On a stop to Thailand I went on a tiger tour about 3 hours of where I was staying in Bangkok timing it well I knew I had time to go on the day tour, have a quick tea and be back at my hotel for my transfer to the airport. Sitting in the bus on the way back we all heard any all mighty bang, it sounded like the alternator or something had fallen out. The little thai man tried unsuccessfully to get the van started for a good ½ hour with no luck when I started to panic, if I didn’t get back to my hotel I would miss my transfer to take me to meet my flight on to Heathrow, the other passengers weren’t worried but I frantically explained this to our tour guide who luckily spoke good English, he paid for 2 taxis and 2 trains to get me back, making it back just in time my transfer car was waiting patiently for me, could have been worse! Better luck next time with the travels Anna 

When I was a lot younger, my family went to Adelaide. WE flew from Dunedin to Auckland, and Auckland airport seemed deserted. My father went up to the counter with our tickets, only to be told that flight did not exist. It had be cancelled months ago, in fact two months before my father booked the tickets! Eventually we had to fly to Sydney, stay overnight, then fly to Adelaide the next day, to find out that the airline had not called the rental place as they said they would, and our campervan was gone. Thankfully they upgraded us without a hassle. I pity my parents, we were in Auckland airport for 6 hours, and they had a 3 year old and a 7 year old!

I have missed two planes in my time and I agree with you it was a horrible horrible feeling. My biggest travel disaster has to be when I was in Europe and lost my passport on a drunken night out. I will never live that one down and took many a phone call to rectify. Glad you and your man enjoyed some time out in the end.

I missed my flight home from the Gold Cost (bloody Jetstar) and had no money to fly home..had to make a rather sheepish call to my parents. Oh the shame.

I was robbed at gunpoint in South Africa, now that was a disaster!

I have a musical travel disaster. In 1995 I slipped away from Wgn to go gold prospecting for a few weeks in the Richmond Ranges, near Havelock. A free-lance horn-player, I needed some time out after a busy season of 'Cats'. While up the tops, I took out my emergency brick of a cell phone to check on messages and take advantage of the service availability that altitude gave us back then [had a line of sight to Blenheim]. The phone rang. Alwyn Palmer of the NZSO, asking - actually pretty much telling me - that a horn player was sick and I was needed in Lower Hutt to rehearse and record a Symphony. "Can you be there tomorrow at 9am please." "Uhhh..." I looked around at the mass of ridgelines, bush and distance needed to be covered. "Su-uure?" "Great." Click. "Sh--!!" I had hitch-hiked from Picton and my pay wasn't due in for another week. Penniless, I had gone bush to avoid expenses and was in a right pickle; if I didn't show at rehearsal, I'd be blacklisted and not used again as a horn player by the NZSO. To cut a long story short, I pretty much dropped my pack, tied on a parka and jersey to my belt, and ran like hell. The pack's still there. That evening I stumbled onto the wharves of Havelock and bummed a ride with a fishing vessel who, in exchange for a temp deckhand, dropped me off into the frigid waters of Evans Bay next morning. I swam ashore, scared the hell out of my girl-friend when I blundered into bed at 4am, and was at rehearsal by 8:45am... Smelling of fish.

I got dumped on a "romantic getaway" to Rarotonga with my boyfriend of two years.

I had to spend three more nights in the same room with him and had the most awkward flight home on the plane. Heartbreaking.

I went on a trip to the states with my friend, 2 girls, 19, 3 weeks, 8 stops. It was a disaster of a trip, the details of which I won't expand on, but very memorable. The final disaster, missing our flight from New York to LA, and therefore our flight from LA to NZ. Spending $US 80 on an emergency (terrifying) taxi to the NY airport to make the next flight, getting to LA, missing the NZ flight anyway. Having $20 between us to last 24hrs to the next flight home, spending $4 on a emergency call to NZ to inform both sets of parents we had missed the flight, and not worry about driving 4 hrs to Wellington to pick us up. Spending the night on the airport floor with a bag of roasted nuts. Absolute disaster.

Travel disasters - oh where to begin! The time I was attacked by a massive bull with horns in India, or somersaulted courtesy of a scooter in Laos? Nope, it was the time I woke with the Egyptian boy's face on mine during a felucca trip on the Nile...I think the worst was in Nepal when the urge to go was so bad I stained my underpants - might have had something to do with the cockroach infested meal I ate earlier - I didn't see the cockroach until after I had my last mouthful - there it was crawling through the sliced up carrot...mmmm, yummy....No that wasn't the worst, the worst was when leaving from London for Munich just before Xmas and the flight was cancelled. There were 8 of us on 2 flights and the last 4 took 12 hours to get there as we had to go standby (that was touch and go). But at least we arrived, ready and excited for our 2 weeks skiing in the Austrian Alps. Shame there were 18 deg days and NO snow....we drank a lot those 2 weeks. And when it was time to come home, we left our village for Munich airport with 4 hours to spare and still didn't make the flight. Bumper to bumper on the autobahn....but we did manage to catch a train - no seats only room was on the pack outside the loo after a 4 hour stint in the Hofbrauhaus. Nice smells. The drunken haze made the trip bearable but was so grateful when a carriage came available and I made Ash promise to protect me from any creeps - pity he couldn't keep his word as I woke up to some jerk stroking my leg...the gutting part was it snowed heavily a day after arriving home and they had awesome season. At least the travel disaster's make it memorable!

Just saw these and had to add my own. I was in Berlin in 2010 and my friend I was travelling with (for several months) went out for the night and didn't come back the next day. Thought she'd just spend the night at the clubs but she didn't come back the next day either. Turns out she'd decided to run away with an Italian she'd just met and didn't bother to tell me. I was ringing the police and panicking until I got her postcard. Ruined my whole trip and never saw her again.

Funny how everyone has one disaster tail!