10 Travel Moments That Teach Us Kindness Can Find Us in the Most Unexpected Places

People
09/22/2026
10 Travel Moments That Teach Us Kindness Can Find Us in the Most Unexpected Places

One of the best things about traveling is the memories you make for a lifetime. You may not know the streets, you don’t always understand the language, and sometimes you don’t even know where you’re supposed to go next. That’s when complete strangers can surprise you with their compassion and generosity.
These 10 stories are about people who were far from home when someone they didn’t know stepped in to help and changed an entire trip around.

  • I was at the airport saying goodbye to my family after spending three months with them (after not seeing them for 8 years) and going through security with tears pouring down my face, a runny nose and sobbing literally every two seconds with my heart breaking because I know I won’t get to see them for a long time when I feel a pat on my shoulder.
    I turn around and this woman is looking at me, a bright smile on her face and just exuding happiness. She then tells me, in very broken English, “No crying, travel is fun, a happy thing. We go see new places and come back!” Or at least something along those lines, and her kindness made the sadness go away for at least a few minutes. To this day I cry a little when I remember it.
  • I was a week in New York. Middle-aged tourist from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I like to travel the subway all the way till the end, just to get to know the city.
    One day, I apparently ended up in a Spanish speaking neighborhood. While walking there, a woman bumped into me and started yelling at me in Spanish. Of course I yelled back in Dutch. This caught her by surprise and we both started laughing.
    I noticed she did some grocery shopping and had some vegetables I had never seen before. So, I asked her about them (in English) and before I knew it, I was invited for dinner. I accepted and insisted I buy some stuff for her.
    I had a great evening and met a large Spanish family. Best evening in New York. Even better than the 4th of July evening or the Yankees/Mets baseball game.
  • I was travelling in Japan and had just arrived in Fukuoka. My phone ran out of battery and all I had was an address and a map. While I was trying to navigate the map, an older man approached me and asked me if I needed any help.
    I told him the address and he looked it up on his phone and then offered to walk with me all the way until I arrived at the door. It ended up being a 25 minute walk there.
    He could have just pointed me in the right direction, but instead he took time out of his own day to make sure I got to the address. I probably would have spent over an hour if it weren’t for his kindness!
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  • I was trying to fly internationally for the first time to visit a friend in the UK in spring 2010. You know, that year that the volcano erupted and you couldn't fly into or out of Europe for quite some time?
    I rode up to Chicago on the train not knowing if I was going to have a flight or not. It was just all kinds of extra stress on top of the stress of trying to travel internationally for the first time.
    Ultimately I didn't get to go (flight got cancelled shortly before boarding, the airline gave me my money back and I just hopped the train back home), but the flight was still scheduled when I got to O'Hare so I checked in and went to sit at the gate. Couldn't eat, trying to read with a tear stained face that most people were ignoring.
    This older couple came and sat right next to me at a time when the waiting area was pretty much empty and simply began a conversation. Husband and wife trying to get home to Amsterdam, had been stranded in the US for days, but came and talked to me. Didn't acknowledge the state my face was in, but they knew anyway.
    They didn't have to, and it was some very small kindness after a really rough day. I'll remember those folks and their kind, distracting conversation for a long time.
  • Back before cell phones, I was traveling home very late at night along a rural highway, about an hour from home. I got a flat and couldn’t change it on my own. No way to call AAA or anyone. Felt risky to walk to a house (not that I could see one nearby anyway).
    So I stayed in my car that was pulled onto the shoulder, waiting for help or daybreak so I could figure out my next steps. I dozed off after a few hours. Cars passed me, none stopped.
    Then in the wee morning hours a minivan pulled up behind me. It was a family in a rental, visiting from Denmark. No idea why they were driving so late or where they were going.
    They cheerfully helped me change the tire, gave me their family’s business card (they had a bunch printed up for their trip to the US) and went on their merry way. As did I!
    I wish I still had that card; this happened almost 30 years ago and I still think about their kindness.
  • I (19F at the time) was flying alone for the first time. I was in an airport in a city I didn’t know, trying to get home. I didn’t understand the way the lines worked and I was tired and flustered. I finally found my flight and stood in the line to board.
    One lady saw me and said, “Here Doll, you can be in front of me.” The other passengers realized I was a smallish girl traveling alone (I was wearing leggings, a big T-shirt, and no makeup, so I looked quite a bit younger than I am). Passengers started letting me ahead of them, too.
    It didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things because we all got on the flight and there were assigned seats, but I was scared and the kindness of that first older lady was so valuable to me then. I was scared in that airport but those women had my back.
  • I was going to be late for my flight out of London and I couldn’t miss it. I really needed to get home. I couldn’t afford a taxi as I spent my last money on the ticket.
    Random young dude gave me the cab fair and 20 dollars and said, “You remind me of my Mother back home who I miss very much.” He hugged me and left. This was at 4 am. I was baffled. The guy is an angel.
    Also posted on Twitter I didn’t have any money for my insulin that month and a kind older lady asked what kind I used. I told her and she said, “My husband passed away and had 5 bottles of that kind left. I will mail them to you.” Bless both these people for their kindness.
  • I was trying to get from Berlin to a small town where I probably shouldn’t have been traveling alone with my level of German. I was standing on the platform with a printed set of directions that stopped making sense the second I got there when a man asked me in careful English if I needed help.
    He was going in a completely different direction, but he walked me to my platform anyway. He explained which train I needed, where to change, and which stops to watch for. Then he wrote everything down on the back of my printout. He even waited with me until my train arrived.
    I tried several times to thank him properly, but he kept waving it off. He told me he once got completely lost in a city and nobody helped him. Since then, he said, he has always tried to help when he could.
Bright Side
  • I got food poisoning on my third night traveling solo in Southeast Asia. I didn’t know anyone in the country and was stuck in a hostel dorm trying to get through the night without making things worse.
    My bunkmate, a woman I’d exchanged maybe 10 words with, noticed around 2 a.m. that something was wrong. She didn’t ask a bunch of questions. She brought me water, found out when the bathroom would be free, and sat in the corridor outside the door while I needed someone nearby. She stayed awake until the worst of it passed.
    The next morning she gave me crackers and electrolytes from her own bag. We exchanged contact information before she left, and we’ve stayed in occasional touch ever since. I probably would have made it through that night on my own. But knowing someone was there made everything feel completely different.
Bright Side
  • I was on a nine-hour flight to New York when an older woman pointed at me and yelled, “You’re in my seat, get off!” I told her it was my window seat. She wouldn’t listen. People were staring, so I eventually moved to her aisle seat and tried to forget about it.
    About an hour later, she called the flight attendant over. I assumed she was going to complain about something else. Instead, she told the flight attendant that she’d like to switch seats again. She said she felt ashamed of the way she’d treated me.
    The woman put her hand on my arm and apologized. She told me it was her first time traveling alone since her husband passed away. She was scared and, for whatever reason, she took it out on me.
    Her husband always sat by the window, and she wanted that seat for reasons she couldn’t really explain. I told her it was ok and that she can keep the seat since it means so much to her. She told me about her husband. I told her about my trip.
    We actually bonded. She gave me a scarf she crocheted for her grandson. It really is the sweetest gift I’ve ever received.
Bright Side

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