Everyone has their tale of woe that happened during their travels. Or if they don’t have one themselves, they know someone who does. The family who got caught in an airline’s multi-day meltdown. The traveler who wound up with appendicitis while in a foreign country. The person whose parent unexpectedly passed away while they were on a small island halfway around the world.
Travelers who are smart have travel insurance to cover unexpected out-of-pocket expenses that can happen after experiences like those. There are plenty of brands of travel insurance out there, of course. And one of them is Travel Guard.
We’ve never used Travel Guard for our travel insurance needs (nothing against them; we’ve just wound up using other companies), so we can’t vouch for them either way. However earlier this year they launched a promotion called the “World’s Unluckiest Traveler.” They were, obviously, looking for the traveler with the worst tale of travel-related woe.
Participants from the U.S. and Canada were invited to submit entries (story + photo/video) between September 3 and October 15, 2024, which was followed by public voting. The person with the most votes would be awarded $10,000, while 2nd and 3rd place winners would also win cash prizes. The person with the 4th most amount of votes would win a set of Victorinox luggage. Plus one lucky voter would win a GoPro action camera and kit in a sweepstakes drawing of voters.
So the entries were sent in and the votes were cast. There were hundreds of entries that ran the gamut, from broken limbs, to the roof of a hotel room caving in, to being locked in a portapotty, and more.
The first place winner though? That was Julie S’s tale of woe.
She and a friend, Sam, went to Arizona to do some sightseeing and to go skydiving. The night before their jump, they went out for drinks. Soon afterwards, Sam started acting oddly and could barely walk. So with the help of some good Samaritans, Julie and Sam made it back to their Airbnb.
Sam was unresponsive the next morning, so they called 911. Emergency responders came and said Sam would need to go to the hospital. But the entrance to the condo where they were staying was so narrow, instead of taking her out on a stretcher, they took her out in a body bag.I bet THAT was traumatizing! (Sam was stable by the next morning and she and Julie did go skydiving not long afterwards.)
You can read the Top 4 stories here:
- Grand Prize ($10,000) – “From bodybag to skydiving” by Julie S.
- Runner-up ($5,000) – “MexiNO!” by Jennifer
- Third-place ($3,000) – “Don’t look up while walking” by Lloyd L.
- Four-place (luggage): “A trip that took many years off my life!” by Anna
Or you can peruse all of the stories by clicking on this link.
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