My Worst Journey Moments of 2025

You should take the unhealthy with the nice! Yearly, I share my worst journey moments of the yr as a result of I believe it’s necessary to be practical if you journey the world for a dwelling.

Issues can and do go incorrect on each journey. And that’s not an indication of failure in your half as a traveler! That’s simply the way it goes. And the unhealthy moments actually make it easier to recognize the nice ones.

It’s additionally price noting that not each vacation spot goes to be a house run for you. Typically locations look nice on paper, however you’ll be able to’t know the way it is going to be till you get there. Sadly Austin and Dominica fell into this class for me this yr.

As all the time, take into account that these destructive experiences aren’t that unhealthy within the grand scheme of issues. My precise worst experiences of the yr had been far more critical. Deaths. Severe accidents. Buddies struggling in numerous methods.

And people powerful occasions don’t belong on this lighthearted record, so simply preserve that in thoughts.

(And don’t overlook to take a look at my finest journey moments of 2025 and my favourite new journey locations of 2025! These two are must-reads!)

Listed here are my worst journey moments of 2025!

Unrest, Tear Fuel, and Delays in Madagascar

I knew Madagascar can be a vacation spot of extremes, however I had no concept that we might find yourself in the midst of protests resulting in a navy coup!

I’ve traveled to areas throughout protests earlier than — Thailand in 2013, Greece in 2015, France in 2023. Every time, the protests had been simply avoidable, and I stayed away from them.

However in Antananarivo, our lodge occurred to be within the coronary heart of the protest space. As we arrived, folks had been swarming the streets and the lodge employees grabbed us and escorted us in rapidly, simply as a bunch was pushing a dumpster down the road in our route.

We took movies of individuals operating down the road from the home windows upstairs, and altered our dinner plans to eat within the lodge restaurant that night time.

After which got here the tear fuel. The police had been blanketing the neighborhood with tear fuel, and as we had been within the courtyard, it wafted over the partitions and harm our eyes and throat. The lodge employees handed out masks and urged us to go inside.

We had been supposed to go away for Nosy Be the subsequent morning, however home flights in Madagascar had been cancelled. We moved to a family-run guesthouse near the airport the place they handled us with such kindness, and for the reason that metropolis was below curfew and shops had been closed, we made clandestine getaways to tiny little bars and comfort shops that permit us within the again entrance.

The president of Madagascar fled the nation in secret, flights had been canceled one other day, and sadly, three of our journey companions determined to go house, relatively than simply go to Nosy Be for 2 nights and are available again, or threat getting caught once more.

One other fear behind my thoughts was the US authorities shutdown. If the protests turned severely violent or bought to a degree the place we would have liked to be extracted, there would solely be a skeleton crew working within the US Embassy.

Lastly, due to our chief Helen’s tireless work on the airport, she bought us prioritized on the flight record and we made it to Nosy Be! What a reduction it was to be out of Antananarivo and on a wonderful island.

However that wasn’t all! I booked a flight again to Réunion after two days in Nosy Be, however that flight was cancelled as effectively, and I used to be given a brand new flight two days later. Let’s simply say I needed to kiss the bottom once I landed again on EU soil in Réunion.

Total, I’m grateful that this wasn’t worse. The worst half was the uncertainty as issues had been up within the air, worrying and worrying and having no thought how lengthy we’d be caught.

However these protests, and the coup, had been for good causes. They started with Gen Z members protesting the ability cuts and lack of water entry — very primary freedoms that all of us take with no consideration. These are what the Malagasy folks deserve. And my Malagasy pals are very comfortable that the president is gone.

Frankfurt’s Practice Station at Evening

After a few years of touring solo and dwelling in huge cities, I’m fairly comfy in terms of visiting new locations for the primary time. Particularly in Europe. How unhealthy might a spot be?

Then I found the realm round Frankfurt’s prepare station. I’ve traveled extra extensively in Europe than nearly anybody I do know, and that is arms down the worst neighborhood I’ve ever encountered on the continent.

I used to be solely in Frankfurt for twenty-four hours and can be going via the prepare station 4 occasions, so I assumed it might be finest to remain at a lodge shut by. WELL. I’m completely appalled by what I noticed.

An extended line of males smoking crack throughout the road from my lodge. (Fascinating odor, that crack.) Folks on all types of medication sitting on the streets, syringes out.

Getting back from the live performance at night time, 4 completely different males stored following me, coming as much as me, and making an attempt to intimidate me. It actually freaked me out, however I discovered a mother with grownup youngsters and pretended I used to be a part of their group.

