Do Travel Disasters Make the Best Travel Stories?
Less than one week into a nearly six-month stint in Brussels and I had already racked up my first travel mishap. Heading out to an Internet café for a scheduled online chat session, I was so sure of my route until I came up against a dead end with no sign of the correct street. Only then did I realize that I had walked a good 20 minutes in the wrong direction. I dejectedly backtracked, arriving at the café 30 minutes late only to discover it was closed.
While frustrating and a bit demoralizing, my story is nothing compared with the travel disasters most of us will accumulate in our lives on the go. But it still highlights that no matter how much you travel, no matter how experienced you think you are, stuff happens. I blogged about this topic – travel disasters – last year, insisting that things that go wrong, while maddening at the time, actually become our best travel stories.
True, travel disasters are often the funniest, most entertaining stories, but only to certain people. Namely, people who don’t travel.
But do they?
I’m starting to think it’s more nuanced than that. True, travel disasters are often the funniest, most entertaining stories, but only to certain people. Namely, people who don’t travel.
Think about it: every traveler knows what it feels like to go home after a big trip. You get the inevitable questions of “what was it like?” “what did you see?” Questions that are impossible to answer. Summing up an emotional, inspiring, life-changing voyage into “It was great” leaves you feeling empty somehow. And if you really try to get into those more profound details, you can be sure the eyes of those listening will slowly begin to glaze over. They just don’t get it. However, tell them about the time you missed your flight, lost your passport and were accosted by local security guards in a language you don’t understand – all in the same day – and you’ll no doubt have their attention. Everyone can relate to a tragedy.
People who travel like to hear the good stuff. They appreciate the value of making friends with the locals. They know the feeling you get when you first gaze upon a truly magnificent work of art you had previously only seen in school books. They understand the existential quality of a quiet day spent sipping strong coffee and cheap (but good) red wine at a French café. And they identify with your burning desire to get back out there, see more sights, experience more perspective-altering, character-building, only-while-traveling moments.
Yes, everyone can relate to a tragedy, but it takes a fellow traveler to ask “what was it like?” “what did you see?” and truly mean it.
About the author:In her final semester as a graduate student, Tanya ditched Washington D.C. to study in Paris instead. The travel bug has caught on, as she now lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. Catch her writings at Parisian Spring.
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Posted by Tanya Brothen from Parisian Spring on October 28th, 2009 in Articles.
#1Frugal Expat in Abu Dhabi » October 28th, 2009 at 10:25 pm:
well said.. ‘True, travel disasters are often the funniest, most entertaining stories, but only to certain people. Namely, people who don’t travel.’
#2A.C. » October 29th, 2009 at 9:01 am:
I have a few stories that people can’t get enough of, and funny enough they were most definitely “disasters” at the time! Great post!
#3Prime » October 29th, 2009 at 4:14 pm:
“People who travel like to hear the good stuff. …They understand the existential quality of a quiet day spent sipping strong coffee and cheap (but good) red wine at a French café.” — I can’t agree more. i’m not very fond of hearing travel disasters because i’m such a worrywart. what im fond of telling and hearing is the happiness that i feel inside whenever im on the road or just inside a cafe sipping brewed coffee, while reading another cozy mystery novel
#4fabuluousman » October 30th, 2009 at 1:19 am:
“what was it like?” “what did you see?”
It will give you different story because you never expected what will happen.
#5William Wallace » November 4th, 2009 at 4:11 am:
Travel disasters are just part of life, shit happens that’s just the way it goes sometimes. I had my own personal disaster on Sunday, I took the wrong turning when looking for Fleet Street in London and got hopelessly lost. I must have taken me an hour longer to get there than it should have.
I eventually found fleet Street, I was in search of a couple of historic pubs, which unknown to me are both closed on Sundays, which was a real downer, but such is life.
#6Angela » November 5th, 2009 at 12:22 am:
When you travel is very common to have misadventures, it’s just part of it. Disasters can happen when traveling as well as when you are at home. Maybe the secret is just start considering traveling as part of normal life
Nice post!
#7DDirector » November 5th, 2009 at 12:33 pm:
Yeah, travel disaster stories can be interesting and funny… to outsiders. Real disasters make it difficult for a traveler to ever smile about.
In 1991, I was in Alaska visiting family. I was driving the family camper and immediately after leaving the Prince William sound area, a bear cub appeared out of the blue and decided to run along side the camper as I made a right turn. I slowed up and the bear decided to dart in front of the camper.
Speaking of disaster! I was crushed! The entire trip, we were complaining because we had yet to see a bear. Then the first bear we see, I kill it! I was 19 at the time.
