The truth behind travel coincidences

Among the many stories that a traveller brings home in an attempt to entertain waiting family and friends, there's almost always a story about a coincidence.

There's also usually a story about how they got ripped off by a local and how they had a holiday romance, but that's beside the point.

Coincidence stories it seems, are all around, a common souvenir from the trip.

When West Australians Paul and Jan Tregurtha embarked on their self-described "trip of a lifetime" earlier this year, they were also in for the shock of a lifetime when they learnt that their fellow travellers had met their son and daughter-in-law years earlier.

While on a bus tour, as part of a 16-day Uniworld River Empress cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest, Jan struck up a conversation with a fellow passenger about a bunch of roses she had bought.

The woman was Karen Hockert, travelling with her husband Lee from Minnesota in the US.

As they spoke, Jan explained that she was from a place called Perth, expecting Karen to be more familiar with the cities of Sydney and Melbourne.

"And she (Karen) said 'oh, we had a Rotary exchange student from there, her name was Lambert'."

"I squealed and said, 'Not our Emma?"'

In 1996, Jan's daughter-in-law Emma Lambert spent 12 months as a Rotary exchange student in Minnesota, staying with the Hockerts for six months.

Although the Tregurthas had never met them, Emma had taken her partner, their son Shane, to meet the Hockerts in 1999.

"The unusual thing about it was that our son had been there over three years later and she'd even met our son. It was just such a coincidence.

"It was quite unbelievable and if she hadn't bought the roses, I probably never would've talked to her. What are the chances?"

It was a less pleasant experience for finance manager Terri Eldeir when she bumped into her boss while holidaying with her sister in Fiji last year.

Having told her boss that she was heading to Fiji, he recommended she stay at The Shangri La Resort.

"We were walking back to our room one night after dinner. It was dark but I spotted his wife coming out of a restaurant. We hid out of sight until they passed," says Terri.

"We thought we were safe. Then the next morning I was at the breakfast buffet loading up my plate and he taps me on the shoulder! That was the end of a good trip.

"Next time I'll be going to the most remote islands to avoid any bosses."

While visiting Europe for the Rugby World Cup in 2007, 25-year-old Sean Belling practically walked into a high school reunion.

It started at a pub in Cardiff, Wales, where he bumped into a girl he has known since pre-school, as well as a former friend, former high schoolmate and a former workmate.

If that wasn't enough coincidence for one venue, one of the pub employees was a former primary schoolmate of Sean's.

A week later, while walking through a town square in Montpellier, France, Sean bumped into the same friend he saw at the Cardiff pub.

Weeks later, during Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, the pair met yet again, for the third time.

According to Dr Wendy Hillman, a sociology lecturer from Central Queensland University, travel coincidences may have something to do with the socio-economic status of the travellers.

Age, economic status and social circles will affect how a person travels and Dr Hillman says this explains why backpackers and grey nomads tend to keep meeting the same people as they travel - because they head to the same destinations, see the same sights and gravitate towards the same accommodation, whether it be caravan parks or hostels.

"When I was in Hawaii, my girls bumped into someone from their school ... the same sort of people tend to go to the same places," says Dr Hillman.

"It's about having the same sort of values, same sort of backgrounds."

As this story was being written, at the front of her office block, the writer bumped into a woman who was in her BridgeClimb group.

- AAP