mireaux7

what was the worst trip experience youve had? when and where was it at? the airport? the hotel? congested traffic? poor restaurant service? beligerant locals? or simply a place youve been to that didnt quite live up to your presumed expectations? what exactly made the trip so unpleasant?

marginal_margiela

My mother, the famous Linda of the "Pancaky Papers," and I were arrested by the French police for trying to sneak into France without visas (September 1986). We were on the TGV and tried to hide in the toilet, but were taken off the train, at gunpoint, in Vallorbe. We were later release after one of the violinists from the New York Philharmonic came to our aid (he spoke French) and explained (he actually lied) that we were in the toilet because we had travellers' diarrhea. They released us and we went on to Dijon with our visas, which some judge gave us when we were locked in our cage/cell/whatever.

Some model for Kenzo shared cookies and an apple with us on the train and showed us her portfolio until we got to Dijon. We stayed at the famous Cloche Hotel.

The Great and Powerful Thingorjus

pollyvw

We really have not had experiences so bad they would ruin a trip. I guess the biggest surprise was when we went to southern coastal CA in late June when they were in the midst of a heat wave. Meandering from LA to Napa, we stayed at this fancy B&B in Santa Cruise. Of course, there was no AC because they seldom need it. The temp was in the high 90's at night and leaving the french doors open (they opened to a wonderful little waterfall--very nice) allowed the B47 sized misquitoes into the room.

And when we reached San Fransisco, they too were in a heat wave recording the highest temperature for that day in the 20th century. It was sweltering when we stood in line to ride the trolleys.

Rest of the trip was great, so I really can't complain.

pollyvw

woops...double post when I tried to correct spelling of Santa Cruiz.

mireaux7

*Santa Cruz*

happyal

going to penn. from il. for my brothers wedding in 91'.we were taking a nap in rest area in ohio when we heard a knock on window and saw 10 state troopers with guns drawen in our face ,we were orderd out of the car and made stand outside in rain while they checked us.what happend was the rental car plates did not match the car and same model car,with out of state plates was used in armed rubbery that morning,after almost an hour they apologize and let us go.however we got pulled over two more times before we left state of ohio and when we got to our destination we had hard time with rental co. to get car changed .i was not about to drive same car back thru ohio to get home! wedding was nice.

suze

Certainly a little traffic or a snotty waiter would hardly count for "the worst", would it?

rkkwan

I won't get into details, but the main factor that makes trips unpleasants are the people I travel with. Whether it's the SO, or people in the tour group.

clueless

Would it be being stuck in a hurricane on vacation or flying home from Ireland with the flu, which took about 20 hours due to delays or the one when my father had a heart attack?

Maybe, I should stay home.

Kostroma

My mom and I took a trip to Arcadia, California last year to visit Santa Anita racetrack. Since neither of us drives, we stayed a hotel that was 10 minutes away from the track by bus. We got to the track fine and afterward, mom wanted to go to the mall next door to do a little shopping.

We had been told, erroneously, by the mall staff that they had a taxi stand. When we were ready to leave the mall, we found out that it this was not so. Since it was after 9 PM and we'd missed the last bus going back to the hotel, we called a taxi. It took nearly two hours for it to show up. By that time, the mall parking lot was deserted and we were both freezing and more than a little scared. I've never been so happy to see a taxi in my life.

Though it's the worst thing that's happened to me while travelling, it was entirely my fault and I see it as a learning experience. There were a few things I could have done before and after the problem arose to avoid getting into that predicament. Live and learn.

rncheryl

When my boys were much younger, we loaded up the car and set out from Fla to Niagra Falls. Somewhere about Kentucky, everybody got cranky, feverish, started itching, etc. Not too much later, the glorious chicken pox erupted on all three kids.

I have blocked most of the next week out of my mind. I just know we got home safely, and nobody had to be institutionalized.

NJriverchick

This past April my husband & I spent $7,000 for a 12-day package bus tour of Morocco. After being in Morocco for only a few hours I was counting the minutes until I could go home.

~ The flight from JFK to Casablanca was bedlam. I have criss-crossed this country and Europe too. BUt I have never experieced such disorder. People were bribing the flight attendants to sit in the empty first class seats. Our meals were left on tray table for hours. Most bathrooms were out of order by the end of the flight.

