Wait, am I going to die on this flight?!

Travel fear doesn’t start with a headline. It starts with a small decision: taking the wrong ride, walking back alone, trusting the wrong “helpful” stranger, or assuming a hotel parking lot is safe because it has a fountain out front. We’re doing a full Reddit Traveler’s Edition and reading the kinds of true travel stories that make your stomach drop, then asking the only useful question: what would you do differently next time?

We get into terrifying moments across Peru, Texas, Oklahoma, and the air. Think motorbike taxis deep in the Amazon, strangers demanding you follow them near the border, being watched outside a hotel, and that uniquely helpless feeling of flight anxiety when something goes wrong midair. We also talk about crowd panic, turbulence, medical emergencies, and how quickly fear spreads when nobody knows what’s happening.

Then we pivot from doom to tools. We break down a long list of practical travel safety tips and travel hacks you can actually use: sharing your itinerary, downloading offline maps, smarter packing, carry-on essentials, avoiding common scams, handling money and banks, choosing hotels with better risk tradeoffs, and staying aware of pickpockets in busy tourist zones. The goal isn’t to scare you out of traveling, it’s to help you keep your gloves up and still enjoy the trip.

If you’ve got a travel story that still haunts you or a tip you swear by, hit play and then drop it in the comments. Subscribe, share this with a travel buddy, and leave a review so more anxious travelers can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And Travel Anxiety

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Welcome everyone to another exciting episode of Peak Points. We have a very special episode today. A all Reddit Traveler's Edition. I'm gonna be traveling soon, and this is gonna be adding to my anxiety, especially when it comes to airports. Oh man, those really get me going. And with that, let's get on with the episode.

Amazon Roadblock With A Rifle

SPEAKER_02 0:55

So I'm gonna go ahead and start this off with An Ask Reddit by Sapphire James. Sirius. Frequent travelers of Reddit. What's something you saw when traveling that was so scary you never went back somewhere?

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Oh an excellent start to get your anxiety up.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Oh man, this is gonna this is gonna take it to like a peak level. See what I did there? Yeah. I know. Impressive.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

You better remember to keep your gloves up.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Yes, that too. And this is by Deleted. I went on an ayahuasca retreat in Peru. The retreat itself was amazing, and I'd recommend it to every living person. That's strong. Very strong words, huh? It was held pretty deep in the Amazon, and in order to get there you have to either pay for a group bus or take a small motorbike taxi. No one's really willing to drive that far otherwise. After the retreat was over, I had a couple days to stay and relax before I came back to the States. The girl that I bunked with had some time as well, and we decided to go to Terrapoto, the nearest town, and just adventure around for a while. We shopped and ate and took a tour through the chocolate factory. She was staying in a hotel in the town to catch an early morning flight the next day, so I took a motorbike taxi back to the jungle alone. That sounds scary already.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

That sounds very brave, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Yeah, he's brave. Above halfway down the road, the driver stopped, and a man holding an AR came up to the cab and started asking me questions about where I was going, what I was doing, etc. I was completely alone with the driver who stopped for this guy, and the guy had a really big gun in the middle of the Amazon. I was beyond terrified. The whole ordeal lasted less than five minutes, and ended up paying the gun guy a toll of ten souls. Uh which is I think their currency. Uh it says I think that's less than eight dollars. Not completely sure what the conversion is. The driver insisted I had to do this, so I did, and we thankfully drove away. A few miles later, the driver stopped again, and I almost had a heart attack. He insisted he had something to show me, and that I should get out of the cab, so I did. Oh man, this is sound like a horror movie. Yeah. It might have been stupid. I still don't know what the right thing to do was. He took me to the edge of the road where there was like a cliff, and below was a spot where a small river smashes violently and spectacularly into the face of the Amazon River.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

It was among the most beautiful and fantastic things I saw in Peru. We stood in silence and watched the rivers merging for a while, but he safely delivered me back to the retreat. It was a scary ride, but man, what a freaking story. Comment right after by Berlin EX uh by Berlin exit. Nice taxi driver brings tourists to the edge of a cliff for a photo. Doesn't murder said tourist. Yeah. Stand-up guy. Oh man. Uh for the record, uh so this is another comment by Lewis 2094. For the record, ten souls is about two dollars right now. So your ransom was literally pennies.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Yeah, it's not too bad. It's not too many. Hard to be truly upset about that much. Yeah. Still scary as heck, but at least they didn't jip you for too much.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Yeah. I mean, uh he paid it off and he's fine, so. That's a brave guy or person, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Yeah, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

But yeah, I mean they went on a nice trip and then they went on another crazy trip.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

So Alright, next

Desert Campfire Confrontation Near Border

SPEAKER_00 5:18

one. Under the same ask credit by the Lightning Count One. Throughout high school, me and some friends had these trips to the South Texas desert near the border. We would camp out in the wilderness and shoot guns or build a bonfire. We graduated in 04. Our last trip was in 05, and we had a really scary experience. We had a campfire going at night. For those that don't know deserts, they actually get really cold at night due to the lack of humidity. So we had a campfire going and three guys came out of the darkness into the light of the campfire. No hello, no what's up? In very basic English the first guy says you come with us. This was not a request. We politely declined, and the other guy said something in Spanish and was extremely angry. The first guy said to come with them again. We refused, and he stepped forward. My friend panicked and pulled his shotgun out, screamed We aren't going anywhere. The English speaking guy simply said OK, okay, stay, as he backed up. They left and we quickly put out the fire. I made sure everyone put their wallets and phones, old razor flip phones, and we got the hell out of their way and sprinted towards the car. As we were driving away we saw three sets of headlights driving over the flats. We killed the car's lights and drove in darkness on the road until we lost sight of them. We drove to a sheriff's office to report what had happened. We were told that if our story was true, it's a really good idea that we had not gone with them.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

