Poll: Travel mistakes

[GilliC]

I completely missed the last bi-weekly travel poll! Oops!

In keeping with that theme, share a story or two about silly or embarrassing travel mistakes you've made!

e.g. Cultural faux pas, booking mishaps, planning oversights, etc. Or share your experience and help us learn from your mistake!

[GilliC]

This actually came to mind because of the malaria pills post. The first time I took malaria mess was when we went to Africa, but it was definitely not the first time I'd been to a malaria zone! I'd traveled extensively in India, which is pretty much entirely malaria region, but it had never even crossed my mind. I was always visiting my in-laws, so it never really occurred to me to check the vaccination and traveler health suggestions.

On a funnier note, I have an epic story about a mistake-ridden cruise port call in the Canary Islands, but that will have to wait until I have a real keyboard to type on!

[thebulldog]

SIL's wedding was in St. Thomas. We ended up buying our house like a month before and we crazed during the period leading up to it.

We were getting ready to leave the hotel to go home and DH noticed our plane tickets were for Monday. Not Sunday. We could not get on any flights at all to leave. The wedding was at the Four Seasons and we stayed there for three days. We were so broke by that point and ended up at the Best Western right by the airport to get on the first flights out.

An extra day on an island usually sounds awesome but it was stresful and annoying and we just could not believe we made such a dumb mistake.

Sent from my SM-G900P using proboards

[neonpink]

Funny mistake: In 2011 we were planning a road trip through Spain. I read on some review site that they didn't allow GPS devices. I thought that is weird but ok. We bought a really good book of maps and drove all over the country. It helped that they have some great driving roads. We ended our trip in Barcelona and I met up with a furniture manufacturer/vendor of mine. She asked how we liked Spain and it came out that we'd driven all over with just a map. She was amazed and laughed at us a little that we did it with only a map. (we really speak Spanish) It was an adventure but it would have been nice sometimes to have had a gps.

Mutual wardrobe mistake: Sanuk flip flops. They are so comfortable, these eco recycled yoga mat flip flops. They are so great until you take them to a beach town and they fill up with water and become a soggy mess that squishes and squashes where ever you step. I will never own another pair. Comfortable but not for anywhere near water.

Crappy mistake: On our road trip through Panama we booked our hotels as we needed them.I was exhausted when I booked the last hotel . I got the date confused and ended up paying for two nights instead of one. It was my fault so we ate the money. The only bright side was the food at the hotel restaurant was amazing.

H mistake: This past Christmas in Prague he looked at the weather before we left and thought he'd be fine in a Southern US climate Northface jacket. Nope he was FREEZING he didn't factor in wind chill. We ended up buying him a warm coat and he was much happier.  

[rupertpenny]

I forgot the whole 24 hour clock thing and showed up for an 730 EasyJet flight at about 5pm. It had left at 730 am. The airline employees very obviously thought I was a huge idiot.

[Alyssa]

The time our family showed up to a big get-together in Lake Tahoe with what we thought was food poisoning but ended up being the Norovirus.  We got 5 other people sick who were staying in our cabin.  I was mortified and so embarrassed.  It's a terrible feeling to be laying in bed, listening to two different toilets going off all night.

We thought it was nothing more than food poisoning fom a potluck we attended a few days earlier.  We thought it wouldn't be something that someone else could catch - We were wrong. 

I still feel bad.  Noro is no joke, you do NOT want that one. 

[Deleted]

DH and I laughed at ourselves during our trip because we assumed (wrongly) we could easily get ourselves around in a strange city by looking at Google Maps but not letting it navigate us.
Wrong.
It was amazing how the lack of mountains to our west threw us off; when you're surrounded by really tall buildings on curvy streets, it's best to figure out turn for turn where you're supposed to go. So many times we'd walk for 20 minutes in the completely wrong direction.

[sfy]

I made our tour guide in Thailand cry when I said something to the effect of "At least you will be around to see the next one" in reference to him not being alive for the coronation of the current King. The king was in his mid 80s at the time, I didn't think it would be offensive to tell someone under 40 that the king might predecease him, but I was wrong.

[rupertpenny]

Aug 17, 2015 20:02:00 GMT -5 sfy said:

I made our tour guide in Thailand cry when I said something to the effect of "At least you will be around to see the next one" in reference to him not being alive for the coronation of the current King. The king was in his mid 80s at the time, I didn't think it would be offensive to tell someone under 40 that the king might predecease him, but I was wrong.