#8Mary Morris » November 10th, 2009 at 1:23 am:
A number of years ago I was in a publication called “Bad Trips.” Really more of the entries were hilarious, though mine, from my memoir NOTHING TO DECLARE, was the tragic kind. But the truth is that, as a storyteller, disaster makes for better stories. Obviously there’s more tension and conflict. I have a student for example who has traveled the world with her tennis champion boyfriend. A happy, blissful life. And she is struggling with what the story is (I teach travel writing). I am a writer and person who looks for stories. My family has dined out on some pretty hysterical encounters with the Navajo tribal police (I married my husband because he was at risk of being deported – he’s Canadian), and another with an Alaskan state trooper who thought we had kidnapped our own daughter. There have been similar, but less dramatic moments with a sand storm and iguanas in Costa Rica and another which belongs to my daughter (being guided in complete darkness in a Moroccan village with a man holding a flashlight that projected the image of Osama Bin Laden). And I have literally dozens of stories in Italy. (An essay of mine entitled “On Italian Time” tells of some of them) You can follow some of these on my travel blog. http://www.thewriterandthewanderer.blogspot.com. I will post them from time to time. By for me, well, though I love the pleasures of a relatively quiet life, disaster, not major, but minor, those silly inconviences, the weird coincidences, these are often the source a wonderful stories. And the journey might lie in the disgressions.
#9Jon Brandt » November 10th, 2009 at 12:48 pm:
Last year I volunteered with WorldTeach in Ecuador as an English teacher. The first week into the year contract, my night bus was hijacked. It was a terrible and shocking experience, but I wrote about it not thinking what kind of attention it would get. Slowly word got around throughout my friends, and eventually throughout the Internet as well. At the time, I wrote the story two days later while sitting on my bed, probably within a half hour, feeling some insane need to finish it as soon as possible before I forgot any detail.
My friend put it this way later on, “That hijacking is probably the best thing to happen to you.” He was making light of the situation, obviously, but he was on to something. This post got tons of exposure to my blog, helped me get an article request by Matador, and brought light about the situation in Ecuador to people around the world.
Since then, I’ve told the story dozens of times, and no matter what horror story someone has about a knife being pulled on them, mine will always trump. I wasn’t looking for that, but sometimes unexpected things like that will happen.
You can read that blog post on my blog Travel Guy, found here:
http://ttravelguy.blogspot.com/2008/09/great-bus-heist.html
#10Buddy Smith » November 13th, 2009 at 2:15 pm:
That’s true, I’ve been there before and the people are just really friendly, hospitable and you’ll get the feeling of being somewhere just beside your home. As a tourist I’d like to make new friends in everywhere I go.
#11Paul Carson » November 13th, 2009 at 5:14 pm:
When you travel you should be openned to experience all types of things, but if something that you were not expecing actually happens, you just have to get through it and laugh later. Bad experiences and “disasters” always make wonderful interesting stories.
#12Greg Batchelder » November 13th, 2009 at 5:18 pm:
There is nothing like the adventure trips experienced in Latinamerica. Countries such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela etc. are just great to get a sense of the culture, live and feel nature and enjoy your vacations. in this countries anything can happen and it just makes it more and more interesting. I recently traveled to Costa Rica for 15 days and went to the best places in the country. Read more about my trip at http://bikingbaturs.blogspot.com, I went to Costa Rica through http://www.bananaadventuretours.com.
#13toronto tours » November 18th, 2009 at 2:36 pm:
I think anything that is “disastrous” always makes headline. Whether it be as small as getting lost like you mentioned, or bigger like a fight or broken leg, you somehow seem to remember those moments and talk about them more that you would if nothing bad happens. Human nature I guess!
#14Cheap Charley » November 18th, 2009 at 3:52 pm:
I have to aggree with your blog post that travel disasters keep the floks at ome tuned in, but I do something many times when I get emails that can show positive stuff in a interesting format. Pictures!
I post them on facebook, picasa and videos on youtube and then I either give them a URL to Youtube or flickr, or I direct link it as a attachment to them. Always get positive replies back, sometimes asking for more information or forwarded on to others that might be traveling in that direction later on.
Scuba diving pictures I find to be the best.
#15James L. Moore » November 19th, 2009 at 2:56 am:
For some of us, who are more shy about mingling with the locals when we are traveling, mishaps, disasters and unexpected detours tend to bring us into contact with the culture and, certainly, at the end of the day, make for a much better and more gratifying story once we return home.