For once, the protagonist did something smart at the end of the story, you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Well, to be fair, we wouldn't be hearing a story of the uh top comment by Sudden Impulse uh corroborated with that said, I used to live near the Texas border. You guys are extremely lucky something worse didn't happen to you and sooner than that event. Lots of folks that would shoot you or kidnap you without hesitation, guns or not.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Yeah, it it's it's scary.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

It's it's like there's a lot of scary things happening areas like that where there's just you're you're effectively alone, and if they feel they have advantage over you sometimes they're willing to do it to fully take advantage of you in whatever way they feel they want to. Be aware, folks. Always keep them gloves up.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Yes, this is this is perfect raising my anxiety level. This is great. And uh my next one, in the same thread, by Clinched Archetype.

Being Followed Outside A Dallas Hotel

SPEAKER_02 8:13

I once attended a work training event at a nice hotel in Dallas. For some backstory, I was a 19, 20 year old girl. During some downtime in the evening, I decided to walk across the street to a drugstore and purchase some snacks and water. The hotel sold a single water bottle for seven dollars. Good lord. I wasn't having that. As I got to the drugstore, there was four or five men in the car and they were yelling strange things at me. It scared me and it made me feel a bit uneasy, but I went inside and stayed inside the drugstore for a bit longer to wait them out. I decided to go back to the hotel after a while, so I walked outside and they were still there waiting for me. At this point I was very scared, and these guys were all yelling things at me. I ran across the st the street, even though the crosswalk wasn't telling me I could go, I ended up making it. I went to my room, paranoid that they would be able to see the floor of the elevator that I went to. After a while, inside my room I stupidly figured that they were gone. As I didn't see them follow me into the hotel. I assumed I was being paranoid about the whole thing, so I went downstairs to smoke a cigarette by the fountain at the hotel. At this point, the smoking age was still eighteen, and both the state and Texas. After I got down there and smoked for a bit, I truly realized my mistake. The men were still there in the same car. They were yelling at me. One of them was speaking with a valet slash employee and looking at me. I immediately called my mom and she was yelling at me and scared for me. Then I got off the phone with her to call one of women one of the women who were training with me. Toward the end of the phone call with the woman I was training with, a man approached me from the group saying how beautiful I was, and then walked away and watched me with the group of men. The hotel employee was nearby and I kept making looks at him, showing that I was scared and uncomfortable but had no response. I thought to myself, maybe these men were also staying in the hotel. So that could have been why they were there. But soon after the call, the woman came and found me and stayed with me. She was older than me and seemed very much like she could be a mother. So she stared stared them down with the most mama bear look I've ever seen and ended up leaving soon and they ended up leaving soon after. At that point I realized that they had never been staying at the hotel, and those men were definitely one hundred percent going to do something with me if she wasn't there. The next day I spoke to some other woman in my training class, and one of them was literally drugged by a man from that hotel.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Oh god.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

She had completely black out and woke up with her face down on a table outside with no memory of it. Yikes. It turned out the area of Dallas was known for sex work, but I'm not sure if that contributed to what happened to either of us.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Sheesh It's horrifying some some places.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

Yeah, this is peak anxiety levels right here, man. This is this is great. Great for me. Really great for me.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Yeah. You're not going to Texas, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Not yet.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

But you still might get sex trafficked wherever you're going.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

Yeah, and I already told you how I feel about that traffic situation. Yeah. Yeah. Too many cars on the damn road.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Alright, and just to uh round this this one out, also

Sketchy Motel Check In In Nowhere

SPEAKER_00 12:23

in Texas. Not to rag on Texas or anything, this one just happened to be a fun one. By I am Dean. Me and my husband live in Texas. He likes casinos, so once a year we drive up to Oklahoma. Hey, so it's not just in Texas to go to a casino. I'm perfectly content watching our daughters in a hotel while he goes and mildly gambles for a few hours. Then he watches them while I go out and get a massage the next day. About three months ago, we pack up for our annual trip and head to Oklahoma. We made reservations online through a booking website. But when we got to the hotel they denied our reservation, saying it never existed. We drive to numerous hotels in the area. All are booked. Apparently there was the Redneck Truck Festival in parentheses WTF that same weekend. It's eleven PM at this point. The kids are sleeping in the back and we are desperately trying to find a hotel. We end up in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma, and stumble upon a motel. It's sketchy, but the girls need to get out of the car and sleep in a proper bed. We decide to try and get a room, then leave first thing in the morning and head home five hours away. My husband goes into the lobby and successfully gets a room. I have no idea which town we are in. I feel like I'm in a horror movie. The atmosphere is just creepy. No other buildings around except this hotel. Sorry, this motel. No cars in the parking lot except ours and a few others. We start unloading the car and get the girls inside and tucked in. I told my husband I left my purse in the car and went out to get it. I see the person that checked us in smoking a cigarette by the car. I say hello and he approaches me and says, You know it's dangerous out here for a young lady like yourself. The man looks like he's in his thirties and looks dirty. I give a nervous laugh and say, Yeah, but my husband is inside, so I'm okay. He proceeds to walk closer to me and said my kids are cute. Now I'm worried because he never saw my kids. They were sleeping in the car, so at this point I can only assume he saw us bring them into the room, which is odd because our room was nowhere close to the lobby. I understand he was smoking, but he could have just walked out of the lobby and smoked by the door. It's around eleven PM, so I doubt any guests are arriving, so your smoke isn't going to bother anyone. Instead, he had walked around the back where we were just to smoke. He then asked me to walk with him to the lobby so he could give me another keycard for the room. Apparently, he only gave my husband one instead of two. I said no, we were fine with one and ran inside. I told my husband what happened, and we locked the door with the extra lock. You know the one that has the chain. So that way if someone who had a key card tried to get in, they couldn't because of the chain lock. We woke up at six AM and left. To this day I still have no idea what town that was, but we aren't going to o back to Oklahoma for a while.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Wow. Yes. Um talk about Creeper.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Very and like having him obviously be peeking around the corner or whatever, and just watching you unload the car.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

