by You can plan a vacation to perfection, but you can never prepare for the hiccups you may encounter along the way. These take many forms, from the hostage-taking of a taxi driver to the daylight robbery of well-known hotel companies.
Our top destination experts and in-house editors have traveled to every corner of the planet, gathering decades of experience between them. So hopefully the next time you’re in a sticky situation, it’ll be a comfort that they’ll be able to rip you out on the road too.
Manual passage in Venice
By Nick Trend
When I was 19 and heading into Europe on a £10 a day budget, I was camping at Punta Sabbioni on the mainland near Venice. At the end of a busy, impatient queue, I paid for my water bus ticket to St Mark’s with a 50,000 lire note – worth £25 in those days. On the boat I realized that instead of four 10,000 lire notes as most of my change, the man at the ticket office only gave me one – plus three 1,000 lire notes cleverly tucked behind it. I soon became cynical about 27,000 lire – more than £15 – a big chunk of my budget.
An empty wallet in Iceland
By Mike Maceacharan
I may be a professional traveler (sort of), but I’m not completely immune to holiday breaks, and – in my book – Iceland is the king of the dogs; the big daddy robbed the light of day. Twenty five quid for a chippie takeaway from a street food van? That one hurts. Sixteen quid for a bagel with an almost invisible smear of cream cheese melting on the inside? That hurts more.
And that’s just the tip of the icy iceberg. I recently visited the Snæfellsnes peninsula on a gray, unseasonably cold October trip and was charged £300 for a humdrum box room, with no breakfast but the smell of wet dog for free. The other surprise was a fuss free dinner which cost £67 for one. The portion size left me hungry or, as an Icelander would say, I was “ekki upp and cetti”. Not enough to fill a cat’s nostril. And with a rental car, it was up to £500 in one day. Sheesh.
Inflated rickshaw fare
By Gemma Knight
There are those wonderful moments when you see a dog coming a mile away, and manage to avoid it. I still feel a lot of smugness when I think of the Shanghai taxi driver who tried to take me a mile in the wrong direction to push up the fare, not realizing that I lived there. The look on his face when I unleashed a tirade from the back seat in perfect Mandarin makes me very happy.
I was unlucky on a visit to Amritsar, India, when I asked a rickshaw driver to take me a few miles down the road. Long negotiations usually followed; I talked him down on what I considered to be, if not cheap enough, then certainly fair, and away we went. When we arrived, I looked down to count my bucks, and when I looked up, the driver was joined by 20 of his friends – all of them tall and unsmiling. “The price has tripled,” he told me. A sticky situation, and one that no amount of Mandarin could get me off. In order to live to face another day, I put my pride aside and paid up.
A close call in Naples
By Rachel Cranshaw
I arrived by train in Naples last year and got a taxi from the class outside the station. We asked the driver if he accepted card payments, which he said he did, and agreed to the fare as there was no meter. But when we pulled up to our hotel, the card payment failed. We said we’d try another card – but he wouldn’t let us, asking us to drive to an ATM, for a fee that was now so inflated that we had little choice but to pay it.
It set a sharp tone for the entire visit. Later that day, I was walking down a street in a group of four women when we stopped briefly to check our phones for directions. We realized that two men were standing at different intervals from us, making signs to each other indicating that they were about to hug us. We had to dive into a supermarket for safety.
Many people have told me that they love Naples, despite its reputation for being a bit rough, but as a normally savvy traveler, I was disappointed and embarrassed that I had such a stereotypical experience of the city. I want to go back one day and give it another try.
Robbed of daylight at dawn
by Chris Moss
Posh hotels are snakes and scam artists: they trick clients for excessive deposits; They fleece anyone who wants cheeky miniatures; they charge obscene rack rates. But their biggest rip-off is room service – the crazy sign of item-to-room delivery. When I checked into a five star hotel after a long and bad night flight, I said I would love some breakfast. The desk staff smiled and said there was no need to bother with the dining hall: they would send something to my room.
Half an hour later, when I had almost given up, a tiny selection of items from the all-you-can-eat buffet arrived: strawberries sliced into ten slices, iced coffee, some buns and mini jars of jam. . I was later charged $30 for the privilege. I know, I fell for a ruse. I was mugged – or more accurately, he was just mugged.
An opportunistic seller in Kerala
By Chris Leadbeater
On my first two mornings while staying in a no-frills hotel in Kerala, I noticed a man standing on the beach, holding items of clothing to buy – expecting a tourist to come from one of the rooms above. But it was a quiet time, the off-season for Kerala. So, on my third morning, I decided I would do the deed.
In fact the clothes were of a fair standard. He had a selection of Nehru-collar shirts, in different primary colours. He had bright scarves, and an array of well-made pashminas. So well done, in fact, that I decided that many upcoming birthday and Christmas gifts could be found en masse. I picked up nine or so and prepared to pay.
I’m still not sure what made the conversation go the way it did. But when he suggested a number, I panicked, knocked him a few hundred rupees, and waited for his reply. He blanched a little, agreed, shook my hand, and we completed the transaction. It was only after I got back to my room and got the latest exchange rate that I realized I had paid a European high street price for my shopping spree.
I never saw the salesman again. He was very happy, and it was clear that he enjoyed the weekend.
