Backpacker’s Worst Awards

Posted by Anna | Posted in Backpackers, Online Articles | Posted on 23-06-2010

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We always read about the best restaurants, best hotels, best sceneries around the world…but we all know that travelling, and especially backpacking, is not always easy breezy. Nevertheless, our best stories are sometimes about the most unpleasant experiences we’ve had in a foreign country, go figure! And the best part of it all is finding other people who’ve lived the same or a similar experience. That’s where the “Backpacker’s Worst Awards” come in.

The following awards are either from my own personal experiences, friends’ experiences or fellow travellers who’ve shared their thoughts on http://www.smh.com.au/travel/blog/the-backpacker. I welcome you all to try and beat them:

Worst Airport: “London Gatwick. It’s hell, plain and simple. Religious types don’t have to bother dreaming up some fanciful interpretation of an afterlife for the damned – it’s a four-hour layover at Gatwick, with an EasyJet check-in.”

Worst Inflight Meal: “US Air, circa 1997. Lukewarm mini pizza and a small packet of M&Ms. Defibrillator not included.”

Worst Bus Trip: In Costa Rica, travelling up and around mountains, through endless banana plantations, in torrential rain, for 8-9 hours sitting on your backpack in the back of an what I would call an old overloaded school bus and finally getting off in the rain, in the dark and at the wrong stop.

Worst Traffic: Being stuck in rush hour in the massive Arc de Triomphe roundabout in Paris. Just plain dangerous!

Worst Tourists: Drunk Englishmen…. and they admit it!!!

Worst Toilet: In Vietnam “the toilet was a simple hole cut into the metal floor of the carriage. The combination of a small hole and a violently shaking train doesn’t make for a pleasant bathroom experience”.

Worst Hostel: Overpriced and dirty room in empty hostel in Zancudo. It had a roof made of tin.. you can only imagine the nice sleep (not) we got with the rain coming down strong…

Share with us your worst experience….best comments will be rewarded with three free rental day (June – August)!!!

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  • John

    Worst Hostel – After a glowing review in Lonely Planet we settled on a hostel in Glasgow for a two night stay. For the life of me I can’t remember the name but it’s not important as I’m sure it’s closed now and thinking about it was possibly closed even when we stayed there in 2004.

    It was shortly after knocking on the door and finding it answered by a man better suited to queing up at a methadone clinic that running a hostel I started to have some reservations about the accuracy of LPs review. It’s total lack of signage also added to the feeling of unease but in the spirit of adventure and it being 10.45pm we paid out 10 quid for the bed (“cash only. No we don’t have any change”) and headed up to the room only to find it bare except for a mattress on the floor, no sheets or pillows to be seen. Convinced we’d got the wrong door I checked the next one down the hallway to find it not only missing the matress but it had no glass in the window!!

    There was no way I was taking this crap so charged downstairs to accost our substance abusing host. He was nowhere to be seen.

    It was about 30 minutes later – after discovering there was no hot water, a lack of electricity in the hallways and the kitchen housed a single broken toaster and nothing else – my increasingly shrill and icy ex-girlfriend (“how could you book us into this place? This is your fault”) found a note from junkie boy advising us he’d been “called away to Edinburgh on business”.

    This, I decided, was code for “gone to score some smack”

    Basically we were left alone in a squat and had paid 10 quid for the pleasure on the advise of the “Travellers Bible”!! In an effort to get the experience over with ASAP I headed to the “bedroom” for some sleep. This chioce was made easier by my beloved who had already locked herself in the bathroom, presumably to hatch plans for my downfall in return for making her stay in a hovel.

    Morning came and finding myself still alive and with a full compliment of internal organs we headed into town to find more suitable digs. The owner of the next hostel just laughed when we told him where we’d stayed the night before and would only say “I’ve heard some bad reviews” Classic Scottish understatment!

    In short WORST HOSTEL EVER but as far a squats go it was pretty damn flash!

