10 SCARY TRAVEL STORIES AND HOW TO AVOID THEM!

For really scary travel stories you only have to read daily news reports on the tragedies happening both home and abroad to feel terror stricken and overwhelmed.

And to quickly decide the world is an extremely dangerous place.

And that your dreams of travelling the world are fraught with mortal danger!

And, of course, it’s true… up to a point.

But that doesn’t mean you should stay home with your travel dreams wrapped in cotton wool just because we all know that life is inherently dangerous.

I’m here to tell you there is also beauty and humanity in the world.

It’s just that all the good stuff is not mentioned so much in the news.

Having travelled around the whole world twice – exploring over 60 countries over 10 nomadic years – and I can assure you there’s more good in the world than bad.

But, alongside sharing the good stuff, I’ve been asked if anything dangerous or scary has ever happened to me while travelling.

If I’ve ever felt threatened and unsafe while travelling.

And the answer is YES.

So, in this post, I’m going to address your questions on travel fears and travel safety.

And I want to encourage you to recognise and to accept your travel fears.

Because they are completely natural and absolutely normal.

And because there’s a lot you can actively do to keep yourself safe while travelling.

This post is NOT just about telling you to Be Brave and Bold Not Old.

It’s about helping you to navigate a scary situation and it begins with A Top Tip and concludes with A Lesson Learned.

So that if YOU ever find yourself in a similar potentially scary situation to the ones that I’m about to share – or if you ever feel out of your comfort zone while in an unfamiliar place – you’ll know exactly what to do to handle or to avoid the scary situation.

Travel with me through 10 real life scary travel situations!

Table Of Contents

SCARY TRAVEL STORIES

Because, in reality, travelling anywhere in the world shouldn’t be any more dangerous than travelling in your own country.

And being afraid of travel is just the same as being afraid of the unknown.

Yet, the unknown is simply something – good or bad – that we haven’t experienced yet.

In the same way that a stranger could be a great friend we just haven’t met yet.

To stay safe we must keep our wits about us and learn to trust our own inbuilt intuition.

For a start, we can be realistic, prepared, and savvy.

We should also be sensible, aware, and cautious.

And, importantly, we must learn to always trust our gut feelings.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

While travelling, I personally like to take onboard astronaut and commander Chris Hadfield’s advice in his wonderful book ‘An Astronauts Guide To Life On Earth’.

In his book, Commander Hadfield shares all the life skills he learned as an astronaut training to travel further away from home than most of us are ever likely to travel in our own lifetimes.

Commander Hadfield says, that first imagining and then anticipating all the scary stuff that could possibly go wrong while travelling, then planning in advance exactly what you might do to tackle the imagined and anticipated situation, will allow you to release the fears and the concerns you have about keeping safe.

So, in the spirit of anticipation and in being fully prepared, I’m now going to share with you my own real-life scary situations and how I dealt with them – and very importantly – what I learned about staying safe.

As a result, if you ever find yourself in the same scary situations while travelling you might feel more prepared and less afraid!

10 Scary Travel Stories

1: Scary Travel stories: a dangerous part of town during a blackout in Nassau Bahamas

Scary travel horror stories - A dark and dangerous place at night — *We’d been warned this part of Nassau was potentially dangerous at night.*

Top Travel Tip: Don’t drink so much alcohol that you lose track of time or the situation, and always plan ahead on how you will get back to your accomodation before setting out for an evening, especially in an unfamiliar area.

We’d been in the Bahamas for a few weeks, renting an Airbnb at Cable Beach, just outside Nassau.

One evening, my husband and I had travelled into town on a Jitney Bus to meet with a couple of new tourist friends we’d met earlier that day.

We’d arranged to meet for dinner and drinks at the famous Arawak Fish Fry area – a strip of beachside seafood restaurants and street food stalls offering local foods that are a famous tourist attraction.

We ended up staying out much longer than we’d intended. We were having fun and had found a bar with a nice vibe.

When the bar closed, just around midnight, we were the last to leave.

We decided we’d all share a taxi back up the road so went out to look for a taxi but found the street empty and quiet.

We’d all had quite a few drinks but I suddenly felt quite sober on realising we might have put ourselves in a precarious situation.