I wish to emphasize that that is one particular neighborhood, and never all of Frankfurt is like this. I explored extra of town on my quick go to, together with the New Previous City, and loved it. However I’m not staying close to the prepare station EVER once more.

Drunk Australians in Kraków

I didn’t sleep one wink my first night time in Kraków. It was a foul mixture of an adrenaline-infused late arrival at midnight, adopted by nervousness as a result of I had a 6:00 AM wakeup for our Auschwitz tour. Both of these on their very own can preserve me up for hours; each of them without delay was a catastrophe.

However the worst half was what occurred at 3:00 AM. Abruptly I heard yelling outdoors our room.

4 extraordinarily drunk Australians of their sixties had been climbing up the steps, laughing and shouting and simply being extremely thoughtless. I heard them get to the highest of the steps, then they only stayed there, nonetheless speaking on the prime of their lungs.

I burst out of my door, in my pajamas, eye masks on my head, in all probability wanting like a loopy individual. “You should shut the fuck up,” I hissed.

Welp. Seems that was the incorrect factor to say.

“DON’T SWEAR AT ME!” one of many ladies shrieked. “SHE SWORE AT ME! DON’T YOU SWEAR AT ME!”

“It’s 3:00 AM and you’re waking everybody up,” I snapped. “You should get yourselves to mattress.”

And slowly, SO SLOWLY, they bought themselves into their rooms, nonetheless chatting on the prime of their lungs.

I went downstairs to speak to the receptionist about their habits and talked to the supervisor the subsequent day. Two days later, I bumped into the 2 males of the group, they usually truly apologized to me.

The Tragedy that’s Texas

I’ve needed to go to Austin for years and years, and it lastly occurred this yr. Charlie and I attended the SXSW convention and spent greater than per week in Austin.

However when you’ve learn my record of favourite new locations for 2025, you’ve in all probability observed one thing: Austin didn’t make the minimize.

It’s not that I hated Austin. I simply discovered it tremendously disappointing. It felt like I arrived a decade too late — like town’s well-known weirdness now solely glints sometimes between shiny new chain eating places and rental buildings. You’ll be able to really feel the burden of Huge Tech’s growth all over the place you look.

I frolicked with 4 pals in Austin, two of whom are longtime Austinites who had been so concerned within the metropolis’s various scene. Listening to them discuss their Austin of yore, I couldn’t imagine they had been taking about the identical place it’s at this time.

Rainey Road broke my coronary heart. This avenue is house to historic little bungalow bars, however they’re being bulldozed, one after the other, and changed with high-rise condos. How can that occur? Effectively, they don’t have historic safety. And everyone knows Texas hates authorities overreach. So there you go. They will’t compete with rich property builders.

And one thing else we observed was how a lot waste there was. On the bars, each SXSW-oriented and in any other case, there was SO a lot plastic and no recycling. Everybody was chucking thick plastic cups that might be reused into the trash.

It made me understand that the states I’ve lived in — Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut — are on a very completely different wavelength in terms of waste and recycling. Who knew reusable glasses had been radical?

And what else didn’t I like? The truth that you might want to drive all over the place. The truth that buses barely run. The truth that the primary 5 flooring of buildings are parking garages. The truth that the botanical gardens had been actually subsequent to the freeway, and filled with freeway noise and smells? I discovered it miserable.

Once more, I had enjoyable on the convention, liked spending time with my pals, and ate a number of good meals — however I actually want I might have skilled Austin in its bizarre heyday.

The Electrical Car Follies

For our lengthy weekend journey to Piemonte this fall, Charlie and I made a decision to hire an electrical car. We had rented one as soon as earlier than — for a quick journey to the UK that didn’t contain a ton of driving and required no charging — and thought we’d have the same expertise.

Oh HO HO HO.

This was a catastrophe in so some ways.

Our first situation was once we drove from Milan Malpensa to Alessandria — a few 75-minute drive — and the battery was practically drained upon arrival. HOW?!

We had been in a position to cost briefly there, however then charging in different places turned out to be a lot more durable than we anticipated. It’s not straightforward to seek out chargers on Google Maps — after they seem on the map, they’re typically restricted or hidden — and you may’t simply present up and cost, you might want to join with an account for the actual app.

And as soon as we signed up for Plenitude, the principle charging app in Italy, we discovered that they had been having a glitch and couldn’t create an account for anybody who didn’t have an Italian cellphone quantity. CLASSIC ITALIAN DYSFUNCTION!

