While a vacation usually means fun adventure time or relaxing at a beautiful location, one unexpected accident can quickly make everything turn sour. And while some occurrences are nothing more than an inconvenience, others can be seriously terrifying.
Members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community recently opened up about the latter type of experiences when the user ‘ujin-’, also known as Sebe, started a discussion about it. They asked fellow netizens what was the scariest moment they’ve had on vacation and they had plenty of spine chilling stories to share. Scroll down to find them on the list below, but bear in mind that some of them might be rather disturbing.
Below you will also find Bored Panda’s interviews with u/ujin-, the redditor responsible for starting the thread, as well as a Professor in the Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management at the University of Florida, Dr. Heather J. Gibson, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions about safety and traveling.
#1
Lost my baby brother at seaside boardwalk. My family went crazy for about an hour. Finally found him sitting on the bar at outside saloon surrounded by bikers & their chicks. Bowl of popcorn and a tall soda. They were all facing the boardwalk & walking people go by waiting to see if he recognized anyone looking for him.
Image credits: Rosanna44
#2
I was with my family in Jamaica when I was 16. I was swimming in the ocean with my younger brother when a local man literally grabbed me and started swimming me out to sea towards a boat with other men on it. He kept saying I was going to be his “American girl.” He got pretty far out before my brother was able to get help from other adults. It was terrifying.
Image credits: Dependent_Airport_83
#3
Not me, but in high school my friend was on vacation with his family in Costa Rica. He went out surfing pretty far before he noticed someone even farther out waving to him for help. As he got closer, he realized the guy had kids with him. The man asked my friend to bring his kids to shore and then come back to help him. My friend got the kids in safely but by the time he got back to the man, he had drowned from exhaustion. My friend had to paddle this guys body back to shore where his family was waiting. My friend was never really the same.
Image credits: mileyisadog
#4
Went vacationing in Mexico with my family when I was 9. Lost my parents in a marketplace in Cancun and tried to tell a guy I was trying to find my family. He told me he’d find me a new one, moments before my father arrived.
Image credits: DoorstepCult
#5
On an overnight bus from Delhi to Dharmsala. (I am female and was 26 at the time.) We stopped at a gas station in the night so we could use a restroom. I was the last in line, and when I came out, the bus was taking off and headed back onto the highway. I sprinted after it screaming “No!” over and over at the top of my lungs. Someone must of heard or seen me and the bus stopped. I truly do not know what I would have done had I really been left behind.
Image credits: liabt
#6
I was at wedding in Mexico and the groom leaned on a railing and it broke. He fell 30+ feet and survived with a traumatic brain injury. It was so awful. He is an entirely different person now. Don’t ever trust a railing! Ever. .
Image credits: Gazzerbatron
#7
I shared this on here recently because it happened recently:
Was snorkeling with my wife and son. My wife was actually free-swimming so she went ahead of us, while my son and I took our time gently paddling over to the main snorkeling area. So she was probably about 50 yards away, everyone else in the area was probably about 30 yards away. So I’m swimming and suddenly I feel something start pushing me down into the water. I recover and realize my son, who is 17 and bigger than I am, is holding onto me. He took water into his snorkel and started panicking, so he grabbed onto me. Well, I’m trying to tread water and hold up another full grown man and figure out how I’m supposed to get somewhere safe where we can stand or get to shore and I can’t manage two people. I start dipping in and out of the water because my arms and legs start getting tired and I’m treading for my son’s life (if I’m not trying to hold him up I can just dead-man’s float until I can catch my breath). Finally, I get the other snorkeler’s attention and call for help and a group of them come over. Someone with a paddleboard gets my son, and then I float and paddle as much as I can while a dude who’s there pulls me toward a boat.
By the time I got on the little boat I just about passed out from exhaustion. I legit thought both my son and I were goners. The crazy thing is we’re both good swimmers. If he wasn’t panicking he could have just swam to shore, which wasn’t that far away, or just blew the water from his snorkel and continued swimming. And since he was pulling me down, I’m now panicking and not thinking straight to tell him what to do. One of the scariest experiences of my life.