~ Me & hubby were the only 2 on the tour therefore no bus. We traveled 800 miles in the back seat of an old SUV with poor passenger visability. Our driver was pleasant but would not deviate from the scheduled tour which felt like being on vacation with your parents.

~ The day after we arrived in Casablanca there was a bombing in a nearby internet cafe. YIKES. later that week there was a suicide bomber in the projects.

~ Throughout our trip we experienced numerous bomb searches (I wanted to run into a McDonalds to get some water and they search handbags for bombs) of course frequent roadblocks but even one of our hotels (a big tourist hotel) had guards with machine guns in front.

~ The air in the cities (Marakesh, Fez, Casablanca) so full of fumes & diesel smoke everything is a blue haze & I had a constant headache. (When we arrived back home at JFK airport the air at the bus/taxi stand was so sweet in comparison)

~ I found the poverty and lack of healthcare to be heartbreaking.

~ THe call-to-prayer (4 times a day on loudspeakers) can really freak you out. The first time we heard it was 4:30am right outside our hotel room. It woke us out of a dead sleep and was really creepy.

~ Every day, everywhere we went we were harrassed for money. Its exhausting. Unfortunately even our guide was not to be trusted and led us into several traps. "Oh do you want to see inside an authentic Moroccan house?" We are led right into a high pressure rug establishment. This happened over and over.

~ Of course I got travellers diahrea 1/2 way through the trip (even tho we were so careful - even brushed teeth with bottled water) After that point I got a terrible upset stomach after every meal.

I will stop there. My husband & I are great indendent travellers not afraid of a little adventure. I was very surprised by my own reaction but the only part of the trip I enjoyed was getting home.

god bless america

Bill_H

Worst was undoubtedly a trip to Alaska ... first to Denali National Park where we photographed bears and caribou and the mountain for 11 days and had a great time. Then to Katmai National Park where we photographed brown bears at close range for four days before flying back to Anchorage. Had a great time.

The next morning we were all packed and called the front desk for a cab to the airport and the clerk said "I think flights may be delayed ... turn on the TV" and we did ... in time to watch the World Trade Towers collapse.

So all flights were cancelled of course, but cruise ships kept bringing in people and dropping them off and dozens of airliners already in mid-flight were diverted to ANC and every hotel up to Fairbanks filled up. Even after the airport re-opened it was chaos for several days.

After several days people were renting cars and driving them to the lower 48 or begging for seats on the flights. Took us a week to get out of ANC.

Could have been worse, some friends were in the back country waiting for a bush plane pickup and had no way of knowing why it didn't come. They ran out of food, assuming the pilot had crashed and they were in for a long, hungry wait.

Of course it could have been even worse had I known someone who died in the attacks that day, so I count my blessings.

Bill

nytraveler

My worst trip experience was being on a plane out of LAX to CVG that almost crashed. The plane was a relatively new design, the pilots weren't properly trained (or experienced enough) and the airline refused to return it to the manufacturer for needed adjustments.

As a result - instead of powering back after the first step of the ascent, the pilot turned the engines off - completely off - by accident. So we were left a very large, completely silent, powerless tube floating down towards the Pacific.

The FAs had us put on flotation devices and assume the crash position.

About 30 seconds before we would have hit the water the pilots managed to restart the engines. But by then we were so low and going so slowly they weren;t sure they could maintain air speed - and thought we still might crash.

Luckily for all of us they were able to keep the plane out of the water - and continued on to CVG - with terrified passengers and several hysterical FAs. There were several CVG firefighters aboard (had been vacationing in LA) and they essentially took over the flight. Calming people, passing out blankets, getting hot drinks etc. (In a true emergency it's nice to know who to turn to.)

As a result the airline was fined a massive amount by the FAA (for breaking pilot rules etc) and had to do major retraining of FAs and pilots. And pull a bunch of planes out of service to be modified.

The kcicker - I wasn;t supposed to be on the plane at all. I was supposed to fly back to New York, but the client had called at the last moment to attend another meeting in CVG - and I managed to change flights that am - getting one of the last seats.