We additionally realized that a lot of rental firms offers you the worst electrical car they’ve. I discussed this to my readers and much mentioned they’d been baited and switched — just a few occasions even given an EV after they ordered a fuel car.

Our car was not in a position to cost at any fast-charging stations — solely the slowest. And there was no approach we might learn about that forward of time. Moreover, our automobile, like many EVs, was the type that drains in a short time with freeway driving and is healthier suited to again roads.

Total, I’m a agency believer in electrical automobiles and stay up for the EV infrastructure being improved all over the world within the subsequent decade. However at this level, not each area is well-outfitted for exploring by EV. Rural Piemonte isn’t.

In truth, I doubt I’ll go electrical anyplace in Italy anytime quickly — except I’m staying at lodging with a devoted charging station.

Cat Well being Issues Whereas Touring

Being away from the cats is the toughest a part of touring — full cease. Once we go away on longer journeys, we all the time have a live-in cat sitter staying in our house with them, normally our good friend John.

By now, John and the cats have a routine, and issues go easily — however this winter once we had been in Mexico and the US, Lewis was coping with a watch harm.

Lewis whacked his eye or bought one thing in it, and our native vet gave us a prescription that didn’t actually work, so we took him to the flamboyant vet throughout city (the one which handled his FIP). Lewis would wish extra therapy, and eye drops.

The nice factor is that Lewis is MUCH extra agreeable than Murray in terms of being held. And for the times that we gave him his drops, adopted by John’s first days giving him drops, he was high-quality, accepting his destiny.

Then he began FREAKING THE FUCK OUT. Jerking, snarling, and operating away anytime it was time for extra drops.

At one level, Lewis wanted a follow-up vet appointment whereas we had been away, however we didn’t wish to make John undergo the trouble of getting him into his service and transporting him throughout city, particularly since Lewis was already in spicy mode.

Amazingly, our vet AGREED TO A HOUSE CALL. I’m nonetheless floored that this was a chance (albeit for a excessive value, although nonetheless considerably cheaper than what a daily vet appointment within the US would price).

Then the vet came to visit…and Lewis, as soon as once more, freaked out. She and John chased Lewis all around the house earlier than they had been lastly in a position to extract him and get him examined.

I’m so glad that it finally labored out — the second medicine labored effectively and Lewis absolutely recovered. But it surely was a LOT of fear whereas we had been away, and I really feel so responsible that we needed to put our good friend into this powerful state of affairs.

Dinner at Pujol in Mexico Metropolis

Again in March 2020, I had an audacious plan to eat at 4 of the perfect eating places in Latin America inside per week: Quintonil and Pujol in Mexico Metropolis, and Central and Maido in Lima.

Evidently, Covid hit and none of these dinners ended up occurring. I did make it to Quintonil in 2022, and loved it, however Pujol was nonetheless excessive on my record, so Charlie, our good friend Nick, and I made a reservation throughout our time in CDMX.

Pujol has two Michelin stars, so our expectations had been excessive. We anticipated revolutionary and sophisticated dishes.

We had been served their tasting menu, and it was…high-quality. The smoking carrots served in a clay pot that began off the meal had been good, and attention-grabbing. And all the things else on the menu was unremarkable. Respectable tasting, sure. However not thrilling.

With every dish, we shrugged. Good? Positive. For about $200 USD every? HELL NO.

After which got here the ultimate dish: a bit of wagyu steak and mole sauce and some accoutrements. “We recommend you make this right into a taco,” our server advised us.

Charlie and Nick had been offended. “We’re speculated to make the taco? I don’t know the way thick to chop the meat, how a lot sauce to incorporate, what the ratios needs to be. You’re leaving this a lot as much as me?”

Whereas the meal wasn’t unhealthy by any stretch, we had been disenchanted that of all of the world-class eating places in Mexico Metropolis, we selected Pujol for our costly meal.

Later that week, we went to Contramar for lunch and it was DELIGHTFUL. Completely scrumptious, filled with surprises, and 1/6 of the value of our Pujol meal.

A Hip Harm that Dominated My Yr

After I was in Oaxaca this February, I began feeling some occasional twinges and soreness behind my proper hip. As we moved on to Louisiana and Texas, the ache bought worse. Then one night time in Austin, I leaped out of bed, landed a bit bizarre on my proper foot, and I shrieked in ache for about 30 seconds nonstop.

