"I Felt Like I Was On An Episode Of 'The Twilight Zone.'" Solo Travelers Are Unpacking Creepy Encounters They've Had Abroad
Traveling solo is not for the weak, and I can only imagine that it brings a whole new set of challenges, worries, and very strange encounters.
So, when Reddit user u/g_1234 asked the question, "Solo travelers, what is your creepiest travel story?" In r/AskReddit, I knew the stories and experiences were going to be a total rollercoaster:
1."In Argentine Patagonia, I almost got hunted by a puma. It was dusk, and I was overlooking the lake when I heard rustling behind me in the tree line. I kept staring for a while before I saw it, and thank god I didn't make a run for it, as it would've been my initial reaction."
"Instead I started yelling and cursing and throwing rocks at it as I had been told to do by the locals, and it left me alone. That night I kept a fire lit until late in the evening and then went to sleep with a flashlight on and my knife at hand."
2."I almost got mugged in Paris on the steps of the Sacré-Coeur. I was surrounded by five assailants and had no choice but to shout at the top of my lungs. As soon as I did, they scattered."
3."I spent a week in Dusseldorf travelling around and never encountered anything creepy. I got to the airport for my flight home and started getting followed by a border control man; he ends up swapping with another person for the security part, and I had to go through his line. The whole time he's asking me personal things, 'Do you like Turkish men?' 'Would you like to go to dinner with a Turkish man?' 'Where are you from?' 'How many Turkish men are near you? I know loads in Scotland.'"
"I ended up having to get patted down, and he made sure to watch (by this point it was beyond uncomfortable). Once I was finished, he continued to follow me through duty-free. I started walking faster to get away from him. 'Have lunch with me,' he starts shouting down the airport. I jumped straight on my phone and called my dad and hid behind a shelf in duty-free till I saw him walk past trying to find me. Stayed hidden in the toilet until my flight was boarding."
4."I was walking through a shady part of the old city in Cartagena, Colombia (Caribbean coast), and I was drunk around three in the morning. Needless to say, I should not have been there being all white and touristy and shit. A clear target. This massive man puts his hood on as I'm walking past him, and he starts following me for a block or two."
"I'm nervous, and my pulse is getting quicker with every step when out of nowhere this taxi toots its horn at me and signals to get in. Thank God. He points at the guy behind me and says, 'Bad man.' This awesome taxi driver ends up driving me to the main entrance in a populated area and lets me out free of charge. Love that man."
5."I was hiking alone in the mountains. To get there, you obviously had to come through the woods way down below. As I made my way back down to the tree line, I headed into a clearing and decided to take a moment to rest. I took off my hat, took in a breath, and shook off dust and pebbles. Suddenly I just became very aware that I wasn’t alone."
"I turned towards the trees and saw a man all clad in black just staring at me. He was completely motionless. Didn’t look like an inch of hiking or climbing gear was on or around him. I thought it was odd, so I wanted to snag a photo. Reached out for my camera, and when I stood back up, the dude was just gone. I was extremely spooked. Now, of course, I’m in the wild. Surely I’m not the only one out there. But this was in a relatively remote spot, and I hadn’t come across anyone until then. I had to make my way into the area where I saw this person. I was on high alert for some intuitive reason. But when I passed by where he or she stood, there was no one to be found. I looked around, called out even. Nothing. The whole eight hours back down, I still came upon no one. Not one single soul. I think of that day often."
6."I had a layover in Moscow, flying from Seoul to Barcelona a few years ago. We land as usual, and as we are leaving, the cabin crew and pilot are thanking us. When I got to the door, the captain looks at me, grins, and says, 'Thanks for flying with us, Captain (my last name).'"
"I was a military Intel guy at the time, and it seemed apparent they wanted me to know I was being watched and tracked. My phone immediately started blowing up with Russian phone numbers calling it once I cleared security and hid out at a different terminal than my follow-on flight. Never been to Russia before, no friends or family. Super weird."
