crazy travel

25 Crazy Travel Stories You Need To Read To Believe

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Table of Contents

What is your craziest travel story?

That is exactly what I asked some of my favorite bloggers.

The result?

A list of 25   truly crazy travel stories you need to read to believe!

While this compilation has many funny travel stories, you’ll also find scary stories, wild road trip journeys, and outrageous anecdotes that will make your heartbeat quicken as you imagine yourself along for the ride. Honestly, some of the stories below might even make you tear up.

Like many of the best travel stories tend to do, they’ll certainly make you feel something, and will likely leave you with an important life lesson, as well.

Make some popcorn, grab a beverage, and settle in, as you’re about to travel around the world through short crazy travelogues!

Experience Travel #BeyondTheGuidebook [Free Personality Quiz]

Before we dive into some of the craziest travel stories you’ve ever heard, I want to invite you to take my free travel personality quiz .

This short and fun quiz helps you uncover your perfect type of trip based on your answers.

Not only that, but your results come with suggestions for unique trips you won’t find in your guidebook.

Once you get your results, feel free to share them on social media using the #BeyondTheGuidebook hashtag to keep sharing and discovering incredible journeys.

On that note, let’s dive into these great travel stories sharing truly shocking moments from the road.

Can You Believe These Crazy Travel Stories?

1. crazy encounters on the bus in south america.

My journal pages are filled with interesting short travel stories from riding the bus in South America .

One of these craziest experiences took place when I was riding from Cuzco to Lima in Peru.

Now, if you’ve ever ridden this windy bus leg, you know it’s almost impossible not at least feel a little ill. Honestly, if you’re only a bit queasy and not puking out the window, you’re lucky.

Somehow I actually didn’t feel that unwell, though at one point I did need to use the restroom. Luckily, this bus had a toilet in the back.

Or maybe that was unlucky, because as I walked down the aisle, a man stood in the center, blocking me.

“Perdóneme? Perdóneme?! Perdóneme??!!” I said, asking to be excused multiple times.

He didn’t budge. Instead, he stared at me with vacant eyes, almost like his soul had left his body.

As I stood there trying to pinpoint what was wrong with this man — and also how I could get him to move before I peed my pants — he proceeded to projectile vomit on the both of us.

On the plus side, he bent his head down at he did it so it mainly got on my shoes and pants and not my face…Yay?

This is one of the many funny crazy stories I have from this trip.

-Jessie from Jessie on a Journey

2. A crazy experience getting high in India

If you love short funny trip stories , then you won’t want to miss this next one:

In the humorous video above, I share about trying bhang lassi in Varanasi — and the very unexpected and wild night that ensued because of it.

By the way, if you’ve tried bhang lassi before, I’d love to know in the comments of the video if you had a similar experience.

Or is it just me?

Either way, this is one of my funniest travel stories from the road and one of the India travel stories I always love to share!

-Jessie of Jessie on a Journey

3. An ordeal in Madrid

One of my craziest travel experience stories happened when I was on a gap year in Grenoble, France, and mum and I were invited to Estepona, Spain, by a friend. We had three days of fun and on the fourth day were driven seven hours to Barajas Airport for our flight back to Lyon .

I’m a bookworm and once engrossed in a book, I’m truly lost. This got me in trouble when it was time to check-in and my bag had disappeared.

My bag…with my passport and film camera, gone!

We asked the people around us, but nobody saw anything.

Cue panic, frantic conversations in broken English, and gesticulations to find security to report.

We finally found airport security, filled out a form, and were told that most likely it was a cleaner that stole it when I was occupied as such theft was common there. There was nothing to be done but report it to the U.S. Embassy.

“What’s the embassy address, please?”

“I don’t know.”

Okay then. Looks like we’re in for a long weekend.

This was a Saturday evening.

Stranded in Madrid with not many Euros, my mum’s card only worked in France so we had no way of paying for a hotel until Monday. We dug up some coins to use a payphone to call our host in Estepona to explain the situation, ask for some Euros (to be repaid), and help with rescheduling departure.

Somehow, we got a taxi and had him take us to a cheap hotel which I’m sure was used for “alternative purposes.” Honestly, I felt that people thought that we were prostitutes — from their leers and us not having Euros to pay — since we were Black female travelers .

While there was definitely a language barrier when trying to request a room without putting a deposit down, we somehow got it.

We also asked for Western Union to receive Euros from our host, deciding that if I couldn’t get my passport on Monday, we’d insist on an emergency travel document. So, our host rescheduled tickets back to Lyon for Monday night.

I barely remember Madrid because of the stress; the language barrier, trying to find the U.S. Embassy, and having difficulty finding anybody willing to communicate with us.

Luckily, someone finally took pity on us and provided an information number to call. Thank goodness, because at this point we had little cash to get by until our wire transfer arrived.

On Monday morning, my mum and I got into a cab and gave the driver the address to the embassy. He recognized it immediately, and let us know that it was blocked and he couldn’t drop us at the gate.

This was confusing until we got there and saw these giant rock-like obstructions placed in a maze-like pattern on the walk towards the gate, and it wasn’t a straight walk either. I’m pretty sure we were being monitored via sniper rifles, which was incredibly nerve-wracking!

We reached the gates alive, asked for Consular Services, and headed in. I had no other details or documents to prove citizenship — it was 2002, so we didn’t have smartphones.

Luckily, the Universe and copious tears helped as I remembered I was a dual citizen and they could verify in their database from that. I wasn’t living in the U.S. at that point so double whammy.

I got a new passport in an hour after I cried that I couldn’t stay in Madrid and just wanted to return to France that day.

It probably helped that my mum scolded me again in their presence and they felt I’d suffered enough.

We had checked out and took our luggage to the embassy so they saw that we were serious about leaving. Thankfully, we made it to Lyon and caught a bus to Grenoble.

I’ve never been to Spain since then as that was a traumatic experience. I know it doesn’t represent the country as a whole, but it definitely soured my appeal for Madrid, at least.

– Ena from Musings and Adventures

4. A short travel story about a long way home

In March 2020 we were happily campervanning in Puglia — in the far south of Italy — when the Italian government announced a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

We were traveling 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) in a straight line to our home in southern Poland, and we knew we either had to head there immediately or we would have to stay in Italy for an indefinite period.

We didn’t want to go through northern Italy, but a phone call told us that the Albanian ferry was not an option. For a moment we considered taking a boat from Rome to Spain, which was virus-free at the time. Fortunately, in retrospect, I had a feeling against this, and so we decided to make a beeline up the Italian motorways for home.

The Italian roads were deserted apart from heavy goods vehicles, and we crossed into Slovenia easily. We found a lovely little isolated farm on a hill and thought we would stay there for a week or so to self-isolate while this thing blew over.

The next day our host asked if we could leave as we had been in Italy and he was nervous about that.

News had come through that Poland would be closing its borders within days.

A straight road home through Hungary was already closed, so from the quaint rural idyll of Slovenia we turned north-west and joined the big Austrian autobahns, and now we wanted to head north-east to go back home through Slovakia.

From the Slovak border to our home it’s only a 400-kilometer (250-mile) drive. Unfortunately, the Slovakian border guards turned us away.

This border was already closed.

We headed west and tried the Czech border, and the same happened; this border was closed as well.

It looked like we were stuck in Austria, though there was one more option:

Drive around the Czech Republic and go through Poland through Germany — just an extra 1,000 kilometers (621 miles).

The Austrian – German border was easy to cross, but unfortunately, the long drive wasn’t kind to our van and approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the border the van broke down.

In all of this misery, we found a great car mechanic’s workshop. The diagnosis took only a few minutes, but waiting for the new part took an additional day.

Finally, on the eighth day of our trip, we were on our way home with a brand new driveshaft.

We arrived at the Polish border after queuing for a whole day on the roads. We felt so fortunate to be in our vehicle with all home conveniences, while so many others sat out the long day and evening with their families packed into small cars.

We crossed at exactly midnight.

And finally, home.

Talk about crazy road trip stories!

The Polish border guards had taken our address and contact details, and we spent the next fortnight after our 3,500-kilometer (2,175-mile) 10-day road trip in statutory home quarantine. Our quarantine was administered by a phone app and police visit to check if we were home and to bring us milk for coffee.

– Ania from The Travelling Twins  

5. Stuck in the Troodos Mountains

Our craziest travel story happened in Cyprus in 2015. We had booked an expensive spa day in the Troodos Mountains and after a wonderfully relaxing day where we had massages, facials, and the works we came to pay on our credit card.

After trying a few times and ascertaining we didn’t have enough cash to pay, we ended up leaving our passports as a guarantee to come back and pay the following day. After checking our online banking, we realized we had made the worst rookie mistake:

We hadn’t authorized the credit card to be used abroad. So, we ended up withdrawing the cash using our debit card and incurring foreign transaction fees that we were trying to avoid.

The following day we set off back up the mountain to pay our dues and retrieve our passports when nearing the top of the mountain our hire car came spluttering to a halt. We had checked the digital fuel gauge before setting off and had a quarter of a tank that now was empty.

We did the only thing we could think of and called a local guy we had been scuba diving with earlier that week to ask if he happened to know of a fuel station nearby.

After a quick Google he found that there was one two miles back down the mountain in a tiny village we had passed through. We managed to freewheel the car back down the winding mountain road to the village and into the fuel station…

…only to find it was closed because it was Sunday!

Now we were panicking, stuck halfway up a mountain with little to no cash, no passports and now no car when a lorry driver pulled into the station.

He came over to ask if we were okay and even though he didn’t understand much English he worked out our dilemma and pointed us to where the lorries fill up.

There was the option to pay at the pump!

Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers , as he helped us out with the pump and the machine, which was in Cypriot, and we thanked him profusely and continued on our way.

We arrived at the spa 10 minutes before they closed and were able to settle our bill and retrieve our passports.

– Steph from Book It Let’s Go

6. Experiencing the deepest earthquake ever recorded

We had no idea what was going on.

We had just completed an incredibly complicated set of instructions which led us to our Airbnb “cozy room” in Tokyo, and cozy it was indeed.

The whole bathroom was a kind of prefabricated pod — such as you might find on an airplane — and the bedroom was compact, to say the least.

I woke up with a white wine hangover from a wild celebratory night to a most unexpected sensation:

The whole room was swaying in a peculiar manner from side to side.

My friend Julie was up and screaming “what’s happening, what’s happening?” as if I had any clue. We had only just got there for heaven’s sake.

I was very woozy but my mind was working.

“I think it’s an earthquake,” I said calmly.

“What?!” she screamed.

I staggered out of bed and all I could think of doing was to Google “what to do in an earthquake.”

“Get underneath a table,” I read.

I looked ruefully at the very small table in the room.

Then I noticed a helpful “bedroom browser” laminated guide which was actually on the small table that I hadn’t noticed before.

The room stopped swaying and then started again lurching this time from side to side like a drunken sailor. The cups were shaking and I was feeling rather sick.

Sure enough, the bedroom browser had a section on what to do in an earthquake. It noted that all buildings in Tokyo were earthquake-proof, though if you were worried the door frames could protect you as they were all reinforced steel.

We didn’t feel particularly protected. Julie rushed downstairs to seek assistance, though she was met with a shrug from the old lady downstairs who simply replied that Japan sometimes shakes.

By now, I’d emailed our Airbnb hosts, who also noted that Japan sometimes had earthquakes, but that they were almost always small.

Well, the earthquake we experienced that night in the Shibuya District of Tokyo was the deepest ever recorded. It was 677 kilometers (421 miles) down, which is almost incomprehensible.

Although the epicenter was off the coast of the Ogasawara Islands, it shook the whole of Japan and the aftershocks were felt as far away as India and Nepal. The center of the earth actually bubbled up through the pavement in some places.

I was aghast that it got so little international attention. It didn’t cause a tsunami — the more shallow quakes actually do this — and no nuclear power plants were affected — but it was still a crazy experience.

– Elaine from Eccentric England

7. A scary travel story about a time I nearly drowned in Zimbabwe

This is one of the scariest travel stories I’ve ever shared and a truly crazy experience.

Wandering around Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, my travel companion and I saw a sign that read “Go whitewater rafting in the Zambezi.”

We figured, why not?

At the raft landing, a guy was giving instructions. I remember him saying, “Whatever you do, if the raft overturns, don’t let go of the rope.”

The safety equipment and the raft itself looked worn but we imagined that’s how frequently-used equipment should look.

We were not rafting experts, but one thing we knew for sure was that Level 6 rapids were only for extreme adventurers — not novices booking tours — everywhere in the world. Rapids go from Level 1 to Level 5 like a roller coaster in the water, but for tours, you never see a Level 6.

Once we were in the raft and rapidly rushing down the river, our guide, Banu, turned to me with a smile and noted we were going to experience Level 6 rapids. I was shocked and looked for a way to the shore, but it was too late. We were already about to encounter our first rushing rapid.

Whenever I think about the travel horror story that unfolded next, I see everything in slow motion:

The raft began to overturn. As I continued to hold on to the rope, I realized that the raft was tipping at such an angle that I must either release the rope or my arm was going to break. In that nanosecond, I calculated that I had a better chance of surviving with both arms than with one broken arm despite the guide’s warning to not let go.

