“My girlfriend and I needed therapy when we got home.”
Reddit useru/ujin-askedthe community: “What was the scariest moment you’ve had on vacation?”
The thread quickly filled with tales of travels gone very, very wrong.
Here’s what people shared:
1. u/Guerilla555
2.
“My uncle decided to mess around on a trail in Yellowstone near some hot pools.
He was walking backward on the trail and FELL OFF right onto the crust near the hot pools.
By sheer luck, he didn’t fall through.
I thought we were witnessing a man die.”
u/alizabs91
3.
Then we noticed, ‘Wow, that is a bizarre loud wave coming in.’
Our next thought was, ‘Wow, that big wave just keeps coming.
“The pre-smartphone days were rough; we had no idea what was happening.
It was a shock.
Overall, it was the scariest vacation moment I’ve had and the scariest day of my life.”
u/Azagsloth
4.
“I was snorkeling with my wife and son.
She was probably about 50 yards away, and everyone else in the area was about 30 yards away.
I was swimming and suddenly felt something start pushing me into the water.
He took water into his snorkel and started panicking, so he grabbed me.
I almost passed out from exhaustion when I got on the little boat.
I legitimately thought both my son and I were goners.
The thing is, we’re both good swimmers.
It was one of the scariest experiences of my life.”
u/SweetCosmicPope
5.
“We lost my baby brother at Seaside Heights Boardwalk.
My family went wild for about an hour.
We finally found him sitting outside a saloon surrounded by bikers and their chicks.
He had a bowl of popcorn and a tall soda.
u/Rosanna44
6.
“When I was 12, my dad took me to the Grand Canyon.
He said he’d stay put, but I could go.
I walked down the trail, like a switchback, only a little ways.
I was not the smartest kid.”
u/DueEntertainer0
7.
“I was on an overnight bus from Delhi to Dharmsala.
(I am female and was 26 at the time).
We stopped at a gas station at night to use a restroom.
I sprinted after it, repeatedly screaming, ‘No!’
at the top of my lungs.
Someone must have heard or seen me, and the bus stopped.
I truly do not know what I would have done had I been left behind.”
u/liabt
8.
“We were on our honeymoon and flying into the Toronto airport.
We were about to land to make a connecting flight overseas when we heard grinding under the plane.
Everyone, hey take your seats and buckle your seatbelts.
We’re going to delay our approach.
hey bear with us.’
One of the flight attendants rushed towards the cockpit.
The seatbelt light went on, and I looked at my husband, who hates to fly.
He just gave me a look of pure dread and terror, not saying a word.
I knew this trip was my idea, so this was all my fault.”
“There was more grinding, and the plane tilted as we started to circle.
The pilot returned to the intercom and said, ‘All flight attendants to their seats, hey.’
Then, the pilot said, ‘Everyone, we have the landing gear down and engaged.
We will be landing shortly.
Thank you for your patience.’
The whole plane cheered when we landed.”
u/darkest_irish_lass
9.
He had some nasty bruises, but everyone was okay overall.”
u/Conquistador-Hanor
10.
A car pulled up that didn’t match the app description at all.
The car was the wrong model and had the wronglicense plate.
The driver yelled my name, acting super casual like, ‘It’s your Uber!
Come on in!’
My phone rang, and it was the actual Uber driver I requested.
He was confused about why I hadn’t gotten in the car yet.
He was looking straight at me!"
He even got out of the car at this point.
My friend and I ran back into the hotel lobby.
We explained 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, I don’t know what would have happened."
u/Moon2078
12.
“I was 13 on vacation overseas with my mom.
As a result, we got caught in a rip current without knowing what it was.
But the shore was empty, so I knew she just wanted me to leave her and save myself.
I grabbed her by the hand and swam as hard as I could.
u/Sleepy_Glacier
13.
“It was the mid-’70s, and we were in Casper, Wyoming, on a family vacation.
I was about 12 years old.
