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These 19 Tourist Horror Stories Will Make You Afraid To Travel

5.

I went to the beach with my parents, they wore matching outfits (including shirts with the city name on them) and fanny packs. It was horrifying.

6.

The worst hotel I ever stayed at was in Daraa, just over the border in Syria after I spent the day traveling from Jordan (this was 20 odd years ago). This place didn’t look too sketchy at first glance. I crashed out in bed, but woke a couple of hours later COVERED in bed bugs and bitten to hell. I end up sleeping on the floor. In the morning I go to the loo and it’s like the Apocalypse in there. As if a prison dirty protest had been taking place for 10 years. Horse-sized cockroaches everywhere and somewhere beneath the smeared shit and detritus was possibly a hole in the ground where you’re meant to shit.

7.

Hitchhiking through the Yukon, I got a lift from a couple (boy and girl) who randomly pulled off the highway into a dirt road and drove 10 minutes into the middle of nowhere before insisting we all get out of the car, and they then showed me their collection of hunting rifles in the boot. That felt very sketchy indeed for a while, but being in Canada it obviously turned out fine and it transpired they just wanted to show me a great view over the next town and the mountains.

8.

When I was roughly ten, we were riding The Ducks, a type of vehicle that is also a boat. I love the water and sight-seeing, so this was awesome. We passed a dam, and not 10 seconds after the boat left the dam behind, a speed boat came flying over the top of the dam and landed upside down on the concrete below. They quickly brought us back to the tour station and we saw EMTs carrying bodybags out of the ambulance. Later found out on the news that the driver of the boat was a very drunk young woman.

Written by Laura McNairy

Laura is a freelance writer for TFLN. She likes to write about what she knows best — dating, sex, and being awkward, but usually in the opposite order. She is the Assistant Editor and videographer for Peach Fuzz, a sex-positive nudie magazine in ATX.