We were immediately sucked into a whirlpool further and further into the dark water. I struggled toward the light above me thinking if I didn’t reach the surface within the next few seconds, I wasn’t going to make it.

At that moment, I had an overwhelming sense of disappointment that I was going to end my life then and there.

Suddenly I reached the surface but saw the raft too far away. I could hear another rapid coming and knew I couldn’t survive another drop without a raft.

One of the men that had been in the raft with me had also overturned but he managed to hold on to the rope. I could see in the distance he was debating whether to let go and reach for me to pull me in, risking his own safety, or to continue holding on like he was instructed.

He let go, reached me, and pulled me in.

We made it back safely. Later I found the guy who helped me and brought him and his wife a drink.

– Talek from Travels With Talek

8. A memorable train journey

Towards the end of my semester abroad in Florence , I decided to visit my friend from Brno. We agreed to meet in Vienna, so I purchased dirt-cheap tickets for a 12+ hour overnight train from Venice in coach.

I was self-assured by my ability to travel solo by then, so this didn’t phase me. But, within an hour of getting on the train, a man came to sit in my cabin across from me.

He was Indian, but I remember him so distinctly because he spoke German. And he was a very loud man.

About five hours in, my eyes were getting heavy. I noticed his fleeting glances, but I shrugged it off as curiosity. At 2am, it was hard not to drift to sleep.

Sometime past 3am, I was woken up. This man had moved across the cabin to sit in the seat immediately next to me. He was shaking my shoulder aggressively, demanding, “Massage? MASSAGE?’

“Ummm, excuse me?”

My heart started thudding like bricks. I tried to move cabins but was dismissed by the clearly exhausted conductor.

Miserably, I slumped back down in my seat, with Massage Man across from me for four more agonizing hours until we finally reached his stop. The entire way, I sat fighting back every urge to fall asleep as best as I possibly could.

I shook off the incident and had the time of my life that weekend. My friend and I visited Austria, the Czech Republic, and even Slovakia in just four days!

On my ride home, I was in a cabin full of businessmen. I sighed to myself, thank goodness.

But after a few short hours, they had disappeared, one by one. I was left, once again, alone in a cabin with not a man this time, but a boy. He was maybe 16, and he was crying.

My heart sunk. This was going to be another difficult ride.

What I learned was that this boy was Syrian. His family was nowhere to be found, but he had an uncle living outside of Venice that he was supposed to meet. He spoke virtually no English or Italian, and he was clearly distraught.

The first few hours were uncomfortable but I could feel him opening up, calming down.

We spent the final hour of our train ride playing Pictionary. I wrote every Italian phrase I thought might help him on a piece of paper and shoddily illustrated what each sentence meant, watching as he shook his head or nodded in understanding.

As the doors closed behind him at the train station in Venice and I made my way back to Florence, I watched him slowly disappear, paper clutched in hand. I remember the subtlest hint of a smile forming at the edge of his mouth, though there were still tears in his eyes.

You could say that moment was enough to exonerate the craziness that was Massage Man. And maybe it was. Because even though I was shaken up by the weekend’s series of events, the very next Friday I boarded a flight for yet another solo trip destined for Portugal .

And there have been countless solo trips since.

– Rachel from Rachel Off Duty

9. Handcuffed in Berlin

My crazy travel story involves a case of faulty handcuffs.

I was leading a student trip in Berlin a few years ago, and as we strolled along the banks of the Spree, we came across a number of pop-up stands selling World War II memorabilia.

Hats, badges, and bits of the demolished Berlin Wall crowded the tables. My students skipped over anything historical and went straight for a pair of metal handcuffs.

A student named Alex ended up buying them, putting them on with both hands held out in front of him. Unfortunately, immediately after posing for pictures he realized the key to open them didn’t work; it just kept turning in the hole.

The original seller was no help, he didn’t have a key that worked. Alex was stuck!

We walked a few blocks down to a bike shop, hoping that they might have a tool that would be helpful for opening handcuffs. The well-intended bike repairman took a stab at opening them with his wrench, but as we heard a click-click we realized he had actually made them tighter!

Time being of the essence for Alex’s slightly blue fingers.

We decided to head to Alexanderplatz where we knew there would be a policeman. No one offered to help us as we walked, and I later questioned what type of city Berlin was that no one stopped to question why there was a woman with a boy walking down the street in handcuffs at 3pm.

We finally found a good-humored policeman in Alexanderplatz and as he wearily looked at Alex’s bound hands I used my one semester of German to explain “Wir haben ein Problem.”

He laughed and took us to the police station where he came out with a terrifying tool that was finally able to cut off Alex’s handcuffs.

Hopefully, this is the only school trip I ever have to chaperone that involves handcuffs!

– Kristin from Growing Global Citizens

10. Crazy storms in Algonquin Park

Here’s a story about what not to do on a canoe trip.

I was part of a guided multi-day canoe trip in Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada — the largest Provincial Park in Ontario. It can be pretty remote in the interior.

With clear skies in the forecast, our group made a day trip from our camping site to a beautiful sandy beach. Beside the beach — up on a hill — sat a small wooden cabin which had been boarded up.

That afternoon, we swam and relaxed without a care in the world. But when it was time to leave, the wind had changed direction creating large waves that crashed into the beach. We now couldn’t launch the canoes from the beach without tipping. So, the group decided to wait it out.

While we were waiting, the sky became very dark and the clouds looked rippled. The wind began to kick up sand and create bigger swells that crashed the shore. Then the rain and lightning started — further away at first and then much closer.

It became apparent that this storm was coming right for us.

People started to panic. We couldn’t head for the trees because they were falling. We couldn’t head for the water because of the waves. We couldn’t stay on the beach because of the lightning. So, we were trapped, and the storm was getting worse.

In a split-second, we made a decision:

Someone pried a board off one of the cabin’s windows, smashed the glass with a rock, climbed inside, and opened the door for all of us to scramble inside. I will never forget running along the beach towards the cabin in wind and rain so disorientating we could hardly see.

Luckily, everyone — a few dozen people — got into the cabin safely. The group was soaked and some were in tears. Others just watched the storm in awe.

After the storm passed, it became too late in the day to leave the beach so everyone had to sleep in that cabin. Thinking we would be back at the campsites that evening, only one group had brought their food barrel so we all had to ration spoonfuls of a pasta dinner.

Early the next morning we canoed double the amount to make up for the lost time. We later found out that the storm system produced a tornado that had touched down in the area!

 – Eric from Ontario Away

11. The sailing trip turned drug-running operation in Indonesia

If you’re looking for crazy real stories, get ready for this one.

Our boat weighed anchor in a small bay off the beach of a small island that was part of the eastern islands in Indonesia, the ones located between Lombok and Flores.

The crew gathered us for a briefing of our stop and, unlike other stops, informed us that disembarking would not be optional. We would all leave the boat and partake in a hike to the center of the island to swim in a series of natural waterfall pools.

Despite the protests of a few passengers who were not up to a hike, we loaded into the small boats and were brought to shore.

Nobody was staying on the boat and nobody would be staying on the beach. Reaching the beach, I began to swing my leg over the side to leave the boat when several men stepped out from the tree line. It took me all of two seconds to realize they were holding guns.

I hesitated, along with the rest of my fellow travelers. Our eyes locking in an instant of terror.

“So, this is how this happens,” I thought, envisioning the headlines across western news:

“Travelers go missing in Indonesia” or “Travelers held for ransom in Indonesia.”

I knew how this could end.

We looked to our guides, who at the time looked chill and unphased by the men on the beach. They calmly told us to exit the boat, as this is where we would start the hike.

Unsure what other options we had, we all hopped onto the beach, gathered ourselves, and began following one of our guides into the jungle.

Tailing the rear of our group was one of the armed men. Trotting to the front, I asked our guide why there were men on the beach with guns, for one, and why we were being escorted by one on our “hike.”

He looked at me, smiled, and said, “He’s just here to make sure we don’t leave early.”

To the surprise of our whole group, 40 minutes of slogging along a jungle trail found us at the waterfall we had been promised.

Trying to relieve our anxiety, we all proceeded to spend the next 90 minutes swimming in the pools, exploring the area, and pretending that what we had just seen was a hallucination.

The anticipation was undeniable as the beach drew closer on our return. What would we see? Would this be the part where we were kidnapped? Shot?

My imagination was running wild as the trees opened up to the beach. Much to our surprise, we were brought directly to the small boats, while the armed beach men watched from the tree line.

Moving my camera to the side to get in the boat, they stepped slowly back into the trees, perhaps thinking I was attempting a photo opportunity. I’m not that stupid, but at least they didn’t overreact.

Boarding the main boat again, the crew acted as if nothing happened. They prepared lunch and chatted with us about the afternoon activities.

Of course, none of us could let it go.

That night, we made our way to the front of the boat to watch the sunset. It was at that point we all realized that the more than 100 large blue barrels that had been sitting in the space below us, were gone.

– Lina and David from Divergent Travelers

12. Robbed of everything on my solo trip to Europe

I have been a solo traveler for over six years, and the crazy travel story I’m about to share — which takes place on a two-plus-month solo trip through Europe — has been my worst experience so far.

Missing two busses in a row to Bruges, I decided to go to Brussels instead, arriving by an overnight Flixbus at Brussel-Noord station early in the morning.

Getting off the bus, I placed my bag down for a few seconds to put on my jacket. It probably took less than 30 seconds, but when I looked down to pick the laptop bag, it was gone!

In total shock, I thought of at least collecting my backpack from my bus first; however, when I walked to the other side of the bus where it had been stored, I realized in shock that it was also gone.

I had to be hallucinating. How was this possible?

I checked with the driver. He looked around, but of course, it was gone. What was even more startling was that he replied calmly that robbery was quite common there and then he left. I didn’t receive any contact number, let alone support from Flixbus.

So on just my fifth day in Europe, in less than two minutes, I had lost almost everything — 200+ Euros, my credit and debit cards, my clothes, and my laptop.

Being a full-time travel blogger , losing my laptop — my bread and butter — was a huge blow. I was alone in a new city with no one that I knew and nowhere to go. I will never forget the anxiety, anger, and fear as I sobbed.

Luckily I was wearing a sling bag, where I had kept my passport and mobile phone. After a while, I called people back home and found connections from friends about someone in the city.

He arrived and took me to the police station, and let me stay in his apartment until I sorted things.

After two days, I shopped for everything, gathered some courage, and continued the rest of my trip. It was a crazy experience indeed!

Reshma from The Solo Globetrotter

13. Accused of kidnapping in China

We took our first international family trip to Beijing when our son was five months old. Although we were nervous about the flight, we were also excited to explore the city and walk on the Great Wall of China.

During our time in Beijing, we had a lot of fun and were photographed a lot — which we expected, being two Black women with a biracial son. A woman even chased us down the street to ask if our son was Korean.

Overall, it was an interesting experience, but our story starts when we were departing Beijing.

While at the airport, we were waiting to go through security and were pulled aside for questioning. We were surprised and confused, especially as we were escorted to a small room with security with our baby.

When we got into the room we were suddenly hit with a barrage of questions:

Where was our son born?

Who is his father?

Did we have pictures of the birth?

Who carried the baby?

Could we prove he was our son?

I was shocked, as I considered that we were being accused of kidnapping.

How could we have kidnapped our own son when we received a Chinese visa and had no problems when we arrived?

Their questions didn’t make sense given the fact we provided all of the required documentation to receive the visa.

After getting over the initial shock, we showed pictures throughout my pregnancy, our son’s birth certificate, pictures taken immediately after his birth, our donor contract, and a statement from our fertility doctor.

Luckily, we had all of the documentation handy because we were going through the adoption process — to avoid things like this in the future.

Once they reviewed the documentation, they were satisfied that we did not kidnap our son and we boarded our flight back to San Diego.

– Corritta and Mea from It’s a Family Thing

14. An intimidating encounter in Venezuela

The first time I traveled abroad was to Venezuela. I was 24, incredibly naïve, and spoke no more Spanish than you’d find on a Taco Bell menu.

During my trip, I intended to fly from one part of the country to another for a couple of days. Thinking something along the lines of, “Well, I won’t be leaving the country,” I left my passport in the safe inside my room at the resort where I was temporarily living.

At the airport and in line to board my plane, an angry camouflage-adorned man with an automatic weapon as tall as me pulled me aside and loudly demanded to see my passport.

I tried explaining that I’d left it in my room — and what the hell did I need it for anyway since I wasn’t even leaving the country — and whatever else I thought would help.

The entire time he was yelling at me in Spanish, waving the hand that wasn’t hovering over the trigger, and getting angrier by the minute. This is also while my plane was boarding without me.

Just at the moment when I think I’m for sure about to get locked up abroad, a tiny elderly Venezuelan woman approaches and shoves herself between us.

She, apparently completely aware of what was going on, proceeded to yell back at the man whose gun was definitely larger than her. He yelled at her, she yelled back, she pointed at me, he pointed at me, they both yelled some more.

Before I knew it, the intimidating angry officer turned and left. She smiled timidly as I thanked her and walked away without a word.

I have no idea what they said to each other. I didn’t even know why the whole situation took place until I read the news a few days later.

As it turned out, my trip had coincided with the 2007 Venezuelan constitutional referendum, an election in which Hugo Chavez sought to abolish presidential terms, therefore potentially becoming president of Venezuela forever.

