My wife and I went to Hawaii on our honeymoon. Before our trip, she borrowed a guidebook from her boss. Not just any guidebook, mind you. It was a meticulously annotated, highlighted and dog-eared guidebook. Her boss had been to Hawaii and marked off every useful piece of information in the book (best helicopter tour, best restaurants, etc.).

So, on our flight from Kauai to Maui, we had a layover in Honolulu. If you've never done these flights in the islands before, you might be surprised to learn that there is no assigned seating. (It's kind of like taking the bus.) Well, during our layover, we decided to move from the back of the plane to the front as we were one of the few couples not disembarking.

I think you see where this is going. My wife had been reading the guidebook on the first leg of the flight. She placed it in her seatback pocket during landing. And she forgot to grab as we changed seats.

She felt so awful about losing her boss's book--and those precious notes--that she stopped in the airport gift shop and purchased the latest edition of the guide. She then proceeded to highlight everything she could remember from her boss's copy.

Fortunately, her boss was so cool about it, she actually laughed that my wife was trying to replicate her notes in the copy!

Posted By Anthony Falcone on January 29, 2009, 3:34 PM

While studying abroad in Wales a few years ago, I had a month long Easter break and my friend and I decided to tour the continent for three weeks. We started off in Stockholm, Sweden, planning to stay two nights and two days, leaving the second day by train to Bergen, Norway, as there was only one daily train leaving at 6 p.m.

We spent a lovely day sightseeing in Stockholm and arrived at the train station about 50 minutes ahead of time. But we couldn't find our train anywhere on the schedule. We eventually went to the help desk and the lady behind the counter looked at our tickets and said it was already gone. We completely puzzled as there was still 45 minutes until the train was supposed to leave. She pointed at her watch and said, It's spring time. Still not understanding, my friend said, well yes it is but what does that mean? Is the train late in the spring? The woman shook her head and pointed to the larger station clock. "It's spring time." Finally comprehending, when I noticed the time on the large clock, I told my friend, "We forgot to reset our clocks." It was Sunday, the first day of Daylight Savings. Luckily, our hostel still had room for the night and we met two fellow Americans who we adventured with the next day. We never would have seen the interesting town of Uppsala, Sweden, or seen the massive burial mounds that date to Medieval times or the sky-reaching church in the center of town. So in the end, we were glad we missed our train. The next day we continued on to Norway, making sure we were on spring time.

Posted By Stephanie L on January 29, 2009, 4:58 PM

They should invent a "handcuff" to put on tubes. Then you could sling it over your shoulder!

Posted By Jo on January 29, 2009, 5:01 PM

I have had that exact tube debacle! Mine involved leaving it in an airport bookstore then realizing my mistake after going through customs. I went back to try and see if I could find it, and came close to missing my flight. They actually put me on one of those airport go-carts to get me to the gate - and I'm buzzing along, all worried about missing my flight and so mad - because the tube had all of the prints I'd bought as souvenirs from my trip to Scotland.

But lo and behold - the fantastic attendants caught wind of a tube being reported to lost and found. One of them carried it onto the plane and found me before we took off! Stupid move - brilliant work on their part!

Posted By Janelle on January 29, 2009, 5:42 PM

The travel problems I and those close to me have encountered haven't so much been the things we've lost as the things we've broken on the way. A broken bottle of maple syrup is a sad (and very sticky) thing to discover when opening your luggage. Thanks a lot, Canada! Other breakages: the glass covering framed pictures, and just anything made of pottery.

Posted By John Rambow on January 29, 2009, 6:10 PM

Glad your story had a happy ending! Great question, but where to begin?? So many stupid things I've done. Hmm...forgot to put shoes on my youngest when we went off for a weekend family reunion in another state... Wore a brand new white wool skirt on the flight to Switzerland with my 6-mo-old baby and feeding her bright orange mashed carrots from a jar when turbulence ensued...Missed my brother (pre-cellphone days) when he was waiting inside and I outside National Airport in DC on one of his brief and rare business trips to the States... walking over shoulderless highway overpass in the dark and rain because I got on the wrong bus...But it all turned out all right!

Posted By Marilyn Terrell on January 29, 2009, 6:33 PM

On our first cruise, 13.5 years ago, my husband did something that was so outrageously funny that I (against my husband's wishes) still tell the story to this day.

It had been a long flight from MN to San Juan between transfers and waiting for luggage to catch up to us at the airport, boarding the ship thru the long corral lines and the excitement of exploring this big, beautiful ship. We spent the first day/night exploring, eating, drinking, dancing and more until we were ready to drop. We were sooooo tired. We headed back to our cabin, undressed and dropped in to bed. Some time later, I'm awoken by my husband screaming and screaming, his arms flailing about in the dark shouting ... get it off me, get it off! I was so scared, I thought it was a crawly, hairy spider or something. I fumbled around for the light switch and lo and behold in the bright light of the room my poor husband was fighting the melted chocolate of the mint that was left on our pillows with turn down. It had melted all over the top of his head, forehead and onto the pillow. I laughed and laughed because he looked so funny, because he was so scared and because I wondered what our cabin boy would think when he saw the chocolate melted on the pillowcase.

LESSON: Always check for night time chocolate mints on your pillow before settling in!

Posted By Zena Stefani on January 29, 2009, 8:45 PM

My I-Pod slipped between the seats on our United flight and I did'nt notice it until we deplaned. A goner, Lost and Found reported "nada". So I had to listen to my (new) husband's singing all along the Hana Highway and back. Instead of multi-tasking as usual, I could just concentrate on navigating through our Maui Trailblazer's pages. Truly enjoyable ride with lots of worthwhile stops, no music needed. Now I wonder if I'm missing out when I'm hooked into my Pod. To replace or not replace, that is the question.

Posted By Liz Alvarado on January 30, 2009, 12:09 AM

While staying in a village in the Philippines, my husband and I thought we should destroy some of the receipts that we had accumulated over the previous month. My husband ripped up the receipts and started a small, "controlled" fire in the sink of our one-room cabin. As we ran the water down the drain, we smelled plastic, and realized that we had melted all the plumbing. Instead of telling the owner and risking embarrassment, we we went into the nearest town (just a bigger village) and purchsed some plumbing parts. The end result of our fix was functional and actually looked better than how it did before the fire.

Posted By Renee Ruggero on January 30, 2009, 5:47 PM

I was traveling through Switzerland with a friend on our way to the Tour de France. We were on our way to Zermatt for the day. We reached the village where you board the train to Zermatt as they do no allow cars in Zermatt. We decided to explore the area before boarding the train. As we were driving along a narrow road we came upon a village. Just as we were about to drive through the town a young shepherd and his flock of long hair goats were moving our way blocking the road. I pulled to the side and got out to take some pictures. A gentleman came up behind me and asked if I spoke English. I told him I did and he strongly suggested that I get in my car and go down the hill as they do not allow cars in Zermatt. I told him I knew that and he looked at me and said "Well, you are in Zermatt!". He said that it would be a fine of 800 Swiss francs if the police were go catch me. My friend and I quickly got in the car for the retreat. Unfortunately we were now behind the herd of goats. We did make it out without being fined and came back to Zermatt the correct way.

Posted By Danny on February 1, 2009, 11:51 PM

Not a very interesting story...but on January 22,2009 I left my anniverary gift which was a Sharper Image noise canceling headset with an ipod(in a nice case) at Gate B 3 at the Atlanta Airport. Just in case anyone found it...Please return it to Lost and Found at the airport.

Posted By Denise Polston on February 2, 2009, 10:25 AM

Just this past summer, I was taking a 24 hr trip from Brussels to Amsterdam with a friend for the first time. My friend had never been abroad before ( we are from the States) but I had a few times so I considered myself a pretty seasoned traveler. The next morning about 15 minutes into our train ride back to Brussels I realized I had forgotten my passport in the Amsterdam hotel safe! We had one stop before Brussels and it came up in 5 minutes, I told my friend we had to get off and go back because they would stop me when they checked our tickets and I had no passport. She had some huge bags and couldn't get off in time ( I did) so I was running along the train as it left shouting at her to go to the Brussels Marriott we had stayed in a couple days before. Luckily, my passport was still in the safe, and she was in the Brussels hotel bar, waiting for me. She may have had a couple glasses of wine to calm herself down, but she made it without me!
Now I set reminders for myself to check the safe, and we have a plan of where to go if we get separated again!

Posted By Sarah on February 2, 2009, 11:33 AM

I had been planning a trip to Bhutan for three years.
Before boarding my flight in San Francisco I decided to have a bowl of clam chowder. Fifteen minutes later I was doubling over with stomach cramps. While attempting to make it to the ladies room, my blood pressure dropped,I fainted and fell face first on the ground. I split my head open and an five minutes later was surrounded by an emergency medical team. On the floor of the San Francisco International terminal they proceeded to hook me up to every monitor known to man. Twenty minutes later they wheeled me out on a gurney and transported me to the emergency room of a nearby hospital. The attending physician (who looked like Chuck Norris) stitched the gash in my head and cleared me for the next day's flight. I was in perfect health the entire rest of the trip to Bangkok and Bhutan. The black eye persisted for the 18 days of the trip. Needless to say, I had sunglasses on in every photo!

