We all have stories of annoying flight delays, lost baggage and mixed up hotel reservations that we relay like travel nightmares to friends and family. Put in perspective, these petty snafus are mere inconveniences compared to some real “worst vacation ever” tales out there. Of course, we would never really advocate forgoing the adventure of travel just because mishaps can happen. After all, accidents occur at home, too. But these eight hellish holiday stories will make you shudder. While everyone lived to tell the tale, these are experiences nobody wants on their bucket list.
1. Beware of Lofty Thrills
Sidney Good and Alexis Fairchild were two 17 year olds from Indiana vacationing in Panama City, Florida on July 1, 2013. Like many fun-seeking tourists, they thought they’d treat themselves to a parasailing ride. There were high winds, so the operator tried to lower the girls down to safety. However, the rope snapped and the girls were left free-floating at the mercy of the gale, like a feather in the breeze. Onlookers watched in horror as the screaming girls headed straight for an apartment building. They crashed into a balcony, ricocheted onto another building, bounced onto some power-lines then slammed into a parking lot, shattering a windshield upon landing. Sidney suffered a cracked vertebrae and some brain trauma that has led to permanent vision impairment. Alex broke her back, had head trauma and suffered serious lacerations. The incident sparked outrage over lax safety regulations for water sports companies.
2. Eeriest Earache Ever
This one might mess with your head. A 27 year old British tourist, Rochelle Harris, took a vacation to Peru in 2013. On the flight back, she experienced a strong headache with shooting pain down her face. She heard strange crackling noises and had some discharge coming from her ear. When she got home, she went to her doctor, who assumed it was a run-of-the-mill ear infection. However, upon closer examination, it was discovered that she had eight wriggling maggots lodged in her ear canal. She recalled walking through a fly swarm while hiking in Peru and swatting at a pestering one that was buzzing near her head, but didn’t think much of it. It turns out a “New World screwworm fly” (Cochliomyia hominivorax) had gotten in there and laid some eggs. The larvae hatched the next day and started munching a half-inch hole in Harris’s ear canal. Egads, flesh-eating worms were making a meal of her inner ear! Can any of these other hellish holiday stories top this?
3. Wrong Place, Wrong Time
What are the odds? Once is too much. Twice is unheard of. But three times? British couple Jason and Jenny Cairns-Lawrence may just be the world’s unluckiest twosome – or perhaps the luckiest, depending on how you look at it. They have been at the scene of the three highest-profile terrorist attacks of recent times. They were in New York City during the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. They happened to be on a London double-decker bus during the 7/7 suicide bombings which killed 52 people and injured 700 more. The next year they took a holiday in Mumbai, when terrorists went on a shooting rampage, leaving 164 people dead. Thankfully, they weren’t personally injured in any of these incidents, but their bad timing is uncanny.