This was also during a time of heightened tensions between Chavez and now former U.S. President George W. Bush — a time during which Chavez had accused Bush of sending Americans to Venezuela to tamper with the election.

Unbeknownst to me, I’d fallen right into this national suspicion. Chavez ended up losing that election, his first and only loss in his nine-year presidency, and a loss I had nothing to do with. I swear.

– Ashley from My Wanderlusty Life

15. When upsetting experiences turn into inspiring travel stories in Costa Rica

Driving on a rural dirt road in Costa Rica in Central America, we were miles from anywhere. We stopped along the road to snap a photo of the bright yellow Sloth Crossing sign when something moved in the yard of a run-down shack and startled me.

Suddenly, a spider monkey came running on the ground toward me, but just as quickly its head was jerked back when the tether it was chained to ran out, flipping it back onto its belly.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The small female was tethered to a clothesline by a tight collar around her neck. She looked into my eyes and seemed to plead for me to do something. Anything.

The house looked abandoned, we had no cell phone and felt helpless. We couldn’t risk trespassing and a confrontation with her captor. Though we knew it was illegal to hold monkeys in captivity, we were in a foreign country, with no one to turn to and just a few hours until we had to leave.

So we did the only thing we could think of:

Took photos of her captivity, noted the latitude and longitude of our location and the direction we’d taken from Puerto Viejo, and begged her forgiveness at having to leave.

As soon as we arrived at the airport the next morning, I emailed our friends at the Jaguar Rescue Center who had expertise in rescuing and rehabilitating monkeys. I was certain they could help.

After we got home, weeks passed with no word, until one day an email came from the owner Sandro, written in Italian.

He thanked me for our call for help. They’d followed my directions and found the monkey, still chained to her tether. After weeks of nourishment and care, they released her back into the jungle.

But then something even more amazing happened.

A female spider monkey they had released just weeks earlier, who’d been separated from a sibling and was always sad whenever she was left alone, came running from the jungle to embrace the new monkey being released.

It was the sibling she’d been separated from, and the two were finally reunited!

Sometimes just when you think there’s nothing you can do to change an impossible situation, the simple act of reaching out can make all the difference. This is truly one of the most amazing travel stories I’ve ever experienced.

– Lori from Travlinmad

16. Quarantined on an exotic island

My craziest travel story is also my most recent, a COVID-related misadventure that happened just before borders shut around the world.

The Philippines only had about 30 cases at this stage and had travel restrictions from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, but not Vietnam, where I was flying from.

On day three in the Philippines, one of my tour buddies had a slight fever at one of the mandatory temperature checks, which meant we had to head to a rural hospital for her to get checked before reaching our overnight stop in a small coastal town.

Hours later, she was taken to the main hospital on Palawan for further tests, and we continued to our overnight stop.

We finally made it to the tiny seaside town at 9pm — six hours behind schedule — where we were told by local authorities we weren’t allowed to set foot in the town due to health concerns.

After another two hours of sitting on the bus, it was decided last minute that until our friend got her results back, we were going into quarantine…

…on a private island, a short boat ride away!

We had 30 minutes to shower and pack a small bag of essentials before jumping onto a boat in the pitch black.

There was no power on the island except for a single light and no reception or showers. We slept in tents on the sand and spent the next day searching for turtles in the bay (we found one!), playing volleyball, and trying not to think about how long we’d be out there for.

Additionally, we consumed copious amounts of rum and sat around a bonfire at night sharing our craziest travel stories so far.

On the third day of being on the island, we headed out to a snorkel stop where our guide managed to get a spot of cell service. He was hoping for news on our tour mate, preparing for what we thought was the worst-case scenario, us being out there for 14 days.

What he didn’t expect to hear was that Manila was going into total lockdown in 36 hours and that we had to get back to the mainland, then the main city, then fly to Manila and all fly out of the country ASAP.

To break this down further, we had to get a boat to the mainland, then a bus to Puerto Princesa, and during the drive all 21 of us had to book flights from Puerto Princesa to Manila while every other tourist on the island was doing the same.

A bunch of us managed to get one of the first flights out at 7am, but others in the group missed out and spent the entire next day at the airport waiting for standby flights, finally being allowed onto one that landed at 11pm, an hour before Manila’s lockdown came into effect.

The following day we all had to book urgent flights back to our home countries, as Manila Airport was allowing foreigners to return home, but not to visit another destination. $2600 later, I was on a one-way flight to New Zealand, my home country where I haven’t lived for three years, to “move in” with my parents who I haven’t lived with in 10 years!

Absolutely.

But, was the island the coolest place in the world to be quarantined?

Oh, and my friend’s test came back negative, thank goodness!

– Alexx from Finding Alexx

17. From hell to heaven in Mumbai

Several years ago, I went to Mumbai to meet a friend booked into an Airbnb. Airbnb was still relatively new in India , so I knew I was taking a risk. But I never thought I would end up in the “chicken dungeon”!

The chicken dungeon was a large sub-basement room at the base of an apartment building; the only real window was a door to the tiny backyard filled with chickens wandering freely, squawking constantly, and making a mess.

Opening the door was unappealing, but keeping it shut plunged the room into dungeon-like darkness. It was a gloomy space and the only good thing about it was that my Facebook updates kept my friends entertained.

So after three days, I logged back into Airbnb and chose somewhere close by, but very different. I went to see it and when I walked through the door…

… it was like heaven.

The room was in a light-filled apartment, facing the Arabian Sea. Huge windows looked out to the shimmering waters; at sunset, I had a front-row view.

It was perfect, so I went back to the chicken dungeon, grabbed my things, and moved out. My friend arrived that day and I had to quickly change for the opening night of the Mumbai Film Festival.

First, we went to the opening ceremony, in a grand building that was still in the last stages of renovation. I had to go into a narrow hallway, still under construction, to find the women’s washroom.

At the first door I found, I gave a big push. It was the men’s room and Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan was coming out the door. I narrowly missed smacking him in the head, which would have been very bad as he was the emcee. It was my first “run in” with the Bollywood legend, widely considered the world’s number one movie star.

After the ceremony, we all went to the opening night party, which was at Antilia — the world’s most expensive house, with a cost of $2 billion USD to build.

In just one day, I went from the worst place I have ever stayed, the chicken dungeon, to the world’s most expensive house, an elaborate 27-story building in south Mumbai.

In India, everything is possible.

– Mariellen from Breathedreamgo

18. A knife fight on a bus

I looked down in disbelief at the big knife in my hand. I guess I had just been in my first “knife fight.”

After spending the most amazing time in a converted school bus in a Colorado village, I’d ridden the bus from Glenwood Springs to Denver in Colorado . I was keeping costs down on a two-month trip around the U.S.

The bus was completely full and as we clocked up the hours to Denver, the gentleman in the aisle seat opposite me started acting weirdly.

Initially friendly and chatty at the beginning of the ride, he started to get louder and more disturbed, smacking the chair in front of him. His Mountain Dew bottles — I later found out — were full of something that smelled like peach schnapps.

He hotboxed the only toilet on board, and coming back to his seat smelling of weed and booze.

He also started to get “friendly” with the girl in the seat next to him. I intently tried to mind my own business, being very British, slipping earphones in to listen to music, and gazing toward the front of the bus.

The man’s direct seat neighbor was tough, though. He started to stroke her leg suggestively, but she kept rebutting him, moving his hand off, and giving him a piece of her mind.

But then it happened far too fast, though his inebriated actions seemed so slow. A knife came out of a holster from his bag, and he was holding it at the woman’s throat, telling her to “stop being a b*tch.”

I don’t quite know what got into me.

My state of not wanting to get involved turned into a lurch across the bus. I held his hand back and then she managed to get the knife out and pass it to me. I had no idea what to do, but to pass it to the people behind me, and it made its way down the bus.

Strangely, he was so intoxicated he doesn’t seem to notice the loss.

We stopped in the next town for what the bus driver said would be a smoking break, but it was just a rouse. The chap got off, lit up his cigarette, and the driver drove off.

He was left in a vest top, in freezing November temperatures in the Colorado highlands. His jacket, wallet, phone, and bag were all next to me, still on the bus.

When we arrived in Denver, I packed up his belongings and tried to give them to the driver. He wouldn’t take them. I left them at the driver’s feet on Denver bus station pavement and finally got to walk away.

– Dave from Dave Chant

19. A funny travel story about Thai trotts and hornet hives

It was a crippling cramp that came from absolutely nowhere.

I doubled over with the pain but my friends were not in the least bit sympathetic to my cries. The bus we’d been waiting for in the searing Thai heat for the last two hours had just arrived and there was no way we were not going to get on it.

The pain in my stomach came in long, sweat-inducing waves and my dizziness raced along with the endless palm-fringed landscapes that passed our window. And then, thump, my stomach dropped like a rock from my ribcage to my ankles and it became apparent that I would need to find a bathroom – post haste.

Clambering my way to the driver, I presented him with a primal look of fear that seemed to transcend all communication barriers.

I darted off of the bus before it had even stopped and ran towards some small buildings up ahead. Two men in shirts and ties stood smoking in the doorway of what looked like an office – the local tourist office, I decided.

Distressed, I asked, “Toilet? Toilet? Bathroom! WC!” But they didn’t understand.

Desperate now, I put my charades skills to work and roleplayed a man pissing at a urinal, then pulling his trousers down and sitting on a toilet. My audience on the bus behind me continued to cheer me on, which bothered me only because it distracted the man from the matter at hand.

Finally, he waved his hand towards a corridor inside the office and nodded.

I ran inside like a headless chicken and opened the door, greeted by what I can only describe as a hole dug in the dirt. Not a moment too soon, just as I was about to be thrust into the air by the force of my own bowels, I assumed the position and relaxed into pure, unadulterated bliss.

I didn’t care that I could hear the bus pulling off.

I didn’t care that I had lost all dignity or that I’d probably never find my way home.

I didn’t even care that every corner of this blessed “bathroom” — which had one of the craziest toilets I’d ever seen — housed countless hornet nests the size of basketballs, in and out of which buzzed angry residents the size of blackbirds. They hovered around my face and ears and landed on my back, but I simply didn’t care.

I was so blissed out by the sense of relief that I surrendered to them entirely.

With a modicum of sensibility now restored, I wandered slowly like a drunk back into the office, where I found the man in the shirt and tie lying down on a sofa, watching TV. I waved and held my hands together to say thank you and he did the same as I hobbled towards the door.

And that’s when the true horror of it all came crashing down.

First I spotted a kitchen, then a few family photos dotted around the place on frilly little doilies. It wasn’t an office at all, but someone’s home that I had barged my way into like a marauding white devil, demanding to be escorted to a bathroom so that I could decimate it.

Back outside, the bus was, of course, nowhere to be seen. But my friends, to my dismay, were sitting at the side of the road with our bags and their thumbs in the air.

Seemingly moments later we were all crammed into the back of an old pick up truck, bouncing along dusty roads with a gang of farmworkers gawking at us.

My friends didn’t speak to me for days, but somehow it didn’t matter, for I had experienced the ultimate in Thai hospitality.

It really was amazing.

– Ben from Driftwood Journals

20. A very unusual CouchSurfing experience

I’ve always been a fan of the website Couchsurfing.com because it connects you with locals while traveling. Couchsurfing in Africa is my favorite because I’ve had unique experiences with my hosts.

I was staying at eco-hotel in Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda, which was a beautiful place to disconnect and experience the lake that inspired Wakanda from Black Panther. Yet, I yearned to immerse myself more into the local culture .

I looked for a Couchsurfing host who was from the lake and found a guy named Josh. He said he could pick me up at my hotel with his canoe and that I could spend a night at his home.

When Josh came to pick me up, I was surprised that his boat had no motor and only one paddle.

Josh started paddling, and naturally, we conversed about our lives. I thanked Josh numerous times for picking me up and finally asked what time he left his house to get me.

He told me 5am!

That meant the canoe trip would take four hours. I had no idea I’d be in a canoe for so long, venturing off to a random place with a person whom I met online.

During the canoe ride, it started to downpour, so we found the closest land and huddled under a tree until it passed. The whole situation was humorous to me since this was a truly unusual experience.

The boat ride was enjoyable, and I appreciated the slow pace.

After four hours, we finally made it to Josh’s home, and I immediately loved it. You could tell the home was built with love.

Josh’s house is far away from regular amenities like grocery stores, so it is essential to be self-efficient. There were lots of fruits and vegetable trees, and Josh even taught me how to make the infamous “ rolex ” that you’ll find as street food throughout Uganda.

Josh and I were similar ages, but our lives were quite different. He wakes up and decides what activity he will do to entertain himself, whether that is building something new on his dock, being social with friends in the village, or taking his canoe for a day-long trip to pick up a Couchsurfer.

– Kesi from Kesi To and Fro

21. Tsunami evacuation in Sri Lanka

It is rare that I get to bring my mum with me on my world travels, but when I do I always make sure they are experiences to remember. Although not always for the intended reasons.

“Never Again!”

On this occasion, she had just flown from the UK to meet me in Bangkok before a shorter haul flight to Sri Lanka the next morning.

She was in her late 60’s at the time and her verbal protest was about two days before she arrived into the mayhem of Sri Lanka tuk-tuks and traffic.

