those directions right to the hotel.
Problem was, the lake resort area was not there, no lake, no fun attractions, not much at all besides this little hotel----the correct place was over 100 miles away in another town with a similar name! Where, of course, they had no reservations.

LoveItaly

Hello emd, I am glad you got things straightened out but I would have been upset also.

We had a strange but beautiful experience one time. We had had a very stressful week at our business. Around noon my husband said to me he wanted us to leave the office at 4:00pm, dash home, pack and go to SF for the weekend. Sounded good to me! So we did. As we got close to the Oakland/SF Bay Bridge toll bridge he reached for his money to pay the toll and said "oh sh*t". He only had five dollars on him. He asked how much cash I had with me. I had ten dollars. This was pre ATM days.

The hotel we had made reservations with were paid with a credit card of course. We told the hotel we had arrived without any cash and since we had stayed there often they told us they would cash a check for us. Great! Except neither of us had a check book with us. Panic!

Long story short, the hotel mananger loaned us cash and we sent him a check as repayment on the following Monday. A true act of kindness and trust.

jlaughs

emd, I clicked on this topic because I thought it had a pretty catchy title. Didn't even look to see who the op was, but just started reading responses. Imagine my surprise when someone referred to you by name! I had to go back up to the top to check! Knowing how detail oriented and prepared you are from your Japan trips, I can just imagine how much this must have upset you. I'm glad to hear that you've got your mistake worked out now and that you're feeling better about it.

Funny thing -- I'm thinking of going to Ecuador this summer and doing 4 days/3 nights at an Amazon lodge too.

Hope you have a great time!!

misterfuss

My partner actually packed cash and traveler's checks in his checked bag on a flight from Tunis, Tunisia to Rome, Italy about 10 years ago. Surprise, surprise, it was missing when we arrived in Rome. Well, we went to the police station at Termini rail station in Rome to fill out a police report describing the theft so that he could at least get the value of the travelers' checks refunded.

The bureaucracy was fascinating and amusing at the same time. The police officer photocopied three copies of the blank form that needed to be completed. He then inserted carbon paper between the pages and paperclipped them together. He instructed us to fill out the front page and to stop when we reached the bottom. He then unclipped the pages and changed the direction of the carbons and re-clipped the pages together. We then filled out the reverse. He then had to cross out references to train and replace them with plane. We signed each of the forms (triplicate) and he then stamped them and then signed them.

I couldn't understand why we couldn't just fill out one form (without signing) and then have it photocopied prior to signing it but I knew better than to question the officer.

The officer gave us one of the forms so we could present them to the issuer of the travelers' checks to get a refund.

We got to watch the officer flip out when another couple continued to fill out the reverse side of the form prior to him changing the carbon paper. The whole situation was quite surreal since they had photocopy machines, but still used the carbon paper.

jerseysusan

What a newb I use to be. The first time I went to Europe , after about 20 years, I booked a Globus trip to Italy. My parents and kids went with us. We were waiting for our Air Italia flight to leave for Italy. The flight was very delayed because there was a problem with our plane. We just kept waiting. Of course it didn't occur to us that our fellow passengers were changing their tickets for flights on other carriers. By the time out flight was actually cancelled we couldn't get on another flight. I was totally shocked at the time that this could happen. Of course Air Italia was not concerned that we would miss the beginning of our tour.
By the time we got to Italy we had to race to meet our group at the Colliseum, having missed the mornings activities. Went to make a purchase. Did I have my credit cards? No of course not.
As I was heart broken that I missed sights in Rome, we arranged to go back ahead of our group on the last day. I believe we needed to get 900 euros in cash to pay for our transport and the guide. This meant that we had to always worry about getting euros from ATMs using our bank cards. Naturally one of my parents' cards couldn't be used because it had a six digit password.

What a lot of stress! We had a great time but of course I was never this naive again. And have I been back to Rome again? Yes. I saw the same things a lot cheaper the second time - and loved it both times.

giuseppev

Arriving in Sicily in April with sandals and other summer clothes. Lesson learned - be realistic, not hopeful and dreamy, about what the weather will be like where you are going.

Colinwh

Even seasoned travellers like myself get caught out.
Missed my KLM flight from Cape Town to UK since the flight was 20 minutes after midnight, so I misread the date on the ticket and turned up one day late.
Flights to Europe fully booked for 3 weeks so I was lucky to manage to get on a local carrier to London Gatwick the next day at an extra $800 one way.
Later learnt that KLM have up to 12 non-appearances on these flights due to people also misreading the ticket.
The South African carrier was superb, but two months later it went bust.

Sherri1

I would be inclined to GO to the nearest airport, seek out the highest ranking person I could find
and plead my case face to face.
Worth a try... Even now. If circumstances are right, I'm sure
they could refund $$. Not likely,
but without trying you will never know.
Sherri

Sarvowinner

On our honeymoon, my husband and I were visiting Australia from Toronto. It was my first visit back since my family emigrated to Canada when I was 13. It was DH's first visit back since he came to Canada 4 years beforehand. My 80 year old Nana was also flying back with us. We arrived at the airport 31/2 hours early (and checked in) as lots of friends & relatives came out to say good bye (those were the days

We finally said good bye to everyone and headed out through security to our gate - which was deserted. Our AA flight had left 30 minutes beforehand. DH had misread the itinerary. We went flying back to the AA desk and found out it was the last flight that could connect with Qantas in SFO. I was sick. My husband was on a complimentary ticket. Our holiday looked like it was in ruins.

The agent called across the United desk and they put us on their flight. I don't think it would ever happen today.

emd

It looks like our stupid mistakes got made into a feature on the forum.

http://www.fodors.com/news/story_3214.html

LSky

Oh this is a great thread.

I can only think of my most recent ones but I'm sure there have been others.

Picked up our rental car early morning in Berlin. I was anxious to get on the road in the crisp morning air etc. Problem was, we had to return it really early too. Not so much fun as I forgot to book a hotel the night before and it was a Friday night!

Ended up finally finding a hotel room in Potsdam and had to pay more than I wanted.

I had imagined that we would be spending the night in a little town along a river at a small gast haus.
The reality of our early morning return hour creeped in and I knew there was no way we'd get into downtown Berlin at 8:30 am.

litefoot

BDL to BWI, on line purchase, flown it many, many times to visit family. One time I went to look for the departure gate on the monitor and it wasn't there, nor was the time the plane was supposed to depart. Beginning to get mad at the airline for changing their flight w/o telling me I went to the desk and the airline rep pointed out to me I had reversed the flights and that there was a BWI to BDL with the right! flight number leaving at the right! time. Embarrassed, you bet. The flight rep reissued the ticket for the right round trip direction and I had to pay the fare difference. Taught me a lesson, always, always check and recheck your flight plans before clicking the Purchase button. I have caught myself a couple of times making the same error.

LSky

That check and recheck is a great idea. Especially when it's one of those middle of the night-hurry-up-and-buy deals.

I make my husband take a look before I hit the button.