Congratulations to the World's Unluckiest Traveler Winners!

I was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2022. I decided to travel as much as possible before needing dialysis, I was READY FOR ADVENTURE after such bad news. Winters in Wisconsin are brutal so I planned a vacation at a “resort” in Mexico. All I wanted was to sit on the beach & relax. After flying there & sitting next to the chattiest lady EVER (I heard about her bipolar disorder, rash and her bowel issues) I got to the “resort” & changed right into my swimsuit. I went out to enjoy the beach only to find that they had NO BEACH ACCESS AT ALL-it was completely roped off. I went to call the front desk & they never answered so I walked to the office & they said “beach closed all week, use pool”. I went back to my room to order room service & they didn’t answer either so I figured I would start unpacking & look around my room. I found MOLD, BEDBUGS, A BROKEN SAFE, FILTHY AIR CONDITIONER THAT WENT FULL BLAST & WOULDN’T SHUT OFF and absolutely NO RUNNING WATER! Again, I tried to reach the front desk but still no answer. I was starving so I tried room service again & they still didn’t answer either so I went back to the desk. They didn’t have another room available. I decided to make the most of it & find the pool. I walked over TO FIND THE POOL WAS CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE! (This was peak season in February) I was disappointed & hangry by then so I went back to the room & booked a flight home. I couldn’t get a flight that day so I laid towels down & SLEPT IN THE EMPTY BATHTUB because I didn’t want to bring bedbugs home. I was shivering all night. I got 2 hours sleep & somehow still woke up with ITCHY RED BUMPS ON MY ENTIRE BODY. When I went to check out, they said that I would be charged for only 1 night. I spent 5 hours flying home with a 3 year old kicking my seat & asking me 100 times why I was wearing a mask. After landing I waited 3 hours for luggage..it never showed up. I went to the airline desk to find out MY LUGGAGE WAS LOST! Crying, I drove home in a blizzard. At home after sleeping for 18 hrs. I was exhausted & feeling sick so I WENT TO URGENT CARE to be diagnosed with Covid, a sinus infection & pneumonia. The Dr. said I probably got it on the plane or from the dirty A/C in the “resort” room. But the REAL KICKER IS that when I went to grab my insurance card from my backpack - my wallet & sunglasses were gone. Someone had STOLEN THEM at the “resort”. I never noticed before because ironically I had my anti-theft neck purse with my passport & ID inside. I called to cancel my CC & the only odd charge was from the “resort” so I called. They charged me for the full week PLUS $659 for out of country phone charges which I obviously didn’t make because THE PHONE NEVER WORKED. They refused to refund me & offered me a free spa upgrade if I went back. WHAT THE ??! I really hope that I win this because I need to replace these horrible memories with something fun! I’m waiting for a kidney transplant so I would love to travel after I hopefully get a donor.

During a recent trip to Saint Martin, my wife and I decided to experience the thrill of Maho Beach. This beach is famous for being adjacent to the Princess Juliana International Airport. It is a popular site for tourists and plane watchers, who visit the beach to watch airplanes fly low over their heads to land at the airport right at the edge of the water. We positioned ourselves on the beach to get the perfect video of these massive aircraft flying incredibly low over our heads as they approached the runway. As my wife aimed her camera to capture an airplane soaring just above our heads, she tripped over a raised concrete curb resulting in distressing injuries to her legs.

Our three week trip to Italy was bittersweet and one that we tried to look forward to after losing my mother in 2001. My son, was who 11 years old, along with my boyfriend and his niece were going to southern Italy where we would stay in his apartment overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. This was a trip that we looked forward to for so long. Each day we wanted to try something new and wanted to do some exploring from taking the ferry to Sicily to planning activities in the water to mountain climbing. One evening as we were coming down the mountain, I noticed my son was walking slower then the rest of us. When I turned around to ask him what was wrong he tried to blow it off as it was nothing and he said he was ok. I knew he didn’t look okay so thankfully we were not that far from the apartment. Now it was 8:30 pm and my boyfriend and his niece were upstairs and my son asked if he could talk to me as he said he was having a little problem in his private area. He knew he had to show me but as an 11-year-old they are so shy so he was a little hesitant but I could see the pain on his face. When he finally allowed me to look I was both scared and mortified! He was extremely swollen and I panicked because now here we were in a country where I had never been in there was nobody that we knew so I didn’t even know where the closest hospital was. Since my boyfriend had been to Italy many times he knew some neighbors one of which threw him a set of car keys so that we could get to the hospital. Prior to that I had called my son’s pediatrician and once I reached him, he told me to get to the hospital immediately. Fortunately the ride was not long. Once we arrived I did my best to explain in Italian, since I’m not fluent in it, what was going on. It was so bizarre because in the hospital there were two doctors that I was speaking to and one was actually smoking a cigarette while I was speaking to him! I have never seen such a thing but I disregarded that because I was so nervous about my son. One of the doctors saw him and gave him an injection which was of significant concern because they had not even asked me if he had any allergies so now I had something else to worry about! After having examined my son, they determined that he had some type of bacterial infection that he must have picked up from the sand, perhaps something to do with dog feces since many dogs walk along the beach. They prescribed him medication and for the next seven days we had to back each day so that they could take an ultrasound. My nerves at this point were beyond shot because I asked the doctors why they had to keep taking an ultrasound every day for seven days and asked what were they looking for, and they said they had to be sure that there was no damage that might affect him one day eventually having children!! (I am now blessed with 2 year old twin grandsons!). Needless to say, the stress and worry of all this happening was certainly not what we had planned!