We’d been warned that this part of Nassau was a potentially dangerous place for tourists late at night.

And then, suddenly and unexpectedly, we were plunged into complete darkness.

There were no lights on anywhere and we soon realised this was a power cut situation.

We just stood there in the dark not knowing what to do. There were no taxis on the street.

There was nowhere open. The bar we’d just been in was now locked up.

We used our phones as torches but realised that we didn’t know any local taxi numbers.

Then suddenly a big truck appeared out of the darkness and stopped right beside us. I was scared.

The four of us were caught in its headlights and must have looked like frightened rabbits in a spotlight.

Luckily for us, the driver wasn’t about to rob us or kidnap or murder us. He simply wanted to offer his assistance.

He saw we were tourists and he knew we shouldn’t have been there.

He told us this wasn’t a good place for us to be so late at night and he offered us a ride back to the area where we were staying.

Seeing that he had lots of pots and pans and cooking paraphernalia in the back of his truck, and that he was obviously a street food vendor at the fish fry, we gratefully accepted.

As he dropped us off on the road where we were staying, we thanked him profusely for his kindness (and offered him some cash for his fuel and inconvenience).

But he refused to accept our money and instead, he told us that if we should ever see him lost and in the wrong place in our country, that we should stop to help him out.

Lesson learned: Take responsibility for your own safety but also know that not everyone is out to get you. There are good people everywhere in the world and, in my experience, the kindness of strangers is more widespread than you might expect.

2. scary travel stories: Thinking we might be kidnapped in Central America

Kidnapping scare scary travel stories — *I knew something was wrong. I had goosebumps. My heart was racing.*

Top Travel Tip: if you are unfamiliar with the place you are arriving – particularly at night – then prearrange with your hotel to send out a car or taxi to meet you. Ask for the driver to hold up a card with your name on it to avoid having to get into an unknown car at airport arrivals.

We’d arrived in Central America late at night on a planned layover flight into a city with a notorious reputation for being potentially dangerous especially at night. I’d prearranged by email for our hotel to send out a car for us.

After arriving at our hotel and after checking in, we walked a short distance to a nearby fast-food restaurant for something to eat. It had been a long flight and we were hungry.

Perhaps because it was quite late in the evening, the restaurant was empty.

We paid for and ordered our food and sat in a booth with our drinks.

It was then that I happen to notice an old car pull into the car park and park directly in front of the window.

The driver of the car looked right at me and for some strange reason I still can’t fully explain I felt spooked.

The man came inside the restaurant. He glanced the menu and then deliberately looked our way once more.

Once again, I happened to catch eye contact with him.

This time, I knew something was wrong. I had goosebumps. My heart was racing.

When the man went back to his car and I saw him still glancing our way and talking on his mobile phone, I took my hungry husband’s hand and I insisted that we were leaving immediately.

We hurried back to our hotel and locked ourselves in our room.

It’s not completely unheard of for tourists to get kidnapped and held for ransom in some parts of Central America.

We’ll never know if the danger that I instinctively felt was real or imagined.

I’m glad we never had to find out.

Lesson learned: Trust your gut. If a situation feels wrong act immediately to protect yourself and feel safe.

3. scary travel stories: Dealing with a drunk taxi driver in Asia

drunk taxi driver scary travel stories — *We could both smell alcohol and it seemed to be coming from the driver*

Top Travel Tip: Trust yourself. If something doesn’t feel right… then it probably isn’t.

We’d just flown into a big city in South East Asia that we’d visited many times before and so we felt confident about taking a registered airport taxi to our hotel.

Only, after climbing into the back seat of the taxi, my husband and I both sniffed the air and looked at each other.

We could both smell alcohol strongly and it seemed to be coming from the driver.

This time it was my backpacking husband who acted instinctively.

He turned to me he said “okay, we are getting out.”

Lesson learned: Don’t feel embarrassed about asserting yourself and putting your safety first in a compromising situation.

4. scary travel stories: Bus going off with our backpacks in Mexico

In Mexico a bus drove off with our backpacks. The Backpacking Housewife — *The bus continued on without allowing us to collect our backpacks*

Top Tip: When travelling try to keep your luggage in sight and keep your valuables on your person at all times.