Posted By Jackie LaPointe on February 2, 2009, 11:37 AM

1980's: *Got drunk on a train and almost got tossed off in rural Georgia. Stayed sober on the return trip.
*Drove the wrong way on I-85 in NC for an hour before realizing I wasn't on my way to Chapel Hill. Let the car run out of oil. Bought oil, gave up and went home.
1990's: *Took Ativan on a flight to NY City and immediately after landing, stored my bags and spent more money than I had sense on fashions at Henri Bendel. Clothes went back the next day. Never took Ativan again. Decided to take the train home, and sat for 3 hours in Raleigh after we ran over a drunk on the tracks. Couldn't even smoke a cigarette (Coroner wouldn't allow us off the train). Stewed. Gave up fear of flying.
2000's: *Flushed keys to the moving truck down a toilet. Long story, but ended safely.
*Set up camp next to a bee's nest in rural Virginia. Did you know that bees live on the ground?

Posted By the pixinator on February 2, 2009, 11:53 AM

On a trip to the UK, my friends and I took a train to Canterbury. We got off, walked around and saw the cathedral, then boarded a train to Dover. We wanted to take the bus up to the castle above the cliffs. We got on the bus, paid about 1 GBP and settled in to the front seats on top of the double decker bus. We were too busy looking out the windows to notice that we missed the stop. We rode that bus for 2-1/2 hours through the countryside, small towns, past the North Sea all the way back to Canterbury. It was a great trip and we never would have seen the countryside like that had we got off the bus. The driver refused to take any more money and made sure we knew where the train station was as he helped us out of the bus yard.

Posted By Judi on February 2, 2009, 12:27 PM

Long ago, in my first marriage, my wife decided that she needed contact lenses. That was when they were hard, expensive, and needed daily cleaning.

We were headed toward Iowa from upstate New York on early AMTRAK in two economy Slumbercoach rooms and she took out the lenses and put them in the cleaning case that night.

At Chicago our late train caused a hectic detraining. We did make our connecting train and got to her parents' farm in central Iowa.

The next morning she asked where I had put her contacts (you are getting an idea why she is my ex wife). I responded I did not know but then I was obliged to conduct the search for them. Never found!

The stay ended and we reversed our travel, finally getting back on a late-starting AMTRAK train out of Chicago heading east. Again we were in two of the Slumbercoach singles, and the car had a familiarity about beyond its standard design shared by other such cars. Walking the hallway I notice a certain scratch on the wall - and on a hunch, while the occupants were off to dinner, I took a look in the room equivalent to where my wife had been on the way out. Placed a hand under the seat frame and there was the case! In two weeks it had been there, oblivious to any cleaning efforts, traveling back and forth to New York, with the contents still well cleaned, wet, and lubricated. Those lenses went on serving her well for over a year. Since then, I have always been careful to look under my sleeper seat frames to make sure I have not left anything there (my watch was hiding there once) and am up about $13 in bills and coins.

Posted By Rev Randy on February 2, 2009, 1:00 PM

I was traveling through Asia alone.

While in China, I spent an entire day at the Chengdu Panda Breading and Research Center.

At the end of the day, I walked out the main gate expecting to find at least a few cabs. There was not one to be seen.

I waited about ten minutes and still not one went by.

I noticed the guard at the gate of the Center packing up his station. I went over to him, and asked about cabs. He said to go back to where I had been waiting. I assumed that he ment that eventually one would go by.

The guard continued packing up and headed back into the Center.

A few minutes later a car came around the corner and pulled up to me.

He asked, "You need a ride?" I, again assuming that the Guard had sent him, replied yes and got in. He asked where I wanted to go. I showed him the hotel card. He said "Ok, I know where that is...How much?" I had paid the metered cab about 60 Yuan that morning so I figured I would try to save some money and offered 40 Yuan. He said "That's good" and we were off.

For the first 5 minutes or so everything was fine. I recognized the roads from the morning trip, but then we ran into some traffic. He made a turn and we ended up in a slum type of area on an eroded dirt road under the freeway. I start thinking -- What have I gotten myself into!!!

I pulled the little plastic compass I had gotten with a bottle of Diet Coke I bought in Japan, a few weeks earlier. We were still headed more or less in the proper direction.

We drove for what seemed like an hour through the slum like areas, and than I started to recognize some of the surroundings.

Eventually, he turned around and said "Almost there." A minute or two later we turned a corner and we were at the hotel.

Looking back I still believe that the guard at the Panda Research Center had sent the car. I will however, if I ever find myself in a situation like this again, ask who sent you before I get in the car.

Posted By Jason on February 2, 2009, 1:51 PM

My husband and I got married in Kauai, HI, and the day after our wedding we were going up Waimea Canyon for sightseeing and hiking. We stopped at one of the lookouts (I was driving), and just as I closed my door I realized I didn't have the car key (I had taken it out of the ignition and set it on my seat, while I got out to put on a sweater). We finally found a wire laying in the parking lot, and my husband tried like crazy to get the door lock to lift... to no avail. The closest phone (to call the rental car company) was a few miles up the road at Koke'e lodge/park store. We started walking (uphill, you know)... and about 1/2 mile into our walk, someone (thankfully) pulled over and asked if we needed a ride. I can't tell you what my thought process was at the time (I guess because the rental agreement was in my name), but I went with a complete stranger (male) up to the store. As luck would have it, they had a slim jim there (I had to leave my driver's license as "collateral"), and we drove back to my husband of 1 day and our rental car. Of course, trying to get the door unlocked was almost as much of an ordeal, but they finally did, and we thanked the stranger (profusely), and went to return the tool. I remember telling the stranger that we'd just gotten married yesterday, and he said, "And you're STILL married?" (ha ha...). Luckily I have a very patient husband, and we were able to laugh at the whole situation (after I beat myself up, that is). :)

Posted By JJ on February 2, 2009, 2:10 PM

In 1979, we were stationed in Germany and decided to spend Thanksgiving in Greece, so we could warm up a bit! Changing dollars for drachmas, we hopped a military flight that was supposed to drop us in Athens before continuing on to Ankara, Turkey. However, things got heated in Turkey, and they had to get me (the very pregnant civilian)off the plane at a tiny little airfield in Italy. Husband got off, too, but there we were with no lira and no transportation. After a bit, a jeep showed up and took us back to the teeny little base, where we got a bus to the next town to change money so we could take a bus to the next town to get the train for Rome. Long, long day, but we had a wonderful "Roman Holiday" and made it to Greece (with new baby in tow) for Easter. I left my purse with passport and nearly all our money in a taxi in Rome, and when the driver (Bless him!) brought it back, he brought all 9 of his children with him! Gelato for everyone!!

Posted By Rebecca on February 2, 2009, 2:56 PM

Here's a little travel tip for you. When renting a car or taking public transportation, particularly overseas, we are so often focused on how to get where we are going that we all too often fail to take adequate notice of how to get back, where to get off, or get discombobulated from failing to carefully note the corner we had walked to (or the garage park) in a city like Paris when the metro returns on the other side of the street. We found it pays to devote just as close attention to the return as the visit. In short, be sure to look behind you as well as ahead.

Posted By Deleano on February 2, 2009, 3:20 PM

My husband and I had wanted to travel to Europe for many years, so we finally planned a trip in 1999 for our 10 year anniversary. The original plan, to save money on air fare (open-jawed air travel at the time was much more expensive), was to fly from Cincinnati to Vienna, and then backtrack via train to start the trip in Munich, with the 10 day trip ending back in Vienna. Traveling Delta from Cinti to Atlanta went well, but when we got to Atlanta the flight to Vienna was overbooked and they were looking for people to volunteer to bump to a flight to Munich. Bonus for us, but oh, by the way, you have 10 minutes to get over to the gate all the way at the other end of the Delta terminal! Huffing and puffing, we made our flight, but observing the chaos on the ground at Atlanta, did our luggage? Alas, landing 8 hours later in Munich, it had not. Of course, we did not know that until we had preceeded through passport control to baggage claim. In my frustration I proceeded to rush backwards through passport control to get to what appeared to be the only Delta representative. Quicker than you can say terrorist, I had three guards with their weapons pointed directly at me! They were commanding me to do something in german, which I stood there frozen responding in English, and my husband's mixed expression of horror and amusement was one for the ages! He quickly dragged me back, apologizing before they arrested me! We did find a grouchy fraulien to assist us is taking a report for our lost luggage ,but we were not optimistic. In a sidenote, we arrived on a Sunday, and the only store left open was a not-so-popular german football fan store, so we proceeded to buy clothes for the next day's bus tour. We certainly confused the tour guide (American faces and accents, obscure german football apparel-what?)the next day. BTW, the luggage never left Atlanta until Sunday evening, but it did show up at our hotel safely the next day.

Posted By Casey on February 2, 2009, 3:23 PM

Yep! Dropped our sister off in Ireland to get some change from a local store. Since there was no parking we said we'd just "go around the block," and pick her up in a bit. Well, if you don't know what the blocks are or road names for that matter, you can get mighty lost! Took us about an hour to find her after panic had overtaken us! How silly of us! After that we were exhausted and wanted nothing more to do than go back and have a pint!