  I knew the royal family was a big deal before I went to Bangkok, but I was still so blown away about how their faces were plastered everywhere. I especially enjoyed the random messages on the English language radio station reminding everyone how the king was a benevolent ruler who blessed the kingdom with freedom of religion and other great stuff. 

[rupertpenny]

Oh, and this thread reminds me that I've never had any of the additional recommended vaccinations or taken anti-malarials when traveling in SE Asia 

[mdgirl]

Aug 17, 2015 20:18:24 GMT -5 rupertpenny said:

Oh, and this thread reminds me that I've never had any of the additional recommended vaccinations or taken anti-malarials when traveling in SE Asia 

I did the first time to India, but not the two times since. And I won't be for our trip in October. My husband is a doctor and has been traveling to India his whole life, so I trust his opinion.

Our first big multi-country Europe trip had us flying into Frankfurt and then immediately heading to Prague. This was when using the internet for travel was in its very early stages, so we had done most of it by guidebooks. We didn't book the train ahead of time and ended up standing in a smoking car for hours and hours (flying would have been much easier). Then for our stop in Vienna we had just completely forgotten to book a hotel. Somehow we ended up telling DH's uncle about that over email and he booked us a hotel he'd stayed in, which wound up working out because it was way nicer than anything we could have afforded at the time!

[iammalcolmx]

H and I had a dish , in Salvador Bahia, with Palm Oil in it. Two days later I stopped shitting. Now anytime I am somewhere in the Diaspora, with a strong Africa influence I ask if they use Palm Oil.
Once in Istanbul we rented an apartment very close to Istiklal Caddesi, don't ever do this it's so fucking loud.

[anna7602]

Aug 17, 2015 21:03:15 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

H and I had a dish , in Salvador Bahia, with Palm Oil in it. Two days later I stopped shitting. Now anytime I am somewhere in the Diaspora, with a strong Africa influence I ask if they use Palm Oil.
Once in Istanbul we rented an apartment very close to Istiklal Caddesi, don't ever do this it's so fucking loud.

I had a similar experience with palm oil in Salvador, on my honey moon, no less. I always ask about palm oil at Brazilian restaurants. 

I've made a lot of ridiculous language mistakes that do not get immediately corrected. One includes continuously asking for the key to room "Four-hundred-and-Friday" at the front desk of my hotel in St. Petersburg, Russia. No one told me until I had been there a week! 

[alleinesein]

Aug 17, 2015 20:49:05 GMT -5 mdgirl said:

Aug 17, 2015 20:18:24 GMT -5 rupertpenny said:

Oh, and this thread reminds me that I've never had any of the additional recommended vaccinations or taken anti-malarials when traveling in SE Asia 

I did the first time to India, but not the two times since. And I won't be for our trip in October. My husband is a doctor and has been traveling to India his whole life, so I trust his opinion.

Neither of you must be all you can eat mosquito buffets when you are in India.  I get eaten alive and that is with covering myself in mosquito repellant.  Since my bites turn into open wounds and ooze I prefer to play it safe and take my doxycycline; those blood sucking flying pests think I am tasty!!

[GilliC]

Aug 17, 2015 21:03:15 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

H and I had a dish , in Salvador Bahia, with Palm Oil in it. Two days later I stopped shitting. Now anytime I am somewhere in the Diaspora, with a strong Africa influence I ask if they use Palm Oil.

I consider myself lucky that I don't have a reaction to Palm Oil! My SO is from Bahia, and we had moqueca with palm oil on our first TWO dates!

[iammalcolmx]

Aug 18, 2015 5:00:58 GMT -5 GilliC said:

Aug 17, 2015 21:03:15 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

H and I had a dish , in Salvador Bahia, with Palm Oil in it. Two days later I stopped shitting. Now anytime I am somewhere in the Diaspora, with a strong Africa influence I ask if they use Palm Oil.

I consider myself lucky that I don't have a reaction to Palm Oil! My SO is from Bahia, and we had moqueca with palm oil on our first TWO dates!

In Vitoria I had Moqueca with Olive Oil and it was glorious.

[MNH2013]

Aug 17, 2015 17:44:45 GMT -5 rupertpenny said:

I forgot the whole 24 hour clock thing and showed up for an 730 EasyJet flight at about 5pm. It had left at 730 am. The airline employees very obviously thought I was a huge idiot.

This happened to me on a work trip! Luckily the city I was in had multiple flights home every day. I was newly pregnant at the time and was a little emotional about it.