This is a story that we laugh about now but when it happened it was quite stressful.

We were backpacking in Mexico. Having flown into Cancun, we travelled by public bus along the coast to spend some time in Playa del Carmen before heading over to the island of Cozumel on a ferry for a few days, then heading back to the mainland and continuing by bus onto Tulum to see the famous Mayan ruins.

When we identified our stop just outside Tulum – and saw our hotel just across the street – we alerted the bus driver to stop the bus and let us off.

The problem was that as soon as we had stepped down off the bus, he continued on, without allowing us to collect our backpacks from the luggage compartment under the bus.

We watched him drive away in stunned silence for a moment.

Then we saw another bus coming along the road.

We ended up chasing the bus with our backpacks on it all across town on the second bus until we were able to retrieve our stuff!

Lesson learned: If the unexpected happens – don’t panic – look for a solution!

5. scary travel stories: Tarantula in the bed in the Caribbean

a tarantula spider on the bed — *We came home to find an enormous and hairy tarantula spider crawling on our bed.*

Top Tip: In preparation for your trip, research your destination for any potential dangers.

We’d been on a small island in the Caribbean for a week and rented a small house in a tropical garden.

There were beautiful flowers and plants everywhere and trees laden with banana and cashews and coconuts – but unknown to us – this is a perfect habitat for the tarantula spider.

So, of course, not long after staying in the house we came home to find an enormous and hairy tarantula spider crawling on our bed.

I will admit to you that my heart was pounding because I didn’t know if these spiders are poisonous or not.

In fact, I’ve since learned they are not poisonous, but they have been known to ‘fire their hairs’ at you as a defence mechanism when they are afraid.

Feeling very afraid myself, I dashed next door to alert our landlady, who send her rather amused husband to extract the spider on our behalf while telling us that he ‘used to keep a tarantula spider as a pet when he was a child’.

In our bedroom, he approached the huge hairy beast with a broom onto which it dutifully crawled, before he put it back out into the garden.

Lesson learned: When faced with local wildlife try and find a local person willing to come and help you deal with it!

6. scary travel stories: Scorpion Sting in Honduras

A scorpion in the shower — *A scorpion stung me!*

Top Tip: In tropical places, it’s good practice to have the contact number of a local doctor or health clinic in an emergency.

While in Honduras, Central America, I was horrified to be told by a friend there how she’d recently been stung on the hand by a small black scorpion.

She described the pain as horrific and ‘like being struck by a hammer’.

Her hand was horribly swollen and she told me she was still in a great deal of pain.

She also told me that on that island a scorpion’s sting wasn’t usually fatal. Good to know.

But that still didn’t stop me from feeling absolutely terrified when, just a few days later and while in bare feet, I happened to stand on a scorpion in my kitchen.

Firstly, I thought I’d stood on a small crab, as I felt it’s hard shell under my foot.

But a second later, I felt the pain. I’d been stung between my toes as its tail had lashed out at me for standing on it!

I’m afraid I screamed so loud that my husband was shocked and my neighbours all came running.

I expect they might have already guessed what had happened and immediately sprung into action on my behalf, applying ice and offering pain medication.

The medication helped over the next few hours and I slept for a while.

In the morning, I saw I had a big yellow poison-filled blister between my toes.

Only the week before, I’d had a near miss with a scorpion, when I saw one crawling across my foot while I was in the shower.

On that occasion, I didn’t scream. I froze.

I stood completely motionless waiting for ‘the hammer of pain’ to hit me or the scorpion to climb off my foot.

Luckily, it moved away and disappeared into a small crevice in the corner of the shower base.

I reckon it was the same one that crawled out and got me the following week.

After I was stung – I saw the scorpion escape from under my foot – he was successful in stopping me from crushing him.

We lived in that house for several months afterwards not really knowing where the scorpion went or if it would come back.

Lesson learned: I knew the scorpion sting wasn’t fatal but I was in danger of experiencing extreme pain. But it’s perhaps a good idea to acquire some knowledge of local wildlife while travelling – especially to tropical places – so you can assess the level of danger you might be facing.

