30 Horrible And Creepy Travel Experiences These People Wish They Hadn’t Had

Bored Panda got in touch with Lavina Dsouza, a veteran traveler, journalist, and photographer from Continenthop.com and she was kind enough to answer some of our questions. Given the dour nature of many of these stories, we wanted to, instead, explore some of the positives while still staying safe. So we asked Lavina what travel advice she would give her younger self. 

“Never be afraid to travel solo! But irrespective of whether you travel solo or not, always do research and have backup plans ready and have some breathing space if and when things go wrong so that you're not caught off guard and don't end up spending a fortune when you panic!”

Generally, more extreme experiences come when a person actually goes somewhere off the beaten path, but sometimes it’s simply a result of wanting to save some money at the cost of time and convenience, so we wanted to hear Lavina’s take on balancing the two. “I have been sharing travel tips and tricks on Continenthop.com for almost a decade mainly for professionals and yes, they value time over money!”

“Travelers, especially from countries like the USA, tend to have limited holidays and prefer to see as much as possible within the limited time they have. While slow travel is the trend currently unfortunately not everyone can afford that in terms of time and for many countries who depend on tourism, as long as this is done in the most sustainable way possible it still helps provide innumerable locals with income! So in short, there's no right way to travel!” 

She is absolutely right here, as slow travel has become a pretty significant movement over the last few years. In short, the idea is to be as sustainable as possible, which often means traveling shorter distances, using up less carbon, walking often, only eating locally, and, generally, staying in a place for a longer period of time. But, as Lavina mentioned, this does tend to come at a cost. Slow-travel enthusiasts still need to work out a framework to make this concept actually applicable to the average person. 

However, slow or “fast,” many of these trips still ended up scaring the people who took them, so we wanted to finish with some general advice from Lavina that anyone could benefit from. “Research! If planning a trip by yourself try to check which localities are safe, pick tours and companies that are local give back to the community, and make sure you keep family and friends informed of your whereabouts. Always make sure you carry a power bank and any medications needed and keep track of the cultural rules in a country so that you're not caught off guard due to random arguments.” You can find more of her work at Continenthop.com and Instagram.