My Worst Travel moments of 2024

You can’t have the good without the bad — and I’ve always made an effort to talk about the bad times that happen while traveling! The top thing that people tell me is “You’re so honest,” and I make sure to tell the truth.

Because yes — travel is fun and transformative and life-affirming. But it can also be uncomfortable, stressful, smelly, and expensive.

It’s good to remember that, and it helps you appreciate the good moments more. (And it’s a lot of fun to laugh about it after the fact!)

Let’s take a look at my worst travel moments of 2024!

The Horrible Illness of February

I’ll admit that I am still pissed off about this, months later. I attended a conference in February. A colleague showed up at the conference coughing all over the place, insisting that their illness wasn’t anything anyone had to worry about.

Spoiler alert: it was.

A few days after the conference, on my final day in Paris, I noticed that my ham and brie sandwich didn’t taste…right. Two days after that, I became so sick with a hacking cold that I went an entire night without sleeping a wink. I tested myself for COVID several times and it always came back negative, but the coughing got so bad, I almost couldn’t stop.

This is the sickest that I have ever been — far worse than my bout with COVID in 2022.

I went to see my doctor, who diagnosed me with bronchitis, and it took weeks to finally dissipate.

And you know what? My cough sounded EXACTLY like my colleague’s at the conference — the cough that apparently nobody had to worry about.

My colleague should have skipped the conference — but since they insisted on attending, they should have worn a mask. And you know what I did? I masked at the only other conference I attended in 2024, because there was no way I was going to get that sick from someone again. I was one of two people masking.

Please, people — I understand that you’re not going to mask all the time. I ask that you please mask if you’re sick, even if it isn’t COVID, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE mask if you’re feeling a bit under the weather but you have to attend an event where you’re spending lots of time face-to-face with other people.

A Disastrous Layover in Zürich

I always give myself copious layover time when traveling. I am forever paranoid about missing flights and connections, and will gladly choose a few extra hours hanging in an airport lounge rather than worrying like mad I’m going to miss my flight.

Well. I decided to live a little and grab a cheaper flight from Boston to Prague with a 90-minute layover in Zürich. And WOULDN’T YOU KNOW, my flight from Boston ended up delayed an hour.

Did Swiss Airlines automatically book me on a new flight? No. They told me I could make it. So I leaped up and ran through the airport, begging people to let me cut them in the immigration line, racing through multiple terminals.

And at one point, I tripped. My bag’s zipper opened. And my camera, which was in my backpack but not an additional protective case, fell on its lens, sticking it out from a bad angle.

I made the flight with about 30 seconds to spare, so red and sweaty that people on the airport bus actually stood up to let me sit. My luggage did not make it, but it got on the next flight and I had it by around midnight.

Fixing the lens cost about $200. And it was SO NOT WORTH traveling with a tight connection. An expensive lesson, and one I hope that I have learned. (I am also much better about protecting my camera these days.)

Getting Food Poisoning in Bhutan

I awoke my second morning in Bhutan with an uncomfortable yet familiar cramping in my stomach. This couldn’t be another round of food poisoning, could it? And I promptly vomited, took some charcoal pills (man, I wish Pepto-Bismol was sold in Europe), then vomited a second time in all black.

The toughest thing about food poisoning is not knowing where it came from. It could have been the filmy milk in the coffee, the slightly strange-tasting chicken. I’ll never know.

I texted my guide, Sonam, and he insisted on taking me to the hospital. Though I initially protested, I gave in an hour later. I got to experience Bhutanese healthcare (free!) and after taking some cipro, I felt much better.

Unfortunately, it put a damper on the rest of my trip — I pretty much ate as blandly as I could, sometimes having just rice for a meal. I struggled through a meal at my homestay, during which the grandmother chided me for eating too little, as I prayed that the air-dried pork and raw milk wouldn’t send me down another bad path.

For what it’s worth, the expats I hung out with one night in Thimphu told me that they get food poisoning a few times a year in Bhutan (!). If you go, eat carefully and stop eating if something seems weird (like I should have done with the milk and the chicken).

A Scary Incident on an Airport Bus

When I was leaving London after the TravMedia Awards, I arranged to take the airport bus to Luton Airport. As usual, I scheduled my departure for a little earlier than I needed it to be, just in case — and it turns out that was a wise decision.

All of a sudden, there was a commotion on the bus, and I saw that an older man had fainted. The bus pulled over. The man regained consciousness but he was weak, and neither he nor his wife spoke English, only Polish.

We sprang into action. The driver called an ambulance. A woman gave the man a bottle of water. I pulled up Google Translate on my phone and started talking with his wife, running communication between her and the paramedics on the phone. She told me he had problems with his heart.

Eventually the paramedics arrived and convinced the couple that it would be dangerous for him to fly, that they both needed to go to the hospital. And they eventually called up their own language line to run the communication. The couple eventually agreed to go to the hospital. Our bus was stopped for about half an hour — no problem for me, but some fellow passengers were running late for their flights.

This is a reminder that it’s a good idea to have Google Translate on your phone, all the time. You never know when you might run into an emergency with a non-English speaker.

I’ve been thinking of the couple ever since. I hope they’re doing okay.

A Bizarre Tour on Ventotene

The island of Ventotene was definitely one of the more random spots Charlie and I visited this year — after learning about it while in Ischia, we couldn’t get it out of our minds! And so we headed to the tiny, blink-and-you-miss-it island between Ischia and Ponza.

There isn’t much to do on Ventotene — two beaches, zero swimming pools, and if you don’t grab a beach chair early, you’ll roast to death on the black sand. It was too hot to stand on the sand in sneakers!