So she was more than relieved to set base on the southern coast at Ahangama — 3 kilometers (less than two miles) from the city of Galle, when we sat down to celebrate with food and drinks at our beachfront hotels.

But before our biryani had even arrived, a deafening siren sounded across the coastline as an 8.6-magnitude quake rocked the Indian Ocean. We were otherwise clueless at the time as everyone else was running in all directions, panicked, until I decided to get up and ask what’s going on.

By this time the hotel manager had already jumped in the back of a tuk-tuk and when I asked the only member of staff around on what to do he pointed to a tall red pole on the horizon and said to climb it. Fortunately, there was a big tour bus in the hotel who let us jump in the back with them as we joined the mass evacuation of the coastline.

After around 30 mins driving uphill, we were all welcomed by a betel chewing farmer who let us wait in his gardens until the warnings were eventually lifted and we returned to the hotel.

That night we barely slept through the aftershocks until the next morning when we escaped the coastline and I forced my mum back onto tuk-tuks and local buses through eight hours of travel to reach the scenic hill town of Ella.

– Allan from It’s Sometimes Sunny in Bangor

22. Getting scammed in New Delhi

If you love crazy short stories that also teach a lesson, here you go:

After nine years of dreaming of India, I had officially arrived in the infinitely chaotic and historical city of New Delhi.

After finally making our way through immigration, my partner Charles and I got right into making our first mistake — an epic travel fail that would shape the unfortunate events to come.

I stupidly decided to buy an Indian SIM Card. Not only was it overpriced, but I was told it wouldn’t activate for over four hours, which was far from ideal.

Nevertheless, I was still in my dream country and was thinking of all the delectable street food that would be up for tasting later that night.

Or so I thought.

Though I had opted to use our budget hotel’s pick up service, no one was there to greet us, and without cell service, making a call was out of the question.

So the metro it was. The metro ride itself went without issue. It was only once we wandered out of the underground station and found ourselves thrust into a gaggle of rickshaw drivers did our fate really set in.

Overwhelmed and a bit taken aback by the cacophony of scenes and sounds unfolding all around us, we easily slipped into our second mistake:

Hiring a rickshaw to take us to our hotel with no compass, maps, or cell service to speak of.

As I sat in the back of the rickshaw transfixed by Delhi life, we were suddenly brought up to a gate being guarded by two heavily armed men.

“Paharganj is very dangerous, you cannot enter without permission.”

Scared, naive, and of course lacking any means of communication, we agreed to be taken to this tourist agency.

The small, official-looking office was headed by an exceptionally suave young man who insisted that riots had shut down Paharganj, a budget-friendly neighborhood known to be frequented by backpackers.

The man proceeded to call our “hotel” where a man answered and reiterated that yes, in fact, the hotel and neighborhood were closed. As I pushed him to look up other budget-hotels in Delhi, the calls he made always had the same result that they were full or closed.

Soon we were left with an ultimatum:

Stay in a “safe” 5-star hotel or accept their offer of a private taxi driver to take us hundreds of miles north to Himachal Pradesh, a mountainous state we had planned to head to tomorrow.

Due to a combination of stress, jet lag, culture shock, being out of my comfort zone, and, of course, no way to check any of these claims or prices, we acquiesced. And so began our journey with Lali, a taxi driver they contracted to drive us for nearly a day straight on little to no sleep.

The next 24 hours were a whirlwind. Within an hour, Lali’s exceptionally jovial personality had come out. He procured us Indian hashish, fresh mangoes, and our first taste of real local cuisine.

All was well and good — until Lali nearly fell asleep at the wheel, that is. After insisting we stop for the night, we pulled off into the next motel we saw, a random establishment on the side of the highway.

Twenty-four hours and one near-crash in the foothills of the Himalayas later, we finally arrived, thankful our absolutely insane start to our Indian adventure was about to be traded in for the tranquility of the mountains.

It would take a week for us to truly come to terms with just how badly we’d been scammed.

We learned that the correct price for a taxi that distance was ⅓ of what we paid. Additionally, Paharganj never closed, wasn’t particularly unsafe, and all the phone calls made to the budget hotels were actually fake as the “employees” on the other end were in fact just players in the scam.

Though it might have started off on a very bad foot, the rest of our time in India was magical.

We even returned for a much longer trip the following year, this time armed with the knowledge that cell phone service — even if it’s roaming — and the use of Uber are two essentials for a successful Delhi experience.

– Samantha from International Detours

23. A crazy short story about a false alarm

Here is one of my most embarrassing travel stories :

I was staying in a five-star hotel in Malacca, Malaysia, with my boyfriend when suddenly we heard “gunshots” outside.

As a Pakistani, my boyfriend was instantly reminded of the infamous 2008 Mumbai Hotel Attack, in which a group of gunmen sieged a high-end hotel and killed scores of people. He wanted to cautiously check out the hotel lobby but when he moved the door lock, it made a strange sound that we had never heard before.

Scared for our lives, we locked ourselves inside the bathroom with all lights off. We tightly embraced each other and barely dared to move even a millimeter.

Things did not get any better when we realized the WiFi was turned off and there were steps near the door. In a great panic, I decided to contact my mother and tell her about the situation, while my boyfriend posted on Instagram.

After about three hours, the phone in our room rang. Not sure of what to expect, my boyfriend carefully left the bathroom to pick up the phone.

The minute while he was on the phone was perhaps the scariest time in my life. Who could have called us? Was it the receptionist telling us to stay inside or the attackers announcing our last hour?

My boyfriend came with a big grin on his face.

“Get out, everything is fine!” he told me, laughing.

It was the hotel lobby who called. They had heard about our panic and wanted to reassure us that everything was fine and the “gunshots” we heard were actually fireworks!

Relieved and embarrassed at the same time, I called my mother and told her about the false alarm.

In an even more embarrassed tone, she told me that she had contacted the Malaysian police from the other end of the world and that she now had to call them back because of our false alarm.

When I thought it could not get any worse, I turned back towards my boyfriend staring at his phone and saw yet the most embarrassed face ever. Among his Instagram followers were very well-connected people who in response to his posts had notified various Pakistani politicians as well as the embassies of three countries in Malaysia about the “terrorist attack on a Malacca hotel.”

Now it was my boyfriend’s job to explain the situation to his audience.

He went on an Instagram livestream to apologize for the false alarm; however, most of his followers believed he had just pulled a giant prank and never forgave him.

– Arabela from The Spicy Travel Girl

24. An encounter with an angry buffalo

I volunteered at a wildlife conservancy in Kenya with a small group of women, and we worked on a variety of projects there. We tracked and photographed endangered giraffes, collected wire snares to combat poaching, and set out to repair an animal hide.

There was a small building in the bush where you could observe animals without being seen; however, before we started to work on the building itself, we needed to clear a path to the little hut because it was covered in weeds and rocks.

Our group of four, along with two guides, hacked away at the thick overgrowth with machetes. One guide kept our vehicle close and another stayed far ahead of us as we worked.

Suddenly, I heard our guide up ahead screaming. I couldn’t make out what he was yelling, but my instincts told me to run. I raced as fast as I could back to our vehicle and swung open the back door.

I glanced up ahead:

A massive buffalo was stampeding towards us!

Jumping into the JEEP as quickly as possible, I slammed the door behind me. Our other guide was safely in the car — honking the horn repeatedly in an attempt to scare away the buffalo — and one of the women was safe in the passenger seat.

The mother-daughter duo in our group wasn’t far behind, and the daughter raced to one side of the car. Her mom jumped on the hood of the car to try to escape the buffalo.

Just as her daughter pulled her off the hood, the buffalo smashed its horns into the car.

The JEEP shook back and forth violently. The buffalo backed up and snorted heavily. The daughter pushed her mom into the front driver’s side door and I pulled the mom’s arms to get her into the car.

Once her mom was mostly inside, the daughter dropped and rolled underneath the car. Luckily, the buffalo walked to the opposite side of the vehicle at this point. The buffalo raged once again, slamming its horns into the side of the car. We shook back and forth as I stared into the buffalo’s eyes from inside the vehicle.

Every day, when we drove around the nature reserve, we typically saw large groups of buffalo grazing in the fields. They always watched us from a distance, and never seemed too threatening.

Sadly, this particular buffalo was injured and isolated from her group. When she heard us working in the thicket, she was angry and lashed out at us.

Thankfully, the buffalo eventually stopped attacking our car and wandered away on her own. But, one of our guides — the one that warned us — was still missing.

I was so grateful to be alive, but I was so worried about him. Did he warn us, just in time, before the buffalo killed him?

It took several more minutes, but he soon emerged from the bushes.

To escape the buffalo, he had jumped into a giant cactus tree. Although he had some cuts and scrapes, he was alive.

The preparedness of our guides and his screaming saved our lives. It really was a miracle that we all survived.

– Lauren from Justin Plus Lauren

25. File this under crazy hotel stories

One of our weirdest travel stories was during our trip to Assam.

Our train to Guwahati arrived 10 hours late. Instead of reaching at 10am in the morning, we reached at around 8:30pm at night. Once we were out of the railway station we started looking for hotels for the night.

We approached a few hotels but without any luck, likely because it was peak season at the time.

Finally, we went to a decent-looking hotel and got a small room. It was a sorry-looking room with a single bed, but we were supposed to stay only for the night and so we decided to take it.

It was quite late at night when we could hear some, err, “funny noises” coming from the room beside us. I looked at Agni with a “What have we gotten into?” expression. But we were so tired that we did not want to think about it and simply slept.

It was little after midnight when there was a lock at the door. We did not pay heed at first, but the knock was persistent and then we heard a voice from outside saying, “Open the door or we will break it. Police outside!”

Our sleep vanished in a jiffy and soon Agni opened the door. In came two police constables, who started asking various questions.

Huh? Why have the police come to the hotel?

I looked out and saw other policemen taking some people away.

They asked us various questions about our place of stay, where we were going, and many others.

For some reason, they were not ready to believe that we were married. The policemen looked skeptical and they took Agni away to another room for questioning while a female constable started asking me questions.

After about 15 minutes of interrogation, they wanted to see our marriage proof.

Quick note: This incident happened almost eight years back and India was still quite a conservative society then and did not approve of a girl and a boy staying together outside marriage.

We were not carrying our marriage certificate then; however, Facebook came to our rescue at that time. I went to Facebook and opened our marriage album that was full of photographs of our happy moments of marriage.

The lady constable somehow seemed to trust me.

Very soon, Agni was also brought in. The policemen talked among themselves and then told Agni very sternly, “If you are a family man, then you should book rooms in proper hotels.”

We seemed to have convinced them. Later, we realized that the hotel was a completely seedy one and dealt with a number of shady businesses. The next morning, we checked out of the hotel as soon as possible, vowing to never return to this place again.

Looking back now, we can add this to our list of funny vacation stories; however, at the time, we were a bit scared when the police came barging through the hotel door.

Nevertheless, we learned a valuable lesson that day – we should carry a copy of our marriage certificate everywhere to prove that we are married!

– Amrita and Agniswar from Tale of 2 Backpackers

Travel Insurance

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Bonus Short Travel Stories

Love short travel stories ? Then check out:

17 True Short Adventure Travel Stories To Inspire Your Next Trip

23 Inspiring Travel Stories Sharing The Kindness Of Strangers

16 Short Funny Travel Stories That Will Make You Laugh Out Loud

38 Inspiring Travel Love Stories From The Road

21 Travel Horror Stories Sharing Scary Travel Experiences

8 Crazy NYC Subway Stories That Will Make You Hail A Cab

A Host’s Perspective: My Worst Airbnb Horror Stories

11 Epic Travel Fail Stories From The Road

18 Scary Travel Stories From Haunted Hotels To Creepy Cabins

Do you have any crazy travel stories to share?

Related posts:.

About Jessie Festa

Jessie Festa is a New York-based travel content creator who is passionate about empowering her audience to experience new places and live a life of adventure. She is the founder of the solo female travel blog, Jessie on a Journey, and is editor-in-chief of Epicure & Culture , an online conscious tourism magazine. Along with writing, Jessie is a professional photographer and is the owner of NYC Photo Journeys , which offers New York photo tours, photo shoots, and wedding photography. Her work has appeared in publications like USA Today, CNN, Business Insider, Thrillist, and WestJet Magazine.

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11 Comments

There are some really crazy stories in this list! My favourite is the one where the monkey gets rescued in Costa Rica and reunited with it’s sibling. We have a few crazy stories from before we had children – such as a trip to Goa where we somehow ended up dancing round a camp fire in the middle of the jungle with a couple of locals and a toothless musician!

I love everything about this post! What a cool, fun read. I really can’t believe some of these. Thank you for sharing these stories.

Ahh!!! Haha, I can relate to so many of these stories! Especially urgently needing a toilet in Southeast Asia + accidentally getting high (accidentally tripped in Gili T lolol). Travel is full of so many crazy, gross, scary, weird, awkward moments….but that’s part of what makes it so fun and interesting.

Love the reading these amazing and joyful travel stories. I really enjoy my traveling time. So amazing article for me. Thank you for sharing this article.

Nice blog with great post, Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing these travel stories with us,I found out by reading this article how much there is still to know and learn, There are good and bad people everywhere so we should travel very carefully, highly informative article,thank you

I love reading this blog, it is so nice

thanks for sharing this wonderful article am glad that it has always been my stress killer thank a lot dear

This is very beautiful, thanks for sharing such a great article with us.