7. scary Travel stories: A venomous snake in the house!

snake in the house by the backpacking housewife — *There’s a snake in the house!*

While we were housesitting in a fabulous chateau in South West France we had an encounter with a very large venomous snake.

Inside the chateau, the rooms were huge and the stone walls so thick that in the summer when temperatures outside were at their hottest – we had 42 degrees Celsius – inside the house always remained refreshingly cool.

This was probably why a large and very long snake decided to come inside and go to sleep behind a piece of furniture.

Having spotted the snake, we took a photo of it in order to identify it by its markings.

We discovered it was a viper – because it had slit-pupils rather than round pupils and from its distinct pattern and scales – and that it was highly venomous.

Not wanting to tackle it outside ourselves, while assuming there must be some kind of protocol in place for dealing with poisonous snakes in France, we went and sought the advice of our French neighbour.

We explained our situation and showed the photo on our phone.

He looked startled (both the snake and now our neighbour) and he confirmed that the snake was indeed very dangerous.

He immediately armed himself with a broom (in the same way as our neighbour in the Caribbean had armed himself to catch the tarantula spider!)

But… worryingly… when we all returned to the house we discovered the snake was no longer behind the dresser.

It was in fact nowhere to be seen.

We’d left the door open so had it slithered away on its own accord?

Or, was there a hole somewhere in the stone walls of the chateau, enabling it to enter and exit whenever it chose?

Lesson learned: We never did see the snake again. But, for the whole time that we lived at the chateau, I learned to be vigilant. I was always careful whenever I moved anything or cleaned the floors around the furniture anywhere in the house!

8. Scary travel stories: Dentist – root canal treatment in South Korea

The Backpacking Housewife at The Happy Dentist in South Korea scary travel stories — *The Backpacking Housewife at The Happy Dentist in South Korea*

Top Tip: Pre-empt any problems with your teeth while travelling by getting a full dental check-up before you travel.

Before the backpacking husband and I left Scotland UK having sold everything we owned in order to travel the world we had a checklist of preparations to travel.

One of the things on that list was to get a full dental check-up in order to pre-empt any future problems with our teeth while travelling.

So, I was both surprised and frustrated to find, just a few months into our travel itinerary and while on a small island in the Caribbean with no dentist that I had developed a toothache.

The tooth ached mercilessly for weeks and all I could do was swill it with rum and take a paracetamol.

Then, the pain seemed to settle down for a while, but started up again when we set off on our travels again.

We took a long flight to South Korea to visit our son and I think perhaps the plane’s cabin pressure started my toothache off again.

Thankfully, in South Korea, my son was able to arrange for me to see a dentist.

The dentist’s name when translated to English was ‘The Happy Dentist’.

But I wasn’t happy after my consultation to be told that I needed root canal treatment.

However, this did solve the problem of my excruciatingly painful toothache.

Lesson learned: Sometimes even when you try to pre-empt a situation you can’t avoid every possible scenario. What you can do is have a backup plan and that should certainly include having a travel insurance policy to cover any medical and dental emergencies while in another country. You might like to read a full post/article I’ve written about Travel Insurance Options.

9. scary travel stories: Getting a badly infected foot in Thailand

After cutting my foot badly in Thailand I eventually had a tattoo over the scar — *After cutting my foot badly in Thailand I eventually had a tattoo over the healed scar*

Top Tip: Sometimes accidents happen no matter how careful you are and that’s why you should never travel without travel insurance to cover any unexpected medical costs while abroad.

Hurting my foot in Thailand was actually an awful and extremely painful experience.

My husband and I were walking down a steep pathway (ridiculously steep for a path but that’s Thailand for you!) and the path had dried in the sun after heavy rainfall leaving a fine sand screed that I slipped on in my flip flops.

I went down so quickly that I believe if I hadn’t had my arm linked through my husband’s I would have probably broken a leg or something.

Anyway, the damage seemed to be superficial at first.

Just a very sore scrape to the top of my foot.

Three days later, however, and clearly the foot was horribly infected.

I cleaned and dressed the wound as best I could.

But with the heat and humidity in Thailand it is common for even a small abrasion to get infected.