#16edj » November 26th, 2009 at 12:27 am:
Yes! Exactly. Although there are those rare souls who do like to hear the good travel stories, they are few and far between (and usually parents or best friends).
#17Kristie Dean » November 29th, 2009 at 6:36 am:
I love great travel stories myself, but I’ve found that friends usually enjoy my travel scares. The terrorist attack on my airport really gets attention. I decided to start my own blog (divorceyourtravelagent.com) to tell the *good* things about travel so that people can see it is still safe (and fun!) to travel.
#18Vlad » December 1st, 2009 at 4:45 am:
I think it has to do with the need people feel for things out of the ordinary. They will be happy for you if you had a nice trip, but a lot more eager to hear about it if things went a bit wrong. That is the spice added to the story.
#19Panama Hotel » December 2nd, 2009 at 6:14 am:
To answer the initial question: ABSOLUTELY! Travel accidents are akin to training for a triathlon – they hurt desperately but are worth the story in the end. We own a small hotel here in the Republic of Panama and are always encountering guests who’ve had something random (and often disastrous) happen during their vacation. One in particular: family of 3 goes out in Panama for dinner in rental car, gets lost, stops to ask for directions, accidentally stops and asks the wrong person (a transvestite street walker) who jumps in the car and holds them up – I swear I’m not lying here – using a cannister of mace. Street walker steals the car, crashes it into a nearby neighborhood, and passes out in the front seat. How can you not want to tell your grandchildren that ONE?!?!?!
#20Craig » December 13th, 2009 at 4:24 pm:
I wouldn’t say that life threatening experiences always make the best stories but having crap go wrong certainly creates memorable travel experiences. Looking back on my travels, it has often been the times when things went wrong that I remember the most.
#21Adam » December 21st, 2009 at 3:27 pm:
I think that if all turned out well and no one was injured to badly then I’d say that they make the best stories. Much better than the typical “I went here and saw this or that. Check out these pictures”
#22Laurie » January 15th, 2010 at 9:38 am:
Well said. I think everyone enjoys the “disaster” stories on some level because we all like knowing these things happen to everyone. But it’s the inspiring stories that make you want to travel again.
#23Simon » January 29th, 2010 at 10:34 pm:
In my opinion they do make the best stories, just because people like reading about something which could make the laugh or smile at someone else’s misfortune, unless it involves something really bad, like injury.
#24Erdek » February 4th, 2010 at 12:05 am:
There is no doubt that the climate change affects many touristic areas transforming them unexpectedly. The need for greet tourism becomes acute, we have to act more responsibly and start protecting these places. I had the chance to have a green vacation and I am telling you that I had the same exact fun as before only this time I felt better because I know I don’t affect any touristic area. Turkey is a great place for green tourism, I will definitely go back there.
#25Mae » March 6th, 2010 at 4:37 am:
When something is intriguing, funny or out of the ordinary it often leaves a lasting impression in our minds so I think that contributes to what makes your travel story. Great post!
#26Destiny T. » May 3rd, 2010 at 4:14 pm:
In my opinion travel comedies make the best stories rather than travel tragedies. When visiting Ireland, I had a friend who tried to clime an electric fence to ride a donkey. He was shocked by the fence but not seriously injured. Told in person it is a very good story, but I don’t think it would be as good of a story if the consequences were more disastrous.
#27Sean » September 30th, 2011 at 8:35 pm:
Got to agree that as a traveler it is awful at the time but once the dust has settled then it does become funnier. For me, losing my phone and flat keys in Spain while not being bale to speak Spanish in the same weekend was a disaster but my friends ijn England found it hilarious. Suppose those who don´t travel, don´t understand how disatrous somehting that would be small disaters in our home country become huge crisis in a foreign country!
#28Chris » December 29th, 2011 at 10:10 pm:
I think misadventure is a part of travel. However, people that read travel posts and are not traveler they enjoy reading the “disaster” but personally (as a traveler) I just want to read stories where everything goes smoothly.
#29Tasha Hacker » November 6th, 2012 at 4:26 am:
Interesting post. My husband and I were just discussing whether or not we knew of “happy” sailing adventures that made it to the mainstream – books and films. We couldn’t think of any…but we could name lots of adventure disasters that made it into books and films. John Krakauer is great at that kind of writing. I have to admit, I prefer reading these stories because the story line grips you in a way that, say, “A Year in Provence” does not. I guess it just has to do with the movement of the story for me.
- Tasha Hacker
#30Christian Rene Friborg » December 6th, 2012 at 1:44 pm:
I agree. Most of the time, travel disasters are funnier to those people who did not experience the situation or those who don’t travel much.
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