This put us in some very shady hotels over the years.
There was one bathroom on each floor.
When my dad asked for a room for two adults and four children, the clerk laughed.
We were put in a room with one bed and given an extra mattress to throw on the floor.
About halfway through the night, a commotion woke us all up.
We heard people shouting and furniture banging around.
I’ve never seen my parents pack a car faster in all of my life.”
u/Sparky3200
14.
“My appendix ruptured while on vacation in England.
Then, I had two days left before I flew home.
I was puking my guts out and crapping my brains out.
Tubes down my throat, oxygen in my nose, catheter down my pipe.
I was 15, and my parents didnt have passports, so I had to handle it myself.
u/PigeonFace
15.
“Remember that 2018HawaiiBallistic Missile false alarm?
I was visiting my brother and sister-in-law, and my girlfriend and I thought we were going to die.
It took 45 minutes or so for the correction to go out.
Everyone in public looked like they went on with their day just fine.
We remained shell-shocked the whole day, and my girlfriend and I needed therapy when we got home.”
u/Rigar_
16.
“I went vacationing in Mexico with my family when I was 9.
He told me he’d find me a new one mere moments before my father arrived.”
u/DoorstepCult
17.
“I got food poisoning while in Japan.
I was with a tour group on a bus with no bathroom when the diarrhea struck.
I had to wait until we arrived at our stop, which was five agonizing minutes away.
And it’s not like anyone spoke English, which made it harder.
It took 10 minutes of me searching, all while holding in impending diarrhea before I finally found one.
10 minutes is an eternity when you’re holding in liquid poop.
u/ipissnapalm
18.
“I got bitten on the neck by a cheeky monkey in a park in Vietnam.
I did not have a rabies vaccination and had to rush to the nearest hospital to get the shot.
It was scary as hell.
I was traveling solo.”
u/Honey-bee542
19.
“I arrived at the airport in my long-distance girlfriend’s country.
I wastraveling alone, and she was coming to pick me up.
), which I obviously declined.
Then, one guy called out to me by name and said he was sent to pick me up.
I called my girlfriend to ask about it.
She freaked out and told me to return to the airport immediately until she arrived to get me.
So, I guess I almost got kidnapped or something?
I have no logical explanation as to how they knew my name.”
u/unsoldburrito
20.
“We were on our way back from a small trip.
It was about a three-hour drive on all back roads with few places to pass.
We got stuck behind two semis.
My partner kept insisting I go past them, but something told me not to.
He pushed it for about five minutes, but I just would not.
Something in me said no.
You could see the smoke coming off the tires.
If I had tried to pass, we would have been hit.
I fully believe we would have died.
It was a silent ride home.”
u/Megnuggets
21.
“While studying abroad in New Zealand, I took a solo trip to the South Island.
I was supposed to go with a few friends, but they canceled at the last minute.
This was my first solo trip ever, and I booked a few hostels along the way.
There was a French man who I immediately noticed upon arriving at my hostel in Queenstown.
I remember him saying something odd to me.
Then, after a day at the hostel, he moved into my room.
He then spent an entire afternoon in the room staring at me while I watched YouTube in my bed.
I told him off and had a worker at the hostel change me to a private room.
I gathered my stuff and booked it out of there the next day.
I was 20, and it was my first solo travel experience.
u/shimmysticks
22.
I photographed a dead end with roots coming down the wall.
u/placeholderNull
23.
I kept watch, and we passed each other with no incident.
u/jwangy84
24.
“I was about 11 years old while on vacation at the beach with my family.
My father came out to save me.
u/k_marts
25.
A guy answered and told me I had the wrong room.
It’s terrifying to think about what could’ve happened, especially as a kid.”
My dad yelled at me, ‘Get off in the next station.’
That brief ride to the next station was the longest wait of my life.
My dad finally arrived on the next train, but that was a horrible and traumatic experience.
Thank god for good samaritans; it could have been awful.”
u/zevoruko
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