And kids, and then the whole approach.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Yeah. That's uh the, you know if I was the husband in that situation, I would have been really upset. And it's very unfortunate because you're in a small town and you're not from there. That's uh that makes it like a little bit even scarier, you know.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

That has the potential, yeah. You don't know what kind of weird horror story you're walk you've walked yourself into.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

Yeah, and uh speaking of horror story, Harley, this is gonna be even better for my anxiety since I'm flying.

Flight Horror Stories Start Midair

SPEAKER_02 16:55

It's under Ask Reddit by Pretty Caitlin. What's the most horrifying thing you've experienced on a flight?

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Very topical.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Oh man, I love it. My first story is by Kohiba Vancouver. On a Halloween night in nineteen ninety-four, I was on United Flight from Vancouver to Chicago. Back then they had channel nine on the in-flight entertainment system and they let you listen to air traffic control. That night as we approached Chicago, I was listening to Channel 9 when suddenly ATC told all the other planes to quiet down. Then they started calling over and over for another flight American forty one eighty four and asking the other planes if anyone else could see an ATR. This went on for a few minutes and then click, channel nine was switched off. I felt a chill go down my spine. When I got to my hotel I switched to uh CNN. Flight forty one eighty four had gone down in a field in Indiana. Everyone was dead. Happy Halloween.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Oh God, those poor people. I can't imagine how good it would be for your anxiety levels to be listening in on flight traffic on a flight. On a flight. I mean there's there's many times when there wouldn't even be the slightest bit of an issue, but those few times when there is, you're gonna hear about it if you're listening to something like that. Like holy moly.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Yeah, this is like the perfect story for my flight. Uh this is like perfect, this is the perfect one to look back on and think about the entire time I'm in the air. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Alrighty, now mine from the same ask credit is from TX Richard Cranium. On a flight from Denver to Houston, hey, Texas again, a woman hit the call button, uh talked to a stewardess, and then was escorted to the back of the plane. As she walked by, I saw that her skin was grey in color, and she looked really scared. A request for a medical professional came over the PA and the woman in front of me got up to assist. She came back after ten minutes, and I overheard her tell her husband that the woman did not make it. I then saw a stewardess get a guy that looked like a biker out of his seat and take him to the back of the plane. The biker looking guy was only there for a minute and then went to the airplane's galley for a while. I'm thinking he must have been an air marshal. My other experience was flying from San Francisco to Denver. The plane was loaded and it was time to take off, but we sat at the gate. The pilot announced we would be leaving soon and that we were late taking off because they had to balance out the luggage. Finally, after about thirty minutes after we were supposed to take off, the plane backed out and went to the runway. Once again, we just sat on the tarmac, this time for another thirty minutes. The pilot got on the PA again and said we had to return to the gate because the plane was low on fuel from all the idling. Back at the gate, three armed law enforcement officers entered the plane and escorted a man off. After that, the pilot announced that we were finally ready to take off and that the previous wait was actually due to a security issue.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

Yeah. Not the worst of stories for sure. But still it's it's pretty infuriating to have your flight plans delayed by that much because law enforcement is taking their sweet time and getting there and taking the person off, you know.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

Yes, very unfortunate scenario. Talk about inconvenient, but uh really out of your control, huh? Yeah. Uh tell you what, that is kind of a horror story. And my next one by Chili Head. On an airplane, but not technically a flight, sitting at the end of a runway, pilot doing his pre-flight checks or something, there was a fireball in one of the engines. Passengers panicked, flight attendants popped the emergency doors and the emergency slides deployed. It was mayhem. People knocking each other down, crawling over the seats, lots of screaming. Several people were injured. Of those I saw, one man fell off the wing. Found out later he broke his arm and collarbone. Another fell off the middle of the slide. She went away holding her wrist, not sure what happened after.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Good lord.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Guy in front of me on the slide tumbled face first at the bottom of the slide, got up with a bloodied face. Emergency slides are not fun. It's not like the movies.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Good Lord, no, I wouldn't imagine so. Especially with panicked people doing really, really stupid stuff.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

The ironic thing was there was no danger to the aircraft or passengers. So people were getting bodied for no reason, but panic, man. When people panic, it's scary.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

It is.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

But that's crazy. That that really is crazy. You really have to be careful in those scenarios. And like you said, take the time and and evaluate the scenario. And uh that's how people get trampled and stuff, which is really scary. It is.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Anytime people are freaking out, you need to uh take a moment to assess for yourself the dangers that are around, and not just the dangers that have them panicked, assess the dangers of the people around you. Anyway, moving on, I have a couple really short ones, I'm just gonna throw 'em together, and it's from RKLCT. Someone brought their cat on board in a carrier and put it under their seat. As if listening to a screaming cat for six hours wasn't enough. It crapped in its carrier so the entire plane smelled like fresh cat crap. The woman took it to the bathroom to clean it and got cat crap all over the bathroom. Fun times.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

If you have to take your animal, drug the animal.

