‘World’s Unluckiest Travelers’ revealed – top winner’s horrifying tale involves skydiving and a body bag

And you thought your holiday horror story was bad.

The ‘world’s unluckiest traveller’ has been named in a new disaster competition – set up by a travel insurance provider.

The dirtiest saga—involving skydiving and a friend getting pulled out in a body bag (but not necessarily in that order)—turns out to be just the travel terror kind, though, with plenty of unsolicited reverent mentions posted on online hall of shame. .

The awards, presented by Travel Guard, come with a first-place cash prize of $10,000.

The harrowing sequences, all available to read online, range from earthquakes and errant airport launches to French fry-stealing lizards.

In ascending order, here are the top four winners for 2024.

Mama Mia!

Anna F. will never forget her 2001 trip to southern Italy. Things started as a great time in an apartment overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. However, things soon went sour on a mountain hike when her son “had a little problem in his private area.”

“He knew he had to tell me, but as an 11-year-old they’re so shy, so he was a bit hesitant, but I could see the pain on his face. When he finally let me look, I was scared and upset!” she recalled.

“He was extremely swollen and I panicked because now here we were in a place I’d never been, there was no one we knew so I didn’t even know where the nearest hospital was.”

When she was finally taken to the hospital, Anna was shocked by what she saw.

“It was so weird because there were two doctors in the hospital that I was talking to and one was actually smoking a cigarette while I was talking to him!” she wrote.

“One of the doctors saw him and gave him an injection which was worrying because they hadn’t even asked me if he had any allergies so now I have something else to worry about!”

Ultimately, the boy was fine, and doctors thought it was a bacterial infection brought on by dog ​​poop on a beach.

“Needless to say, the stress and worry of it all happening was certainly not what we had planned!

Just stupid

A man and his wife decided to go by plane looking at Saint Martin at the famous Maho Beach, which is located near the Princess Juliana International Airport.

“We positioned ourselves on the beach to get the perfect video of these massive planes flying so low over our heads as they approached the runway,” the man, Lloyd L., wrote.

“As my wife aimed her camera to capture a plane flying overhead, she stepped on a raised concrete curb resulting in distressing injuries to her legs.”

Crossing the border of the mind

A Wisconsin woman struggling with kidney failure wanted to travel as much as possible before going on dialysis in 2022. Jennifer G. traded the true northern winter for sunny Mexico where a pool and beach oasis – or so she thought.

After a rough flight, hearing about the intestinal problems of the woman next to her, the beach named Jennifer the second landed.

However, “I went out to enjoy the beach only to find they had NO BEACH ACCESS – it was completely roped off,” the woman wrote.

“I went to call the front desk and they never answered so I went to the office and they said ‘beach closed all week, use the pool.’

She then decided to go back to her room and start unpacking her clothes. But in truth, she discovered her worst nightmare.

“I found mold, bedbugs, a broken safe, dirty air conditioner that blew COMPLETELY AND WOULDN’T TURN OFF and absolutely no running water! Again, I tried to reach the front desk, but still no answer.”

Adding insult to injury, not only were there no other rooms available, but the pool was closed for maintenance. The woman quickly tried to get back to Wisconsin as soon as possible.

“I couldn’t get a flight that day, so I put the towels down and TALKED INTO THE EMPTY BAG because I didn’t want to bring the bugs home,” she added. “I was shaking all night. I slept for 2 hours and somehow still woke up with RED ITCHY BUMPS ALL OVER MY BODY.”

However, this was not the end of it.

“After landing I waited 3 hours for the luggage.. it never showed up. I went to the airline desk to find that MY BAGGAGE WAS LOST! Crying, I went home in a storm,” added the woman, who later went to urgent care and was diagnosed with Covid.

While at the doctor’s office, she noticed that her wallet and sunglasses had been stolen at the resort.

When she was about to cancel her credit card, she noticed that the resort had charged her for a week instead of the one day she was promised after complaining. On top of that, there was an outrageous $659 charge for calls the woman claimed she never made.

“They refused to give me a refund and offered me a free bathroom upgrade if I came back. WHAT??!”

Crash landing

However, one woman, Julie S., had the story of the stories that won the $10,000 grand prize. During a November 2021 trip to Phoenix for skydiving, Julie, her friend Sam and others went to a nightclub in Scottsdale the night before.

Sam started to feel unwell after a few drinks and made her friends leave. After stumbling around and eventually getting into a shopping cart for easy transportation, they finally made it back to their Airbnb.

The next day, fearing her drink was spiked, they called 911.

“The next thing I knew, a fire engine, an ambulance and a police car were outside,” Julie recalled, adding that a police officer said she was being taken to a local hospital.

“He then reluctantly gave me a warning about what would happen next… as the entrance to our building was so narrow, a stretcher would not fit into the room,” she added. “So the paramedics would take Sam in a body bag…talk about the trauma.”

The next day, Sam woke up with a thought on her mind.

“After I explained everything, suddenly she sat down and said ‘Wait, we have to go, we have to go skydiving!’ I said, ‘No way, you were literally just in a body bag!’ Julie remembered.

“Against my will and after spending the whole night in the hospital, we were going by parachute. The skydive itself was a breeze compared to the night we just experienced.”