Why is it travel bloggers don’t comprehend that most people loathe travel stories? It’s akin to hearing someone account a dream. And no, the rest of us aren’t jealous. We’re just bored of the one sided conversation incessant travelers have with themselves while we are present.

very perfect article thanks lot

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Home » Budget Travel » 22 Insane Bucket List Adventures You MUST Experience in 2024

22 Insane Bucket List Adventures You MUST Experience in 2024

There’s nothing I love more than dreaming about bucket list adventures, especially when they’re around the corner. If you’re reading this, you too, are likely in the need of some seriously epic inspiration right about now.

Don’t worry–you’re in for a heck of a virtual (which will hopefully turn into the real thing soon) adventure!

Whether it be a dream trek somewhere in the mountains of South Asia, or an unreal road trip through a can’t-miss national park, our planet is filled with bucket list trips that you’ll remember for a lifetime.

These are the types of journeys that stay with you forever. We’re talking about adventures that push you past your limits and make you reconsider what’s truly possible… AKA the best type of travel experiences.

So with consideration for all types of travelers in mind, here are 22 travel bucket list ideas that will be sure to make this year the most memorable yet!

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The 22 Best Bucket List Adventure Ideas (to Knock Your Socks Off!)

Epic adventures for your travel bucket list, kinda’ crazy bucket list ideas, unique bucket list ideas you’ll never forget, top-tier adventure bucket list ideas, what to pack for the bucket list trip of a lifetime, bucket list inspo achieved.

Crazy adventures, travel bucket list trips, wild experiences: you’ve dreamed it, you can do it. From the best destinations for adventure travel to the most absolutely insane expeditions you can go on, here are 22 ultimate bucket list ideas to change your life.

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Travelers, these are for you. Pack up and get psyched for some of best international adventures around.

1. Road trip the Karakoram Highway

You can’t talk about bucket list travel destinations without mentioning Pakistan. It’s only adventure travel’s crown jewel, after all. And what better way to experience its magic than via a road trip through the 8th Wonder of the World, the Karakoram Highway? 

From the delicious history, culture and food of Lahore to the unbelievable beauty of Gilgit Baltistan , the entire country is epic, but the Karakoram Highway alone is enough of a reason to make a backpacking adventure in Pakistan a bucket list trip ASAP. 

The famous Karakoram Highway (which connects Pakistan with China) coasts along some of the most beautiful views I’ve personally ever seen. The iconic Passu Cones along with a multitude of other mountains and iconic scenery will greet you. 

Other must stops along the highway include:

• Hussaini Suspension Bridge
• Attabad Lake
• Batura Lake
• The Passu Glacier
• And if you like meat, the best restaurant I may have ever visited in my life: the Yak Grill near the Passu Cones!

A week is enough to get a good feel for the highway (including the Karakoram National Park where hundreds of yaks and marmots live), though you’d need a lifetime to truly get to know Pakistan.

484 pages with cities, towns, parks, and ALL the out-of-the-way places you will WANT to know. If you truly want to discover Pakistan , download this PDF .

2. Take in India by train

Traveling through India on its extensive railway network is a life-changing experience. I experienced it in 2019 (or part of the country anyway) and to say it’s a bucket list adventure is a massive understatement.

India is truly a multitude of worlds within worlds, and experiencing it all by train is the best way take the country in. You can visit almost every part of the country via India Railways, except for some of its more mountainous regions. 

Start your trip in New Delhi, head to Rajasthan, and keep making your way south until you hit India’s magical beaches and coastline. Make a U-Shape to hit the East Coast, and don’t forget about Northeast India, the 7 sister states that will make you feel like you’re in a different country altogether.

3. Self-drive through Namibia 

Have you heard of Namibia? If not, you should! This African beauty should be on every stargazer/astrophotographer’s collection of bucket list countries. 

But even if you’re not too keen on either of those things, odds are you’ll love a self-drive through Namibia.

Exploring Namibia with your own vehicle will also allow you to go for a full-on independent safari–all at your own pace. 

The real highlight of a Namibia self-drive is a camp-out at NamibRand . The nature reserve is one of only a few gold-certified dark sky reserves, meaning on a clear night with little moonlight, you’re in for the best star show of your life!

4. Experience the magic of Bhutan 

Bhutan should be at the top of every traveler’s bucket list destinations list. The South Asian Kingdom borders both India and Tibet and is one of the few countries in the world that makes visitors pay a minimum daily rate.

While this might sound rather hefty at $250/day, Bhutan uses the money to preserve its heritage and provide for its citizens. It’s also the world’s only carbon-negative country! 

Taking a trip to Bhutan is tricky, but the rewards are well worth the effort. The beauty of Bhutan’s landscapes, delicious food, ancient and well-preserved historical sites, and a culture very few have been able to experience–it’s truly one of those places that’s worth saving up for. 

If you do make it to one of the most incredible countries in the world, must-do’s include:

• Entering the beautiful Tiger’s Nest monastery
• Checking out the phallus-fixated village of Sopsokha,
• And heading out on a trek or two. 

Since the $250/day package requires a guide, you can either choose a fixed route or exert some control over your itinerary.

5. Go Backpacking: Travel the world on $10/day!

And now for what I consider to be the best of all possible bucket list adventures: traveling the world on $10 a day . 

Traveling on a low budget in epic countries taught me more about life and the world than 18 years of school ever did. Eating street food, finding out what a hostel was, making unforgettable memories in the most beautiful of places…these are but some of the benefits of traveling the world on a shoestring. 

It forces you out of your comfort zone, thrusts you into new ways of life, and is absolutely 100% guaranteed to bring about some crazy adventures. If there’s just one thing on this adventure list that you ACTUALLY end up doing, let it be this one.

Everybody needs to try budget travel. At least once.

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The type of adventure ideas that really scream “bucket list.”

6. Sail to Antarctica 

Being the most unexplored continent by far, Antarctica is one of those bucket list trips of a lifetime. Unknown, dangerous and infrequently visited, a sailing trip to Antarctica might just be in a category all of its own.

A place where you can see nature at its most raw and wildlife at its least disturbed, a trip to Antarctica comes at a high price tag, and a high amount of penguins to be seen.

The journey will take you through rough seas to quite literally the end of the earth. But all that it entails is well worth the reward–there’s no bucket list inspiration on Earth quite like Antarctica!

7. Cycle the Pamir Highway 

Vast, magical, high and about as remote as it gets, the Pamir Highway (or M41) is typically ridden from Osh in Kyrgyzstan to Dushanbe in Tajikistan (or vice versa if you prefer).

Its highest point is over 4600m, and the landscapes along the way make the Pamir Highway an essential travel bucket list item. The sights you’ll see in Central Asia and, particularly, while traveling through Kyrgyzstan are nothing short of otherworldly.

While you can hitchhike, self-drive, or hire a driver, the most extreme way to see the highway is undoubtedly from the saddle of a cycle. 

With the ability to wild camp anywhere along the way, you’ll get to see Pamir at its rawest, and feel pretty damn accomplished after cycling over 1200 km through two countries!

8. Up the fear factor by bungee jumping in New Zealand

An extreme bucket list adventure that will be sure to REALLY get your heart pumping is the famous bungee jump in Queenstown, New Zealand. At 134 m high, the Nevis Bungee jump is made for adrenaline junkies. After a 35-minute 4×4 ride, you’ll find yourself at the highest bungee point in all of New Zealand.

Any last thoughts or prayers?

Joking! But you might want to keep in mind that dropping 134 m in less than 10 seconds might raise your blood pressure a little! There are TONS of companies in Queenstown to check off this crazy bucket list idea with, and you can expect to pay around $200.

9. Go paragliding in Interlaken, Switzerland

Yes, paragliding might be one crazy bucket list idea, but isn’t that the point of an adventure?

Switzerland is known for its state-of-art paragliding locales, and Interlaken is one of the best areas in Switzerland to head to if you’re serious about getting a taste of life as a bird. 

Clearly, paragliding isn’t something to be taken lightly! If you’ve never done it before, you’re going to need some lessons and a guide for your first few flights. 

Luckily, Interlaken has dozens of companies to choose from to help you make the most out of this big bucket list adventure!

6. Embark on a journey to K2 Base Camp

So you’ve probably heard of the EBC (Everest Base Camp) Trek, but have you heard of the trek to K2 Base Camp, a journey that allows you to get up close and personal with the 2nd highest (and MOST DANGEROUS) mountain in the world? The amount of incredible hikes in Pakistan is truly impressive, but few can compare to K2.

Known as the Savage Mountain, K2 has been successfully summitted 700 times due to its insane weather conditions and numerous other technical difficulties. But while reaching the summit is for trained professionals, you can make it to the basecamp with only moderate fitness.

Though it certainly can be categorized as one of those extreme bucket list ideas, this trek is perhaps the most beautiful in the world as it allows you to take in some other-worldly scenery. 

Due to its extreme nature, you need a NOC and a licensed guide to check the K2 Basecamp Trek off this bucket list adventure. But, well, that feeling of pride…?

That lasts a lifetime .

The type of bucket list trips that you might not even have considered.

11. Go gorilla trekking in Uganda

Now talk about a truly UNIQUE bucket list adventure that few travelers actually get to do! Deep in the rainforest of Southwestern Uganda is where you’ll find majestic mountain gorillas doing life in their natural habitats.

Thanks to intrepid adventure travel companies like Inertia , you can now go see these Great Apes up close and personally without having to worry about logistics – of which there are many in a country as offbeat as Uganda.

Aside from coming face to face with these massive creatures, you’ll also get to spot our closest living relatives: the chimpanzee. This ethical encounter will also give you the chance to meet local tribes that call these massive forests home. So it’s really like deep diving into two different bucket list experiences in one!

12. Get on the saddle of a horse in Mongolia

Mongolia is one of the wildest countries in the world: with rolling grassy plains that make up thousands of kilometers in area, it’s a landscape that’s best seen via horseback. 

Riding through the Mongolian plateau on four legs might just SOUND like one of those crazy bucket list ideas, but it’s seriously doable. If you’re extra experienced on the saddle, you can even potentially opt to go on a solo ride. 

But for most of us, arranging a trek with a Mongolian company is the best (and safest) option. Ulaanbaatar –the capital–is the best place to start your trip and plan further. Surprisingly, there are a few decent hostels in Ulaanbaatar , so it’s a decent base.

But keep in mind that travel in Mongolia is extremely seasonal–this is a bucket list country best experienced during the summer.

13. Get up close to volcanoes in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula

Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula is well known amongst Russians but is often left off of most other travelers’ adventure bucket list. The 1,250 km long peninsula is made up of some of the world’s rawest landscapes, tons of wildlife, and even active volcanoes.

Kamchatka is located in Russia’s far-east and has a dramatic climate with a short window of opportunity to visit. July-August is the best time to soak it all in, though you’d be able to manage without catching hypothermia any time from May-September. 

Make sure you don’t miss Klyuchevskaya Sopka , the highest volcano on Kamchatka as well as the highest active volcano in all of Eurasia!

14. Fly over Bagan, Myanmar, in a hot air balloon

Myanmar is a magical place to visit , but Bagan is an especially magical place. Over 2,000 ancient temples, pagodas, and a ton of greenery fill the ancient city which is best viewed at sunrise from above. 

Each morning, the sky above Bagan becomes filled with balloons, which is undoubtedly the best way to view this one-of-a-kind landscape. 

Personally, I’m a fan of the temples at sunset, but be sure to check them out at both breaks of day to see which one you prefer yourself. You can also visit the inside of some of the pagodas!

Balloon rentals can be arranged at MANY places nearby (including your Bagan hostel).

15. Visit the Ancient Angkor Wat

Cambodia’s signature bucket list inspo is a 900 year old temple complex that used to be covered in gold. 

Angkor Wat is located not far from the center of the city of Siem Reap which in and of itself is quite a small area of Cambodia to stay . The best way to take in the spiritual, ancient structures is via tuk-tuk, or better yet bicycle. Both are easy to rent from any accommodation in Siem Reap, but you can also do it online beforehand!

For the best adventure list experience, try to make it to Angkor Wat for sunrise. Cambodia is generally hot AF year-round, but it’s on another level in the summer. 

To enjoy the temples without feeling like you’re quite literally melting, visit during the “cool” months of December-February. 

It will take days to see all the temples, and whether you buy the 1, 2, or 3-day pass is entirely up to you, but make sure you don’t miss these specifically: Ta Prohm (where jungle meets history), Bayon , and of course, the namesake Angkor Wat which will greet you upon entry!

16. Drive across the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia

Covering an area of more than 4,000 square miles, the Salar de Uyuni (AKA the famous Bolivian salt flats) is the largest in the world of its kind. It’s truly impossible to describe just HOW flat the region truly is. Basically, it’s one of those bucket list adventures that truly feels extraplanetary. 

Uyuni can be explored by bicycle, car, or with a tour. You also have the option to hire a driver if you prefer.  Salar de Uyuni is one of the best things to do while traveling in Bolivia , but also just one of the more unique bucket list adventures out there. It’s certainly not every day that you’ll have the opportunity to soak in one of the planet’s rarest landscapes.

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Bucket list trips that are sure to be remembered for years to come.