SPEAKER_02 24:15

Good lord, people Yes, that's that's not good.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

And that not that that's not horrific or n horrific enough, but uh specifically for you, this one from Cable Monkey 604. Being asked by the guy on the other side of the plane if there was oil spraying out of that engine on my side too.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

Let me take a look here.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

How would your anxiety levels be hearing that question asked? Even if you're not the one it's being asked to.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

Yeah, that's crazy, dude. I don't even know. I I'm really just gonna sit on the plane and think about this, and and I'm gonna hear the story just Sir, sir, and I'm just staring off, scared. Yeah, that is horrible. I I wouldn't know how to react, and uh I don't know, man. I've heard some scary stories though, like about turbulence and stuff too, like lightning strikes and turbulence. That's that's scary.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

Speaking of turbulence, by deleted, flying into Denver, our plane dropped about a thousand feet in severe turbulence, and this MFR was just trying to get something out of his bag after the announcement from the pilot about upcoming turbulence and the flight attendants yelling at him. He flew into the ceiling and slammed into the ground like something out of a movie.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

No way.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

And then got absolutely chewed out by the flight attendants. It was scary. Of course. I guess due to the Rockies and the Denver Plains, it causes some really bad turbulence.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Yes, I've experienced this. The flight into Denver is is always, always scary, always turbulent. And I just assumed it it is because of the mountains or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

Yeah, there's there's a lot of airflow moving around in that area.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Yeah, so I'm excited for that.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

I'm like, we Oh, you gonna you're gonna get to experience Denver's airport?

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Uh I'm gonna fly Colorado, so it's gonna be turbulent no matter what. And it's always exciting.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

If you do get to hit the Denver one, be sure to look out for all those lovely uh conspiracy posters they like to have all around.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

Yeah, I love those too. It's some real fun ones. Definitely helps with my anxiety.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Learning about the lizard people and all that. That's like woo. Oh, and the the demonic stallion statue that killed killed its own.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Yeah. That too. Thank you. Thank you for reminding me.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Flying's not scary at all.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Sure. It's just the falling. That's the scary part.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Yeah, it's it's when you stop flying and you just start falling that it's kind

Turbulence Chaos And Crowd Panic

SPEAKER_00 27:12

of scary. Alright. Up next, also from Askred, simply because it gives so many wonderful stories.

Murder Next Door And Water Rescue

SPEAKER_00 27:26

By Eugen. What was the scariest moment you've had on vacation? By psych underscore riot woman next door to me in a hotel was murdered. I heard her screaming get out of here a lot. No way. Called the cops first, and then the front help desk to tell them the situation. Cops show up and start questioning me, asking if I knew her, if I was in the room, or if I saw anyone else. I didn't know her, never left my room except answer the door for the police, and never saw anyone else. Turns out she was running from her ex boyfriend as he was a known abuser, and he finally tracked her down. I didn't learn any of this until I saw a news article about the hotel about a m a week later. Effing crazy.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

That's scary. Um Wow, I wouldn't even know how to react, but obviously, you know, they they caught the cops and they tried to, you know, get something done, but yeah. Wow, that's scary.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Something to think about when you're on your travels.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

Oh great, thank you. I feel so loved.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

You did say you wanted to have the anxiety.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

Oh man, it's just piling up. It's just piling up. I'm gonna go crazy. And mine is by Sweet Cosmic Pope. I shared this on here recently because it happened recently. Was snorkeling with my wife and son. My wife was actually free swimming, so she went ahead of us, while my son and I took our time gently paddling over to the main snorkeling area. So she was probably about fifty yards away. Everyone else in the area was probab probably about thirty yards away. So I'm swimming and suddenly I feel something start pushing me down into the water. I recover and realize my son, who was seventeen and bigger than I am, is holding on to me.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

He took water into his snorkel and started to panic.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

There's that panic again.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

There's that panic again. So he grabbed onto me when I'm trying to tread water and he hold up another full grown man, and I figure out how I'm supposed to get somewhere safe where I can stand or get to shore, and I can't manage two people. I start dipping in and out of the water because my arms and legs start to getting tired, and I'm treading for my son's life. In parentheses, if I'm not trying to hold him up, I can just dead man's float until I can catch my breath. Finally, I get the other snorkelers' attention and call for help, and a group of them come over. Someone with a paddleboard gets my son, and then I float and paddle as much as I can while a dude who's there pulled me towards a boat. By the time I got on the little boat, I just passed out from exhaustion. I legit thought my son and I were goners. The crazy thing is we're both great swimmers. If he wasn't panicking, he could have just swam to shore, which wasn't that far away. Or just blew the water from his snorkel and continued swimming. And since he was pulling me down, I'm now panicking and not thinking straight to tell him what to do. One of the scariest experiences of my life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Yeah. I mean that's not travel specific, really. The panicking well snorkeling, but uh yeah. That would be pretty horrifying.

