I guess these don't actually qualify as nightmares, but they are certainly worth mentioning. When my wife and I took our honeymoon, we spent a week in Hawaii. Not being the richest of people, we couldn't afford the best of the three offered vacation packages, so we opted for the second best. When the tour guide met us at the airport we along with 9 other couples were piled into a small bus. At the first drop-off, which was the most expensive of the hotels, three of the couples departed. We were next, and when we reached the hotel we would be staying at, was the only couple to exit the bus. The remaining four couples had all purchased the cheapest of the packages. After checking in, then being escorted to our room, its size came as a shock to my wife. She broke down and cried, while I had trouble restraining myself from breaking down the walls. When she checked the bathroom, the toilet was full of whatever the previous tenants had emptied from their bowels, the sheets on the beds were crinkled, and huge island cockroaches popped out from everywhere. We didn't even talk to the hotel manager. We called our tour guide and in pretty clear words expressed our disgust. She was nice enough to move us to the cheaper hotel and assured us the 600 hundred dollar difference would be refunded. What a difference. We walked from filth and a motel that was three blocks from the beach (though it was advertised as having a beach view), to one with a real view of the beach, and one that was clean and bright. Problem solved? Well, yes, for the hotel, but not the rest. We had purchased a new SLR 35mm Canon camera for the trip. So here we are, sight seeing and taking pitchers at the zoo, of the locals and the beach sunsets, and all the other things honeymoon couples do. Well after a day of visiting the zoos and local areas I found out I had loaded the film incorrectly and it was not advancing as I took the photos; so, no pictures. What a disappointment that was. The next day we picked up a rental car (all they had remaining was a Pontiac T1000 and headed up into the mountains. On a side note, never rent a small car and head to the mountains. The T1000 we rented was blowing smoke and struggling to reach 25 miles an hour on the way up. On the way down from the mountains, I rode the brake just to avoid the trucks in front of us, hitting 60 without touching the gas. This time when I went to reload the camera, I forgot to release the film advance lock and snapped the film off the reel, another 36 pictures blown. No shots of the mountains, volcanic craters and beautiful homes hidden away from Honolulu. The rest of the vacation though was great. A few days later a storm hit that flooded the parking garages and other low lying areas, but we were on our way outta there. Unfortunately my buddy and his wife had just arrived for their honeymoon. After all that, and almost 29 years later we are still married.

It was my very first trip to Hawaii. I was so excited. I wasn't that experienced with the airport or the check in situation and this was back when our airport had airplanes that you load into and unload onto the actual runway. No breezeway to get on the plane. Just walk right out there and walk up the stairs. We were running a little behind and I was afraid we were going to be late, so we started running and we were trying to find the gate and when we finally found it, the glass door was locked and the plane was starting to back away. I panicked and started banging on the door for them to let us out. My worst nightmare, that the plane would leave without us. I watched it roll away and my heart sank. Then a voice from behind us said, "That wasn't the plane to Hawaii". I was instantly relieved, excited and embarrassed, but I made it to Hawaii.
--------
The one that didn't turn out well was my first trip to France. I was very careful (so I thought) to put all the plane tickets and passports together. I would check periodically that the paperwork and two passports were there. The day we were to leave for the flight, I pulled out the paperwork and the two passports. Both passports were his. I freaked out. I started tearing apart the office and couldn't find it. Two people jumped in to help and we all still couldn't find it. I knew it was there somewhere close, but no matter whee we looked, we couldn't find it. I took the chance that somehow they would let me get on my flight and then get a copy of my passport on the other side, but no luck. We drove all the way to the airport for nothing. We missed the flight. My boyfriend was so sweet the whole time. I was so upset. We went home and I started to comb through everything for the third time and finally found it. We left the next day.

Ah, travel. There is always a story or two about obstacles along the way. I think travel is good for us because we get conditioned to think that everything is going to go a certain way and when we travel we are reminded that all kinds of things can happen to change your plans and your challenge is to make a good time of it anyway.

Getting my "monthly bill" early in a third world country and not being prepared. It's TMI but other women will understand. I'd rather lose my luggage.

Took a group of friends on a road trip to New York. One person in the party kept lagging behind, was always last in line, always taking up the rear. Then, the subway doors closed 2 seconds before she got off the subway, and she was lost in New York City for 6 hours.

My worst vacation was 3 years ago when i went to England for my cousins wedding. I ate some food days before the wedding and i was making me throw up for the next few days. I couldnt move around too much so i missed my cousins wedding and wasted half my trip laying in bed. =(

Mosquito bites during one camping

My former husband, who smoked cigarettes and defined a "hike" as walking from the parking lot to the door of the mall once booked us a fishing trip in a very beautiful area called "Camp Nelson." To access this remote location one must drive about 30 miles an hour on an hour's worth of switchbacks.

When we got to the bed and breakfast we couldn't find any fishing spots within walking distance. So we ended up driving back down the switchbacks for over an hour in search of fishing spots. We received endless leads from the locals which required crawling up alternative switchbacks, to altitudes much colder than we had prepared for (it was probably 80 at sea level, and more like 50 at 8,000 feet.) We must have spend about 5 hours of one day driving up and down at 30 miles an hour. Before deciding we were exhausted and wanted to return to our bed and breakfast. . . .

Although our rental included a nice kitchen, we had neglect to bring our own groceries. The only store in the area had dusty cans of Campbell's soup at really inflated prices, and the only restaurant in the area sold what tasted like microwaved food at exorbitant cost. Very disappointing to be in such splendor of nature and not be able to get a decent meal with out driving back out for more than hour. . . .we bit the bullet and bought the overpriced groceries for night number two's dinner.

Wanting to make the best of it, we decided to light a homey fire in the wood stove, except Howard was a city boy and nearly choked us to death because he didn't open the flue and the house filled with smoke! In the morning (I swear I am NOT making this up) we discovered the owner's dog had died. So Howard spent the afternoon helping a neighbor dig a hole a to bury the dog in, it was a good sized roughly 70 pound dog.
I was the only one who caught a trout, it turns out neither my son or my husband wanted to eat it (!) I'm not sure why he booked a fishing trip if Howard didn't like eating fish.

Howard defined the trip as a disaster. The funny thing is, I returned to the area several years later with a friend who enjoys fishing, hiking and camping and I had an absolute blast. We found trail heads that started within walking distance of our hotel and saw some spectacular sites. We came prepared with our own good food from Trader Joe's and ate really well.