17. Trek to Machu Picchu, Peru

The secret city of Machu Picchu is known by all travelers–it’s one of those bucket list travel adventures everyone has had their eye on at one time or another. And for good reason–the trek to the ruins is truly one-of-a-kind. 

The best part is that there are MANY routes that lead to Machu Picchu, all of varying difficulty and length. The 26-mile Inca Trail is by far the most popular, and while beautiful, that means your experience will be far from private. A permit is also required to tread along the famous Inca Trail. 

For those that are looking for lesser-touristed Incan sites , off-beat alternatives include the difficult Vilcabamba Traverse or via the infrequently visited ruins of Choquequirao . Keep in mind that the dry season runs from April-October, and trust me take that seriously–you don’t want to hike in a downpour!

18. See the Great Barrier Reef

Situated along the North Queensland Coast, travellers on Australia’s East Coast will find the Great Barrier Reef. It’s hard to miss–it’s the longest in the world. Visiting the Great Barrier Reef is one of the world’s most well-known bucket list ideas. 

The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system. Stretching along over 2,000 km and containing nearly 3,000 individual reefs, this is a bucket list adventure that you seriously won’t find anywhere else in the world. Because it’s one of a kind.

There are many places to choose to base yourself near the Great Barrier Reef, and considering it’s so long, there are plenty of stay options as well. 

Cairns is considered to be the main gateway to the reef, though if you’re on a budget you can opt for the more wallet-friendly Townsville .

19. Trek through Patagonia 

Patagonia in Argentina is one of the most stunning places you can trek IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. Period . 

The Torres del Paine Circuit (located in Torres del Paine National Park ) is the most popular of the dozens of hiking trails in Patagonia and will give you unreal multi-day views of jagged, snow-covered peaks and glacial lakes that come in shades of blue you never even knew existed.

The entire trek is about 80 km (50 miles) and the highest point is just below 1200 m. Though the distance may sound daunting, the altitude isn’t that high meaning anyone of average fitness should be able to enjoy this bucket list adventure.

20. See the Northern Lights in Scandinavia 

A bucket list for travel can’t leave out seeing the Northern Lights–this epic phenomenon is a top Earthly-adventure that you really have to see to believe! As great as photos are, they simply cannot do them justice. 

Finland, Norway, and Sweden are some of the best places to see the Northern Lights due to their polar locations. But don’t make the mistake of thinking you can see them all year-round; the window for Aurora Borealis sightings is within October-November and February-March . 

Self-guided trips and tours are both possible, if you decide to head out on your own make sure your itinerary dates are generous, it’s not a given that the lights will be visible every night.

21. Summit  Mt. Kilimanjaro

Few mountains can compare to Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro. Trekking to its summit is undoubtedly something to put on your once-in-a-lifetime adventure bucket list. At 5,895 meters, its summit is the so-called “roof of Africa” and will prove to be a meaty challenge. 

Unlike other bucket list adventure ideas, Mt. Kilimajaro can NOT be done independently. Luckily, there are dozens upon dozens of companies to choose from when booking your adventure tour.

When selecting a company, keep in mind you’ll get what you pay for in terms of comfort and food. Combine it with an independent backpacking trip through Tanzania to get the most out of flight prices!

22. Road trip through America’s National Parks

With 63 parks to choose from, America’s national park system is in a class of its own. Each of the very different park options offers a different kind of adventure bucket list item to experience. 

From seeking out alligators in the Florida Everglades to experiencing the White Sands Park in New Mexico to the many, many hiking opportunities each of the 63 holds, there’s no better way to see the US than via a road trip through some of its best natural assets. 

If you’re planning to visit a ton of parks, your most wallet-friendly option is to buy an annual pass, which will quite literally save you hundreds that you could be spending on other bucket list adventures!

You can’t show up to a bucket list trip of a lifetime unprepared! A good set of backpacking gear (and good travel insurance) goes a long way.

Here are some of our top recommendations on what should go in your pack, and as always, we recommend World Nomads Travel Insurance to protect it all with.

Osprey Aether 70L Backpack

Ya can’t go backpacking anywhere without a blasted backpack! Words cannot describe what a friend the Osprey Aether has been to The Broke Backpacker on the road. It’s had a long and illustrious career; Ospreys don’t go down easily.

Feathered Friends Swift 20 YF

My philosophy is that with an EPIC sleeping bag, you can sleep anywhere. A tent is a nice bonus, but a real sleek sleeping bag means you can roll out anywhere in a and stay warm in a pinch. And the Feathered Friends Swift bag is about as premium as it gets.

Grayl Geopress Filtered Bottle

Always travel with a water bottle! They save you money and reduce your plastic footprint on our planet. The Grayl Geopress acts as a purifier AND temperature regulator – so you can enjoy a cold red bull, or a hot coffee, no matter where you are.

Petzl Actik Core Headlamp

Every traveller should have a head torch! A decent head torch could save your life. When you’re camping, hiking, or even if the power just went out, a top-quality headlamp is a MUST. The Petzl Actik Core is an awesome piece of kit because it’s USB chargeable—batteries begone!

First Aid Kit

Never go off the beaten track (or even on it) without your first aid kit! Cuts, bruises, scrapes, third-degree sunburn: a first aid kit will be able to handle most of these minor situations.

And Pack Some Damn Travel Insurance!

Ok, so you can’t pack travel insurance BUT it’s absolutely daft not travel without it. You truly never know what’s going to happen on the road, and if something not so ideal does, you want to make sure you (and your wallet) are protected.

Do you want to be another sad case on GoFundMe of an adventurer who thought they were too cool for travel insurance?

Didn’t think so.

We highly recommend you choose from one of the top travel insurance companies that has a good reputation for assisting travelers in far out lands.

ALWAYS sort out your backpacker insurance before your trip. There’s plenty to choose from in that department, but a good place to start is Safety Wing .

They offer month-to-month payments, no lock-in contracts, and require absolutely no itineraries: that’s the exact kind of insurance long-term travellers and digital nomads need.

SafetyWing is cheap, easy, and admin-free: just sign up lickety-split so you can get back to it!

Click the button below to learn more about SafetyWing’s setup or read our insider review for the full tasty scoop.

And there, you have it: 22 absolutely epic bucket list adventures that are sure to tingle your travel senses! From road trips to climbing some crazy mountains, to seeing some of the world’s most unique landscapes, these adventure list ideas have something for every kind of traveler.

So what are you waiting for? Plan the trip, book the flight, and cross off those bucket list destinations!

Made it this far? You get 15% OFF to book a place to stay ! Offer valid exclusively for Broke Backpackers 😉

Samantha Shea

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Machu Picchu is absolutely mind blowing! Then when you factor in the various treks you can take just to get there, you gain an appreciation of the tenacity and intelligence of this ancient Indigenous society. Can’t wait to knock off the other trips recommended on this list! Angkor Wat especially.

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Cycling around the World

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Tasting Turkey for the first time on a bicycle

If you want to be happy, be. We are just getting started! Cycling over the bridge at the border between Greece and Turkey was symbolic. Riding away from Europe, finally crossing into a different continent. Finally going further away and into de unknown. Turkey is not a hidden gem anymore, and it might not be […]

11,000 Km, 11 months and 3€ a day by bicycle in Europe

331 days wild camping and pedaling over a bunch of European countries. Three hundred and thirty-one days since we quit our jobs in England and started our cycling adventure. No timetables, no plans, no return tickets. 11 months fighting with the elements: cold, hot, wind, rain, snow and hailing. Not knowing where we will end […]

Wandering around the World on a bicycle

I am writing you these lines from the inside of my tent, in the middle of the Bosnian mountains, after a long day cycling. For the last 9 months we have been cycling around Europe, meeting random local people, speaking in different languages or mimicking for communication. Trying traditional gastronomy, being invited into their homes […]

Leave your bicycle helmet at home for cycling in Portugal, or not

Portugal. Finally! A break, a change, fresh air after a long time cycling through Spanish lands. Spain has diversity and sharp contrast between regions, but crossing the border to a new country, different language and unknown traditions are always welcome. Even when the differences are small like in this case. It might sound funny coming […]

Spain is hilly and huge to cycle around it!

We arrived in Spain, which meant we had to cross the Pyrenees! After one month cycling the flattish France we were not sure how we were going to handle it. We were afraid of the hard climbing, thinking how many breaks we would need and how many days it would take us. In the end, […]

Cycling the Atlantic coast of France

The second country of our world round trip by bicycle was France, and we arrived there in the middle of winter. The early months of winter had been very rainy, and it caused the whole country to be flooded. Before starting our trip we have been researching about French bicycle routes and paths, but in […]

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"Fear does not prevent death. It prevents life".

Nomad since January 2011

1 year hitchhiking around europe, 6 months in south east asia.

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40 Crazy Travel Facts

By Scott Dye

Travel can be many things: scary, profound, educational, and sometimes, life-changing. It can also be quite surprising.

Accordingly, we scoured the internet and found 40 crazy travel facts. enjoy, 1.  the german word “fernweh” means “far sickness,” or an intense urge to travel., 2. jet lag feels worse if you travel from west to east., 3. good for the soul and the heart: taking a vacation can lower your risk of heart disease..

4. The U.S. is the only developed country in the world without a single legally required paid vacation day or holiday. Yikes.

5. 99% of libya is desert ., 6. there are 61,000 people in the air over the u.s. at any given time on any given day. that’s a lot of skymiles, 7 . one-third of the world’s airports are located in the u.s., 8. the shortest international commercial flight available for purchase is a 15 minute trip from sint maarten (dutch caribbean) to anguilla (british overseas territory)., 9. the pilot and his assistant must eat different food in order not to upset their stomachs at the same time., 10. there’s a good chance you may see a lake or two when visiting canada. in fact, it has over three million lakes . that’s 60% of the world’s total., 11. if traveling to thailand, it’s important to know the official, full name of bangkok is: (see image below).

12. There’s a lot to explore when heading to Russia. Incredibly, the country is bigger than Pluto .

13. there is a town in norway just called a ., 14. bring a full bottle of water with you when in saudi arabia. this country officially has zero rivers ., 15. over 820 languages are spoken in papua new guinea , or 12% of the world’s total., 16. during a normal flight, the temperature outside your plane is around -60ºf .  that’s colder than almost anywhere on earth at any given moment of the year., 17. a single boeing 777 engine delivers twice the horsepower of all the titanic’s engines combined . giddyup, 18. there is enough fuel in a boeing 747 plane to power a car around the entire planet 4 times ., 19. the eiffel tower is a daily place of work for 600 parisians ., 20. need some beach time australia has over 10,000 beaches . if inclined you could visit a new beach every day for over 27 years..

21. Travel to Antarctica is rare for most people, but not for meteorites. 90% of all meteorites are found there.

22. the great barrier reef is the only living structure visible from outer space., 23. introvert personalities are more likely to pick mountainous locations for a holiday, while extroverts prefer the beach., 24. with its abundance of happy words, spanish is rated as the happiest language in the world . time for some rosetta stone, 25. presently, almost 50% of americans research, book, and plan their trips to a new travel destination using only a mobile device., 26. did you know, in morocco, there are goats that regularly climb trees to have a meal, 27. continents shift at about the same rate as your fingernails grow . nailed it, 28. the northern hemisphere is home to 90% of the world’s population., 29. sloths get a bad rap for being lazy, but amazingly they can hold their breath underwater for up to 40 minutes ..

30. Kiribati is the only country in the world to fall into all four hemispheres , straddling the equator and extending into the eastern and western hemispheres.

31. unbeknownst to many, more than 30 million people in china live in underground caves., 32. all roads lead to rome especially when there’s a city named rome on every continent (aside from antartica, of course)., 33. no matter where you travel, you’ll probably spot a cow. there’s a good chance you spot their buddy nearby too, as research has found that cows have best friends ., 34. don’t want a crash while on a safari it could be a good thing, as a group of rhinos goes by the name crash ., 35. efficiency is the name of the game. panama city’s tocumen international airport has the least number of canceled flights in the world with a cancellation rate of just 0.07 percent ., 36. mexico city is sinking by up to 15 inches a year in certain places., 37. the famous “panama hat”  actually comes from the country of ecuador ., 38. rice was used in the construction of the great wall of china . resourceful.

39. You can lose more than 60 fluid ounces of water from your body during a ten-hour flight. Stay hydrated amigos.

40. and lastly, need some inspiration travel has been proven to increase creativity ., 2 responses to “ 40 crazy travel facts ”.

I am a huge travelling person and i just loved reding this article … thank you for sharing this .

wow !!! Amazing post .. I was really looking for this kind of post , as i am fond of travel and knowing about travel is something i like. thanks a lot for sharing this.

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The Polydrops P21 camper trailer is off-grid-ready with room for the whole family

It's sleek, modern, crazy aerodynamic, and packed full of off-grid tech features.

We first caught wind of Polydrops way back in 2019. The angular, retro-future design of its debut, limited-edition travel trailer felt like something straight out of Blade Runner , with a unique love-it-or-hate-it, ugly-cool aesthetic. But the California-based company seemed to go relatively dark since then — until now. Behold the next-gen Polydrops P21 camper trailer.