SPEAKER_02 31:21

Yeah, and and this thing that I do agree with is uh a comment by Sir Jumbles. They say you have to be super careful while trying to save a drowning person. You lived it. And I've heard that before, is like when you're trying to save someone drowning, they're p they're pulling you into the water because of the panic.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

They're trying to climb you effectively.

SPEAKER_02 31:41

And you know, it's sometimes it could end up bad for for both both people in that scenario.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

Yeah, there's there's been a lot of documented cases where someone went to save someone who was drowning, and they both died because the person who was trying to be saved was panicking and climbed all over 'em, and then they both wore out, and that was all she wrote.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

Scary. Very scary.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

Definitely something to look into if you're gonna be spending a lot of time in the water is to look out for the there's there's multiple videos and guides on how to help someone who's drowning and not die yourself. Just just a safety tip, you know?

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:33

By

Drunk Rides And ATM Shake Downs

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Matt Thomas O eight oh eight. I got really drunk in New Orleans. Phone died and I couldn't get an Uber. Decided to walk back to my hotel. I could see it from where I was, so just started walking. Two women saw me walking and asked if I needed a ride. And I said sure. I told them where I was going and jumped in the back seat. Obviously, idiotic drunk move. They drove me and I could tell we weren't headed to my hotel. They were acting very strange, making phone calls, stopped at a gas station to get some gas. I was sobering up real quick as this was all going down. At the gas station they said the station wouldn't take cash and were just stalling. I managed to get twenty dollars out of my pocket, put it on the center console, and luckily got out of the car, ran inside the gas station, and waited there for fifteen minutes. After a while I took off running towards my hotel and made it there safely. I only ever told one person about this, and I wonder all the time what they had planned for me. And the follow-up comment by someone else, but very similar story, is uh by Weather Similar 3541. I once gave these two random guys a ride home from a bar. The one guy was charismatic and the older guy real quiet, but seemed safe. So next thing, we're in the poorer area of the city, and we drive by some glowing magical looking ATM, just hanging out there. No one on the streets, pitch black, nothing but this glowing ATM. And then they said, Hey Mike, you have any money in your account? And I realize I screwed up big time at this point. They're both in the back seat. I say maybe like forty dollars. Hey Mike, how about you get that for us? After I get the money we continue in the car and we end up at some houses. People in the streets this time. The one guy gets out and says to wait in the car. Goes in a house and comes out a bit later. Tells mu tells me he had to pay the babysitter. After that, I dropped them off at their house and they thanked me. They could have been totally harmless, but man, you never know. Figured forty dollars wasn't worth finding out. They were probably laughing so hard at the their hustle. I bet they laugh to this day about it. It taught me a lesson too. And now I really won't give just anyone a ride that I don't know well.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

Hitchhikers.

SPEAKER_00 35:12

Hitchhikers, but also in places you don't know, especially in places that you stand out in. People pe the wrong kinds of people will notice that and they're they'll all hone in on it like a shark and uh try to take advantage of you, so be very aware of of people approaching you while traveling. There's rarely good intent behind it.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

Yeah, and actually my next story also has a kind of a hitchhiker vibe to it. Oh in a different way. By Troker 61. Rented a rang a Wrangler through Turo. Think Airbnb buffer cars for a honeymoon in Hawaii. The dude picked us up in the Jeep at the airport when our flight landed at eleven PM and didn't have his own ride back, so asked us to drive him to his shop, quote unquote, where we could drop him off. I'm a pretty big dude and we're a pair of two trusting oakes. So we went along with it thinking he seemed fine. He was on Turo, and we're still in America, so no worries. Right? Pretty typical drive, dude was super nice mid forties Argentinian that visited when he was younger and never wanted to go home. All felt fine until he turned off the highway down a dark road and then pulled into even darker road and threw a gated chain lean fence onto a completely unlit industrial park and stopped the car. My wife was already panic texting me, Troker sixty one, what the heck is this? Get us out of here I looked at him and said, You good? And he could not have been nicer or more oblivious of our anxiety. Yes, thank you both so much and have a great trip. See you next week, he said. My wife probably wisely wouldn't even get out of the back seat. She's like five one, so let him ride shotgun until we were a mile away. I'm older and wise enough to avoid situations that are out of my control nowadays. But man, we are lucky that that hippie Argentinian just needed to ride home. He left a mixed CD in the Wrangler. We laughed it all week. I'll never forget track two. California Girls by Katy Perry. Hope he's doing well.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Man, I'm glad it turned out well and wasn't a true horror story, but man, I I could definitely see you being pretty darn scared in that moment.

SPEAKER_02 37:59

I wouldn't have been so scared if he was playing California Girls while going down that road.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Less likely to be, yes, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 38:10

Anyway, certified banger.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

Alright, let's uh wrap up the horror stories and uh maybe go about finding things that can uh reduce anxieties for travel.

Fifty Travel Tips From Reddit

SPEAKER_00 38:28

Let's go. So for this we're going to be mining out of the R Travel subreddit. This is by huge dismissal. Fifty best travel tips from my latest, Askred. So even though we're not in Askreddit we're kind of still in Ask Reddit, he just compiled things in a uh fairly succinct way. And here's the start. My recent post in Askred was about travel tips, and it absolutely blew up. Here's a summary of the most upvoted comments here for you all to enjoy in our travel. First, let your family back home know your travel itinerary.

