This is always everyone’s favorite post of the year – all my worst travel experiences! I’ve already written about my top travel experiences of 2022, but it’s important to remember that travel isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Blogging and social media tends to be only the highlight reel. But I always like to keep it real and reflect on all the bad times that inevitably come with the good.

I’m very grateful this year that I was never seriously injured or harmed. I wasn’t robbed, I was never seriously ill – most of my worst travel moments aren’t that bad. My two worst travel moments were bad enough to make up for that though, haha! So here are the worst things I experienced during my travels in 2022.

Bedbugs on the West Highland Way

You know what’s worse than getting bedbugs on a trip? When you’re hiking 96 miles through the wilderness in Scotland. I’ve only experienced bedbugs once before, in Albania in 2019, so I guess I should be grateful that I know exactly what to do. I stayed in a camping cabin and rented bedding from them – it was just a sleeping bag and liner. They say don’t rent sleeping bags for a reason… I woke up in the morning on day 4 of the trip with a few bites, and I knew. I hoped that I wasn’t carrying them, and that they just miraculously stayed in that sleeping bag and didn’t move into any of my things.

Unfortunately, I then woke up the next day with two huge bites on my fucking face, and I knew. They were with me somewhere. I saw one that morning, and a huge amount of blood (my blood) came out when I squashed it. I didn’t have that many bites, but they were itchy and annoying. Thankfully, the next place I was staying had laundry facilities – including a dryer that was large enough to put my entire backpack in. I literally put everything through that dryer – anything that could be dried, was dried/heated to nuke any of those fuckers. When I came back home, I did the same thing again, and took my backpack to the dry cleaners to put it through once more.

Overall, this could have been a much worse experience if I hadn’t been able to take care of my belongings and dry everything (especially my backpack) at the next accommodation. If I’d been camping, it would have been a pretty miserable time. But it was really not what I needed on such a (physically) challenging multi-day hike!

A very scary camping experience – #TentGate

I camp alone very often – actually, I rarely camp with other people. This summer I decided to spend a weekend in the Peak District, and booked a small campsite on a farm. I woke up at 2am to someone shining a light in my tent, walking around my tent, and touching the top of my tent. I have no idea whether they were wanting to attack me or just scare me, but it was terrifying and a very traumatic experience. I have always felt safe camping alone in the UK – I’ve been wild camping in literally the middle of nowhere, and never had anything bad happen.

I’m very glad to be safe and unharmed after this experience. When I heard the person at the door of my tent, about to open the zipper, I shouted, “WHAT THE FUCK, GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY TENT!” I turned on my headlight, put my shoes on, and rolled out of that tent ready for a motherfucking fight. No one was there – presumably they’d had enough time to run away after I shouted. There is no way this was a drunk person or someone who got confused with the wrong tent. Absolutely no way. And while the chances of this happening are one-in-a-million, I was that one on a summer night in July. I cut my trip short and left a night early.

Also, the campsite owner didn’t seem to really believe me when I rang the next morning to tell him what happened and that I was leaving. He also refused to give me a refund, even though I had to leave one night early. So please, do not book Greystones Nawab campsite in the Peaks near Monyash.

Read More: Experiencing My Worst Camping Nightmare in the Peak District

My flight being canceled in the Netherlands

Airlines struggled immensely to bounce back after the pandemic. Canceled flights, long delays, ridiculous security queues, and lost luggage plagued air passengers throughout the year. My trip to Groningen in the Netherlands in March was a precursor of what was to come through the peak summer travel season: my flight was canceled just a few hours before it was set to depart. I was nearly on the way to the airport when I got a text message saying that it had been canceled! The next flight wasn’t until the following day, so I was delayed by a whole day getting back home.

Luckily, I was able to work remotely on the Monday. The airline reimbursed me for my hotel and food costs. I used the extra evening to walk around Amsterdam at sunset – I hadn’t been to the city on this trip besides the airport, so it was nice to return for the first time since 2014. I also received compensation as per my EU 261 rights – so I actually received a decent amount of money for my troubles. But it was still a stressful situation, and the airline gave no help on the ground.

Hiking the Wastwater screes

During my birthday trip to the Lake District, I planned a route along Wastwater that would take in two Wainwrights. The return involved either hiking the scree slopes alongside Wastwater, or walking several miles on the road. I chose the screes, thinking it would be a fun challenge. Well, it was not. There is literally no path through the boulder fields, it is constant scrambling, with a nasty fall into the water if you’re not careful. It then started raining, so all the rocks were wet and slippery. I was swearing to myself and literally cursing my decision so loudly that a paddleboarder came up and asked me if I was alright. I made it through the screes after a long and slow scramble, but it’s definitely not one I’ll be doing again.

My outbound flight to Marrakech being changed to depart 36 hours early

I’d planned to fly to Marrakech on Christmas Eve, which was a Saturday this year. Several months after I’d booked the flights, my outbound flight was changed to depart earlier than planned – by 36 hours. Instead of leaving in the afternoon on Saturday, it was now departing at 5:45am on Friday. I didn’t have any more days off work to take the Friday off, to complicate things. I was offered the option to cancel and receive a refund, but the other flights to Morocco on the Saturday would have been much, much more expensive. So I bit the bullet and accepted the new flight time. Luckily, I’m able to work remotely, and my manager was very understanding that this wasn’t my choice. So I worked from home from Marrakech on Friday (WFM = Work From Morocco!). But it was certainly not the start to the trip that I had planned.

