While reading the posts on the "dumbest vacation mistakes" thread, I got to thinking about some of the "hair-raising" experiences I've had on trips, and wondered what other scary/freaky/"I-my-God" experiences other Fodorites have had on trips. Here are 5 of mine. The first is definitely the worst:

1. Temporarily "losing" my kids in the Caribbean in Cancun. My 15yo son and I had just returned from a jetski ride behind our resort. My 17yo daughter was waiting her turn, and my son wanted to go out again, but I had "hated" it. I had let my son "drive", and he just about scared the pants off of me, so I "fudged" a little and said my daughter was 18 so the two of them could go out together. My son had heard the tour operators tell us not to go beyond the boundaries of the resort, but he didn't bother to tell his sister. In the time it took me to walk back to my beach chair and turn around, the kids had disappeared out of sight! I ran back to the water's edge and asked the tour operators where were my kids. They got all excited and started looking out over the water with binoculars and talking on 2-way radios. In 10 or so long minutes, the kids came back into sight, and the tour guys waved them in. My kids weren't happy that they got less than 15 minutes of a 30-minute ride, but I was just thankful to have them back.

2. Calling home during the same trip to Cancun, and finding out that someone had been in my house. My older daughter was going over to my house once a day to feed the cats, and arrived one evening to find the door open and half of the cats outside. We discovered later that my younger daughter's boyfriend had a key to our house and was making himself at home!

3. Taking a taxi ride from the Newark airport to Secaucus, NJ in what may not have been a taxi. My friend Ann and I arrived for a cat show on a late-evening flight. Rather than call our hotel for transportation, we (so stupidly!) handed over our luggage to an older bald-headed man standing in the terminal holding up a "taxi" sign. We followed him to the parking lot and settled into a large older sedan. A small red flag went up when I didn't see a taxi name on my side of the car, and another when I didn't see a meter inside the car. Holding my breath, I clutched my cat carrier all the way to Secaucus, alternately cutting my eyes between my friend and the door handle. We were both were so relieved when we arrived at our hotel, we didn't even complain when the driver charged us quite a bit more than what he had "estimated."

4. Having a taxi driver in Monterrey, Mexico, pull off into a closed gas station (in the dark) on our way to the airport. I had gotten in the little Volkswagen taxi at my hotel at about 5:30 a.m. After speeding toward the airport at what felt like 100 mph, the driver suddenly pulled off into a darkened gas station. Not knowing any Spanish, I could do nothing but sit there wide-eyed. Fortunately, the guy was only stopping to gas up his cab. I don't know if he had an arrangement with the station owner or what, but the station appeared to be closed -- or maybe they were just trying to save electricity.

5. Being verbally accosted by a homeless man in a deserted parking lot waiting room at DFW. On the same trip as in #3, my friend and I arrived back at the Dallas airport after our late-evening flight. We were the only ones on the shuttle to the parking lot. After getting everything off the shuttle, including her cat and mine, my friend decided she needed to use the restroom. While I waited inside the small building on the parking lot, I noticed a small older black man in a knit cap staring at me from the other end of the room. Hearing the cats "meowing", he shuffled over and informed me that cats were "the devil" and "shouldn't be at the airport" and "didn't deserve to live." I tried to make small talk ("You think so?" "Is that right?" "Really, why not?") until my friend FINALLY emerged from the restroom. I gave her a "go-to-hell" look, rolled my eyes, and practically ran out of the room onto the parking lot with the large cart containing our suitcases and cat carriers.

Sorry this is so long, but I just got carried away. Hopefully, I won't have any more tales to add to this thread in the future ... but I'd love to hear some of yours.

Donna

I'll tell this one for my cousin. She accompanied her husband to a conference in Williamsburg, VA a few years ago. They were staying at a big Holiday Inn, and one afternoon while he was at a meeting, she went shopping and came back to the second-floor room alone.

She entered the room, closed the door and immediately turned into the bathroom for a few minutes. When she came out and stepped into the main part of the 2-bed room, there was a man standing on the other side of the room, behind the second bed, and in front of the sliding doors that went out to a balcony. She said her ears started to sort of roar, then she heard someone screaming and realized it was HERSELF!!! The man threw back the sliding glass door, ran onto the balcony, and JUMPED! She said she couldn't move for a minute, finally stopped screaming........... Security/police never found the guy!!! Holiday Inn moved them into a suite for the rest of their visit, with much apology!

Bonniebroad: What a wild story! Do you think your cousin and I are the only ones who've had frightening experiences like this? Hopefully, by topping the thread, we'll get a few more "hits" this weekend.

I'm sure there are others, dwoodliff! They just haven't noticed this thread yet, I'd bet. Maybe we'll prod them a little...........

My own scariest experience was about 41 years ago, taking a cab from the bus station, (people rode buses more then), in Winston-Salem to my apartment a few miles away, in the wee hours of the night. The cab driver pulled into a deserted parking lot, and propositioned me!!! Talk about one terrified nineteen year old!!! Thank God, he took no for an answer but I have never been so scared, and I didn't even think of getting his plate number or any of that, I was in such shock!

