Facepalm Travel Moments

[dubai_phil]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8759126/Tourists-stranded-after-booking-hotel-on-wrong-side-of-the-world.html

 

[h=1]Tourists stranded after booking hotel on wrong side of the world[/h][h=2]South African holidaymakers searching for their hotel with "splendid views" of the pier in Eastbourne, Sussex, had one problem. They were 12,000 miles away in Eastbourne, New Zealand

[/h]

 

OK so what has been YOUR Facepalm Travel Moment?

 

Mine?

1) Flew to UK, went to Car Rental Company discovered my UAE Driving Licence had expired 2 days before. No problem I said pulling out my UK one - doh, that had expired 3 months previously. Sheepish Courtesy Bus ride back to Terminal for the Rail Air Coach & reduced to bus & train for a week of business meetings in Southampton & Bompey.

2) Turned up at Stansted to catch RyanAir to Poland. Get through Security to the gate with pre-printed boarding pass. fight the queue to board & cabin baggage Nazi's get to the front - no, scan of Pass beeps doesn't clunk. The ticket was booked for August, I was trying to fly in July. I'd hit the wrong date box when booking online

[Dimond Geezer]

Not quite a cosmopoliton as the above offerings, but myself, Mrs Geezer & the little geezerlets were holidaying on the IOW. We had some spare time so thought we would go to Fishborne to find the Roman Villa. We couldn't find it on the map & when we got to Fishborne there were no brown tourist signs to help us. So I decided to ask someone for directions, only to be told I'd need to get the ferry & go to FISHBOURNE, Sussex.

[lettuce]

Flew to Germany on business for a single night stay, so I packed my clothes and wash kit in my hand luggage so I didn't need any hold luggage. Got to the security scanners and they confiscated a can of Lynx deodorant because it was over the size limit for "fluids" in hand luggage. Once I'd got through security I went into Boots in the terminal and bought another can of Lynx, the exact same size... it only occurred to me the next morning that this can was also going to be confiscated on my return journey so I unloaded most of the can on my pits, chucked it in the bin and smelt fiiiiiiine all day!

 

What an exciting story that was... rock and indeed roll...

[Pancake]

Not my faux-pas, but was stopped by a lovely American couple at Liverpool Street station who wanted to know get to Statford so they could find Shakespeare's house. I felt bad when I had to explain that his homes were in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire not Statford, east London. In the end they went off to get the tube to the Globe Theatre after I told them it would be quicker to go there.

[Baj]

Double screw up. JustMike and I were in Milan earlier this year, and very excited about going to the San Siro. We turned up in plenty of time, queued for our ticket, until we discovered that you can't buy a ticket without a passport. No problem there, we'll get one from a tout. So we did, at a good price. Then waited for stadium gates to open, only to be told by the stewards that you can't get in without a passport... which were back at the hotel, a 45 min walk away. Kick Off was 2pm, it was 1pm now. So we ran to find the nearest taxi, drove there at a rate of knots. The guy on reception found it amusing we didnt know about our passports being required. He asked why we were in such a hurry "the game kicks off at 2", "no it doesnt" he replied "it kicks off at 3". Me, getting ever more stressed we would miss the game "No, I checked the BBC website, it said 2pm!, we have 30 mins to until kick off!!!". "No, sir, 2pm UK time, 3pm Italian time".

 

Oops, a rather less stressful ride back in which me and mike tried to find out from the taxi driver who the biggest team in Milan was, don't think he really understood the question.

[Minsk]

 

Turned up at Stansted to catch RyanAir to Poland. Get through Security to the gate with pre-printed boarding pass. fight the queue to board & cabin baggage Nazi's get to the front - no, scan of Pass beeps doesn't clunk. The ticket was booked for August, I was trying to fly in July. I'd hit the wrong date box when booking online

 

I did something very similar except it was Easyjet Gatwick-Naples and I was only a day out. I had quite an arguement with the girl on the desk when she told me I wasn't booked on the flight, and then had to apologise profusely when she checked the following day's bookings and found my name there. Fortunately they had one place left on that flight as my GF was already in Italy, uncontactable at that time, and was going to collect me from the airport. It would have been very bad had I not been on the flight.

[dubai_phil]

I did something very similar except it was Easyjet Gatwick-Naples and I was only a day out. I had quite an arguement with the girl on the desk when she told me I wasn't booked on the flight, and then had to apologise profusely when she checked the following day's bookings and found my name there. Fortunately they had one place left on that flight as my GF was already in Italy, uncontactable at that time, and was going to collect me from the airport. It would have been very bad had I not been on the flight.

 

Back before you could check in online I was on a work trip - got the travel agent to do the whole booking stuff & went to the BA office to check in during the day so didn't have to rush next morning, had also got emergency exit seat for the leg room.

Next morning, breeze through airport security, get to the gate for the 9am flight to UK - beep. Oh you've already boarded she says... Followed by - this boarding pass was for the 1:30am flight. (Checks screen) we did page and phone you... (embarrassed switches on mob - doh) this flight is completely full...

 

Anyway after hanging around for 45 minutes they got me a seat in the middle of a row between two blokes wearing 5XL gear..

 

Harumph

[Doctoroncall]

Fell asleep on a train and ended up missing my station and the train arrived at the last stop which was some town in Worcestershire. Ok I thought, I'll just get the next return train to my stop. Only problem was the next train was tomorrow yet it was only 4pm on a Sunday!!! Just as well i was returning from doing some cash in hand work as I had to book into a B&B which cost a fortune at the time.

[dronskisaint]

Done the wrong date thing on booking a hotel...had business in Prestwick so decided to stay at the posh hotel that you always see on the Open Golf tournaments...name escapes me ...and turned up a week early having hit a wrong button - and no, the South Beach in Ayr is nothing special!