Posted By Shannon on February 2, 2009, 3:31 PM

Several years ago, I booked a trip to Prague as part of a short study abroad program. I had a wonderful time. On my way return flight to the US, I had a connection in Frankfurt. What I had failed to notice when I booked the return flight was my connection was a 12 hour layover. Needless to say, I plunked the $$$ for a hotel room at the airport hotel (it was a rather nice one too) and now I ALWAYS check the length of any connection to make sure they left that same day.

Posted By Anabel N on February 2, 2009, 3:46 PM

We flew in to Kota Kinabalu and planned to take the bus to the main town. On arrival we walked to the street as directed where the bus stop was located . However we couldn't tell which way to go to get in to town. When a bus arrived we showed a map to the driver and pointed at downtown with a questioning look to ask if this was the right bus. He nodded yes and we got on. About an hour later he stopped in the middle of a jungle and indicated end of the line. It seems a nod over there is a no , not a yes.

Posted By Joe on February 2, 2009, 4:16 PM

It had been many years since I flew anywhere, and the experience of flying alone and the thought of changing planes in large airports was daunting. I was so proud of myself for having interpreted the gobbledygook on my ticket. I was to wait at gate 6A, which I did. I waited and waited and waited. It was nearly time for my plane to leave, and still no one was there--not even the workers at the counter. I pulled my ticket back out of my purse and looked again. Whoops--gate A1, seat 6A! I was the last passenger to make the flight, but I made it.

Posted By Susan on February 2, 2009, 4:20 PM

It had been many years since I flew anywhere, and the experience of flying alone and the thought of changing planes in large airports was daunting. I was so proud of myself for having interpreted the gobbledygook on my ticket. I was to wait at gate 6A, which I did. I waited and waited and waited. It was nearly time for my plane to leave, and still no one was there--not even the workers at the counter. I pulled my ticket back out of my purse and looked again. Whoops--gate A1, seat 6A! I was the last passenger to make the flight, but I made it.

Posted By Susan on February 2, 2009, 4:33 PM

Peru is a fantastic country. On our visit to Cusco we had a very memorable dinner with our GAP tour group. We dined on alpaca, quinua and ceviche. During dessert I started felling ill. Next thing I know I came too laying on 2 chairs with the group gathered around me. A doctor was summed and declaired me to be suffering from the alltitude. Being the Monday of Holy week the streets were crowded a taxi could not be found to take us back to the hotel. The police were called and they took me back to the hotel in their squad car. Talk about enbarassed!!!!! I still love Peru however and would go back in a minute.

Posted By Betty on February 2, 2009, 4:54 PM

My first born was headed to the University of Pennsylvania where he would be attending summer classes for high school students. Thinking this would be a great time to check out some of the colleges in the north east that were on his list. So we flew from Houston to Boston with our luggage packed, everything he would need for dorm living, a guide book, a credit card, and normally good sense of direction. We stayed in Boston for a couple of days (one city should just not have that many schools!) Then we boarded Amtrak. Our first train experience. I had read and verified we would be able check our massive luggage at the train station, while we toured the schools. The first stop was Providence Rhode Island which went smooth and pain free. The next stop was New Haven Connecticut where we stopped for the night. Instead of leaving the luggage at the hotel after check out, we took it to the train station then proceeded to tour the school. We had a bit of trouble getting a cab back to the train station thus pressing us for time. The gentleman in charge of seeing we got our luggage or the “Red Cap”, was also in charge of seeing that wheelchair passengers make it on their trains. We had two of these passengers ahead of us boarding different trains. He barely got us and our luggage situated but we had made it…, or so I thought. Once on board I asked a fellow if the aisle seat was taken as I wanted to sit across from my son. He was gracious and told me how on his ride up from New York there were people that didn’t even have a seat. I told him I didn’t mean to pry but why would he take a train from New York to Connecticut just to go back through New York to get to Philadelphia? I’ll never forget what he said after that “lady you need a conductor, you are on the wrong train”! My son and I were promptly put off the train with all of our massive luggage at the first stop. We had to wait for the train police to come pick us up and carry us back to the train station to catch the next train to Philadelphia. As we sat there in the hot summer sun sweating, I kept telling my son this will be funny someday. Just like an episode of “I love Lucy”. The stupid thing was I followed the overwhelmed professional blindly knowing somehow this wasn’t right. Maybe it was the numbers not matching or, maybe it was the sun beating down on the wrong side of the train. Either way my son was apparently quite happy when he finally got to U.PENN because it became his school of choice. He graduated from there cum laude in 2007. Go fighting Quakers!? (I never quite got that one either!?!) Oh yes, his brother went to University of Texas – no trains involved.

Posted By Loki_77573 on February 2, 2009, 5:42 PM

On my first trip to California in 27 years, I was determined to see and do as much as possible, including taking a dip into the Pacific Ocean. Being a Missourian, the ocean is foreign territory, which I proved by stepping into the surf at Manhattan Beach with my eyeglasses on, held in place by a "Croakie", the stretchy frame restraint. I figured it would hold.

Lo and behold, a huge wave comes up and gets me turned around, so the onrushing water hits my glasses from behind, whipping them off my head and into unknown depths. I am not virtually blind...and I still have to find a way to drive the rental car from Manhattan Beach back to the motel at Santa Monica, where I (fortuitously) had packed a backup pair. The route back goes right past busy LAX.

Fortunately, I had brought along a very good pair of binoculars, which I utilized at every stoplight and traffic slowdown to look around and see just where I was, since I couldn't read a highway or street sign to save my life.

So, if you dine at a nice restaurant serving fresh seafood, and they bring you a fish wearing no-line bifocals with metal rims....they're mine.

Posted By D. J. Fone on February 2, 2009, 5:56 PM

Last summer I took a much anticipated "dream trip" on a Clipper ship in French Polynesia. I must mention that I am a red haired freckle faced fair skin type who uses the largest SPF sunscreen she can find and I can literally sunburn in 10 minutes. About the time I was preparing for my first round of snorkeling I discovered I had forgotten to pack my sunscreen!! I quickly went to the ship store and found they DID NOT CARRY SUNSCREEN! The island we were anchored near had no stores (people had to boat to other islands to buy things). I had visions of a ruined dream trip. Luckily a fellow passenger came to my rescue and provided sunscreen until we finally docked at an island with a groc/pharmacy. I bought a bottle on Raiatea--it was the best $30 bottle of sunscreen I have ever used!

Posted By Janice on February 2, 2009, 5:57 PM

I've had many things happen while travelling but one funny one was when my husband and I were going to NYC for a friend's wedding. Whenever I leave for anywhere early on a cold morning I wear my slippers while driving or riding. I had a very warm, disgustingly old and dirty pair of high top slippers that I wore on the way to SFO airport. Before we parked I reached for my sandals to change and lo and behold..........no shoes!! I had high heels in my suitcase but that was it. SFO had no shoes for sale and I flew to JFK (also no shoes for sale) and checked into a very posh hotel in those awful slippers. My son and his wife met us at the hotel and he was horrified. I did wear the heels to dinner and bought flats the next morning.

Posted By Joan Raymond on February 2, 2009, 6:44 PM

Ug - my husband and I realized this NYE, while enjoying a candlelit dinner on the beach in Tulum, Mexico, that we left our ATM cards at home.

Now, if this was uber touristy Cancun, no problemo! We could have skated by with credit cards or hit up one of many Western Union locations. But this was out in Tulum, which is more hut and coconut phone than bustling metropolis. So basically we had about 2000 pesos and were completely without a way to get money for a few days. Eeep!

All was well though, our parents wired us some money to the Telecomm in Tulum and we were set for the rest of the vacation.

Posted By Sarah on February 2, 2009, 7:28 PM

I try to make my wife think that I am a very smart traveler. I try to make sure all travel documents are right and they are all in a safe floder. Last February er flew into Puerta vallarta for some sun and fun. After filling out the paperwork for Customs,while we were not far from landing, i made sure they were all together. we had a great time there. Well, when our trip was over we rode to the airport to check in at the desk. We were asked for out immigration papers. Great! i said to myself. I handed my wife hers and went to get mine. Well, i found i was not the sharpest tack on the board. My wife asked what was taking so long. I just gave her a very sick look. I told her that my immigration paper, that I was suppose to turn in , was still back in our room on the desk. The agent informed me, "No problemo Senior." She said I could go right over to the Immigration desk and get another one. "GREAT" I said with glee. I went right over. The man at that office said, "No problemo, Senior, that will be $50.00 US". I nearly passed right out. Lesson learned?. Never leave "home" without it. VIVA LA MEXICO!!!!!!

Posted By Bob Washington on February 2, 2009, 7:30 PM

I went to Trinidad for carnival in 2003. I went with several Trinis and had the time of my life!

Leaving Trinidad, my suitcases were packed with goodies I had bought for friends back home. When the agent at the airport went to open my bags, I joked (stupidly) that my bag was ‘boobytrapped’ because I had to sit on it to close it (I thought that knickers and things would pop out if he opened the bags).

They were not amused.