7."I was traveling in Asia at the time. I got a tuk-tuk to go to the center of a village with a young driver. We started driving, and he turned around while telling me he wouldn't take me to the center of the village because he knew a better spot in the jungle — a place he and his friends loved... I told him no; I want to go to the center of the village, and that's it."
"He got angry and sped up while I was considering my chances of just jumping out. But then he also grabbed my arm in a tight grip, so I knew for sure no good would come from the situation. Luckily for me, I had an umbrella with me, and with my free hand, I started slamming him with it as hard as I could till he stopped the vehicle, and he offered to 'take me to the center of the village.' No. I ended up walking three hours to the village. I had planned one more day there and was constantly confronted by people saying that I was the girl who attacked the tuk-tuk driver offering me rides. Pretty sure they were his friends... I strictly stayed in busy areas till I was able to take a train out. F that situation."
8."I was in Lourdes, France (a popular tourist destination) when I was 16, and a woman threw her baby at me. Not handed; literally tossed. I handed the baby back and just stood there in shock."
"She just walked away with no expression on her face. I told my tour guide, who explained that it was a common scam: you catch the baby while accomplices go through your pockets. Luckily, I didn't lose anything, but it was pretty surreal."
9."I spent a night at a hotel in Naples, Italy. It was the end of a long trip abroad, and I was tight on cash, so I booked a super cheap room at a surprisingly nice looking hotel near the airport. My taxi driver laughed when I told him the name of the hotel and proceeded to tell me it was a refurbished hotel for 'ladies of the night' — basically a hotel for prostitutes."
"I didn’t see any other guests, and every single staff member knew my room number off the top of their heads. It was a terrified, sleepless night, filled with weird sounds. In the morning they had set up enough breakfast for 30 people, but there was not a soul in sight. I’ve never been one to spook easily, but something just felt WRONG about that place. I felt like I was on an episode of The Twilight Zone."
10."When I was in a coastal town in Colombia last year, I was cornered by a pack of domesticated dogs. I was walking back to my hostel on the main strip of shops after dark and noticed a pack of dogs waiting outside a store. The store happened to be the last business on the main strip and also the last source of light between it and my hostel up the road. As I passed the store, a man inside noticed me and signaled to his dogs to follow me."
"At first it was cute, but it turned scary when I tried to turn down my street and was snarled and barked at. The dogs cornered me between the road and a house, barking and jumping on me. Flustered, I eventually pushed through the pack to get up the road but continued being swarmed. I kept swatting and yelling at the dogs until I was just a couple of houses down from my hostel, and the man whistled to recall his dogs. The family that ran the hostel came outside when they heard all the noise and asked me if I was alright. Turns out this wasn’t a one-off thing; a local misogynist has literally trained his dogs to scare and trap women. I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn’t shuffled up the street when I did or if the family hadn’t appeared in the street before the man caught up with me."
11."I went on a road trip around the UK and stayed in a motel sort of thing in Wales. When we woke up in the morning, the car had been broken into; the tires, wheels, exhaust, seats, radio, and pretty much anything else they could tear off were gone."
"No one heard anything, police didn't find anything, and CCTV didn't show anyone coming or going. Fortunately, insurance covered the cost but put an abrupt stop to the trip, not to mention creeping us the fuck out."
And finally, here's a less creepy travel story with an ending you won't believe:
12."I was staying in a B&B in Donegal, Ireland, where every room on the floor shared a bathroom. I went in one morning to pee, and there was a man with his pants around his ankles asleep in the bathtub. The soap dish and towel rack were all torn off the wall, and it appeared he had fallen over while relieving himself and fallen in the tub."
"While struggling to get out with his pants down, he had torn things from the wall. He then proceeded to pass out. I woke the man and helped him from the tub, after which he proceeded to hug me and declare me his hero. And this is how I ended up embraced by a drunken Irishman with his pants around his ankles."
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Are you a solo traveler and have your own creepy, bizarre, or just downright weird events you've encountered on your travels? Let me know in the comments.