[rupertpenny]

Aug 18, 2015 6:34:50 GMT -5 MNH2013 said:

Aug 17, 2015 17:44:45 GMT -5 rupertpenny said:

I forgot the whole 24 hour clock thing and showed up for an 730 EasyJet flight at about 5pm. It had left at 730 am. The airline employees very obviously thought I was a huge idiot.

This happened to me on a work trip! Luckily the city I was in had multiple flights home every day. I was newly pregnant at the time and was a little emotional about it.

Glad I'm not the only one!

[dulcemariamar]

When I was 17 I was trying to catch a flight between Paris and Madrid. My Dad booked the flight and I had like an 8 hour layover at the Orly airport. It was horrible and so is the airport. It was complete chaos. I had no idea what was going on that I ended up boarding the wrong plane and didnt realize it until I started to argue with a guy that he was in my seat. I felt so dumb. At that point I guess I just wanted to get out of Orly that I didnt which plane I took out of there.

[wildfloweragain]

I told my host family in France that I was pregnant, not full of food.

I also booked a train with my eurail pass but didn't know I had to bring the eurail pass with me on the actual trip. So I kept getting my ticket checked throughout the trip and they kept asking to see the eurail pass and saying I was breaking laws and they could throw me off the train. It was awful. My host family overnighter the pass to my destination (friend's house) so I'd have it on the trip back.

Sent from my SM-G900V using proboards

[GilliC]

So this is long, but...


When XH and I took a cruise to the Canary Islands, we had planned to rent a car during our port day on Tenerife and drive up Mt.Teide. During the cruise, we befriended another group of people our age, and they told us that they were planning to do the same thing but by public bus. We thought it would be more fun as a group, so we decided to join them.

When our ship called at Santa Cruz, we wandered the quiet Sunday morning streets near the port until we managed to find the bus terminal and eventually made our way to the appropriate ticket office. We asked to buy tickets to Teide National Park, and surprisingly, the ticket agent asked us what day we wanted to travel. "Today," we said, confused.
"Do you want to take a bus from Puerto de la Cruz or from Playa de las Américas?"
More confusion on our part. "We'd like to take a bus from here!"
"From here, you'd need to take a different bus to Puerto de la Cruz and then the bus to the park." Okay, we'll do that. "Well, the bus left 30 minutes ago."
"So it's not possible to get there by bus, from here, today?"
"No."
Okay, then.

After inquiring about what turned out to be a ridiculous price for a taxi, we suggested that since we still had the car rental reservation, maybe we could find out if they had a larger vehicle that could fit all five of us. Back we went to the port, and luck was finally in our favor. They had a small van that could carry us all comfortably.

XH was driving, and the rest of us all piled into the back and chose our seats. We may have used up 90 minutes of our port time, but we were finally on our way! Spirits were high! XH turned the ignition, put the van in reverse, and pulled out of the space.

Except that he didn't pull out of the space. He pulled forward into a chain-link fence. Shit. Thankfully the fence gave way, and there was no damage. XH put the stick shift back into neutral, cranked it hard into the reverse position, and nudged the gas pedal. The van crept farther forward, and the fence strained. XH looked down at the gear shift. We all looked at each other. Then I got an idea.

"Why don't you put it in neutral, and we can get out and push the van away from the fence? That way you'll have more space to fiddle with it and try again."
"Great idea!" he said, as the other two guys hopped out of the van and ran to the front.

Once the van was out of its parking space, they climbed back in, and XH tried (and failed) once again to shift into reverse. "Should we go back in to the rental agency and tell them something's wrong?" We looked around, but there didn't seem to be any other large vehicles in the lot, and the office was quite far away on the far side of another large parking area.
"No, let's just go!" XH cried with a burst of enthusiasm. "We just need to make sure we only park in places where we can pull forward!"
With youthful exuberance, everyone agreed and off we went! Once again we were back on plan!

We found our way out of the city and started the drive through wooded slopes as we climbed the mountain in the center of the island. Each time we stopped to take photos at the scenic overlooks along the way, XH was careful to leave plenty of space behind the car in front of us and easily pulled forward as we left. Surprisingly, this crazy no-reverse plan was working out pretty well!

At one of the stops, we left the requisite space in front and all scrambled out with our cameras to take pictures of the towering mountain and the sea beyond. However, when we got back to the van, we found to our dismay that a small car had squeezed into the space we'd left! A moment of panic crept in, before XH assuaged our fears. No worries! We were on a hill, and as long as he put it in neutral, we could just roll backwards!