They thought that I had rigged my suitcase with explosives and literally ripped the lining out of both bags, thoroughly examining every centimeter.
I thought they were through with me, but I was wrong, as I was sitting with my friend in the departure lounge awaiting our return flight to New York, a plain clothes policeman came up to me and asked me to accompany him.

We went down some dark stairs and out of the air terminal. They had my bags on the tarmac and were ripping them apart once again!! I was beginning to wonder if I was going to make it home…

Lesson learned: YOU might think that you are funny, but if it sounds vaguely of terrorism, just say ‘no’.

Posted By gretchen on February 2, 2009, 8:05 PM

Several years ago when I first became a travel agent, my greatest fear was to send someone to the wrong destination. (We use codes for all the cities.) On my trip to Italy, I was taking the train from Rome to PESARO, but got off at PESCARO by mistake. Now, I didn't speak a word of Italian and was traveling alone so I tried to convey my hotel name to the taxi drivers. They offered to take me - for $100 - without telling me that I was in the wrong city. A young lady overheard the conversation and told me which train to board to continue to Pesaro. While it was a little upsetting, I am glad that it happened to me and not to one of my clients.

Posted By Jeanette on February 2, 2009, 8:42 PM

My friend and I booked a package to Rhodes Island, Greece in the summer of 1998. The trip went on smoothly without a hitch. The last night of the trip after bag packed, hotel checked-out, we waited in a cafe for the airport bus to pick us up. I hang my purse on the chair and chatted with my friend until the bus arrived. Once the bus came, people checked their luggage and found their seats on the bus, the driver drove away. After 5 minutes on the road, the driver spoke on the microphone and reminded us to check our passports.
Comfortably settled in my seat, I knew I had my passport in my purse, but figure it would not hurt to check one more time. Just then, I realized that I left my purse on the chair of the cafe!!!!

I ran to the driver and told him what happened. The whole bus had to turn around and went back to the cafe for my purse, if it was still there.

The 5 minutes drive back to the cafe was excruciating. It was embarrassing to delay all the passengers time because of my stupid mistake. However, I had my wallet, my credit card, my ids, and my passport, all the most important things I will need in the purse. It would be a disaster if I lost my purse.

Thank god the story had a happy ending. The purse was safe & sound hanging on the same chair I sat on earlier. We were able to catch our flights without any problems!

Lesson learned: Never leave your purse or use a cross shoulder bag!

Posted By Jan on February 2, 2009, 9:31 PM

On one of our trips to San Diego, my husband, who thinks that he doesn't have to totally empty his pockets when going through security, therefore it always takes him twice as long as me to get through security. I am smugly waiting for my husband after going through security, when the fire alarm goes off. I am now on one side of security with all of our jackets, planner, newspapers and two peoples worth of luggage and my husband is on the other side. I now have to carry everything back because we are supposed to evacuate the airport. Since my husband had not cleared security, they won't let him help me get all the luggage and such to the other side. He still laughs about how he could only see my eyes and the top of my head as I carried everything back to the beginning of the security checkpoint so that we could evacuate the airport.

Posted By Denise on February 2, 2009, 10:07 PM

About 10 years ago me and two buddies bicycled from Denver, Colorado to Newport, Oregon. After 2 weeks, we rolled into a hot June day in Hagerman, Idaho. We asked the clerk at the local market if there was a park in town we could camp at (we were on a serious budget!). She thought it cool but called her Uncle, the sheriff, to double-check.

Five minutes later he calls and says if he finds us in the town park he will put us in the town jail! However, the clerk recommends a roadside park 6 miles from town "where no one will bother you". We cycle 6 miles, nothing. Another mile and then we see a sign for a park down a short hill along the Snake river, right at a big hydroelectric plant. We coast down to find a deserted park with a big sign saying "No Overnight Camping". But this must be THE park, we thought. So we set up our tents in the back of the park. Beautiful evening, totally quiet. So hot though we didn't even put up our rainfly on the tents. At 4am, one buddy shakes me awake and is screaming about something. As quick a violent spray of water courses through the mesh door all over me. In my soaked boxers I scramble out in the darkness to find the entire park's industrial-strength sprinkling system going full guns! Now cold and wet I grabbed the rainfly for each tent and threw them on (the other buddy actually slept through the soaking!). Back in the tent my buddy asked what we were going to do? I told him I'm going to sleep! At daybreak we all get up, not saying a single word. All our gear was soaked, so we spread it out on the ground for the sun to dry it. I begin to boil water for oatmeal when, shink shink shink, the sprinklers GO ON AGAIN! There is no dry place to go, the sprinklers totally soak us and our stuff again! And again we spread our stuff out, this time on the fence overlooking the Snake river. 20 minutes go by and none of us says a word, just stewing at our total fudge-up. But it gets better. Who rolls up in a big green pick-up truck but the park ranger, tinted windows hiding our fate. The truck crosses the park, right up to us. The driver's tinted window goes down. A cowboy hat and big sunglasses stares us down, then his face unfolds with a big grin. The window goes back up. He drives away. An hour later we ride on, without breakfast.

Posted By Mark Schneider on February 2, 2009, 10:39 PM

On a trip to London with several students from my school in the early 1980's, we were waiting in Trafalgar Square for the #11 bus to take us to Westminster Abbey. After waiting for several minutes, I began to wonder what was going on. Other people were waiting too, and no one knew what was happening to this usually frequent bus.
I decided to take a different bus and walk from its stop to the Abbey. Careful to get all 8 students on the bus, and under way, I looked for my wife. Nowhere to be seen! The students were worried about her, but I tried to reassure them that she was experienced enough to get to the Abbey on her own. More to reassure myself, I joked that she would be waiting for us at the Abbey door.
And she was! The #11 bus had been in an accident, and a replacement had arrived just after we left. She had gone into a nearby store to ask about the missing bus.
Traveling with a group can be stressful! But several later student trips involved no such adventures -unless you count the teen aged boy who walked into the London hotel lobby at midnight with a six pack of beer and spotted me.

Posted By Mike on February 2, 2009, 10:41 PM

For the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, I planned a road trip from my home at the time in Houston, Texas, to Utah, then swing through Las Vegas for the day, and then back to Houston. On my last day at the games I was in Park City, just east of Salt Lake, where some of the events were held. The Jamaican bobsled team had a little store set up on the main street and were signing autographs. I bought a T-shirt with my credit card and got it autographed. All was good.

Later that night I hit the road heading for Vegas, planning on driving until I got tired and making it to Vegas the following morning for the day. I stopped in Provo, just south of Salt Lake City, for gas. I looked for my credit card so I could fill up, but couldn't find it anywhere. I racked my brain trying to think of where it could be. It finally occurred to me; the Jamaicans had it!

So even later that night drove back up to Park City and of course the store was closed. So I slept in my truck down the street and waited for the store to open the next morning. The manager was very nice and let me in before opening time to get my card.

Very relieved, I got back on the road to Vegas. Of course, I was hoping to be there already and didn't get there until that night. Not the day I was hoping for and it was the only day I had there, but I did have time to see Blue Man Group at the Luxor. And got their autographs as well.

Posted By James Suits on February 2, 2009, 10:45 PM

I stupidly gave up my two hard-earned vacation weeks from work and the Easter holidays to fly from Missouri and drive all over the East Coast with my husband and son, looking at colleges that had accepted my little genius: Cornell, NYU, Yale, U Maryland. Two weeks in a rental car bickering over schools and aid packages; bad weather all the way; lost my wallet. Then my son chooses a school 18 miles from our house. Memo to Self: next time, go to the beach alone.

Posted By Pat Smith on February 2, 2009, 11:17 PM

For our last full day in China, we were going to the Great Wall. In order to use the room safe, a deposit of 100 Yuan was required, but since I was so near to going home, I didn't want to change any more money and all I had was a little over 100 Yuan. So I decided that I would just carry all of my money (both US and Chinese) except for a small amount that I might need that day, passport, and valuable papers in a money belt under my clothes. We had a wonderful time at the Great Wall and visitng a cloisinee factory on the way back. That night as I was preparing for bed, I lifted my pillow to turn down the sheet and spread and there under the pillow was my money belt. I had not missed it or thought about it all day. Everything was safe inside it. I knew the maid had found it and put it where no one would be likely to look except for me at bedtime. I had heard what the average salary was in Beijing and thought that a hotel maid would not likely earn even that much. The next morning I used an interpreter to find out which maid had cleaned my room so I could reward her honesty. I had learned a Chinese expression for being kind of "crazy" so I patted my head and repeated that phrase as I handed her a nice tip. I have learned to be more careful with my money since then.

Posted By Marilyn Long on February 2, 2009, 11:44 PM

I flew from Boston to Fort Myers, changing planes in Charlotte and not arriving until mid afternoon. Because I do sunset photography and wanted to take photos of the sunset on the beach at the far end of Sanibel island I picked up my rental car and drove immediately there before checking into my hotel on the next connecting island, Captiva (where I would be for only 2 nights before driving to Miami). Due to it being a Friday rush hour, it took me 2 hours to get to the beach on Sanibel, and I just made sunset.