 

Only other one was arranging to deliver a sailboard to a guy with a very Narfolk accent pre the days of satnav etc. Wrote down the address as Harleston only to find after many puzzled looks when asking for the road directions that he lived in Hellesdon...taught me to make allowances for accents!

[suewhistle]

Taking 80yr old mum back to Milan airport off I hack down the motorway and forget to take the fork that leads towards Milan. So instead of doing one leg of a triangle I had to do two very long legs at, for my little old car, a speed it hadn't done before or since. Mum bless her, said nothing... Just made it too, courtesy of a nice customer service lady.

[hutch]

Fell asleep on a train and ended up missing my station and the train arrived at the last stop which was some town in Worcestershire. Ok I thought, I'll just get the next return train to my stop. Only problem was the next train was tomorrow yet it was only 4pm on a Sunday!!! Just as well i was returning from doing some cash in hand work as I had to book into a B&B which cost a fortune at the time.

A fairly common occurrence for me in the days when I used to commute from Bletchley to Euston.

 

I remember one evening after a couple of beers after work, I woke up in Northampton. No problem, I thought, and crossed over and got on the next southbound train. Woke up at Watford Junction.

[ericofarabia]

A fairly common occurrence for me in the days when I used to commute from Bletchley to Euston.

 

I remember one evening after a couple of beers after work, I woke up in Northampton. No problem, I thought, and crossed over and got on the next southbound train. Woke up at Watford Junction.

 

Travelling back from footy matches - evening KO travelling from Soton to Christchurch, woke up in the marshalling yards at Bomo, shouldn't they have checked the train was empty before repositioning it there after terminating at Bomo? Bloody long way down when there isn't a platform!! Had to walk about a mile to find a phonebox (pre mob days!!) to phone the future Mrs EoA at 2am for a lift home!!

 

Coming back from some northern hell hole, Sheff Weds or Leeds maybe travelling to Newton Le Willows. Woke up at Liverpool Lime St (about 15 miles away from NLW) where the train was terminating before returning to Manchester on the same route I'd just come in on, phew!! Luckily I missed the original train I was going to catch to NLW(took longer to finish my beer than planned!) as that was that train was going to Glasgow!!

[trousers]

A colleague once fell asleep on a train to Clacton, Essex.

 

He woke up in Clacton and stayed on the train to head back into London (good logic based on what I'm about to reveal...)

 

He next woke up again in...Clacton... having gone down to London and back up again.

 

The mildly amusing punchline is that he lived in Kent and was on the completely wrong line!

 

Ah, the heady days of the late 80s...

[notnowcato]

Silleh saffas!!

 

An ex-Saffa girlfriend was living in Clapham, I was in Aldershot at the time. We'd been for a few drinks in Farnham, I put her on the train at about 10.30 so she could head home. When I went out the front door of my flat the following morning - there she was curled up asleep... From the time I'd put her on the train she'd fallen asleep and ended up in Waterloo, fell asleep on the one back to Clapham and ended up in Alton. No more trains till the following morning, she'd just enough to get a cab to my flat - apparently arriving at one in the morning by which time I'd consumed way too much and passed out in my bed and was not for being woken up.

 

A word to the wise... if your girlfriend does something similar to this, do not under any circumstance find it funny and definitely do not laugh.

[for_heaven's_Saint]

Double screw up. JustMike and I were in Milan earlier this year, and very excited about going to the San Siro. We turned up in plenty of time, queued for our ticket, until we discovered that you can't buy a ticket without a passport. No problem there, we'll get one from a tout. So we did, at a good price. Then waited for stadium gates to open, only to be told by the stewards that you can't get in without a passport... which were back at the hotel, a 45 min walk away. Kick Off was 2pm, it was 1pm now. So we ran to find the nearest taxi, drove there at a rate of knots. The guy on reception found it amusing we didnt know about our passports being required. He asked why we were in such a hurry "the game kicks off at 2", "no it doesnt" he replied "it kicks off at 3". Me, getting ever more stressed we would miss the game "No, I checked the BBC website, it said 2pm!, we have 30 mins to until kick off!!!". "No, sir, 2pm UK time, 3pm Italian time".

 

Oops, a rather less stressful ride back in which me and mike tried to find out from the taxi driver who the biggest team in Milan was, don't think he really understood the question.

 

I'm glad i read this before I go next week! Out of interest, what are ticket prices like?

[Baj]

I'm glad i read this before I go next week! Out of interest' date=' what are ticket prices like?[/quote']

Really good, I think they range from about €25 to €75. Yes, make sure you take your passport!!!

[buctootim]

Not quite a cosmopoliton as the above offerings, but myself, Mrs Geezer & the little geezerlets were holidaying on the IOW. We had some spare time so thought we would go to Fishborne to find the Roman Villa. We couldn't find it on the map & when we got to Fishborne there were no brown tourist signs to help us. So I decided to ask someone for directions, only to be told I'd need to get the ferry & go to FISHBOURNE, Sussex.

 

Lol. Thats a double facepalm because there is a really good Roman Villa site on the IOW at Brading.

http://www.bradingromanvilla.org.uk/

[stkev7]

I once fell asleep on a north bound Victoria Line train after a Streets gig at Brixton Academy, absolutely w**kered I was woken up in Walthamstow by some future looter who wanted to show me where the bus stop was. In my drunken state I managed to lose the bloke and got on the next tube which terminated at Seven Sisters at which time was closing. Managed to stagger onto a bus and randomly ended up in Kings Cross. No trains so me and a mate who had been waiting for me had to kip in a awful hotel that looked like a drug den. Not my finest hour!