Some trips are more breathtaking than others, but he who knows the first thing about traveling would know it to be about movement and change – of landscape, people, sounds, light, and probably the traveler himself.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the most probable and (usually) desired part of traveling is various adventures! And adventures wouldn’t be adventures without their essential element – unexpected circumstances and surprises!

That being said, honest travelers would admit that at least some of it springs right from the traveler’s own hilarious mistakes. (Even if it means being stuck in the exact same spot or paying for the room twice.) Dreadful at the moment, but still funny years later. These Redditors shared their experiences of making such a mistake while hitting the road, answering one Redditor’s question “What’s is the dumbest travel mistake you’ve made?”

More info: Reddit

#1

On a *very* drunken night out in Thailand I gave my wallet to a lovely couple we had spent the day with on a trip to keep safe as I had no pockets in my shorts.

Needless to say I woke up the next day and the doom hit me.

Kicked myself for the next few days and carried on with my trip with the help of my friends. Mostly transferring money to them online.

A few days later I logged in to a computer at the hostel and found an email from LinkedIn with a connection request and a short message from one of the couple! They had tried finding me on all my socials but the only one that they found me on was LinkedIn ?

They managed to post it to my next hostel and it was on my bed waiting for me!

Heroes. ?

Image credits: inbelfast

#2

Sydney, Australia and Sydney, Nova Scotia are not close to each other. I have no idea why I didn’t question why the ticket was so affordable !

Image credits: egd-f

#3

Not me but my husband. The night before our first trip to Barcelona he noticed his passport had expired. Hotels were nonrefundable at that point so I waved goodbye and did the trip solo.

Image credits: Trekker_Cynthia

#4

Borrowed my dad’s old truck to do some wilderness camping with a buddy across the Canadian border in Yukon (I’m from Alaska obviously). Told the border agent I had no guns, ammo, etc but they searched the vehicle anyways and lo an behold my dad had a hidden compartment under the back seat with a .357 and a box of ammo lol. They pulled us out and had us stuck in an interrogation room while they called my dad as it was his name on the registration. He confirmed it was his fault as he forgot it was in there and they actually let us go and they kept the gun. We camped for a week lol. My dad had to drive 250 miles to the border to pick up the gun.

Image credits: BeefosaurusRekt

#5

I booked a hotel in the wrong country.

Image credits: buttterz1

#6

My husband mixed up AM and PM for our flight from Amsterdam to London and I never bothered to double check. We were out happily sightseeing with what we thought were our last few hours in town when I get an email that said “How was your flight? Fill out this survey…”

Thankfully we booked some last minute train tickets. We lost the money on the airfare but at least it was a very cheap flight.

Image credits: erinelwin

#7

I booked a ticket to the Anne Frank museum tour and stood inline. Ticket was for the following year

Image credits: DICKASAURUS2000

#8

Mine was being an inexperienced 19 year old traveler bringing lots of German beer to Liverpool in a duffel bag. About 10 or 12 bottles broke and the bags on the conveyor belt were soaked in beer and the people were angrily mumbling over it. Then mine came, the whole bottom was drenched, and eyes were all over me as I quietly snuck out.

Image credits: DoneTravelling

#9

I booked a trip to Istanbul in December, assumed it would be warm because it was on the Mediterranean and in the Middle East, didn’t check the weather predictions, didn’t pack any warm clothes, and it was snowing when I arrived.

Image credits: ShinjukuAce

#10

My wife and I traveled to New Zealand for six weeks camping, then flew to Hawaii for a week to visit friends. I had a car and condo rented in Hawaii but in the plane to Hawaii I realized the day we lost going to New Zealand, we we’re gaining back going to Hawaii (International Date Line). So, we had to scramble as we had no car or housing for our first day there. We literally arrived in Hawaii hours before we left New Zealand. Oops.

Image credits: UserJH4202

#11

We were traveling to two different cities for a week. We needed two accommodations, one for each city, right? Well my dumbass booked not just one air bnb for the one city, but also booked the other for the same city with the exact same dates. Didn’t notice until a week before our trip. I cried when I realize what I did lol. It was an extremely expensive (no refund) lesson to learn to pay more attention when I book more than 1 accommodation at once :/

Image credits: unhindered-coconut

#12

I booked a train from Venice at the trenitalia site. When the train never arrived I discovered I’d booked a bus. We missed it.

Image credits: MaddBadger

#13

I forgot underwear on a three week trip to South America. No offense to the Brazilians here but let’s say their men’s style of underwear was not my idea of comfortable.