So we chose to take a tour to the even tinier island of Santo Stefano, formerly home to a prison. Sure, the tour would be in Italian, but we speak a bit of Italian and could fill in the gaps with Google Translate.

We sailed to the island, climbed up a big hill, marveled at the outside of the prison, which is designed like a theater in the round, and listened to our guide while using Google Translate. Then it was time to head inside! We put on our hard hats and got excited to explore the jail cells.

And…they led us into seats in the courtyard. Where we sat. And they lectured us for the next 90 minutes. Would we be exploring the prison? No, of course not! The hard hat was just for walking through the entrance. Oh, and here there was no phone signal, so no translation.

It was just bizarre that we came all this way just to sit in a seat and hear a long history lesson, unable to actually tour the building.

Hot Air Ballooning Canceled in Scottsdale

I was so looking forward to hot air ballooning in Scottsdale, even though I knew in the back of my mind that it’s an extremely weather-sensitive activity and no matter where it’s taking place, it can be canceled at the drop of a hat.

Hot air ballooning is usually an early morning activity. So early that we had to be ready at 3:00 AM, and I never got to sleep that night. Beth and I got dressed, headed downstairs, giggled at the dolled-up women in the lobby coming back from their night out as we prepared to start our day.

We got into our pickup van, and immediately the driver got a text and groaned: hot air ballooning was canceled due to adverse weather. Oh well. We piled out of the car, went back upstairs, and it took me about another two hours to fall asleep after that adrenaline spike.

(Still, it wasn’t as bad as my last canceled hot air balloon ride, in South Africa, where we didn’t find out until we were an hour into our drive there! And one of my fellow travelers had consumed several middle-of-the-night espressos in preparation…)

A Long Drive Without A/C

Our little road trip to South Moravia coincided with the hottest week of the year, in late August and early September. As usual, Charlie and I picked out some podcasts to enjoy on the drive.

Then after about 10 minutes, we realized that the car wasn’t getting any cooler. Yep, the air conditioning was not working and would not work for our three-hour drive in searing heat!

So we did what anyone would do. Cranked down the windows and cranked up the podcast volume. WAY up.

The COVID Hotel Follies

In the middle of July, Charlie was feeling sick, took a COVID test, and it came back positive. I tested and it was negative. We immediately put on masks and went into planning mode.

The timing was not ideal — my birthday trip to Croatia was just under two weeks away. The trip for which seven of my friends were flying in from four different countries.

Charlie would probably be fully recovered by then, but if I got COVID from him, I wouldn’t be. I could not miss my own 40th birthday!! Especially since my 30th birthday was so awful. I would do everything I could to avoid COVID.

I quickly found an apartment right by the church of St. Peter of Pořiči, not too far from our place — but then I learned the hard way that the bell of that church tolls EVERY FIFTEEN MINUTES ALL NIGHT LONG. Not good! And guess what…I had booked a nonrefundable three-night stay. Smart!! (At least I got to enjoy the cardamom-y butter chicken at the Indian restaurant across the street.)

Three nights later, Charlie was still testing positive. I then used my annual $300 travel credit from my CapitalOne Venture X card (which I highly recommend!) to book several nights at a hotel in my neighborhood, far from any tolling bells.

During those days, I lived like a hermit and masked anytime I had to go anywhere. I couldn’t risk COVID from anyone. Charlie and I still had our meal delivery service, which we ate on park benches 15 feet apart. And it paid off. Charlie was soon testing negative again plenty of days before our departure to Croatia, and I never tested positive.

I feel so lucky that I avoided COVID so close to a major event.

The Florence Garden Exit Disaster

When doing research for my post about the best views in Florence, I visited the Boboli Gardens and its lesser-known sibling, the Bardini Gardens. Immediately after, I had an appointment to climb the Arnolfo Tower at the Palazzo Vecchio.

The Bardini Gardens are structured on a heavy slope downward. There was an exit at the bottom of the slope, and there was a sign reading in Italian that the exit would be closed until March 15. “Perfect,” I thought, because it was March 19.

I climbed all the way down to the bottom exit, intending to leave, and the door was shut and there was no employee there. There were, however, a few men hanging out in a patio that adjoined to the garden.

“Why is nobody there?” I asked the men. They insisted that there was an employee there. There wasn’t, I told them. There was, they insisted. Then one came with me to prove it, and surprise — I was right, and nobody was there. There is so much casual misogyny in Italy, and this just irritated me — why not believe me?

At this point, I was going to be late for my tower appointment, so I asked the men if I could please leave through their apartment. I could literally see the door in front of me. They looked at me…and said no. Really? Really??

Anyway, I had to climb the steep hill all the way back to the Bardini Gardens’ top entrance (at which I briefly ranted in Italian at the employee that today is March 19, why does the sign say March 15 if it is still closed?). I ran all the way down the steep hill again, crossed the Ponte Vecchio, ran over to Piazza Signoria, made it with one minute to spare…

…and found out that I had booked the wrong kind of ticket. I booked the museum, not the tower climb! It’s very easy to get the wrong kind of ticket, and I go into how to book it correctly in my Florence guide and the best views in Florence post.

I had to drown my sorrows in gelato.

Overall, none of this stuff was that bad.

I recognize that all of this stuff was small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. Far, far worse things can happen when you travel. Part of that is because I’m cautious, and part of that is because I’m lucky. I never forget that.

And I’m forever grateful that I am healthy and happy and continuing to do this for a living.

I’d love to hear about YOUR worst travel moments of 2024!