I put my purse in the car trunk with all my luggage, and with my camera walked along the rocks over the ocean on the edge of the beach, and squatted down to take a final sunset photo when I heard a clink -- my rental car keys had fallen out of my pocket and slipped between two rocks into the ocean below. There was no way to retrieve them.

It was getting dark and the temperature was dropping. My purse, luggage and jacket were all in the car trunk. I was the only person on the beach and I didn't yet have a cellphone (this was 10 years ago). So I started walking, eventually found a payphone, and called the rental car company - all the way back in Fort Myers.

It turns out that the car they rented me was from their rental agency in Georgia, had just arrived, and they didn't have a spare key!!! So they wanted to send someone out to pick me up in an hour, drive me back to the rental agency, and give me another car until they could get a locksmith the next day since it would be very expensive to get a locksmith at 9pm Friday night. But that wasn't ok with me - because all my belongings and money were locked in the car I had rented!

An hour or so later they did pick me up, and drove me back to Fort Myers while they spent a few hours trying to find an available locksmith who could break open the trunk lock to get my luggage. Then we had to wait for the locksmith to arrive, and drive me to my car back to the far end of Sanibel island. He was able to open the trunk and get out my luggage, but the car wasn't driveable without the ignition key. So he drove me back to Fort Myers so that I could get another rental car, and drive an hour or more to Sanibel, across Sanibel, and onto Captiva Island to check into my hotel. I had planned to check in about 7:30 pm - but did not arrive till 5:30 am the next morning. The adventure of the lost key took TEN HOURS!

Moral of the story: Be sure to keep your car keys in a safe place. And maybe - check into your hotel when you arrive in a new place!

Posted By Tracy on February 3, 2009, 3:04 AM

My husband and I decided to go on a Tahitian cruise as a "babymoon" before our daughter was born. It was a 10 day, multi-island awesome vacation. I was about 7 months pregnant, so I was showing quite a bit, this was nice most of the time as it got me special treatment (I got to skip the long security lines at LAX and get frisked because I couldn't go through the machine), but there was occasion where it just didn't help me at all.

Of course, when you go on a cruise, they always push the duty free stuff on the ship. One of those was the alcohol. My husband was in awe!!! When he saw the prices of the alcohol they sold in the gift shop, he decided to stock up (not like he drinks that much anyway, but it was just too good a deal to pass up). He bought 8 different bottles of booze and was quite pleased with himself.... until he was trying to figure out how to pack it all. I told him that he bought it, so he had to pack it. Most went in carry on, but three bottles wouldn't fit and he wrapped them as best he could and put them in our checked luggage.

Fast forward 24 hrs to the end of our trip as we were getting our luggage on Christmas Eve at the busiest airport in the world. The carry-on bottles made it just fine, but as we walked up to the carosel to get our checked luggage, we quickly realized there was a strong smell of alcohol coming from the luggage circling on our carousel. My husband got a weird look on his face as people were commenting on the smell all around us. One by one he got our bags off the carousel except for the one that I thought he packed the booze in. Finally, that suitcase came around and as he went to grab it, there was a clinking sound and a strong waft of alcohol came up, not to mention it was noticably damp! He got a miserable look on his face and looked around for a quick exit. I asked him what was up and he wispered in my ear that it felt like all the bottles had broken. I really wanted to laugh out loud, but felt that would have been in poor taste.

It didn't take long for all the people around us to figure out that the strong alcohol odor on their suitcases and now clothes was coming from our suitcase! Boy, we got some seriously dirty looks from people as we were leaving! Since I was pregnant, I even had one lady tell me I should be ashamed of myself for drinking (because the smell of alcohol was so strong around us). It didn't help that we had just been through a nearly 24 hr flight and were rumpled and tired looking...we probabaly looked like we had a hangover!!! Moral of the story? Be really, really careful about how you pack alcohol!!! LOL!

Posted By Lisa on February 3, 2009, 9:55 AM

The first time we went to Maui, I had brought my new 35mm camera (back in the day when digital was new & too expensive!). We had a wonderful trip w/o incident until we were at the airport to return home. My husband dropped me off with the luggage & went to return the car. He had been gone for about 15 minutes when I realized I didn't have my camera! AND I didn't have my own cell phone at the time! I sat there biting my nails until he got back.

We had only been married for a few years at the time & I was fully expecting a good-natured jab & lecture from him when I told him that I must have left the camera in the car! But, he was so good, he didn't say a word & caught the next shuttle back to the rental agency. I sat there on the side of the drive, feeling like such a schmuck, when my hubby walks up with camera in tow! It had fallen between the seats & was neatly camoflauged by its dark bag!
What a good guy!

Now, every time we travel, I make sure any camera I am carrying is inside my larger carry-on!

Posted By Rebecca Voth on February 3, 2009, 10:30 AM

I always book my own travel arrangements. A few years ago, I planned a trip to Europe, flying into and out of Paris. I also took the train to Rome for about half the trip. My plan was to take the train from Rome back to Paris a day early. This way, I would have one final day in Paris to get my souvenirs and wouldn't have to lug them to Rome and back.

On what I thought was my final day in Rome, I showed up at the train station a couple of hours before the train was to depart. When it came time to board, it was discovered that my ticket was for the next night. This would mean my train would get back into Paris after my flight left. I begged and pleaded to get on the train that night, but was told it was full / sold out.

I had to go back to the hotel, check back in for one more night, try to find a number to the airline to change my flight, call the hotel in Paris I had booked for the next night, etc. The most difficult thing to change was the flight home. Initially, I was told I'd need to buy a one way ticket, which was prohibitively expensive. I called back, and was told I could change the flight but would have to pay a change fee. This was better, but I was persistent and tried again. Eventually, they changed my flight and waived all fees.

As a result, I met a great group of European guys the next night on the train. We hung out together and I got to meet and talk with "locals" and learn about them. It made all the hassles worth it.

Posted By Mark on February 3, 2009, 11:07 AM

I was in law school and working full time - so my husband and I had planned a nice weeklong beach getaway. We were running late when we go to the airport so we had to use the airport lot instead of our usual park/ride lot. We pulled into the lot and almost immediately a shuttle bus appeared so we hurried and made it. Flash forward to a week later when we returned to our car. The driver's window was open, all the way down. Apparently in our haste to make the shuttle - we forgot to crank the window back up after taking the ticket - this car didn't have power windows... We were more amazed that all of our stuff was there and that it hadn't rained in 8 days!

Posted By Sue R on February 3, 2009, 12:07 PM

It was my dream trip to see the Mayan ruins. Just before we left I had visited my doctor and was put on a new perscription (lets just call them my little happy pills). Normally I am a pretty quiet person and get extremely airsick. Thanks to my new little friends my boyfriend wanted to kill me because I talked non stop. The worst part was yet to come. The little happy pills also messed with my balance. First day out sight seeing I twisted my ankle while exploring Tulum. I spent the rest of the trip acting like it didn't hurt trying to make up for the abuse with icepacks at night. Did you know an ice pack is kind of a turn off? Anyway, Despite the discomfort I didn't miss a thing on my trip to Tulum, Merida and so forth. It did however take another month of wearing an ankle brace and icing before the swelling went down and longer yet until it quit hurting.

Posted By Ronalda on February 3, 2009, 2:05 PM

I had recently moved to New Orleans and when I went back one summer to visit some friends in Philadelphia, I decided to take them some fresh Gulf shrimp. I had the seafood store pack the shrimp along with several freezer packs in a "leakproof" travel carton.
I checked my luggage along with the carton for my long day of flight(s).
When the plane arrived in PHL,rather than rush down to baggage claim and stand around, I had a beer or two in the airport bar. When I got close to the baggage claim area, I smelled the unmistakeable odor of fresh fish on a hot day .
It seems that the "leakproof" carton had leaked shrimp juice all over my bags and apparently all of the other
checked baggage on the plane.
Needless to say, I waited until all of the other luggage had been claimed before I gathered my bags and faded off into the sunset.

Posted By Mike M on February 3, 2009, 3:09 PM

Both my husband and I were employed in a job that required lots of travel so we both have stories to tell. He is over 6'5" so must buy tall men's shirts. He always sent his shirts to the cleaners before a trip and always picked them up at the last minute. One trip he grabbed his shirts (nicely starched and on hangers in the plastic bag) and packed them in his hanging bag. When he arrived at his destination he hung the shirts up and the following morning when he tore open the plastic he discovered he had been given someone else's shirts and the man probably was all of 5' tall. Since he had hearing in an hour he called the hotel conceirge and they directed him to a cleaners within walking distance of the hotel where they sold him some shirts that had been left too long. He was not the best dressed hearing officer on that trip but at least he didn't have to hold hearings in a t-shirt. My worst experience occured on a trip to Dallas. When you travel often it becomes almost rote and this time I simply forgot to include underpants! Since I was in Dallas for the week and the underpants I wore were not the fast drying type, I had to go to the only store in downtown--Nieman Marcus and buy the most expensive underwear I have ever owned. I have forgotten many items on subsequent trips but I have never ever forgotten underpants since that trip.