Image credits: JennItalia269

#14

Grabbed my son’s passoort, instead of mine, before driving 3 hrs to Chicago for a flight to Cuba early the next day. Thankfully I have an amazing friend who went and got mine from my house and met me halfway. Got back to Chicago at 2:00am, and made my 6:30 am flight. I gave my friend $100 for saving my a**e.

Image credits: brainonvacation78

#15

Went to the wrong airport in berlin and missed my flight

Image credits: Mcshizballs

#16

Not me, but my friends recently were visiting EU (they’re not EU citizens and require a visa to be there) and decided to go on a day-trip from Munich (Germany) to Salzburg (Austria). Never came to their mind to grab their passports as it’s their first time in Europe and they’ve thought “there’s no state borders inside the EU”. They got lucky at the way there, but at the way back there was a police check on travel documents ? they were taken off the train and spent couple of hours at the police station trying to contact hotel so the staff would get into their room and take photos of visas. Ended well though – the police released them once the photos were sent.

Image credits: Oskora

#17

I once booked a month long airbnb for the wrong month

Image credits: Bruce_e

#18

Arriving at 1:00 pm for a 1:00 am flight…12hrs too late. The flight was from India to US so it was a very expensive mistake.

Image credits: bradkwells

#19

1990’s. Took a redeye charter to the greek islands. Opened the duty free on the plane and got drunk and wasted, as good 19year olds do on a boys-trip.

Arrived. We saw our two bags on the luggage band. Grabbed them, took the chartered bus to the hotel. Crashed in bed after checking in to the hotel.

After 1 hour got woken up by the tour guide knocking on our door. He had two identical bags in his hand. He informed us we took some other guests bags at the airport. Opps ?

Image credits: HattoriHanzo_AMS

#20

I was travelling in Belfast and then taking a flight to Paris from the Belfast airport. When I get to the bus station, I ask for a ticket “to the airport”. I get my ticket and get on the bus. 30 mins into the trip where we should be getting close to the airport, I check my Google maps and see we’re headed the wrong direction. I ask someone if the bus is going to the Belfast airport. He looks horrified and tells me it’s going to the Dublin airport. Missed my flight, had to get a new, way more expensive flight from the Dublin airport.

Image credits: cheesetrain

#21

I left my passport in the Uber in Rio luckily I have family there so I just said “hey again it’s me” I got my passport within 2 days from the driver!

#22

Backcountry backpacking, had those convertible pants, but left the pant legs at a high elevation lake and had to just wear shorts the remainder of the route. Very cold at night!

#23

Showed up for my flight exactly 24 hours before departure. Luckily they got me on or I would’ve have to go home and repeat the whole process the next day.

Extra vacation day I guess so that was cool.

Image credits: brian_sahn

#24

“How hard can it be to get from Heathrow to Gatwick … *very late at night*? It’s still the same city.”

#25

Booked my rental car for the wrong day (flight landed at 1am and I booked for the previous day). The rental company was completely inflexible, so I ended up shelling out $500+ *twice* for a 4-day rental. Then I discovered a cab to and from my destination (where I didn’t need a car anyway) would’ve only cost like $150 ?

Image credits: KjunFries

#26

Recently went to Japan and must have been extremely jet lagged my first night because I threw my envelope of 40000 yen (like 280 USD) into the trash can in the bathroom of the floor of the hostel I was staying in. Was checking the bathroom as a last ditch effort, moved a few pieces of tissue and there it was untouched ?

#27

Listened to my mom and a poorly worded/outdated travel site convincing me I can fly to the Bahamas with a passport card. On the way to the airport I felt a sense of doom and found out they were very wrong.
Mom and dad continued on to the airport and I caught the next Amtrak home. Lesson learned the hard way.
Everyone get your Passport book!!!

#28

We (newly married couple) landed in Vegas and asked a “cool” taxi driver what his favorite spots were cause we thought he was cool and we wanted original spots. He took us to his favorite spot and drove round back to park so he could join us.

He didn’t join us. We paid $20 per person for a cover at a nasty strip club that served s**t food and was too far away from the actual Vegas strip that we had to catch another taxi back. Pretty sure he got commission.

#29

I agreed to carry a parcel of ?raw meat?home to LA from some acquaintances in Dhaka. I had gotten ill in Dhaka so I was in no mental state to question why the f**k they would want me to do that.
It leaked blood inside my luggage which ensured the customs officials wanted nothing to do with it. I still wonder what that was about.

