Recently, I asked the BuzzFeed Community to share their biggest travel mistakes and what they wish they'd done differently.
Here are 15 of their top answers:
Some answers are also from this Reddit thread by u/cwkid.
1. "Partied the whole night at LKF, Hong Kong and went back to my hostel at 6 a.m. I had a 9:30 a.m. flight home but figured I'd take a tiny nap since my backpack was all packed, and I was already checked in anyway. I woke up at at 9:45 a.m."
2. "Arrived in Mozambique with only South African Rand. I thought I'd be able to withdraw some cash from an ATM or pay for the visa on arrival with a card, but for some reason, my card wasn't working. I couldn't get into the country because I didn't have the correct currency to pay for the visa, and my cards weren't working to withdraw any cash."
"Luckily, a kind person behind me offered to pay for my visa, and I was able to get into contact with a family member to help check on my cards and activate them. It was one of the most touching moments of kindness I'd experienced, and also a lesson to always always always carry enough cash on you while traveling."
3. "Ran to the train station in Amsterdam. Got on the train to Frankfurt, put my suitcases on their spot, and stepped off to have a smoke. Immediately, the doors closed behind me, and my possessions (minus passport, wallet, and phone which were in my pocket) went to Frankfurt without me."
"A couple of trains and a flight later, I was in Frankfurt waiting for my suitcases, but they weren't on the train. A few long days spent calling around, and I finally found them in Utrecht (Netherlands conductors took them off before entering Germany). Rented a car and drove the 12 hours round-trip from Frankfurt to Utrecht and back to Frankfurt, and all was well when I started work on Monday morning."
4. "This could have turned out really badly. I was in Vietnam in Hanoi. It was one of the last days of the trip I'd been on for two weeks, and we were out having some drinks. We were approached by this English guy saying that he knew where a really good party was. We were feeling a bit tipsy and thought we were a big enough group to be safe. We followed him, along with some other people, and he led us to a legitimate club with music and a bar. We enjoyed ourselves for a few hours before thinking it was time to go home. When we walked out of the bar, we realized we had no idea where we were."
"Following the guy, none of us took notice of the way we went. In Hanoi, there's a section of the city where all the streets look the same, and there's not really any landmarks you can use to find your way. With no one about, we simply had to wander until we found something we recognized. We were so lucky, as 30 mins later, we stumbled across our hotel. Had we gone in the other direction, we could have been very very lost. This was a mistake that we got away with and definitely learned from!
I've been all over the world and always turned down invitations from random people who promise good parties. No thank you, I'll go back to my hotel safely, please. I got away with it once…I'm really not going to chance it!"
5. "Took a shortcut against the advice of my hostel receptionist and got mugged. 500 euros taken. Had to go home early."
6. "When I was in college, I was on a school trip in Germany (I'm American). A friend and I were staying with a host family, and they gave us tube tickets to get to our destination. When we got to the tube station, my friend and I accidentally took the wrong train. Instead of a local, we took a train that left the city and ended up in the middle of nowhere (neither of us knew German)."
"After about an hour of panic, we hopped on a train headed back to the city and somehow made it back to the original station. Luckily, everything worked out. Our school left for the day without us, so my friend and I went shopping and had an amazing lunch, then we met up with the school for our evening event. But it VERY easily could have gone horribly wrong.
This was before the days of Google translate and cell phones with international plans, but it taught me if you're going to a country where you don't speak the language, at LEAST learn some sample phrases so you can ask for help. Not everyone in Europe speaks English, and knowing how to communicate, even a little, can be a lifesaver."
7. "Using points, I booked a one-way flight to get me to Nepal: AMS (Amsterdam) to FRA (Frankfurt) to DEL (Delhi) to CCU (Kolkata) to KTM (Kathmandu). Lots of stops, but basically a free flight (points!). Great! I had done tons of solo travel all over at this point, and I never thought anything further about my flight until I arrived at AMS airport. 'Do you have an India visa?' 'No, I'm just transiting on my way to Nepal, and I can get that on arrival.' I guess they didn't think anything further of it either. So, I arrived at the Frankfurt airport, get to my gate, and the Air India agent asks to see my India visa. 'No, I'm just transiting on my way to Nepal.' He lets me on the flight. Clearly he didn't think anything further of it. On my flight to Delhi, I start to think more about this."
"I'm transiting, yes, but I'm also taking an intra-India flight to do so. I hadn't thought about this when booking or so confidently explaining my situation to the gate agents. I looked through the information in the booklet on the flight, and it explained that some flights were transiting internationally (with XYZ flight numbers), but some were considered domestic (with other ABC numbers). My ongoing flight was ABC. Uh oh.
I arrive to Delhi, and sure enough, someone does think further of my situation. There is a man directing people to either immigration or sterile transit (no customs needed for a transfer). He looks at my flight number on my next flight and points to customs. 'So you see, that's not going to be possible...'
So instead, I ended up in a room full of people who also made visa fuck-ups and were awaiting deportation.
In the end, Air India eventually came through for me and got me on a direct flight to KTM. Huge props to them."
8. "Wish I had never flew Spirit airlines."
9. "We didn't research the food/restaurant situation before our trip, assuming that our destination would have plenty of nice dining options. It did not. Basically, it was a tourist trap with only crappy chain restaurants."
"Honestly, I'm not sure what we could have done differently in that circumstance, other than do our research ahead of time, but in the future, we’'e definitely looking at foodie destinations."
10. "This was a few years back, but I booked a flight on one of those budget airlines, thinking that I was saving money. Turns out, they charged for ALL of the luggage you brought on, whether it was checked or carry-on. So here I was thinking I was being slick by putting all of my belongings in two carry-on bags, only to realize that I was being charged for them anyway!"
"Turned out, it negated the cost of the plane ticket."
11. "Booked a train ticket from Rome to Venice and drank way too much the night before. I rolled into the train station with about 10 minutes to spare — only to find out that it was Daylight Savings, and I was actually 50 minutes late."
12. "Left my passport in the hotel safe when flying out of Prague. Didn't realize this until I was at the airport, 90 minutes away from my hotel with no way to do the round trip in time to keep my flight. Contacted the hotel, made arrangements for another cab to bring me my passport. Got my passport and tried to check in for the flight, but they wouldn't let me because it was now less than an hour to departure and an international flight."
"I could have just checked in on my phone while waiting, but I didn't realize it would be an issue. Ended up spending another night in Prague."
13. "I would say not doing research or booking things in advance."
"I've heard so many time people go to a place or restaurant, only to find it's not open certain days (which happens more than you think), or it's fully booked for the day. Booking ahead helps lots, I've found."
14. "Underestimated how long it would take to get from my hostel to the train station in Berlin and missed my train to Prague by about five seconds. Had to purchase a new train ticket for the next train at a heftier premium price."
15. And finally: "When I solo traveled in India and was ready to fly out of the country, I didn't include my middle name when booking the flight ticket. Since the name on my ticket didn't fully match the name on my passport without the middle name, I wasn't allowed to board the flight until I called the airline company and had them change it."
"It was like 4 a.m., and the company phone lines weren't open until a later time, but luckily I had like four to five hours before my flight departed and was able to have it changed in time."
What's your biggest travel mistake or nightmare travel experience? Share your stories in the comments!
Some entries have been edited for length/clarity.