I headed straight to an orthopedist upon returning to Prague, and was deeply relieved to be taught it wasn’t arthritis or a bone situation — it was a muscle deterioration situation associated to one thing I used to be born with, however didn’t present up till I turned 40. That’s your forties for you! Random points present up!

So it was okay — but it surely led to a LOT of bodily remedy and physiotherapy (two various things, it seems!) that went on for months, in addition to house workouts and getting my physique again into respectable form with extra intense weight coaching.

I’m glad to be in a significantly better place than I used to be just a few months in the past, however this situation is one thing I’ll need to regulate long-term.

One useful factor I did be taught is that if I’m going to be on my toes for a very long time — like a live performance — I’ll really feel MUCH higher if I do some yin yoga earlier than the occasion and the morning after. That made an enormous distinction with how I felt after Kendrick in Frankfurt vs. Kendrick in Warsaw.

Nosebleed on the Streets of Austin

When was the final time you bought a nosebleed? For me, I used to be in all probability a child on the time. So I had no thought what to do when my nostril out of the blue began gushing on the streets of Austin.

And Charlie and I had been in an space of workplace buildings. Not like we might run right into a restaurant to seize some napkins. The blood was getting all over the place and I didn’t even have any tissues in my purse.

However then a person referred to as out from a automobile from throughout the road. He gave Charlie a thick stack of napkins.

Then a mother got here by with a stroller, and he or she gave me some moist wipes.

As terrible because it was to take a seat stiffly whereas lined in blood for awhile, these two sort folks actually lifted my spirits and made me really feel higher. Particularly after my time in Austin was just a little bit meh total, it’s good to know that individuals right here will soar in that can assist you if you want it.

Dominica Roads and Drama

I assumed I knew what to anticipate on the Caribbean island of Dominica — that it was “the character island,” that there have been no respectable seashores, that it was much less developed and would require a little bit of endurance. It might be completely different from each different Caribbean island.

Dominica turned out to be probably the most hectic vacation spot I visited this yr, and my time there was a steady slog.

If I needed to decide the only worst situation, it might be the roads. The roads had been in horrible situation, completely lined in deep potholes. The roads had been typically extraordinarily slim and winding, particularly from the airport to Portsmouth, they usually had deep trenches on all sides that would simply flip your automobile when you drove too far to 1 facet.

Charlie drove (they drive on the left in Dominica) and I navigated — and every drive was so hectic, my coronary heart charge was via the roof.

It rained continually, although it was the dry season. Someday I counted sixteen rainstorms earlier than giving up. And we needed to abandon our hike to Middleham Falls simply 5 minutes from the point of view as a result of it was raining so exhausting and the path changed into a scramble over rocks that we didn’t assume we might do safely whereas moist.

Our flight out was rescheduled to 7:00 AM, which led to us reserving a lodge close to the airport for our closing night time — solely there isn’t any airport lodge, nor any lodges anyplace close to the airport, simply easy guesthouses.

We ended up in a $100 per night time guesthouse that reeked of dried shrimp, the place a child confirmed us a room the place somebody had clearly simply slept within the mattress and it hadn’t been modified.

Oh, and meals? There isn’t any restaurant or grocery retailer anyplace close to the airport. Locals would shrug and say they didn’t know once we requested the place we might purchase meals. Ultimately we made it to the airport snack bar simply earlier than they closed for the night time — at 5:50 PM.

Google Maps? Not enjoyable to make use of in Dominica. It continuously despatched us down blocked and harmful roads, and was filled with “at the moment open” eating places that hadn’t existed for years.

Many of those points are as a result of Dominica is a poor nation that’s nonetheless pretty new to tourism, and I don’t wish to lose sight of that. (The Chinese language are definitely conscious of this, and they’re investing like loopy in infrastructure initiatives on the island, as a result of no one performs the lengthy sport just like the Chinese language.)

It might not be honest to check Dominica to, say, Barbados, which has much better infrastructure and a extra sturdy tourism trade. And I’m not doing that.

Naked minimal, I’d have had a greater expertise in Dominica if I had 1) employed an area driver 2) are available by ferry within the southwest, not airplane within the northeast 3) visited between February and April, the least wet a part of dry season 4) introduced intensive waterproof gear for mountain climbing 5) stayed in a nicer lodge 6) stayed for fewer days total.

When you’re contemplating Dominica, I hope you are taking the factors above into thoughts as you intend your journey. It’s not a vacation spot for me, however I do know lots of people who’ve and who would get pleasure from it there.

What had been your worst journey moments of 2025?