Everything we know about the Polydrops P21 camper trailer

The next evolution in the Polydrops lineup brings the company’s latest trailer design more in line with legit lightweight travel trailers rather than “mere” teardrop-style, rolling sleep pods. The P21 features the same unique aesthetic that sets it well apart from any other RV at your local campground. It’s stark silver with hard angles throughout — a design that’s reminiscent of TAXA Outdoors’ unique brand of travel trailer. But, unlike its predecessors, this flagship model is roomy enough to sleep four and packs a ton of off-road and tech-forward features.

Stepping inside, the P21 is taller than it looks, with a full 6 feet of headroom — significantly more than you’d expect from a tiny teardrop. Blonde wood, a wide-open layout, and liberal use of glass all around create a bright, airy interior that feels roomier than it is on paper. Indeed, it’s roomy enough to sleep an entire family, with a convertible dinette at the rear (it’s a queen-sized bed, a lounger, or a workspace, depending on the time of day) and a smaller kid-sized bed tucked into the front. In between lies a “blank canvas” that’s left to buyer’s imaginations with how they prefer to customize it. Polydrops can outfit it with an optional kitchenette (including an induction cooktop, a microwave, a portable camp refrigerator , and more) and even a bathroom, with room for a portable toilet , a sink, and a shower basin.

Like many of today’s best travel trailers, the P21 is outfitted with a robust power system. The 5kWh battery bank is fed by a whopping 1,300 watts of solar power, beefy enough to support the camper trailer’s onboard A/C unit and heat pump. Combined with full insulation on all sides, the P21 is a legit, all-season rig. It’s all controllable via a 7-inch touchscreen display and a Bluetooth remote control.

Despite all its high-tech gadgetry, the P21 weighs a scant 1,200 to 1,800 pounds, depending on how you decide to option it. That’s lightweight enough to tow with almost anything on the road with at least four wheels. It’s also tricked out with the latest Timbren independent suspension for a buttery smooth ride.

Buy your own Polydrops P21 camper trailer

Polydrops’ flagship P21 is now available for pre-order, with a refundable $100 deposit to secure your spot. The company confirms the base price will be just under $39,000, but add-on and option pricing has yet to be finalized. Production is expected to start later this year, with the first deliveries sometime in early 2025.

Editors’ Recommendations

• War Horse All-Terrain’s built-to-order camper vans: A cozy, luxe off-roader
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Slideout technology reinvented modern RV travel, allowing larger motorhomes to go from ordinary campers to full-blown luxury homes-on-wheels. But that clever technology has yet to reach even the swankiest campervans. With the help of world-renowned design house Pininfarina, RV maker AC Future is looking to change that with the ultra-futuristic eTH that expands like no campervan on the market today.

Get the full details of AC Future's expandable luxury RV camper From the outside, the eTH RV looks like a vehicle concept straight out of Minority Report. Its cube-like design vaguely resembles today's modern box trucks, but the chiseled corners, polished glass and paint, and Tesla-like LED lighting provide clues that this is something altogether different. At just 20 feet long, it's barely longer than a typical American parking space and only a few inches beyond a Mercedes Sprinter 144 (the platform for many of today's luxury campervans and next-gen van life campers).

Winnebago made a splash in the RV and overlanding worlds when it debuted its Sprinter-based Revel camper van back in 2017. The off-road-centric coach was a distinct departure from the company's well-established line-up of leisure RVs. It doubled down a few years later with the Ford Transit-based Ekko — a more spacious, more capable big brother designed to take you and your gear, well, just about anywhere. Now, the RV maker is upping the ante yet again with its all-new Ekko Sprinter — a Sprinter Van-based class B+ rig that's ready for serious off-road fun.

Get the low-down on the all-new Winnebago Ekko Sprinter camper van With the new Ekko Sprinter, it's clear Winnebago recognizes that size matters. The latest model is bigger in every way than its Transit-based brother. With a 170-inch wheelbase, it's 18" longer, to be exact. That's still compact enough to navigate twisty backcountry roads yet roomy enough to accommodate more amenities, gear, and passengers. The Ekko Sprinter offers belted seating for four adults and sleeping space for three. An optional pop-up adds sleeping quarters for two more for a total of five (in a compact camper van!). Plus, the deep gear garage allows you to pack everything you need and then some (think: a whole arsenal of outdoor adventure gear).

Custom van life vans and over-the-top overlanding rigs have stolen most of the public attention for anyone daydreaming about serious long-term road life. But those aren't your only options. Teardrop trailers, for example, have been around for almost as long as vehicles could tow things. These ultralight travel trailers are designed for minimalists looking to explore the world with only the essentials. While most aren't designed for hardcore off-road use, Bean Trailers doesn't design "most" teardrop trailers. Case in point: Its all-new Bean Stock 2.0 is a rugged, featherweight design ready to go, well, pretty much anywhere you need it to—all for under $20K.

All about Bean Trailer's all-new Bean Stock 2.0 teardrop trailer Despite their compact appearance, many teardrop trailers are bulkier and heavier than they look, and most just aren't built for spending any serious time off-pavement. The Bean Stock 2.0 tackles both of these issues with a seamless fiberglass shell that's far lighter (less than 1,200 pounds!), more durable, and more leak-resistant than conventional "stick-built" (i.e., plywood and aluminum) teardrops. The design is purpose-built for even the roughest trails. Coupled with a slimmer, trail-friendly profile, it can readily be towed by most midsize and even compact SUVs, like Toyota RAV4s and Subaru Foresters.

How We Land on Mars

Parachutes, airbags, heat shields— all these and more fill NASA's toolkit for getting spacecraft through the challenging, ultra-thin Martian atmosphere, then around mountains, cliffs, and rocks to a safe landing on the surface.

‘Seven Minutes of Terror’

The prospect of landing on Mars, long considered the stuff of science fiction, has become a reality over the past half century, thanks to human imagination, expertise, and persistence.

NASA has led the way with multiple missions that have landed safely on the Red Planet. Some of the landings have dispatched rovers to travel around the Martian surface, and some have served as stationary explorers, each gathering data and images from a specific landing site. They all have one thing in common: landing them on Mars requires intensive planning and expertise, to maximize the prospects of a safe and successful arrival. 

A whole host of things have to go precisely as planned for landing success. This tense process, known as Entry, Descent, and Landing, or EDL, has been referred to with such phrases as “seven minutes of terror.”

‘It is the result of reasoned engineering thought. But it still looks crazy.’

NASA engineers who designed the Curiosity Mars rover's entry, descent, and landing system talk candidly about its features, including a new element — the sky crane — and describe the challenges of the rover's final moments before touchdown.

Choosing How and Where to Land

“Each new lander or rover mission has presented new landing-system design challenges not faced by the ones that came before," said Rob Manning, an engineering fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Manning has worked on all NASA Mars rovers and landers since Pathfinder in 1997. 

"The Viking team had minimal landing-site information before sending the spacecraft to Mars. After their success, the next challenge was lowering the costs, which spawned the idea of using air bags for Mars Pathfinder, and that success then also enabled the Spirit and Opportunity rovers to land,” he said. After that, for Curiosity and Perseverance, “bigger rovers with grander capabilities, we had to invent the sky crane maneuver, and then new navigation techniques that enabled us to land at sites previously considered too risky."

When choosing a landing site, scientists conduct a rigorous pre-launch process to identify a location with terrain safe for landing, but with the right features to address mission goals of science discovery and help pave the way for future robotic missions, and potentially, future Mars astronauts. This “Mars in a Minute” video explains:

Stationary Landers

Viking 1 and viking 2.

The twin Vikings were the first two U.S. spacecraft to land safely on Mars. Each was transported separately to the Red Planet by its own orbiting spacecraft, which released the lander it was carrying when it was time to begin the landing process. Both landers touched down north of the Mars equator, with Viking 1 in Chryse Planitia, and Viking 2 in Utopia Planitia. Renowned astronomer Carl Sagan helped choose the landing sites. Viking 1 landed on Mars on July 20, 1976, followed by Viking 2 on Sept. 3, 1976. 

Each Viking had three triangular leg structures. Each leg was configured as an inverted tripod with three struts, and a skirted footpad. Once each orbiter was safely in orbit around Mars, the orbiter dropped the lander, and lifting aeroshells helped lengthen the entry, descent, and landing timeline. To slow the descent, the Vikings used the same type of parachutes we still use on Mars missions. Liquid-fueled, adjustable rocket engines were used for the final descent, while Doppler radars controlled the speed at crucial points in the landing process.

The Vikings' successful landings created a heritage adapted for future landers. While Mars Phoenix and Mars Insight appear to be closest to the Vikings' heritage, all the subsequent NASA Mars landers have been heavily influenced by the Viking design — from entry (heat shields), to descent (parachutes), terminal descent (radars), and landing.

Mars Phoenix Lander

The Mars Phoenix lander , designed to search for evidence of past or present microbial life, touched down in the Martian arctic area of Vastitas Borealis on May 25, 2008, using technologies inherited from the Viking spacecraft, with some upgrades. It was, in fact, the first successful landing of a stationary soft-lander on Mars since Viking 2 landed 32 years earlier.

Phoenix was designed with 12 on/off pulsed thrusters mounted around its bottom edge, to slow descent during the final 30 seconds before the legs touched the Martian surface.

Mars InSight

The Mars InSight Lander , which safely touched down on Mars' Elysium Planitia on Nov. 26, 2018, borrowed heavily from past NASA Mars missions, especially the Mars Phoenix Lander 10 years prior. But the entry, descent, and landing system was modified a bit for InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport): It used a thicker heat shield, partly because it was landing during dust-storm season — autumn in the Martian northern hemisphere. And its parachute suspension lines used stronger material.

Mars Landings With Rovers

Mars pathfinder.

July 4, 1997, had an especially exciting element added to the traditional fireworks and gatherings of America's Independence Day celebration. NASA's Mars Pathfinder spacecraft touched down on the Red Planet that day, toting humankind's first-ever Mars rover, Sojourner. The internet, still in its infancy, added an additional layer of interest, providing an opportunity for people around the world to watch fresh images from Mars and live feeds from mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, as history was made.

To land safely with its precious cargo, Pathfinder used a brand-new landing system, much different than its predecessors more than 20 years earlier, Vikings 1 and 2. As Pathfinder descended through the treacherous Martian atmosphere, a parachute and then rockets slowed the lander to a stop, dropping it about 66 feet (20 meters) above the Martian surface. This allowed a giant system of airbags to cushion the landing impact. Pathfinder bounced like a cluster of giant beach balls, more than 16 times and up to 50 feet (15 meters) high. Pathfinder stopped bouncing and settled on the Mars surface about 2½ minutes later, more than half a mile from the initial point of impact. Later, the world continued to watch excitedly as Pathfinder opened its ramp petals and the Sojourner rover rolled down onto the Mars surface.

Mars Exploration Rovers: Spirit and Opportunity

Inspired by the success of Pathfinder and Sojourner, NASA developed twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity , to land on opposite sides of Mars on two different days — Spirit on Jan. 3, 2004, at Gusev Crater, and Opportunity on Jan. 24, 2004, at Meridiani Planum. The twin rovers used an entry, descent, and landing protocol nearly identical to that used by Pathfinder — with a lander assisted by a parachute, an aeroshell lowering the lander on a tether, firing rockets, inflated airbags to cushion the lander, and deployment of each rover rolling off its lander.

Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity

The next generation of rovers — Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity and Mars 2020: Perseverance — used existing entry, descent, and landing technologies, with a new addition. Both eliminated the use of air bags and added an innovative and daring element known as a sky crane. 

Due to the size and weight of these new, massive, science-laden rovers (more than a ton, or about 1,000 kilograms), an air bag-assisted landing would simply not be an option. Likewise, the complexity of getting a massive rover off a large-legged lander would make that choice too difficult and too heavy. Instead, engineers combined the best features of a propulsively controlled lander, like Viking, and the separation of the rover from the descent propulsion, used by Pathfinder, Spirit, and Opportunity. As a result, Curiosity and Perseverance used the sky crane maneuver. A new, separate, propulsive descent stage was placed above the rover to help guide the vehicle during entry, but also to serve as a payload delivery system, lowering the rover to the surface directly and softly onto its wheels. This method is very similar to the way helicopters maneuver heavy payloads on Earth.

On landing day, Aug. 5, 2012 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT), the sky crane maneuver lowered Curiosity to the Mars surface from the descent stage on three cables. This added element occurred during a crucial time, with only seven minutes to get from the top of the Martian atmosphere to the Mars surface — going from 13,000 mph to zero, with perfect sequence, choreography, and timing, all done autonomously by a computer. Thus, the name "Seven Minutes of Terror," as the mission engineers described the daring process required to deliver Curiosity safely to Gale Crater on Mars.

Mars 2020: Perseverance

For the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover , which landed Feb. 18, 2021 in Jezero Crater, engineers chose to reuse the sky crane system that had successfully landed the Curiosity rover in 2012. 

One additional factor came into play: The Jezero Crater landing site was in the most challenging Mars terrain ever targeted, with an ancient river delta, steep cliffs, sand dunes, boulder fields, and smaller impact craters. Landing in such a treacherous site required greater precision and a way to assure safe touchdown, with the reward of exploring an area that scientists believe may have been hospitable to ancient life.

Two new entry, descent, and landing technologies were needed.

The first addition was called Range Trigger. As the time during entry when parachute deployment neared, the onboard software autonomously updated the parachute deployment time based on its position. 