Image credits: SweetCosmicPope
#8
First day of my first international trip, traveling alone. Went to a pub in London, had a few pints. Walked out the door to go back to my hotel and was attacked by a young man with a razor blade. He cut open my face down to the bone and then slashed me on the temple. Spent the next three days in the hospital bandaged up like the invisible man, not knowing what my face looked like underneath. When I finally left the hospital I had to borrow clothes, including underwear since mine had all gotten saturated with blood.
Image credits: H1king33k
#9
On our way to the New Orleans airport at like 4am, the vehicle next to us on the highway shot at us for no reason. The bullet went through the windshield and rearview mirror, lodging in the roof right between my wife’s and my heads.
#10
When I was 21 my friend and I backpacked through Belize. Started a conversation with a local who eventually told us he was part of the crips and proceeded to show me all of his abdominal stab wound scars. He told us his gang likes to k**l people for fun and then asked us if we wanted to go with him on a boat ride. I had to act like I was considering it for a second before I turned him down. Didn’t want to make him too mad.
Image credits: FluffyMuffin21x
#11
I slipped hiking in the Grand Canyon and ended up dangling chest down over a huge drop-off. I was 8.
Image credits: Canyon_and_Co
#12
My family took a Christmas vacation to Honduras. It was 1994, and my sister was serving in the Peace Corps at the time.
New Year’s Eve, our last night there, we went out to eat in San Pedro Sula.
No more than 10 minutes after we sat down, our restaurant was held up by three gunmen.
We were ordered to get under the table and place cash and valuables on top.
They took cash, booze, and knocked the phone off the wall before departing.
I was 11.
Image credits: NullainmundoPax1
#13
Last day of my friends and I’s San Diego trip we called an Uber for brunch, and a car pulls up that doesn’t match the app description at all. Wrong model, wrong license plate. The driver yells out my name, acting super casual like “it’s your Uber, come on in!”
My phone rings and It’s the actual Uber driver I requested, and he’s confused why I haven’t gotten in the car yet. I tell him I don’t see his car and he says “Uber hasn’t updated my car model or license plate yet” – but the person in the car clearly isn’t even on the phone! He looking straight at me!
I tell the person on the phone I’m cancelling and next thing I know the driver in the car is yelling at me through the window to get in. He even gets out of the car at this point.
My friend and I run back into the hotel lobby. We explain the situation to the front desk and thankfully, the staff jumped into action. We also reported it to Uber.
I am grateful we were close enough to the hotel to run away. If we weren’t idk what would have happened.
#14
Sitting around the fire pit in camp before sunset, I scooted my lawn chair back and heard a noise. I said what was that to my mom. I turned around and there was a bear about 10ft. behind me on the other side of a picnic table. We grabbed some pans and started clanking them and it took off.
Image credits: its_just_flesh
#15
When I was 12, my dad took me to the Grand Canyon. He had bad arthritis and couldn’t walk well, so I asked if he wanted to walk down a trail and he said he’d stay put but I could go.
I walked down the trail, like a switchback, only a little ways. Then I turned to see if I could see my dad, and was waving to try to get his attention. I kept waving and backing up and waving, then turned and my back heel was right at the edge of the grand CANYON. I was not the smartest kid.
Image credits: DueEntertainer0
#16
Faced an earthquake of 6 magnitudes in the mountains. Horrific and harrowing.
Image credits: slasherthrasher
#17
Riding a travel bus along a narrow cliffside road in the Cordillera Central mountain range in the Philippines.
Image credits: tacosandsushimi
#18
Survived a tornado while on vacation with my grandparents in 2010. Path of the tornado was within 100 yards of my location. Thankfully nobody was hurt, but it reached its peak EF2 intensity right near my location. Considering the damage it did it’s amazing nobody got hurt.
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Image credits: KentuckyWallChicken
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