I actually spared you the photos after my foot got horribly infected.

So I went to see a pharmacist and spent a small fortune on antiseptic cream and dressings but the foot soon got worse.

It looked horrible. It was so painfully infected that I couldn’t even put it down on the ground never mind walk on it.

But I went back to the pharmacist, who seemed concerned at seeing my foot in such a mess, and so cleaned it for me and prescribed a very strong course of antibiotics.

I can only describe the pain of having my infected foot cleaned as it being hit hard by hammers and slashed with glass both at the same time. It was excruciating.

The antibiotics started to work after a few days and the foot (eventually) healed.

But I was left with a nasty reminder of what had happened to me with a scar on the top of my foot.

A year later, I had the scar covered with a tattoo of a sea turtle in a coral garden, which I like much better.

Lesson learned: I was simply walking down a steep street after it had rained. I wasn’t drunk and I wasn’t being silly. But I slipped and fell and hurt myself. I know it could have been worse. Again, it’s important you have travel medical insurance.

If you are in your 50’s or 60’s or older it can be more expensive and difficult to get the right travel insurance for your needs.

So you might like to read a post I’ve written especially for you: Travel Planning – Travel Insurance For Over 50s.

10. scary travel stories: Suffering BITING FLIES

sandflies biting flies on the beach — *The sun was shining as I lay there feeling strange tingles all over my skin*

Top Tip: Do use insect repellent but also travel with antihistamine cream in case you encounter nasty bites from flies.

Many people prepare for their holidays in warm or tropical places by including an insect repellent in their packing essentials to deter mosquitoes from biting them and these often work well.

But there are biting and blood-sucking flies that can cause you terrible skin welts and skin swellings that many people like to call ‘no see um’s’.

These are tiny sandflies that are so small that you cannot actually see them.

And unlike mosquitoes (who mostly prefer to attack at dusk) sandflies are fully active at all hours of the morning, noon, and night!

I was blissfully unaware of the existence of sandflies when I took myself down to the beach to lay on my towel and sunbathe one afternoon while on a beautiful island in the Caribbean.

The sun was shining. Palm trees swayed. The sea was blue and gentle waves lapped the shoreline of the white sand beach.

As I lay there feeling strange tingles all over my skin.

I applied my sunscreen thinking I was getting ‘prickly heat’ and carried on trying to enjoy my afternoon.

Eventually, unbearably uncomfortable with my skin feeling itchy, I went for a swim.

Then, feeling restored, I went back to the beach to pick up my towel and head back home.

Home was the beautiful Caribbean style beach hut we’d just rented for our stay.

And where my backpacking husband suddenly cursed out loud like a pirate when he saw me.

I was unknowingly and absolutely covered in tiny red sandfly bites.

There was hardly a space between them but the worst were on my back from where I’d been lying on my towel on the sand.

My backpacking husband took a photo of my back so he could show me what it looked like and I was horrified.

A few hours later and the tiny red welts grew bigger and were so itchy and looked so awful that I was driven quite mad.

My only relief was an antihistamine ointment that we’d sensibly brought with us to the island in our emergency travel kit.

Lesson learned: Sandflies are common all over the Caribbean and in many tropical places. I’ve written a post on all the tips I learned about dealing with sandflies and treating sandfly bites and it’s one of the most popular and visited articles on this website! Suffering SandFlies – the dreaded no see um’s.

You might also like to read my post There’s a Hurricane Coming…!.

I do hope this post on scary travel stories has not put you off travelling.

Remember…

There is so much in this wonderful world to see and experience.

There are far more good people in the world than bad people.

The kindness of strangers is more widespread than might think.

In taking the advice of an astronaut and being proactive when dealing with our challenges, we’ve managed to come out of what might have been potentially expensive, troublesome, or even dangerous situations, unscathed.

So prepare yourself by taking a leaf out of Commander Hadfield’s wonderful book and equip yourself with the knowledge and tools to overcome any fears or reticence you may have about travelling near or far.

If you have any scary travel stories to share or worries or questions about travel abroad and you think I might be able to offer you some advice then please do leave a comment below or message me through my Contact Me form and I’ll do my best to help.