With the craft flying nearly sideways at supersonic speeds, the parachute could serve as a brake — when opened at the exact moment — to stop the horizontal motion precisely over the landing target. This trick enabled the science team to consider smaller, more precise, more daring landing sites such as Jezero Crater.

To find a safe place to land in a hazardous region, a second addition was needed. For the first time, a Mars lander needed to "look out the window" to figure out where it was on an onboard map. Enter another new technology: Terrain-Relative Navigation. It took pictures while descending to autonomously recognize Mars landmark features, estimate spacecraft position, and re-target the craft for precise, safe landing. The system also included the Lander Vision System, to capture and analyze a rapid series of photos to pinpoint the spacecraft's location, matching them to patterns in its map and helping to differentiate between safe sites and hazardous sites.

As Perseverance's descent stage slowed about 12 seconds and 66 feet (20 meters) above the Martian surface, it initiated the sky-crane maneuver. The descent stage lowered the rover on cables, and when the rover sensed that its wheels had touched the ground, it quickly cut the cables to the descent stage, which flew off to land at a safe distance from the rover.

The signals relaying all that took 11 minutes to reach the control room at NASA JPL. Then, amid the cheers and elation of her colleagues, Swati Mohan, the Mars 2020 guidance, navigation, and control operations lead announced to the world: “Touchdown confirmed. Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars, ready to begin seeking the signs of past life.”

‘Tango Delta. Touchdown confirmed!’

Views and commentary from mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Feb. 18, 2021, as the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission lands on Mars. Video includes footage from cameras on the spacecraft's entry, descent, and landing suite as it approached the Martian surface.

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Perm, the capital, is the main attraction in Perm Krai, which sees travelers coming through on the Trans-Siberian Railway .

See Russian phrasebook .

There are three international flights per week to Perm ( PEE   IATA ) from Frankfurt (6 hours). Domestic flights arrive daily from Moscow (2 hours) and nearby Yekaterinburg . Flights from Saint Petersburg are less frequent, but also take just 2 hours.

The Trans-Siberian Railway runs through Perm Krai and stops at Perm and Kungur.

• Permyakia — a large, but sparsely populated region in the northwest of Perm Krai, where ethnic Komi-Permyaks constitute a majority
• Mosquito Festival , Berezniki . Annual, three days, mid-July . Gather at a local pond to celebrate the bloodsucking insects. Music, dancing, "most delicious girl" competition (in which the winner is the one with the most mosquito bites), competition to catch the most live mosquitoes and even a man dressed as a giant mosquito. Absurd events for adults and children.  

The next stops on the Trans-Siberian Railway are Glazov , Udmurtia to the west and Pervouralsk , Sverdlovsk Oblast to the east.

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Chez T&C : Buying a Home Is Child's Play. Buy an Island Instead

Plus, people are going crazy for pet rooms, Daniel Arsham and Kohler introduce a new bathroom collection, and more.

Every item on this page was chosen by a Town & Country editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

Once a month, Town & Country puts together an assortment of the best design news and happenings— everything from an interior design project that pique our interest, an auction of note, to any must-have products on the market.

They Did What?

In this new collaboration, Arsham's sinks look like asymmetrical pillows, his chandelier resembles a bouquet of tulips turned upside down, and the mirror frames resemble puddles of water. They're fun without looking gimmicky, and I imagine if they are styled properly, can be very elegant.

Along with his past collaborations with Dior and Tiffany's , Arsham even outfitted the town Kohler, Wisconsin–which has been turned into a wellness destination–with his signature blue sculptures. "Adding art into the mix for locals and visitors makes the place even more inspiring and immersive," he tells T&C . "By blending art with the wellness vibe, the Zen Garden and sculptures make the experience more special, helps people feel more connected, and boosts the overall relaxation and healing that everyone goes to Kohler for."

Your Friends Already Have One. Hurry Up.

Interior designer Chloe Allison Pollack-Robbins Katz was perhaps one of the most entertaining guests at a dinner out East last week. The subject that enraptured the table? A rising demand for pet rooms.

"I've worked in the Hamptons for 15 years now, and this is the first year that many of my clients have asked me for a pet room. Obviously, it's iconic because animals are amazing and we don't deserve them," Katz tells T&C . Her clients have either incorporated pet rooms in their mudrooms or have built them off of them. Some have low bathing areas that their pets can easily crawl into, and most have areas for their pet's accessories like paw covers, extra collars, medicine, and more. The designer is currently working on one that will be coated in a beautiful seafoam green. The wealthiest cat in the world, Choupette , would approve.

Don’t Just Rent, Buy

Everyone is looking for a house, but only a few are considering an island. There's one in Branford, Connecticut that sits on the Long Island Sound that is up for sale for $35 million.

With that, you get 7.5 acres of land, a nearly 9,000 square-foot main house, and a four-bedroom waterfront guest house. There's a studio, pool, tennis court, koi pond, three private beaches, a greenhouse, and two docks. Oh, and the staff? They have their own quarters, too.

For more information, visit jenniferleahy.elliman.com .

We Saw This. Have You?

Hadn't you heard? Skateboarding is posh now. (Did you catch 14-year old Coco Yoshizawa smoke her competition and win an Olympic gold in women's street skateboarding?) Paris's Hôtel de Crillon gets it, as the palace property recently partnered with the social change platform SKATEROOM, for this year's games. Skateboard decks by Cindy Sherman, Louise Bourgeois, Jules de Balincourt, Juergen Teller, and more will be on display throughout the hotel until September.

Add to Cart…

Inspired by the athletic prowess of Olympic swimmer Leon Marchand? Gymnast Simone Biles? Or, how about pommel horse hero Stephen Nedoroscik? Well then, train like them. Here's a start: Technogym equipment.

Skillrow Rowing machine

The brand known for outfitting megayachts and palatial homes decked the Olympic Village's gym out with its latest sports equipment, and its safe to bet that the world's greatest athletes have used them to stay in shape during the two weeks of competition. Want to keep up? Get started now; the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles is fast approaching.

Cheaper Than a Second Home

The Cotswolds are cute, but don't you want to explore outside the usual social circuit a little? Up at the bucolic Lake District in England (about two hours north of London on the train), a newly renovated castle-like hotel awaits.

The Langdale Chase first opened in 1937 but was recently given a modern facelift by interior designer Jane Goff. The beauty of an English estate remains both in the exteriors and interiors, but they are brought to the present century with updated plush fabrics, scenic wallpapers, golden-brown woods, and even Art Deco accessories. It sits right on Lake Windermere, England's largest lake and the location where the Romantic poet William Wordsworth waxed poetic about the region. The hotel is quiet and gorgeous, making it hardly shy of perfection. Don't forget to bring your New & Lingwood robe and a curiosity for archery and clay pigeon shooting.

T&C Stamp of Approval

What's in for interiors? Sexy is back . Bronze accents, curvaceous banquets, and dim lighting offer an old-world glamour. If you're looking for an evening lounge room away from home, head to So & So's , a new piano-bar-meets-supper-club in Romer Hell's Kitchen. Interior designer Matthew Goodrich sought to evoke the feeling of stumbling into a "local legends" living room during a night out in New York City while also serving as an ode to the theatrical pedigree of the neighborhood. We think it looks like a place where a glamorous chanteuse enchants a rapt crowd with the sultry voice that she uses to cover Ella Fitzgerald.

Style News Editor at Town and Country covering society, style, art, and design.  

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Trump Campaign Criticizes Walz for State Law Providing Tampons in Schools

The law, which was passed in Minnesota last year, includes language requiring menstrual products to be available in bathrooms of all schools for grades 4 to 12 as a way to accommodate transgender students.

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By Chris Cameron

• Published Aug. 6, 2024 Updated Aug. 9, 2024

As part of their effort to portray Tim Walz, the new Democratic vice-presidential candidate, as a far-left liberal, the Trump campaign attacked the Minnesota governor on Tuesday for signing a bill last year that provides access to menstrual products for transgender students.

At issue is broadly inclusive language in the law, which states that products like pads, tampons and other products used for menstruation “must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12.” Republican state lawmakers in Minnesota had tried — and failed — to amend that bill so that it would apply only to “female restrooms,” though some Republicans went on to vote for the final version of the bill .

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, said in an interview on Tuesday on Fox News that the law, among other policies seen as supportive of transgender rights, was “a threat to women’s health.”

“As a woman, I think there is no greater threat to our health than leaders who support gender-transition surgeries for young minors , who support putting tampons in men’s bathrooms in public schools,” Ms. Leavitt said. “Those are radical policies that Tim Walz supports. He actually signed a bill to do that.”

State Representative Sandra Feist , a Democrat and the chief author of the bill, said in an interview that it was important for her and the student activists who pushed for the change that transgender students were able to access menstrual products without having to ask for them.

“I actually received emails,” Ms. Feist said. “From trans students, parents, teachers, librarians, custodians from across the country, talking about how they were — or that they knew — trans students who faced these barriers and needed these products, and how much it meant to them that they would have that access, and also that we were standing up for them.”

Mr. Walz made significant efforts to protect the rights of L.G.B.T.Q. people in Minnesota as governor, and was an early supporter of gay rights going as far back as his time as a high school teacher in the 1990s. Mr. Walz signed a bill last year designating Minnesota as a legal refuge for transgender people.

Chris Cameron covers politics for The Times, focusing on breaking news and the 2024 campaign. More about Chris Cameron

Keep Up With the 2024 Election

The presidential election is 91 days away . Here’s our guide to the run-up to Election Day.

Tracking the Polls . The state of the race, according to the latest polling data.

Election Calendar. Take a look at key dates and voting deadlines.

Candidates’ Careers. How Trump, Vance, Harris and Walz got here.

Who Is Tim Walz? Meet the Minnesota governor, who Harris picked as her V.P.

Harris on the Issues. Here’s where Harris stands on abortion, immigration and more.

Trump’s 2025 Plans. Trump is preparing to radically reshape the government.

My wife isn't 'just' a stepmom to my son. He sees her as his other mom.

• My wife has been in my son's life since he was 6 years old.
• She has taken on a parental role, stepping in whenever I need extra help.
• Even though she's his stepmom, my son considers her his other mom.

After Vice President Kamala Harris announced she was running for president, one criticism lobbed against her was that she is not a parent because she has never given birth to children. But she is the stepmother to her husband Doug Emhoff's two children.

Like Harris, my wife is a stepmother to my son.

I am no longer in a relationship with his father and have been in a new relationship for four years. My wife came into my son's life when he was 6 years old and quickly stepped into a parental role. It was a role she enthusiastically took on.

Although she didn't give birth to my son, my wife is absolutely his second mother.

My son and wife's relationship started friendly

My wife didn't immediately take an authoritative role or force him to treat her like a parent. At first, she was more like a grown-up friend — someone he knew he needed to respect, but someone who would take him on drives to get ice cream or let him pretend to drive her car while I was inside the grocery store.

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I was worried about parenting with another person all the time. As the primary parent, I wasn't used to dividing parenting duties . My wife was aware of that and always deferred to me as the primary parent.

But the bond between my son and my wife was instant. He had never met someone I was dating before, but he liked her immediately.

My wife has taken on more responsibility as a stepmom

Over the last four years, she's taken on more parental responsibility but never tried to act like she was more of a parent than myself or my son's father. She is a bonus mom, someone there to kiss him goodnight , help him with his homework, and love him unconditionally.

During the pandemic, my wife volunteered to take the lead in helping my son with virtual school so I could focus on work. She created a schedule for him, made him lunch, and ensured he kept up with assignments. When the playgrounds opened, she would take him to play, armed with a backpack full of whatever was needed.

I have gone on several overnight trips , leaving the two of them alone together. My son doesn't even call or text me when I'm gone because he's having so much fun hanging out with my wife. I never have to worry about him; I know my wife will make sure he takes a bath and goes to bed on time.

There are days when I will ask her to tag in and do the bedtime routine because I'm working or want a break, and she does it without question. My son knows that if he needs something, he doesn't have to come to me all the time.

Seeing my wife willingly step into a parental role with my son has strengthened our relationship. I knew I loved her almost immediately after we met, but seeing how my son responded to her made me more secure in my decision.

Sometimes, she still refers to him as mine, and I always remind her that she's his mom, too. We do everything as a team: school meetings, performances, birthday parties . Everyone knows us as his two moms, and there's no one else I could imagine doing this with.

My son now sees my wife as the missing piece to our family puzzle. He proudly claims her as his other mom.

"You're my mom too," my son will say when my wife calls herself his stepmom. He made that decision. My wife never wanted to force a close relationship on him, but he pushed for it.

Media has warped the perception of stepmoms

Popular media depictions of stepmoms are largely negative. The common trope is that they're evil.

For example, you have characters like Meredith Blake in the Lindsay Lohan version of "The Parent Trap," the Baroness von Schraeder in " The Sound of Music ," and, of course, the prototype: Cinderella's Evil Stepmother.

These women are always seen as temptresses who come in and seduce the father into marrying them before revealing they intend to get rid of his daughter so that she will be the only woman in his life.

Maybe there are stepmoms out there who fit this description, but by and large, stepmoms are there to be whoever their step kids want them to be.

I know that's exactly the role my wife plays, and my son and I are all the more lucky for it.

Watch: Why one mother fled Texas to keep her child safe

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