  • John

    Worst Hostel – After a glowing review in Lonely Planet we settled on a hostel in Glasgow for a two night stay. For the life of me I can’t remember the name but it’s not important as I’m sure it’s closed now and thinking about it was possibly closed even when we stayed there in 2004.

    It was shortly after knocking on the door and finding it answered by a man better suited to queing up at a methadone clinic that running a hostel I started to have some reservations about the accuracy of LPs review. It’s total lack of signage also added to the feeling of unease but in the spirit of adventure and it being 10.45pm we paid out 10 quid for the bed (“cash only. No we don’t have any change”) and headed up to the room only to find it bare except for a mattress on the floor, no sheets or pillows to be seen. Convinced we’d got the wrong door I checked the next one down the hallway to find it not only missing the matress but it had no glass in the window!!

    There was no way I was taking this crap so charged downstairs to accost our substance abusing host. He was nowhere to be seen.

    It was about 30 minutes later – after discovering there was no hot water, a lack of electricity in the hallways and the kitchen housed a single broken toaster and nothing else – my increasingly shrill and icy ex-girlfriend (“how could you book us into this place? This is your fault”) found a note from junkie boy advising us he’d been “called away to Edinburgh on business”.

    This, I decided, was code for “gone to score some smack”

    Basically we were left alone in a squat and had paid 10 quid for the pleasure on the advise of the “Travellers Bible”!! In an effort to get the experience over with ASAP I headed to the “bedroom” for some sleep. This chioce was made easier by my beloved who had already locked herself in the bathroom, presumably to hatch plans for my downfall in return for making her stay in a hovel.

    Morning came and finding myself still alive and with a full compliment of internal organs we headed into town to find more suitable digs. The owner of the next hostel just laughed when we told him where we’d stayed the night before and would only say “I’ve heard some bad reviews” Classic Scottish understatment!

    In short WORST HOSTEL EVER but as far a squats go it was pretty damn flash!

  • Simon

    Worst Hostel would have to be Challis Lodge in Kings Cross!!

    Left there with a shit load of bed bugs. Worst then hostels in third world countries!

  • Simon

    Worst Hostel would have to be Challis Lodge in Kings Cross!!

    Left there with a shit load of bed bugs. Worst then hostels in third world countries!

  • http://www.australiablog.com Brooke, WhyGo Australia

    Through my years of travel, I have been surprisingly fortunate and haven’t had anything terribly horrible in regards to transport/hostels. However, I will add to the worst tourists as being drunk Englishmen having an international stag party.

  • http://www.australiablog.com Brooke, WhyGo Australia

    Through my years of travel, I have been surprisingly fortunate and haven’t had anything terribly horrible in regards to transport/hostels. However, I will add to the worst tourists as being drunk Englishmen having an international stag party.

  • http://www.travellers-autobarn.com.au Bastian

    Worst airport staff has to be British Airways at the London Heathrow airport – missed by plane from London to Sydney due to delays with BA from Vienna to London. Ended up waiting from 9 pm until 3 am in the morning for a bus transfer & hotel voucher…. got thrown out of the Heathrow terminal with a bunch of people at midnight without any given information! Am never ever flying with BA or via Heathrow again…

  • http://www.travellers-autobarn.com.au Bastian

    Worst airport staff has to be British Airways at the London Heathrow airport – missed by plane from London to Sydney due to delays with BA from Vienna to London. Ended up waiting from 9 pm until 3 am in the morning for a bus transfer & hotel voucher…. got thrown out of the Heathrow terminal with a bunch of people at midnight without any given information! Am never ever flying with BA or via Heathrow again…

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  • http://www.hotelssydney.com.au/ Hotels Sydney

    A friend of mine also had a similar experience with you. He was so disappointed and pissed because he missed an appointment in Sydney.

  • http://www.hotelssydney.com.au/ Hotels Sydney

    definitely agree with the worst toilet – it was just horrible i thought i would never get in to that train in Vietnam again