SPEAKER_02 39:16

Yeah, I think it's uh a good thing to kind of let people know your itinerary, mainly for safety reasons. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

And even if something doesn't like specifically happen to you, it uh can really allay the anxieties of the people you end up leaving. I know like my mother and my wife and a few other friends and family really appreciate being able to have at least a vague idea of what my plans are if I'm not gonna be nearby. That way they don't have anxiety attacks about it. Number two, search for flights in the airline's original language for potential savings. I don't really know much about that one. Hmm. I haven't really traveled to countries I don't speak the language to, so uh understandable.

SPEAKER_02 40:13

It might work. It might work. I I will add too, like if you want cheaper prices for flights, search them up during the week in like uh incognito mode so it doesn't uh know where you're I guess you're getting it from. But might need to use a VPN. VPN stuff like that. But uh I definitely heard that one look during the week.

SPEAKER_00 40:34

Yeah. Number three, get local recommendations, but not from the concierge or front desk who receive kickbacks, but from the people like cleaners or bartenders who are unbiased.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

Genius, yeah. I've also heard that find your nearest like establishment that's really busy with a bunch of locals and go in there and ask because if it's super busy and full of locals, then it should be good, theoretically.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

True. Uh my own personal experience would be to if cleaners or bartenders, like say you're you've arrived and it's relatively early in the day, you aren't necessarily gonna have quick and easy access to cleaners or bartenders. But you can stop in a gas station and the attendant or or stas station or similar establishment, you know, that locals are going to be in and out of. They're not gonna really be getting kickbacks for a stupidly expensive subpar place. So you'll be they'll usually be able to give you a a real answer for a good place to go. Exactly. And number four, bring a spare pair of dry socks to wear once you've settled in on your flight. I'm not entirely sure how awesome or b bad this one is. I've flown before and I I don't really understand why you would not have dry socks getting onto the flight. Maybe you have dirty socks from going through TSA, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 42:21

I don't know. They're lucky socks.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

Number five. Stupid and cheerful attitude transcends culture and may get you out of most problems with foreign police. Oh wow, airline employees, etc. Do not be aggressive or angry. I I don't know about the stupid and cheerful part, or at least not the stupid part, but definitely don't be aggressive or angry, or or be a know it all.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

Yeah, just be chill as a cucumber.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

Chill as a cucumber, compliant, and don't make a fuss. The more fuss you make, unless you're in a dangerous situation, and a fuss might actually get you out of it. But if you're dealing with police, being a fuss creating a fuss or being belligerent is not going to get you where you want to go, unless where you want to go is jail. Number six roll everything, fold nothing.

SPEAKER_02 43:27

Yes. That's what I do with some of them. In a suitcase, yes. I roll.

SPEAKER_00 43:32

Unless there's like some sort of uh wrinkle worry or something, definitely rolling is the uh more space efficient way to go. Number seven, the best room in a cheaper hotel is often better than a standard room in an expensive one. I think this one comes with a caveat or should come with a caveat. A cheaper hotel does not mean. The cheapest hotel. The best room in a motel six is not going to be worth going to. That's a great the best room in a Hyatt, for example, or a best western, like we have around here. Those are going to be pretty reasonable and significantly cheaper than a you know a standard one in a a Hilton or a similar, more expensive hotel.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

I do recommend doing your research for that. And also looking at reviews. Looking at reviews, and also big thing is sometimes you do get what you pay for. Absolutely. Sometimes. Sometimes maybe it's better to look and see if there's like a little high price thing for more comfortability. And that's just that's just perspective though.

SPEAKER_00 44:53

Yeah. Another thing to consider in that same vein is in many cases you get what you pay for. So if you're being a cheapskate and you're paying the bare minimum to do something that traditionally costs way more, or like to stay there costs way more, or what have you, oftentimes you'll either get terrible service, or it'll be super unclean, or what have you. There's there's many drawbacks to being as cheap as possible when traveling, especially. Number eight, who you go with is way more important than where you go. Yeah. To an extent, this this can be very true. Obviously there's weird situations you can get yourself into or convoluted situations you can imagine, but on average, having a pleasant travel com uh partner is going to be far better than going to Maui with a spoil sport.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

That's a hard part.

SPEAKER_00 46:10

Number nine, put duct tape or gaff tape on photo equipment and expensive gear so it appears broken and cheap. Nobody will steal it. I'm not sure nobody will steal it but yeah, putting tape or other uh dis disguising effects on more expensive items can definitely help make it uh less enticing for sticky fingers. Uh similarly, uh I don't know if it's farther in here, but I've heard that uh a number of people will choose to put their more expensive or odd things in their carry-on and not in their checked luggage for similar reasons. Because sticky fingers happen for sure in some airports. Number ten, wake up super early at your destination when the city is empty to get the best photos with great lighting, but none of the crowds. Uh with a caveat. You're not gonna be the only person doing that, for certain. But yeah, there's gonna be a lot less people at eight o'clock or six o'clock, depending on what time of year the sun will be up in that area of the country versus at two o'clock.

SPEAKER_02 47:44

Right. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 47:49

Number eleven, download the entire city map on Google Maps for offline use or similar navigation, whichever you use for navigation. iPhone users use different, some people just hate Google Maps for whatever

Packing Smarter And Booking Better

SPEAKER_00 48:06

reason, so obviously this uh can be applied to whatever navigational app you want to use. Number twelve. When flights get cancelled, call the airline instead of standing in line to speak with an agent. I don't know about the efficacy of this. I suppose it depends on your charisma level, if you will. If you're really good at talking with people and being pleasant, sometimes talking to someone in person you can get a lot farther than over the phone.