Posted By Diane Usher on February 3, 2009, 8:07 PM

*the time my boyfriend and I decided to drive to Carlsbad for the day, then decided to spend the night eventhough all the hotels were full. We slept in the the bed of the truck - or -
*the time my husband and I went out of town for the day sans jackets, coats, etc (hey it was WARM when we left) and got stuck in a snowstorm for two days - or -
*the time I got food poisoning from chicken on an Amtrack and threw up for 3 days - or -
*the time another shuttle rider decided that my luggage looked better than his and took it and the poor driver spent half the night hunting it down - or -
*the time I went to the beach in Corpus Christi and couldn't figure out why there was no one there (hurricane)

Moral: Always check the weather forecast before you leave the house!!!

Posted By Ami on February 3, 2009, 8:39 PM

My husband and I were in Panama for a family wedding. Several in our group went several days early to a resort. We then took a private bus for 2 hours to the resort where the wedding was to be held. On our way to the second resort, my husband asked me if I had gotten our passports out of the hotel safe. WHY DIDN'T YOU ASK ME BEFORE WE LEFT?! I want to yell at him!! I had left our passports, cell phones, money, credit cards, his wallet, and my jewelry in the safe! Luckily, the company who was helping my Sister-in-Law with the wedding preparations had one of his buddies go to the safe with the hotel security. I had it the next day.

Posted By Joan on February 3, 2009, 9:16 PM

This wasn't so much stupid, as INCREDIBLY embarrassing! I was in Bosnia on a tour, and was having "stomach" problems. I was on a historic bridge, and started feeling faint. I asked my friend to walk with me, and suddenly I woke up on the ground. All these people were standing around me. i could tell that I had lost control, and had diarrhea. I was wearing light colored pants. Everyone was trying to get me to stand up, but I refused. I "ordered" my friend to go buy me a scarf, and I refused everyone's help while she was gone. When she returned, a shop owner was nice enough to let me into her bathroom. I walked back to our bus with a scarf around my underwear. Quite the sexy lady!

Posted By Joan on February 3, 2009, 9:23 PM

A few years ago I booked online a one-week vacation to Paris for my Spring Break with my boyfriend. While I was reviewing our itinerary the day before ourdeparture, I noticed that I booked the returning flight for March 26th instead of February 26th. I called the airline, and they told me that there was nothing they could do until I completed the first flight segment. The conditions of the ticket stated that I could not make itinerary changes to my ticket after 30 days before the flight without incurring a $200 penalty. Since the returning flight was more than 30 days after I would arrive in Paris, I would still be able to change the date of my returning flight and only have to pay the difference in the fare. I decided not to worry about it and went to Paris. When I arrived at the airport, I went directly to the airline's service counter to see if I could change the date of my ticket, but I was told that although the last two seats on the plane were available, they were not able to make those changes at their counter, and I would have to call the airline instead. I quickly ran to a payphone to make the arrangements so I could have peace of mind for the rest of my vacation. However, no one answered the phone because they were all taking their lunch breaks. By the time I got a hold of the airline, those last two seats were taken, but I was able to get a pair of seats on the flight departing three days later. I have since developed the habit of triple checking the dates of the flights when booking online.

Posted By Laurel on February 3, 2009, 10:04 PM

In 1970 my friend and I took the train from London to Beirut, a long journey but great fun. We left London ferried across the channel and settled ourselves into our compartment for the trip to Istanbul. We were rowed across the Bosphorus to the Asian side and picked up the train that would take us to Beirut. Half way up a mountain in Turkey we all had to get off as the little engine that usually helped the train up the hill hadn't arrived and they needed to lighten the load. No one complained they all just walked up to the top where we all got back in. On the Syrian border we had to get off the train with all our electrical goods and go through customs. A Marlon Brando look-alike was the Officer in charge and when he realised we were Railway Police officers he settled in for a chat. He told us that the Visas we had obtained from the Lebanese Embassy weren't valid, even though they clearly stated they were from the Syrian Affairs Section. So he delegated one of his Policemen to accompany us through Syria to Lebanon. We had no idea that Britain did not have diplomatic relations with Syria at that time or that there was fighting in Damascus. We had a lovely time in Beirut then took a boat to Alexandria, Egypt. We were put into a luxury hotel by the local Police Chief and were charged a miniscule amount for the privilege. Our first trip to the beach was the start of our misfortunes. I met the person who became my first husband. We spent a few days in Alexandria and were due to take the train the next day to Abu Simbal. We were in a restaurant just having finished dinner when the owner came in and stated he was closing early as Nasser had died. So bang went our plans to go to Abu Simbal. I blame Nasser for my first marriage if he had hung on one more day... We eventually managed to get to Cairo and took the plane to Belgrade where we spent the night at the airport having run out of money. At the check in counter they demanded $10 dollars tax and told us we could pay it in several currencies all of which we were unable to do. Eventually a kind Gentleman paid it for us and wouldn't let us repay him. We were due at work that afternoon so were extremely perturbed when the plane stopped in Skopje so we could all go through customs. We missed our connecting flight in Zurich and got the Swiss Air people to phone our office and tell them we would be a bit late. We eventually arrived at Heathrow and asked a Cabbie if he would take us to work and we would pay him when we got there as we were broke. We were halfway there when his windshield smashed, we then had to go with the Cab Driver to his depot where he switched cabs and took us to work. It all ended reasonably well at least as far as work was concerned. I didn't learn though I met my second husband on holiday too. This time though it worked out fine.

Posted By Kris on February 4, 2009, 8:28 AM

I was driving back from Florence Italy to our villa as the designated driver (avoid driving in a foreign country with inebriated friends)... We got to a toll booth, whereupon the tollman asked for our ticket. I asked a passenger for the ticket (we stored them all in the glove box), and she handed me a ticket which I handed to the tollman. He started yelling something in Italian ("crypte! crypte!") Turns out the ticket was our stub from the crypt we had visited earlier, not our autobahn ticket. My friends thought it was so funny (remember, they were tipsy) that they were unable to get me the correct ticket -- and the cars were piling up behind us, and the tollman was getting angry. If you are the designated driver, I recommend that you also be in charge of all tickets, passports, and money as well... if traveling with partiers.

Posted By Katie on February 4, 2009, 4:37 PM

My mom and I were in Ireland in a rental car. To say the least, it is difficult to find your way around Ireland. We were aware of the lack of road signage ahead of time and decided in advance to have fun when we got lost. We did have a lot of fun. We planned our route ahead of time and studied the maps in detail hoping to minimize wrong turns.
One time, when lost in a lot of traffic in Galway, we both had to go to the bathroom so bad that it hurt. We were hours late to our destination. We were looking for a place to stop and finally found a public park with a public pay toilet. It was raining buckets (Ireland, remember?). We parked the car and decided to run for the toilet. My mom went in first after we found enough coins to pay to open the automatic doors. As she came out, she said, just step in, so I did.... What a mistake! The floor of the automatic toilet drops below sea level to wash out the 'room'. Not only was I soaked from the rain, but, now soaked with whatever was on the floor diluted with ocean water. I was so shocked, that when the door opened again, I jumped out, almost forgetting my painfully full bladder.
Fortunately, we had enough coins to open the door again and I was able to use the toilet in a less stressful automosphere.
We were then able to travel on to our final destination for the night.

Posted By Kat on February 5, 2009, 4:46 AM

I finally got my first nice digital camera this year. Spent the summer practicing with it; went to Alaska in late August. Had the camera in a little cloth camera bag. Coming home, the camera was in my carryon luggage and got smashed -- screen broken, camera ruined. I suspect the Seattle airport security people who just seemed to be throwing things around that day. Then, when I got back to the hometown camera store with my camera and memory card, the pictures printed fine, but the clerk tells me (several months too late), that the screens are very delicate and the camera should always be carried in a hard, protective case. Now, I've bought another one, and sadder but wiser, a hard case for it. This is one of those travel things you learn the hard way. Should I mention that the cheap $5.99 Kodak disposable cameras never got smashed once in all my years?

Posted By Rick Smith on February 5, 2009, 7:36 PM

Two years ago on our trip to France, our Paris hotel room had an in-room safe. Since I didn't want to carry our tickets, extra cash, reservation info for the next places, etc. I unloaded the stuff from the various places we had carried it. I was careful to set the electronic combination and wrote down the number, and off we went. 12 delightful hours later we returned to our room. I went to open the safe and was horrified to see that the door was slightly ajar. My heart sank as I anticipated the worst. I took inventory and everything, everything was still there, including 200 Euros that were in plain view inside the safe. The room had obviously been made up during the day, so I figured that we had the most honest maids I'd ever encountered. Apparently I had closed the door on the safe but not pushed the button to lock it. And you better believe that I left a larger tip than normal when we left.

Posted By Mark on February 5, 2009, 9:18 PM

My friend and I did the Europe backpack trip in our early 20's -- we were not really paying attention and missed the ferry stop in Corfu. We ended up in Albania, and it was not a great time to be in Albania. The ferry came in where the fishing fleets come in; a nice Greek ferry employee convinced a fishing boat to take my friend and I over to Corfu in his (smelly) fishing boat - the crew was laughing at us the whole time. This was about 2 weeks after we had run through a dark alley in Cesme (Turkey) with a nail file out for protection...but that's a different story.

