What is your scariest travel experience?

***snicker*** · 12-29-10, 05:27 PM

From dingy hotels to skiing horrors; what is your scariest travel experience.

**Buttercup** · 12-29-10, 05:59 PM

Hmm, I have been in a few dingy hotels. The absolute worst was in a tiny town in South Carolina several years ago - I literally propped a chair under the doorknob and stayed awake all night.

I've been on one extremely turbulent flight that scared me. It was pretty crazy for a few minutes and I just thought, "well I guess this is it."

**Jenna** · 12-29-10, 08:28 PM

I've been on a few very turbulent flights.

**Sam** · 12-30-10, 01:58 PM

Stayed in a hotel once that was infested with roaches. Almost had to fist fight with the front desk to get my money back. Last time I stay in a hotel that rents by the hour ~~

**Motorwaycop** · 12-30-10, 03:12 PM

A taxi ride on the Greek island of Corfu.

White nuckle ride doesn't even come close. He was from the shit or bust school of motoring!

**Cidp24** · 12-30-10, 04:43 PM

Going fishing out of St Bernard LA, I intended to sleep in my truck before leaving out from the boat landing at daylight. I got down there a little earlier than planned and I figured I'd sleep better in a bed. Somewhere 20 or so miles before St Bernard, at about midnight I found a motel. It was only a couple of years post hurricanes and there was just not a lot of places to stay built back up. I had to drive through a junk yard to get to my "cottage". It was $30.00. I slept fully clothed, on top of the covers, with some spare clothes between me and the covers. This place was TRULY gross.

**ISPTI** · 12-31-10, 07:49 PM

Not to stir the pot or anything, but I wonder how many of these experience are going to involve places in the south??

2/5 So far!

**luckyme** · 12-31-10, 08:44 PM

Originally Posted by ISPTI

Not to stir the pot or anything, but I wonder how many of these experience are going to involve places in the south??

2/5 So far!

Because no one wants to vacation up north?

I mean, seriously why?

**Cidp24** · 12-31-10, 08:55 PM

Originally Posted by luckyme

Because no one wants to vacation up north?

I mean, seriously why?

A-MEN!!!!

**ms1600** · 01-03-11, 06:09 PM

Some shitbox hotel in Nah 'Lehns for Mardi Gras. No towels, no toilet paper, big cock roaches and we had to go to the front desk everyday to get our key renewed. They cancelled all keys everyday. And their pool was empty, so someone in our group turned on a hose and it took 3 days to fill up.

**Autumn2009** · 01-08-11, 12:23 PM

Devils Lake, ND at 2am in Jan with a Indian guy in a mini van with bad shocks. Yikes.

**cinman1802000** · 02-12-11, 11:05 AM

Days Inn, just outside of Cincinnati. The odor in the room was horrendous. Looked everywhere & finally under the bed. There was a half eaten pizza still in the box that had to have been there for weeks.

On our honeymoon, the Mrs. wanted to go to Florida (Disney). I booked our entire trip on Travelocity & was soooo proud of myself. Problem was I booked us to stay in a children's themed hotel (Sunspree?). Looked great online. ("I promise, honey.")

On our return trip, our flight got re-directed to Newark. We sat there for hours waiting on a connecting flight to Indianapolis. The New York City skyline could be seen from miles away.

I had never been to Newark & found it very eerie that the mass majority of retail & service related employees were of middle-eastern descent. On 09/11,United Flight 93 departed from Newark. It was a chilling moment to think how easily the terrorists likely made it through security.

**Ducky** · 02-12-11, 12:25 PM

Most of my scary travel experiences involved road trips with my parents.

**Jks9199** · 02-12-11, 12:34 PM

Right after we got married -- my wife and I moved her from Missouri to my home here in Virginia. I'd hoped for more packing to have been done ahead of time, so we were still packing stuff when I'd hoped to leave...

Add to that several hours of heavy storm, with strong winds and driving rain. In a 20 foot rental truck. LONG drive from Kansas City to Louisville, KY. About an hour or two from Louisville, we call a hotel, and say we're on the way, we need a room, etc. OK, no problem. As we get close, we call again for directions. Moron at the counter can't give us decent directions from the highway... but we figure it out. We get there, and the idiot had started a nightly report, and couldn't check us in properly. Y'know, we'd only talked to him 10 minutes earlier saying "we're coming... be there as soon as we find the place." My wife saved his life by doing much of the talking... I noticed scratches on his arms. I'm pretty sure they were hesitation marks -- but he was too dumb to know how to kill himself.

Only good thing was that because the genius never checked us in properly, they couldn't figure out how to bill us for the 5 or 6 hours we stayed there. I'd give you all the name -- but I figure either they fired the idiot or they're out of business!

**lewisipso** · 02-12-11, 01:32 PM

THE flight from N.O. to Boston. Never bothered me before then. Turbulence, air pocket or whatever. It felt like we hit a mountain. Lights went out and it felt like we dropped a million feet. I thought for sure we were dead and still had to endure the rest of the flight in the after life.

**Xiphos** · 02-12-11, 02:07 PM

Originally Posted by Autumn2009

Devils Lake, ND at 2am in Jan with a Indian guy in a mini van with bad shocks. Yikes.

What was so scary about that? Condom break?

**lewisipso** · 02-12-11, 03:05 PM

That can happen with a lot of hard bouncing around.

**gopherpuckfan** · 02-13-11, 11:31 AM

"Scariest" flight would probably have been coming back from Germany in '96 on TWA. TWA Flight 800 had blown up over the ocean about a week or so prior. A lot of the girls on the trip were scared, but not many of the guys were. We were a little nervous. Maybe.

My calmest flight would probably be the one I took less than 2 weeks after 9/11. I wasn't worried at all because I knew if anyone tried anything, the entire plane would have rushed them.

Those were the good ol' days when, for a couple of weeks, 85% of the country were sheepdogs.

**DIESEL326** · 02-18-11, 04:32 PM

NYC... The 25 minute Taxi ride in a cab that was about 90 degrees and the driver apparently thought the vehicle operated like a bike... He'd gun the accelerator and then slam on the brakes in three second intervals which made me pretty sure he was "pedalling" the car. Second most scary was the trip into "Blackmarket purse" China Town with the Mrs. . China Town was cool, second level basements with little countersurveillance looking guys everywhere was not (at least I was armed (LEGALLY)). My in-laws were dumb enough to get in the back of a van to do some purse shopping...

**Xiphos** · 02-18-11, 07:06 PM

Guatemala City in 2008. Between the gunfire outside our hotel, and the insane traffic it was an interesting experience. A lot of the houses were gated in with large walls that had barbed wire on top.

There were armed "guards" everywhere. The gun of choice was the Remington 870, in the the stainless steel looking marine version. They were usually slung and had pistol grips with no stock. They were outside most businesses, especially the hotels and restaurants.

A friend who was there on a missionary trip a year later parked his car and a guard there asked if he wanted him to guard it for him. My friend paid the guy and left. When he came back the guard was still there. There were thieves ripping off another car on the street and the guard was just chilling. My friend asked about it and the guard said, "They didn't pay me to watch their car." So the thieves go to the guard, ask which cars he's watching, and then rip off the other ones.