Tech

Tourists reveal their biggest travel horror stories from 14 different countries

Megan Willett-Wei

2016-03-04T21:51:00Z

Tourist reading a map Flickr/Pedro Ribeiro Simões

Traveling is one of the best things you can do to expand your world view, but that doesn't mean every experience will be enjoyable.

In a recent /r/AskReddit thread, world travelers were asked "What did you choose not to say about a country you visited to keep the story positive?" The entire thread is filled with stories ranging from the bizarre to the harrowing.

Keep reading to see some of the responses from people who traveled everywhere from Paris, France, to Waikiki, Hawaii.

"I was scammed at a nightclub in Istanbul."

"I met some other travellers and I joined their private table for most of the night. At the end, I was left with a $4,000 USD bill. In reality, the cost should have been in the $400 USD range.

[...]

"When the bill came, the place cleared out and I was escorted to the ATM machine. My life threatened along the way. The ATM denied me so I was forced to call my credit card company. They denied raising my credit limit to pay the club.

"At the end of the day, I convinced them I had another credit card at my hotel. They escorted me to the hotel, I told the front desk what was up and they locked the doors and called the cops. Turns out the group that had me was recently busted with large amounts of money, drugs, and weapons." - HereIsYourBankersBox

"I got pick-pocketed in Barcelona. My first day there, lost nearly half my money."

- messrmo

"There's a lot of stray dogs in Peru."

"I've heard that stray dogs are kind of the norm in Latin American countries, and most of the ones I encountered didn't want anything to do with anyone passing by.

"However, there was one stray that I passed frequently while walking to a project I was working at and he was extremely aggressive, to the point that I started carrying rocks in my bag in case he chased me. He would follow me for blocks, remaining hidden in a yard until I passed by. He'd bare his teeth and growl, he also slobbered a lot.

"I didn't think it was rabies, but I'm also not 100% convinced it's not rabies." - honeynut-queerios

"[I don't tell people about] the amount of homeless people sitting along Kalakaua Ave. in those little pergola areas in Waikiki, Hawaii."

- TimberBucket

"In Amsterdam, even the guy who mugged me spoke excellent English."

- w00gle

"If you're hiking in the countryside [in Bosnia] and you see a small lovely path, don't take it — it leads to a dump."

"Almost every village has one." - usthcd

"I speak French okay, but I'm a bit slow, and I'd try to talk in French and the shopkeepers would basically laugh in my face [and] talk about me to each other when I was standing in front of them."

- Kaspium

"[I] did a tour of the West Coast of the US and loved almost all of it, but was really shocked by the homeless population in San Francisco."

- ragsoftime

"Not too many people are happy to hear Australian's shoot and kill Kangaroos on a regular basis."

"Or that we eat them. Or that they are primarily pet food." - themzy34

"[There was a] harsh level of racism in Japan."

"There were restaurants that I could be taken to for a business lunch, but only lunch. They were closed to me at night for dinner because I was not Japanese. Other places I wasn't allowed in under any circumstances. The local business partners wouldn't even discuss it. They would just say — 'no, no, not possible' — and look around uncomfortably." - beachedsailor

"The Swiss people I met were, to a person, very rude."

"All in all, I visited 9 countries when I was there, and I can't say the slightest bad thing about any of them, except Switzerland." - wjescott

"The train stations in Rome are filled with teenage pickpockets. Two different groups made attempts at us in five minutes."

"Don't accept unsolicited help at the train stations. Wait for a proper 'in the booth' agent." - hpresent

"Most roads in Iceland don't have shoulders or guard rails, and there is nothing besides glaciers and mountains for hours once you leave Reykjavik and its suburbs."

"Not to mention that the weather changes every 15 minutes in the winter between whiteout, heavy snow, hail, rain. There is literally nowhere to pull over for hours, and you just have to try and keep to the road and hope you don't die." - Samcrash76

"Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany was dirty, overpriced and overcrowded to the point of not being fun at all."

"I should clarify, I loved Munich wholeheartedly besides the festival. Beautiful city." - Doug_Mirabelli

See more of the Reddit thread here.

Reddit Travel