Posted By Meredith on February 6, 2009, 5:34 PM

I have traveled for years. Since 9/11 it has become different but nothing that common sense won't help. Unfortunately I lost my CS on my last trip to Amsterdam. Coming home after a couple of weeks in Amsterdam and Ireland we are in Schipol Airport. We had been up most of the night before and our flight had just been delayed a couple of hours. There were a group of police, about 7, about 20 feet from where we were sitting. All had automatic weapons and 1 was on a Sedgeway. I found that funny so I took a picture. Mistake. Within a minute he was rolling over to me. He asked why I took the picture. I told him that being from the U.S. I'm not used to seeing automatic weapons. he then asked to see my camera to see what other pictures I had taken, I was shooting film not digital. I offered to give him the film. He declined but told me he had better not see the picture on the Web. Not a problem there. He then stuck pretty close to me for the next couple of hours and when our flight was called the rolled with us to the gate. I absolutely have no idea what I was thinking and was very thankful that it did not turn into something bigger. No more pictures in airports!!

Posted By Jade on February 7, 2009, 7:05 PM

I'm just glad someone else had the maple syrup problem. I had to give my suit case, and everything in it, a bath!

Posted By Maryanne on February 8, 2009, 10:16 PM

We were returning from a Med cruise to the Rome airport. Our flight was the next day, at 6:40 am. Due to a threatened taxi strike we elected to spend the night at the airport. We started camping out outside the United counter at Rome's da Vinci airport, figuring that the activity at the counter would wake us about 5 am in the morning. At 5:45 am the United counter was still closed. I looked at our tickets and saw that the flight was code-shared with Luthansa and it dawned on me that we needed to go to the Lufthanssa counter. We ran to Lufthansa and the line was huge. We barely made it and probably only did make it because some people in line for a later flight let us go ahead of them. So that is the story of how we stayed overnight at an airport and still almost missed our flight.

Posted By Dan D on February 9, 2009, 3:53 PM

Whenever we are leaving a hotel room, my boyfriend is very diligent in checking the drawers, the bathroom, the closets, and scarily enough, under the bed to check for items we may have left behind. Recently, upon leaving a room in Orlando, FL, he discovered a pair of silk underwear - snatched them up from under the bed - and asked if they were mine. They were a tacky pair of MEN'S boxers - in my boyfriend's hands. Talk about YUCK. Sometimes it's just better to leave "treasures" where they lie (and carry lots of hand sanitizer.)

Posted By Janice on February 9, 2009, 4:07 PM

Many years ago, I left my cane in a luggage cart at the Harare, Zimbabwe, airport. I went back to retieve it and discovered it was placed on a flight to Australia that had just departed. Although it was just an ordinary folding cane and there was no identification on it, I reported it lost. I used the location of my next stop, in Northern Ireland, as my address. In about a week. a package came for me and it was my cane. Good for British Airways!

Posted By F. Alcorn on February 12, 2009, 7:22 PM

Done something stupid on a trip? Oh, yes. My husband and I just returned three weeks ago from a trip to Granada and Mallorca, Spain, for a class at the University of Balearic Islands during our university's winter break. The class we took is called Wine and Food Pairing, and it was excellent! It is offered through the University of Wisconsin-Stout. We were travelling with a group of 13 other students, our professor and his wife, and a TA.

While in Mallorca, we toured wineries and bought wine. We also were given bottles left over from class, all wonderful Spanish wines. We chose the wines that we had used to match with the meal that our group prepared for class. We were allowed to bring back six (unopened) bottles each. Between us we had packed 9 bottles in our check-ins. (nothing over 3 ounces in carry-ons, right?) We had packed several bottles inside an old hard-sided suitcase in one of the check-ins, for added protection.

While at the airport in Palma, our check-in bags were overweight, and we had not saved enough money to pay the extra 50 Euro for this problem. So we decided to open our bags in the airport, however humiliating it might be, and rearrange stuff, hoping to redistribute the weight. Our professor was strongly suggesting that we hurry, so as not to hold up the group, and therefore miss our connection to Madrid and home. I had a flash of brilliance: I suggested to my husband that we remove the hard-side suitcase from the check-in bag and use it as my second carry-on, forgetting, in the confusion (and embarrassment)what was in the suitcase. This solved the weight problem and our bags went through.

As we got to security, the bag went through and my husband was told he had to get rid of the liquid. At that point we remembered the bottles of wine. It was a heartbreaking sound, hearing those three beautiful bottles of Spanish wine hit the bottom of that trash bin, one by one (and they didn't break, as we had wrapped them so carefully!). My husband also had forgotten to remove his corkscrew from his backpack, so that went in the trash, too. I only hope that the guy who emptied that trash can at the end of the day found them and had a nice party, complete with corkscrew.

Posted By melody gossett on February 13, 2009, 1:52 PM

OMG, how embarrassing. Thinking back to when I was young & stupid:

In 1978, I took a Greyhound bus from Houston, Texas to Augusta, GA. The bus left really early in the morning, and was supposed to take a few days to get to my destination. I'm not a morning person, so the night before, I packed, put my $55 & ticket in my pants pocket, and crashed. 4 am came way too early, but since a friend was giving me a ride, it wasn't too stressful. Anyway, as we got to the bus station, I reached into my pocket & gave them five bucks for gas. Well, I thought I gave them $5 - but it was the $50! I didn't realize it until I got up to the ticket counter & they were long gone. Back then, I had no bank account, much less a credit card. It was a long, grueling trip, and you had to pay for practically everything, except water, ketchup, mustard, & saltines (when you could find some at the stops, that is). I ended up having to bum money for a little food, and believe me, most folks on a Greyhound bus don't have much to spare. Most of the time I just got enough for a cup of coffee. I'd grab as much creamer & sugar as I could get away with & savor it until the next stop. It was horrible. Guess I learned to pay more attention to what I was doing after that, though. I learned to also pack some kind of food, because a lot of times we were in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night when everything was closed.

My very last Greyhound trip was almost as bad, because I got ripped off (and was then broke - but at least I had food!), and also lost my pocket knife. Lucky it wasn't worse than that, in retrospect.

1979:
Giving up on Greyhound, as I was waiting for my first flight *ever*, I met a couple of teens my age who were anxiously awaiting their flights. We all agreed that being nervous wasn't very pleasant, so we decided to relax by having a little 'party' before getting on the plane - in the airport parking lot across the street. Well, time flies when you're having fun, and before I knew it, it was about 30 min. before the plane was due to leave. It took longer to get back to the gate than I thought, even though security wasn't such a big deal then, but I made it right before they closed the doors to the ramp. I reached for my boarding pass, only to discover that it was gone! Guess I dropped it somewhere between the gate & the parking lot. Unfortunately, it was too late to go back & look for it. They could see that the ticket was issued & not used, but I wasn't exactly, uhh, myself @ the time... SO, I had to beg them to let me on the plane. They weren't going to, but I cried so hard that they relented. When my Dad picked me up, he had to go to the ticket office & talk to the manager to get my return ticket reissued. Talk about being hard to explain that one...

2)Couple of years later, had 'one too many' @ the airport bar & almost missed my flight. I was the LAST person on the plane, and had to be wheeled onto the aircraft (i was using crutches @ the time w/one leg - that & inebriation do NOT mix) in one of those little skinny people carriers, trying to avoid everyone's glaring eyes.

Thankfully, I don't drink anymore, and 'partying' for me, now, is going to sleep before 10pm :-)

2001: Took pictures of my trip back home & 'lost' the digital film on the plane. I knew I put it back, but didn't check before I got off. It was really expensive back then, and I have a sneaking suspicion that it walked off the plane...with the guy that was sitting next to me. Learned to keep such things in a waist pack rather than lose irreplaceable items.

Posted By jan on February 15, 2009, 8:24 AM

At the end of a college study abroad trip back in '83, I took the train from Florence to Milan in the early morning hours to fly home, thinking it would be fairly empty. Wrong. So crowded there were no seats. My group and I had to pile our luggage at the entry car and ride there. I slipped my purse in between some pieces of luggage and settled down on the floor. People were coming and going all night and when we arrived in Milan - you guessed it - my purse was gone and with it my passport and what little money I had. Anyone who has spent time in Italy knows what a nightmare the bureaucracy is. It took me all day to 1. contact the consulate 2. for them to beg the authorities to let me on the plane that night.
And it got worse. At the airport I turned my back for a second on my carry on and that was stolen too. (In my defense, I was only 21 at the time and kinda naive. I learned)

Posted By ann on February 15, 2009, 5:38 PM

Two Americans got on a train in Rome for Florence, but missed the stop because Florence in Italy is Firenze.

Posted By mrfrench on February 17, 2009, 6:17 PM

I work for a travel agency. Years ago we got a complaint from a customer who flew to Alaska on Alaska Airlines. While on his trip he went fishing, caught a fish and then packed it in his suitcase (why, I'll never know). Anyhow, his luggage was lost on his return journey and of course when he did get the luggage back, the had fish stunk up all his clothing. The fellow called us demanding to be compensated for the fact that Alaska Airlines had ruined his clothes. Mmm.... lesson here: do not pack a fish in your suitcase.