SPEAKER_02 48:41

Sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 48:43

Not always, but be aware of your skill level in this, I guess. Number thirteen. When it's too late to cancel your hotel reservation and get a refund, try to call and push back your reservation to next week. Then call back a few hours later and cancel your new reservation. To put a caveat on that, a personal caveat on that, I would say wait a day or two rather than hours because then you'll be getting the same clerk most likely. And what you're doing will be pretty transparent. Number fourteen, check out the Citymapper.com app, which shows you multiple ways to get to your destination, including mass transit and rental options like bikes and scooters. I'm sure there's other apps too, or or websites, but that would be definitely a good one to start from. Number fifteen, find the subreddit of the city you're traveling to and search threads like best food in the city for hidden gems. sixteen, bring along a cheap three port six foot extension cord when you travel, so you can turn any one outlet into three and charge all your devices while in a convenient position. If you have room and weight allowance in your luggage, definitely not a bad option. There's plenty of times where you might get stranded in an airport or what have you, and that will allow you to keep your own devices charged, maybe your traveling companion's devices charged, or if you're feeling nice and a good Samaritan, then you could help someone else who's struggling too. Definitely not a bad option. Number seventeen, if you like to sleep on the airplane, figure out what side of the plane the sun will be hitting ahead of time and book a seat on the other side. That one's pretty reasonable. If you can plan around, you know, what time of day you'll be flying and uh all that jazz, and if you really want to sleep. If you don't want to sleep, then obviously you probably want to do the opposite so you have better vision.

SPEAKER_02 51:00

I'm scared of sleeping on a plane. Personally. But I've seen a lot of people do it.

SPEAKER_00 51:06

Yeah. For me, the seats just aren't comfortable enough to sleep. I've kind of half drowsed before, but I've never been in a comfortable enough seat to actually truly fall asleep. Of course I've never been on a very long flight. Only several hours, so could depend. Number eighteen, pack light since you likely need fewer things than you realize. Buy things like shower gel and other cheap things at your destination. I've heard of very similar uh recommendations before. Uh in conjunction with the shower gel, I've also heard people say just get one good bar of soap and put that in your luggage because it can't spill. It's not going to you're not gonna exceed a liquid volume measurement, and then you then you know what you're using ahead of time. Yeah. Because you can to buy cheap stuff when you go places, sometimes you accidentally stumble upon an allergen or something like that, and that'll ruin your trip. So having a single bar of soap that you can make do with is often a better option. But th especially things for like toothbrushes and stuff like that, definitely it's you're you're wasting weight and space to bring stuff like that unless you absolutely can't be bothered to get it where you're going. Or you have the extra space for it. Whatever. Number nineteen, allow for things to go wrong and always try to arrive early and depart early to not miss connecting flights, important events, or expensive bookings. I mean that one's pretty common sense. Nothing too special there, but something to keep in mind. twenty. Book directly with the hotel since they'll almost always beat the online rates by a few bucks. Personal anecdote not necessarily true. Maybe for some out of the way places, but a lot of the times where I've gone, I've tried even calling to have direct conversation with a uh a front desk attendant or what have you, and their prices will be the same and sometimes more than the booking agency, because the booking agency will get a discount for having, you know, fifty reservations versus you know your one. So not necessarily the best of options, but you can certainly try it. 21. Bring out old underwear, socks, and clothes the kids are about to outgrow, etc. Then throw them out before leaving to make room for souvenirs. Ah I don't know how I feel about that one because Interesting one. I mean sure maybe for undergarments and socks, but generally speaking, when I'm on vacation, I want to be as comfortable but also as presentable as possible. I don't want to be going around in holy t-shirts and stuff like that, you know? Or, you know, socks that are falling apart or have holes in them. Twenty-two. Cut actually, to go circle back to that. An option I've heard before is to always pack an empty duffel bag. And then uh just plan to have that as checked luggage on your way home. I've heard that one too. Twenty-two. Cut a kitchen sponge into pieces and soak with dish soap and then toss in a ziplock bag. You can use them to wash water bottles and tumblers in the hotel sink. That's not so bad. You might get the stank eye from TSA. But potentially possible, yeah. I think I would probably do just the sponge pieces if I really felt like doing something like that. But realistically, a watered up paper towel in your water bottle with a little bit of soap and you just close it and shake it around and that's gonna be just as good as a piece of sponge. Anyway, moving on. twenty three, if not from a desert climate, the low humidity is no joke. Carry a full bottle of water in lip balm. Avoid summer hiking in the desert due to the heat. Check the weather, and if there are showers anywhere near where you are, avoid canyons or dry stream beds. This is very true, and to add to that I would say also for high elevations, especially high elevations with low humidity. It gets it becomes

Health Safety And Airport Street Smarts

SPEAKER_00 56:06

doubly important. People who are from lower elevations and very humid situations are absolutely not prepared for the amount of water they need in order to stay hydrated and to reduce the altitude sickness. Number twenty four. Per casinos, if you gamble, don't drink. If you drink, don't gamble. Set a loss limit and bring envelopes with the amount of cash you are willing to lose each session. Set a win limit also and when met, put the winnings in the envelope and seal it. Also have with you your social security card or passport as proof of ID in case you win beyond a certain limit, since the IRS requires the casino to withhold the income tax. Not so bad of an idea if you can't control your gambling.

SPEAKER_02 57:01

That's mindful advice, I think.