Image credits: No-Understanding4968

#30

Before I knew skiplagging was a thing I had a flight to Budapest with a connection in Frankfurt. Found out some friends were in Nuremburg so I decided get off in Frankfurt and take the train to meet them. Luckily I had planned to check my bag so I asked ticket agent to just tag my bag through Frankfurt. That’s when I got educated on what happens when you intentionally miss a leg on your ticket. My return tickets would’ve been canceled and I would’ve been none the wiser until two weeks later on my way home. I ended up paying $300 in change fees to modify the ticket.

Image credits: HippyChaiYay

#31

Spent an entire month in London and never once ventured outside of the city. I was a dumb 20 year old American who didn’t realize the ease of train travel there. I remember the only day trip I had looked into was a coach tour bus to Stonehenge and it was super expensive so I didn’t do it.

Image credits: catsporvida

#32

My best friend sashaying through Jemaa el-Fnaa in kitten heels with her bright red open-mouthed bucket bag dangling casually from her elbow after I warned her about thieves multiple times. She got pick-pocketed and I ended up having to pay for a lot of s**t that trip. She did pay me back but FFS.

#33

Accidentally booked an international flight for July instead of June cause I misread ‘Jun’ and ‘Jul’ on Skyscanner

#34

I sat down and ordered from a restaurant that didn’t list prices on their menu. Needless to say they tried to charge me an exorbitant amount of money for mediocre food

#35

I mentally earmark a few hundred dollars per trip for “mistakes” since I plan my own trips. No one is perfect, and expecting to make a few errors helps me deal with it when it happens.

Image credits: MaddBadger

#36

Learned the hard way that they cancel the return flight if you no-show on an international departure. Unfortunately, I didn’t find this out until I tried to check in 24-hours before the return flight. That was a costly and exhausting mistake.

Image credits: theisenb

#37

Went on a weeklong hiking trip to the Grand Canyon in college and I forgot to pack a single pair of underwear ? I had to end up going to the doctor when I got home I had such a bad rash on my s*****m

Image credits: hugobosslovescandles

#38

Rolled into St Pancras to catch the Eurostar about 20-30 min before our train. Thought it was just like any other train we’ve taken in Europe and just show up right before. Yeeeeaa the Eurostar employees were not happy with us and pushed us through security and passport control quickly and we made it

#39

Made two very dumb mistakes when I was younger.

1) Left my 500 dollar camera on a table with my drunk friend (aka not being watched) and when I returned it was gone.

2) upon arriving in Rome I went to get a metro card and met a lady standing next to the car machine. I thought she worked there. Nope. She was just your local neighborhood Roma swindling dumb tourists like me out of a few bucks.

Beyond that I’ve been pretty good about avoiding terribly stupid mistakes.

#40

1) I had a flight to catch at 8 in the morning, on a Sunday, so I set the alarm to 5 am…but I didn’t realize the alarm was set for working days. Luckily a friend of mine came to bang on my door and woke me up, or I’d have missed the flight.

2) I booked a hotel room for the right day and the right month, but somehow the wrong year… I found out once there!

#41

I do a really stupid thing almost every time I travel!

Most notable: leaving all cash and IDs in my safe in the hotel room in Mexico and going into town with only one credit card. Didn’t realize it until I had to try and get a ride back to the hotel and no one had ability to take credit. No banks would give me cash advance obviously. Had to beg a shop keeper to charge my card for cash – he charged me $80 and gave me $30.

Image credits: CalmAsYouAre

#42

My first ever international trip was Thailand.

I went to an ATM and put my bank card in (RBC, a Canadian “big five” bank), the machine wouldn’t accept it and kept giving me an error message.

I assumed my bank card wouldn’t work, so I put my visa in to try a cash advance since I needed cash. It worked.

I spent the next three weeks doing cash advances on my credit card. On our last stop before heading home my friend and I stopped at a bank machine. She went first and put her RBC bank card in. Confused I told her mine didn’t work. She said did I try other machines because she’s been using hers all over Thailand without an issue.

I tried my bank card and it worked.

I did cash advances for weeks when I didn’t need to

#43

I ate a meal with raw vegetables at a gas station on the bus from Kathmandu to Delhi. Big mistake, was ill the remainder of the trip.

#44

Not paying the train fare in Munich and getting busted by the secret ticket inspectors

#45

Hour layover at CDG

Image credits: DeadliftsnDonuts

#46

I booked flights with kiwi.com

Image credits: Santikarlo

#47

I think there was someone who literally went to the wrong country. Instead if booking Puerto Rico he went to costa rica or aomething like that.
As for my self not a mistake but really sucked getting covid overseas and be isolated in a foreign country and couldn’t get back home.

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