Luvs2travel

Worst experience, bar none, was a hotel in London. Though personally recommended by Virgin Vacation reps, room had ripped bedspreads, closet with 4 mangled hangers, torn curtains, mold in the shower and hair on soap at sink!

After complaints to hotel staff and Virgin rep, we were 'upgraded': larger room with less mold in shower and fewer hairs on soap!

Luckily, we had good attitudes and enjoyed our stay in London despite the accommodations!

Walter_Walltotti

4 days in New Orleans about 12 years ago.

Context -4 Brits doing a 3 week tour of America - 2 weeks before we arrived a British Tourist had been shot dead in New Orleans, so Crime and the city was put on the radar for us.

Lovely hotel, but concierge gave us a map which made it seem like the city had very few safe areas and often very small tight safe routes from one area to another. This didn't make us feel very comfortable.

Got Mugged just off Bourbon Street, which itself was teaming with drunks and reminded me of a street from a Club 18-30s resort town.

The paddle steamer cruise was nice but we didn't find the scenary very inspiring.

Eat something in a restaurant that meant that for 24 hours I regularly had to RUN to the toilet.

The weather was very hot and humid, not in itself a reason to complain but when added to everything else it was just another thing that made me think "New Orleans...Never Again"

The rest of America, we just loved, we just felt that New Orleans was living off its reputation.

coconutwilly

Wow. Don't think I can top a near death experience.

I had a unlucky/lucky experience once flying back to HNL from LAX. Three of us arrived about an hour before scheduled departure but the counter seemed unusually empty. The flight that I had booked about 4-6 months prior no longer existed!
I had not bothered to reconfirm. It seems the airline sent an email, but my email address had changed. Boy did I feel weak. Luckily the counter person arranged seats on another carrier at a very decent rate. I think it was the last 3 seats and we only had to wait a few more hours.
Remember, always reconfirm your travel plans!

nytraveler

Well. it does give you a certain perspective onother issues in travel.

And reduced my confidence in major US airlines to zero. (At that point I flew a LOT on business - 50 to 60 trips per year - and had had the usual problems - turbulence, landing gear perhaps not working, etc - but those were all accidents.)

What got me was that this was deliberate - not an attempt to crash the plane obviously - but deliberate flouting of several FAA rules.

I'm well over it now but for a while I wasn't very comfortable flying - esp at take off.

missypie

Big October blizzard in Colorado. Had checked out of hotel in Col. Springs...all flights cancelled, but airline said flights out of Denver were still leaving. Boarded airlines bus which skidded off the road; spent several hours in a ditch. Ended up spending two nights at the Hyatt Tech Center where they had very little food and no alcohol. Colleague found a shady means to get us to the airport at 4 am on Monday. Got a flight to Austin, with a connection to Dallas. Plane late-missed the connection. Was on the standby list for a flight to Dallas every half hour but couldn't make it on. Finally when they were boarding the last flight of the night, I went to the ticket agent and cried and I got on the flight. (Due to the delay, missed a costume party for which DH and I had purchased elaborate costumes.)

BUT....at least I had a coat. The day before the blizzard it had been 74 degrees and lots of the stranded people had no coats.

curiousgeo

I remember an October blizzard in Colorado, maybe 10 years ago that shut down the then new, weather proof Denver airport for a couple of days, stranding something like 3,000 passengers in the terminal. We were scheduled to transit through Denver that Saturday morning on our way to New Orleans.

It has been a life long dream of mine to see an NFL game in person. I had tickets to the San Francisco 49'rs, New Orleans Saints game that Sunday, think Jerry Rice and Steve Young. We left home Friday evening, via San Francisco, then Denver, with a scheduled arrival in NO Saturday afternoon. A nice dinner, a good nights sleep, a leisurely Sunday brunch at Brennan's and an afternoon NFL game at the Superdome was planned.

It was not to be. The earliest we could fly out of San Francisco was Sunday afternoon with an arrival in New Orleans that evening, well after the game finished.

Now staying in San Francisco with its shopping and eating choices was not the worst way to spend some time, especially since we could have been trapped in the Denver airport terminal for the weekend instead. But I was one disappointed NFL fan, although my wife and I made the best of it with a pleasant visit to San Francisco. I'm still going to attend an NFL game sometime in this life, it just hasn't happened yet.