Extremely cold weather in Minneapolis

My 2022 started at home in Minneapolis, MN. My best friend was visiting from Canada, and I was so excited to show him around my hometown and take him to my favorite places. I don’t think it got above 0˚F during his time in Minnesota! The windchill was -30˚F, and it was really difficult to do anything outside or enjoy spending time around the city when it was so cold. At least he got the true Minnesota experience!

Covid anxiety (particularly around my US trips)

The pandemic brought on a whole new category of anxiety for travelers: getting covid before your trip, and therefore needing to cancel or getting stuck in quarantine abroad. While my general anxiety around covid wasn’t particularly bad by the start of 2022, it was raging as I prepared for my trips to the US – as the US was one of the last countries to require a negative test result to enter the country. I was so busy at the beginning of April, not just with my Divorce Party but also with my trip to the Cairngorms and the trip to London to fly out, and I was absolutely paranoid that I’d get covid at the last minute and have to cancel my trip. I was going to my best friend’s wedding, and I was terrified that I’d have somehow gotten covid – that I’d test positive, have to cancel, and have to miss her wedding. Thankfully, all my precautions (masking, asking friends/people I saw to test, etc.) worked, and I tested negative and was able to go!

I was also extremely stressed about getting covid at the beginning of January, as I was flying back to the UK and needed to test negative to get into the country. Brayoon was visiting me in Minneapolis, he was flying back to Canada, and he also needed to test negative to get back in. Omicron was raging and I felt like every day someone else I knew was testing positive for covid. I was so extremely paranoid that I’d get covid and one or both of us would be stuck in the US, unable to fly back home. Unfortunately, I had to cancel some plans with friends in Minneapolis, and it certainly wasn’t the end to my first trip to the US in four years that I wanted. But I’m grateful that we both tested negative and were able to fly as planned!

Bad weather in the Cairngorms

I planned to do a hillwalking route that would bag three Munros on my trip to the Cairngorms. I was on my own, feeling pretty tired after several long days of hiking and wild camping. When I turned up to the Cairnwell Pass, and saw the thick blanket of fog covering the slopes, I knew it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to go off on my own. It was spitting rain, windy, and the weather was meant to be that way all day. I’d be relying solely on my phone for navigation, and as a solo hiker I need to be extra cautious as I have no one else to help me if things go wrong. I sat in my car for 15 minutes before I decided to give up. In good visibility, this route would be easy/straightforward for me on my own. With the poor weather, it was just not a smart choice. Instead, I drove to Braemar, took myself out for brunch, and had a much more relaxed day – so it wasn’t a total bust!

Extreme busyness and burn out

This is probably the definition of first-world problems, but one that I wanted to mention. I had an absolutely jam-packed travel season. I was busy pretty much constantly between the end of March and the end of October. Between August and October, I had plans on 12 out of 13 weekends. I was literally busy for 11 weekends in a row. I went months at a time without being able to sleep in, because I was up early every day I had off work as I’d be off on some adventure. I know I planned this myself, and I can’t regret it because I got to see and do so many incredible things. But I went HARD, and I was exhausted.

I would regularly work flexi-time on the weeks leading up to my weekend trips, so I was working extra hours to be able to finish early on a Friday. I sometimes felt like I was barely at home. I didn’t get to socialize or see friends as much as I would have liked. I missed out on some fun events as I was away for so many weekends. I hovered on the edge of burn out for a few weeks. Once November hit and I had no trips (or really, any plans at all) until Christmas, I took a huge step back. I made myself spend more time in York (not that I can afford too many daytrips with gas prices as high as they are, haha). I had lazy days. I tried (and failed, lol) to stay up-to-date with blog content. I pushed myself really hard for half of the year. While I don’t regret this, it’s made me much more conscious about how I spend my time off and how I’ll plan my trips in the future.

Blog/tech issues and declining traffic

While this isn’t technically a travel moment, it’s certainly travel-related as my blog is my baby. This year I’ve dealt with some frustrating technical issues related to my blog, and a very discouraging decline in traffic. In March, I installed a plugin which essentially wiped most of my traffic for months, and I have essentially zero usable Google Analytics data for half of the year. It’s an issue that’s entirely my fault for not being more consistent with analyzing my data, and for constantly putting off a task/project because – as I mentioned above – I was extremely busy for most of the year. It’s a disappointment, and a lesson I’ve learned the hard way.

Regardless of the reporting issues, I have seen a decline in traffic to my blog this year. I can’t put into words how discouraging this is. It’s the first year since I started this blog in 2016 that I haven’t increased my page views. My DA is the highest it’s ever been, and I feel like I am posting better SEO-optimized, interesting, and informative content than ever before. A huge part of this decline is because I am losing traffic on some of my best-performing posts: posts like my Gibraltar marriage post and my visa renewal post that can’t be updated as I simply don’t have new/up-to-date information on it. And posts that I don’t want to keep the traffic I get, such as my 15 Harsh Truths About Living in England, as I get loads of racist hate comments from it lol. But it’s just tough to accept when, after two years of traffic growth during very low travel periods due to the pandemic, I haven’t grown my blog with measurable data in 2022.

Travel isn’t always picture-perfect views and happy memories. Shit happens. I’m very grateful this year that I was never seriously injured, or had anything devastatingly bad happen to me. But there were quite a few (major) struggles this year, and I think this post serves as a reminder that you have to take the good with the bad!

Over to you! Did you have any bad travel moments this year? What were your worst from 2022?

You might also like my posts:

My Top Travel Experiences of 2022

Like this post? Pin it for later!