Maybe this qualifies more for the "dumbest thing on vacation" thread, but nothing bad actually came of it so it was just really a big wake-up call more than anything.

Two years ago I decided to take my first solo vacation. Went to Rome for one week, with one day spent taking trains/buses for a round trip to the Amalfi coast area. I'm a very independent person, don't scare too easily. Traveling brings out the best of my personality, I'm much more carefree and chatty with the locals.

Anyway, as I was filling a water bottle at a public fountain outside a beautiful little Amalfi church, a gentleman comes up and asks if I'm American, I say yes, and he starts talking to me... asking if I was enjoying the town, and what places I had seen so far. He said he liked to talk to Americans to practice his "English". Then he asks if I had seen the view of the village and the sea from a certain place whose name escapes me now up high on a hill. I said no, and asked where it was exactly. He said, "I'll show you." It didn't occur to me to feel afraid until we started walking up a path that was getting more and more deserted, darker, and with trees closing in on both sides. I started to panic and said I was too tired to go any further. He said we can sit down and rest. I said no, I'd rather just go back where we started from to catch the next bus back to Naples. He started to come at me in what I perceived a threatening manner. I yelled really loud, "What are you doing!" That's all it took, he muttered something in Italian, turned around to head back down to the street level. I waited a good five minutes as I watched him walk away, so I could make a clear run for it. I hurried into the nearest little shop I could find and started chatting nervously with the lady behind the counter. She spoke English, thank God. I waited in there with her until it was just minutes before the next bus and then got straight on that bus out of town.

Like I said, nothing happened but I can't believe I was so naive and stupid to blindly follow this stranger halfway up a hillside to see a "pretty view." I had enjoyed chatting with all the locals so much every other place I'd been. I feel confident now that I will never do something like that again. It was a good lesson, actually.

Not as many hair-raising as dumb, but here they are:

Having to back 40 feet down Rt. 64 between Highlands and Franklin, NC because of a broken down school bus--if you know the road "nuf" said!

Losing my 3 year-old-son and his friend for 5 minutes at Disney. Another mom and I had our six kids and neither of us saw them slip into Tinkerbell's gift shop. They found them within 15 seconds of reporting it--literally. That's when I found out that Disney is teaming with plain-clothes officers who just blend in.

Ditching a landing at the last second at Tampa International during a severe storm

After telling him not to do flips in the pool, our son hit his head on the side of the pool and BOY do head wounds bleed. We were in a rural area but luckily traveling with friends, one of whom is a Doc. There were NO drugstores and it only needed a stitch or two so he shaved around the wound, flooded it and TAPED it together--not a pretty site.

I'd say the drive up Mt. Haleakala on Maui was pretty scary. Narrow road, no guardrail, no shoulder, big cliffs down on some parts and we were on the "outside" part of the road going up, with the occasional big tour bus coming down. This flatlander had a hard time driving up around a mountain curve when I couldn't see any land (other than 1000's of feet below) out the other side of the car. Had to get out and let me husband drive while I looked up straight at the sky until we arrived at the top.

droolpatrol, isn't it funny how driving certain roads can drive you crazy, depending on what you're used to. Now, my DH & I think nothing of driving the road to Haleakala or the road to Hana (he thinks people carry on way too much over that one), and I think it's because we're used to driving in the North Carolina mountains..........

We have friends who were driving through the Swiss Alps. The husband got so upset, he had to crouch on the floorboard behind the front seat so he couldn't see, was having horrible chest pains and his wife had to drive.

droolpatrol: Try the final approach to the summit of Mauna Kea.. Even though we were in a 4WD, the "road" was so steep I was convinced we were going to slide right off the mountain.

While in San Francisco with husband and 2 kids got taxi at hotel early one AM for return trip to airport. (Unlike previous poster, this was an actual cab). Driver was very talkative, told us this was his first day back at work since he had been "away" for a while. After several more miles, it was clear that "away" was in prison. Then he did not take exit to airport and instead took us down a narrow non-road.

I finally summoned the courage to ask where he was going, just as he emerged at some back entrance to airport - he told us he had listened to traffic reports and there had been an accident on major ramp to airport and took an alternate route he knew so we would not miss our flight.

1981. Driving from Massachusetts to Colorado, with a stop in Chicago. We arrive in Chicago at 2:00am and immediately get lost on the South Side. Nothing but bars and storefront churches, street mostly deserted except for patrons of the bars and not the churches. A beat-up old ford stops next to us at a light, two threatening characters inside. The driver looks at us and rolls down his window, his hand reaches into his pocket, and out comes .... a badge.

"You guys lost?" asks the undercover cop.

We are back on the interstate five minutes later.

Gail--LOL--I can just imagine how you felt when you realized where he'd been.

This is not travel related but can't help but repeat it because it's cathartic!

Our daughter rear-ended this guy last year when she was 16. For reasons that are too laborious to go into let's just say we suspected all along it was a set up.

Anyway, he sued (of course), for lots of money (of course), but guess what an investigator found out? He'd recently done time in prison for vehicular homicide--he hit and killed a pedestrian while driving drunk and left the scene. How's that for irony?