SPEAKER_00 57:03

twenty five. No idea, but might be worth a look. twenty six. If you are a frequent flyer but keep falling short of earning status or medallion or what have you, you can just buy status on airline status.com. It's resold corporate travel benefits from most major airlines and shows up just like regular status in the airlines application. I don't know, maybe. twenty seven. Pack binder clips to tightly close draperies and completely block out the light as well as to turn regular hangers into skirt and pant hangers. Those might be something I would buy on site if I need them. twenty eight. Don't eat where you see other tourists eating and instead find a place jammed with locals.

SPEAKER_02 58:04

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 58:05

Much like we were saying earlier. twenty nine. Never let anyone take you anywhere, especially not taxi drivers or random strangers. That would have saved a few of those horror stories. thirty. Pack a pair of underwear for each day you will be away, plus one additional pair for emergencies. Not horrible advice. thirty one. Don't convert your cash, especially at the airport. Instead, use your debit slash credit card or withdraw money from an ATM with minimal fees in most places you'll go. That might work, I don't know. You'll have to check that out yourself. thirty two. Call your bank in advance if you're traveling internationally, or enable international purchases from your bank's application. That's a good one for sure. Definitely let your bank know if you're going to be traveling because you don't want your card to be cancelled or put on hold for fraudulent activity when you suddenly are in another state.

SPEAKER_02 59:08

Decline and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 59:10

Yeah. That's I've known a few people who've had that happen. Not pleasant. thirty three. Get shower shoes if you're staying in a hostel. Probably. thirty four. Free up phone storage before you leave for your trip. For pictures, good call. thirty five. Don't drive when you haven't slept for a long time. Going too long without sleep can impair your ability to drive the same way alcohol consumption would.

SPEAKER_01 59:41

Mm hmm.

SPEAKER_00 59:42

That's just general life advice. thirty six. People gravitate towards their dominant side, so you'll typically find shorter lines on the left. thirty seven. Keep a small toiletry bag in your carry on in case your checked luggage disappears. In conjunction with that, I would say put an air tag or similar device in your luggage. Much easier to keep track of that way. thirty eight. Come back on a Tuesday, so if you go in to work, it's only for one day and then the weekend. Ah, I think that one's a personal preference thing. Personal preference. I'd prefer to come back on a Friday and then have the rest of the weekend to relax and recuperate from the travel. thirty nine. Plan accordingly to recover from jet lag and rehydrate on your flight, since jet lag has lesser known effects on mental acuity, focus, and decision making. That's why there's a lot of scammers right outside of airports and hotels. Forty, bring a mini sized bar of soap or bath gel from your hotel when you go sightseeing since many public bathrooms may not have soap, especially before a meal. forty one, use seatguru.com to find the best seats on any plane and can even locate economy seats with extra leg room. forty two. If you have to spend a decent amount of time at an airport, check to see if there's a lounge you are qualified to stay at based on your credit cards or frequent traveler programs. They usually have better accommodations and free food or drinks. forty three. When you first check into your room, make sure the shower water stays hot prior to leaving to explore so you don't return to cold shower at the end of a long day. forty four. If you have periods, always have period supplies in your bag since they can come unexpectedly, especially due to changes and traveling. forty five. FlightAware dot com will typically show if your flight was canceled delayed before your airline sends you a notification. You can also track where your plane departs from to anticipate delays ahead of time. forty six. Wear compression socks when you travel to relieve your legs and prevent muscle cramps. Get a fanny pack when traveling since it doesn't count as a personal item and is perfect for your phone, passport, power bank, charger, pen, or wallet. Caveat on that, make sure it secures well and possibly get a key ring or something around the latch mechanism so it's not super easy to just snap and pickpocket off of you.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:27

Caveat you're wearing a fanny pack.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:30

Eh, there is that. But you can also get ones that are like a shoulder bag that's not really on your waist as a fanny pack. Similar concept. Forty-eight. Bring a plastic bag with you for dirty clothes after you've worn them on your trip. That's reasonable. I like to do gallon Ziploc bags, especially for underwear and socks, just so there's no weird funky smell by the end of the trip. Forty-nine, keep a packing list on your phone and update it whenever you think of something to add. This is something to do well in advance of your trip. But yes, it works. And fifty, use electrical tape to keep containers closed and prevent shampoo or sunscreen accidents due to pressure at high altitudes. Which is an odd tip to add given that they suggested not to bring those items and to just buy them at your location. But either way, if you have to bring a liquid, that can help. I prefer to just stick them in a Ziploc bag, so that way it's contained if they do explode. But to each of their own. And they end it with hope you guys enjoyed these 50 travel tips from Ask Reddit. Safe travels and enjoy your next trip wherever it might be. And just as a personal tip, always be aware of how easy it might be to pickpocket you. Be it your phone, your wallet, or other valuable items. Be cognizant of that ahead of time, and you'll be less likely to have it happen. Obviously, there's many areas where pickpocketing isn't that big of an issue, but there's a lot of high high traffic tourist areas that people make that as they're living. And it's just something to be aware of.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:31

Damn, that that's some great advice. This really sounds like you have to keep

Final Reminders And Sign Off

SPEAKER_02 1:04:35

those gloves up sometimes. Yes, you do. And I'm gonna take that to heart on my trip. Uh so I sincerely appreciate those uh 50 tips, and I hope you, the listener, take something out of that and and enjoy that. Like, subscribe, comment, all the great things. And we greatly appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:55

Yes, we do. Thank you. And I hope you have a fantastic time, and until next time, keep those gloves up.