Eventually we made it to the top of the mountain and explored the summit and its spectacular views before heading back to our problematic rental van, which we'd strategically parked far away from the cable car station with a smooth front-exit escape plan. It was time to head back, and our navigator squinted at the map. We'd come up the gradual slope across the middle of the island, but there was another road on the steeper side that would take us right to the expressway back to Santa Cruz.

It turns out that the "steep" side was far too steep for any kind of direct route, and we spent the next hour crawling down the mountain on constant switchbacks fighting off car sickness and barely topping 50 kph. When we finally reached the expressway, we had less than an hour left until the ship would leave and, according to the signs, over 50 km to get back to the port!

XH tore down the expressway, stretching the speed limit significantly. As we finally got back into the city everyone was simultaneously watching the clock and straining to see the turn-off for the port area. "There!" one person cried, and XH swung the van into a sharp turn. No, this was just a parking lot. Back onto the road we went, with tension mounting. "I think that was it!" someone else shouted as we missed the turn.
"It was! I see the sign!"
"Make a U-turn! Where's the next crossing?!"

The road seemed to go on for block after block before we found a gap in the center division at a traffic light. That was red. I have never before experienced a red light that took so long to turn green, and as soon as it did, XH swung the van around before the oncoming traffic could reach us and tore back down the road towards the port entrance.

XH slowed down to be sure we didn't miss it again, but there, hanging above the intersection, was a sign clearly prohibiting left turns into the port.

"Do it anyway!"

By this point we had less than 15 minutes until the ship was leaving. We still needed to drop off the rental car and make it on foot across the port area and down the massive pier to where our ship was docked. XH waited for a gap in the oncoming traffic, ignoring the flustered drivers honking behind him as we held up traffic. At the first chance, he gunned it through the intersection and onto the side road. Right past a police car that had pulled up and was waiting at the intersection.

The officer's "WTF" expression as he threw his hands in the air in consternation was clear even from the back of the van. He switched on his lights and swung around to our side of the road. None of us spoke Spanish, so we have no idea what he actually said as he approached XH's window. Our reply was a chaotic blend of shouting and pointing as we cried "Porto! Porto!" and gestured wildly towards the cruise ships. "4:00!" XH said, holding up four fingers and pointing at his watch. "4:00! Porto! Ship!"

In hindsight, the officer (in a tourist destination) probably spoke enough English that we could have explained the situation, but by that point, as the seconds ticked away, none of us really spoke English anymore either! The officer presumably realized that giving us a ticket or a fine would be a lost cause anyway, so he muttered something and waved us away as he walked back to his car.

The only problem? The officer had pulled up in front of the van. XH's eyes went wide as he realized this, and without pause, two guys leaped out of the van to push it backwards away from the police car. You can imagine the expression on the policeman's face at this point!

We didn't even stop to try to explain and took off for the port. XH pulled the van back into the spot where we'd picked it up, tossed the keys to someone wearing an appropriately official-looking polo shirt, and we all took off running down the pier.

Things seemed well and good, since there was still a large crowd on the pier, but it turns out they were all headed to the ship right before ours! As soon as we passed their gangway, the pier was completely empty. The crew had already taken in most of the safety railings as we rushed on board at 15:59. They took the gangway up right after us, and we all headed straight to the bar.


ETA - A few days later we called on Lanzarote, where we also had plans to rent a car. Sure enough, XH couldn't put it in reverse! This time he went inside to ask the rental people. It turns out that it was the kind of stick shift where you have to lift it to shift into reverse. Lesson learned.

[anna7602]

GilliC, your Teide story is much better than mine. Mine just involved taking a hell-long time to climb down, missing the last bus into town from the bottom and hitchhiking until some stoners (who were smoking while driving) picked us up.

[neonpink]

GilliC  Your story wins! OMG that gave me anxiety just reading it.

I have one more to add. In HS for my senior trip my friends and I decided to use my parents time share, take it to the bahamas and have an awesome time. We all flew standby our other friends Mom had pretty good seniority.  We are there a week having fun. We make friends with the other people. We learn that they are on the same one a day flight home and they are more senior.  We realize we all won't make the flight home. Two of the girls left  a day early, leaving me and my BF at the time leaving on the last day and nervous about the flight since I had to be there check out of the timeshare. We get to the airport and are told there are NO MORE standby seats and that you may have to wait until tomorrow. We were 18 and broke and realizing we may have to stay in the crappy airport until the next morning. Luckily two people missed the flight and we got their tickets. I was so nervous they would arrive and we would be kicked off. Thankfully they didn't and we flew home. I will never fly standby again, or if I did I would make sure the city has more than one flight per day.