My own story: while in Buenos Aires a couple of years ago, we were in a store and I was trying on tango shoes. My husband was looking after my purse. He then left the bag for a second while I showed him some shoes I liked, and poof, a thief who had been waiting for the right opportunity, grabbed it and took off. Luckily I never carry money or my passport in my purse. Thankfully, the young shop clerk chased after him and retrieved it for me. We consequently ended up buying 7 pairs of shoes there. Lesson: never leave valuables unattended -- EVER.

Posted By Cathy on February 17, 2009, 7:11 PM

I used to work with the Department of Defense working as a Security Analysis overseas. Part of my job was to train Force Protection Officers. I had two weeks vacation but on the day that I was leaving I had to conduct a training on the shooting range with M-16A2's which are military rifles. I spent the day shooting off weapons and getting down in the dirt next to the weapons to spot shooters. Well I was running behind and didn't have a chance to take a shower before my flight. When I went through security at the airport I set off the explosives detectors because I had gunpowder residue all over me. I was immediately thrown onto the ground at gun point and handcuffed. When I was being interrogated, I tried to explain to them why I was covered in explosives. I ended up having to call my company to send an interpreter since I couldn't speak there language and have him explain what my credentials meant and what my job was. Needless to say I learned not to go the shooting range before a flight of any kind.

Posted By Victoria on February 17, 2009, 9:36 PM

Let's see, there was the time I showed up at the airport without my driver's license, or any other form of photo id--I now travel with two separate ids kept in different bags. I had to drive home, 1 1/2 hours away, get my license, and take a later flight.

I have also done the poorly packed maple syrup bit and had to throw the suitcase away because it was not coming out.

I have left cellphone chargers behind, left my bathrobe behind, left my husbands razor behind, and one time left his dress shoes behind. You think he would double check the room before we leave.

Posted By Lindsay on February 17, 2009, 10:36 PM

On a recent camping trip with my buddies along the river, we made perhaps the dumbest decision ever. It had rained a lot, causing the river to flood. We decided to go to walmart and buy some air mattresses and raft down the river. It was fun, until we came around a bend with a log fallen across the river. We slammed into the log, pushing me and my friends underneath it. Debris had gathered in front of the log, and we were pushed under it. Thinking safety, we had all worn life jackets. However, these jackets floated us underneath the debris and pinned us there, almost like being trapped under ice. Luckily, me and my friend made it out, and pulled our other friend out, who had to go to the hospital. Never do it! And by the way, who says life jackets are safe? haha.

Posted By rob on February 19, 2009, 12:33 AM

During a recent trip to Mexico, I got some amazing photos - particularly at a little-known aviary where I got some fantastic shots of pelicans, egrets, cranes, flamingos, macaws, green Amazon parrots, a toucan and a peacock. I also shot a Firedance & Drum show in which the performers would twirl lit batons and hula-hoops, while others performed acrobatic leaps and tumbling. I caught all of it with my camera set on a tripod, using a remote shutter release. I slowed the shutter enough to blur the motion of the batons, etc filling my 8GB CF card with approx. 900 photos.

On the last day of our vacation I packed all my camera gear for our boat trip to Isla Mujeres. During the boat trip I lost the full CF card when I was rummaging around in the camera bag for a lens hood! This was just sheer carelessness on my part - had I taken the time to secure the card in the bag or better still; left it in the hotel safe, this wouldn't have happened. There was at least one shot that could have been a contender for an award, possibly several. I'm such an idiot!

Learn from my mistake.

Posted By Greg Burns on February 20, 2009, 4:05 PM

Just a hint, whenever my husband and I rent a car we have a second set of keys made at the nearest Walmart or hardware store.. If unable to do that we ask each other if we have our key every time we get out of the car... works for us!

Posted By Barbara Fraraccio on February 22, 2009, 11:06 PM

In 2006, my girlfriend and I took a trip to Yellowstone Nat'l Park. We were trying to be economical and packed some food supplies with us. Including a giant canister of Swiss Miss Cocoa Powder. When we got off the plane in Billings, MT, we realized that the canister had burst. It coated EVERYTHING within the suitcase with a layer of chocolate. It smelled good though!

Unfortunately, this was the same suitcase we had used to pack a number of our back packing supplies for a planned camping trip to Heart Lake. AKA - bear country.

We had to beat the chocolate out of EVERYTHING. Luckily, there were no bear issues. :)

Posted By Aviva on February 26, 2009, 4:57 PM

The story of the booze bottles that broke in the checked luggage reminded me of a trip to France when I did the same thing with a bottle of Chateau Margeaux wine. It broke, but there wasn't enough to leak through the clothes. I really only wanted the label because that wine is mentioned in Poe's 'Cask of Amontilado".

Posted By Mike on March 2, 2009, 8:27 PM

Being from PA, where the price of liquor is very expensive, I bought 2 bottles of Southern Comfort to bring back from Baltimore. When my bag came down the carousel, there was a distinctive smell of liquor. As I lifted the suitcase, the bag was dripping fine liquor out all over the floor. Not that I had to open the case to see what happened, but I did want to see if I lost both bottles. At this point, a very beautiful girl commented on what a wonderful smell and inquired as to what it is. When I discribed the situation, she wanted to know if I would like to share some of the remaining bottle! I did not get home until very late that night and ended up with a terrific friend in Pittsburgh and a doublely expensive bottle of Southern Comfort (which was still cheaper than buying it in PA), plus a story on the whole experience.

Posted By Scott on March 8, 2009, 12:43 AM

While in Mexico for a quick getaway alone. I went to a club where I met a very attractive guy. We chatted and danced. I told him that I had friends in the club but I went to the room to get something. I didn't want him to know that I was alone.
His friend approached w/2 young (20 something aged) girls who made me feel very uncomfortable.
As per his suggestion we stepped outside. Then we abrutly came back in after 1 minute. He dissappeared never to be seen again. In retrospect that was very dumb! Human trafficking is real and I didn't use good judgement. Something was off that night but I ignored it. Young women be very careful..never go anywhere alone or give up personal info (ie Hotel and room #).

Posted By Michelle on March 10, 2009, 12:28 PM

We are too busy and if we just slowed down our travel life would be less dramatic.

1. Went to airport at 5:30 AM with husband and kids to fly to Tahiti in the spring to celebrate our 10th anniversary in the place where we met on vacation. Was extra tired because we set both my alarm and husband's Blackberry alarm to be sure we would get up, and darn it if his alarm didn't go off "too early". Of course we get to airport and our plane has finished boarding- because the clocks "Sprung-forward" to daylight-savings-time in the night. His Blackberry adjusted automatically but we were too dumb to figure out why it went off "early". There was only one more flight we could catch to connect to our plane in L.A., and I was so forlorn, the desk attendant must have taken pity. The very minute final boarding for that flight was up she calls for all 4 of us to board from the waiting list. I guess we took some other clueless family's seats, but she said this would happen all day and people will just domino into the next flight.
#2. Hubby and I took the train from Milan, planning to go to Tirano for a visit to Lake Como. Sitting on the train and it seems like it is getting ready to leave a bit early, something that doesn't happen in Italy. At last minute, double checking tickets, I realize we are on the train going to Torino. I was bruised all over from pulling down my heavy suitcase and banging it down the aisle and jumping off train as it started to roll. We also got on another wrong train coming back.
#3. Husband also confused 12AM with 12 PM on ticket, missing flight by 12 hours, but this is minor compared to my goofs below so I can't tease him or he will really be able to let me have it back:
#4. 1st anniversary trip: In a hot day in Udaipur India, I just had to have ice cream at their nicest hotel so it should be OK, right- and then get on a small boat to go to a little park on an island, neither boat nor park having restroom facilities. I barely made it back to hotel whereupon I exploded and was sick for 3 days- they had to send for the doctor. Worst part- I am a doctor and I thought freezing ought to kill most of the bugs, clearly I was not up on my travel medicine- I had about the worse thing you can eat. And I was meeting an old Indian friend from medical school and I was very ashamed to have to tell him how foolish I was. Lesson: when hot in a foreign country, drink beer from the bottle- they might water down soft drinks but the local customers would complain if the messed with the beer.
5. Finally, on 2nd anniversary trip, I stepped on stingray my first day out on a 1 week sea-kayaking trip in Baja, in part because I forgot the instructions given that very day to shuffle-walk in shallow sandy water where they live- and I'm the only person on the trip with medical training. We had also been told to use hot water to neutralize the toxin. My friends heated water, cooled it with fresh a bit so as not to burn me and plunged my leg in...didn't do a thing and now I am becoming faint from pain and as an effect of the toxin. My husband (no medical training, but smart enough to listen when others are imparting good information) takes charge and despite my feeble protests, plunges my foot into boiling water- I feel immediate relief from the pain of the stingray and the shock certainly counteracted any low blood pressure I was developing. I had a very red foot that hurt like a serious sunburn and had to practically be carried every time we went ashore but it was worth it- the toxin sting was way worse. I did not ask to be evacuated, because I figured it was going to hurt just as much at home, and I didn't need to walk to kayak.

We are celebrating our 15th anniversary in Vegas...what can go wrong?

Posted By Kate on March 10, 2009, 9:15 PM