[msturtle143]

Booked 8 nights in Fiji when we were actually there for 9. Luckily it was an easy fix at the resort we were in! 

[udscoobychick]

Misread the time for our prearranged transport from the hotel to our flight on one of the legs of our honeymoon--I saw the time the flight took off and thought it was the time that we were getting picked up! We got a call from the front desk that our ride was there, and we had *just* rolled out of bed. The car couldn't wait for us (had other people to pick up), so we scrambled to pack all our things in the next 5 minutes and got the front desk to call us a cab. Thankfully, we still made our flight just fine.

[mich1]

Biggest mistake I made was our trip to Turkey. We went with a flight reservation to and from Istanbul and hotel in Istanbul for the first week. The next 3 weeks were up in the air. After we put together a plan (I had a friend in Istanbul I was visiting and she made some suggestions), we needed to get to point B, C, D and E. I looked into a bus, but realized that we could do it faster and easier via Turkish Air.

So I made all of our flight reservations. No problem. Cost us about $600 for 4 flights for 2.

For one of the flights, we had a LONG layover at the airport in Istanbul. Our flight to the coast (we were going to Kas, on the southern coast) was not listed. OK, we'll just hang out and wait. Only problem is that 90 minutes before the flight, it STILL hadn't shown up on the board. Huh? We went to the ticket desk, only to find out that I had booked us into the airport on the European side of the Bosphorus, but we were flying out of the Asian side airport. Whoops!

Fortunately, we were not in rush hour and we got a good cab driver who got us to the other airport in time to catch our flight. Only problem was that our luggage didn't make it. Nothing like being in a gorgeous resort town with a room that overlooks the Mediterranean and no clothes other than those on our back.

[gardengal]

I'd been married for a year & my husband inexplicably booked my plane ticket in my maiden name. I took his name!! How could he forget??!?!

Fortunately we were visiting family in Miami so as soon as we explained what happened, TSA waved me thru, not checking the date on my marriage license & assuming we were going on our HM.

[scout8]

I have a few . . .

We were on Hydra in Greece and the weather was bad so the ferry wasn't running. We were ready to move on so took a water taxi over to the mainland. The driver was supposed to call us a taxi when we arrived on the mainland, but he didn't. He was already gone before we realized it. There was nothing there except a parking lot and we had no way to call a cab. Thankfully, someone else who had been on the boat had a car in the lot. He saw us start to walk down the road and stopped and picked up up. If he hadn't, I have no idea how long we would have to walk to a town.

We took the bus to Plitvice in Croatia in the off season. We didn't think we needed to book a hotel ahead of time. Bus dropped us off as it was starting to get dark. First hotel was closed for the season. Second hotel closed for the season. There was only one more hotel. Starting to get nervous. On our way through the parking lot to see if that one was open, some guy pulled up in a car and said he would drive us to his house where he had rooms for rent. We decided to go for it. Thankfully, he was not a serial killer and the room was fine.

Decided to rent a manual car in Chile as it was cheaper. DH said he knew how to drive stick. OMG, he did not know how to drive it. It was awful. He kept stalling it. I was a stressed out mess and making things worse. That may have been our worst fight ever. Next morning, we went back to the rental car agency where they had an automatic in stock. Good thing or I may have come home from that trip divorced.

[daisypaloma]

This year's trip to the Midwest.  I wanted to book 3 nights, and I was doing price-comparison on a nightly basis so I had 2 browsers on.  I completely made a mistake of booking for 1 night instead of 3 when I finally booked.  It would not have been a big deal since I can make another reservation for 2 nights to add to the trip. Except that I was using Hotwire's Hot Deal.  So I ended up booking the first night with hotel A, and when I added 2 other Hotwire nights in front of it; it ended up finding me a different hotel (hotel B).  At the end, it would cost more to have it canceled and re-booked; so we just kept the reservation.

[origami]

I almost missed a flight at Heathrow because I mixed up my seat number with the gate number. I walked to a deserted, horror movie-esque part of the airport before I realized I was way off. I basically had to leave the airport, come back in, and go through security again in order to get to the right area.

Another trip I made the mistake of looking up the weather in the airport's city, instead of the cities I was actually visiting. I'm wearing the same sweatshirt in every photo from that trip.