13 Dream Vacations That Left People With Chilling Memories

🌍✈️ Travel is full of surprises—but not all of them are pleasant. From eerie whispers in the night to strange happenings no one can explain, some adventures leave travelers with more than just memories. Turns out, the most unforgettable moments aren’t the ones you planned—they’re the ones you never saw coming.

• I was in a hostel in Vancouver and was settling in when my bunkmate arrived. She was an older woman in her late 50s/early 60s from Melbourne doing some solo world travel (she alluded to ‘being alone now’). She asked me about NYC (I’m from there) and answered almost everything that I told her with a subdued, almost whispery, "That’s amazing."
  Later that night, I turn over in bed away from the wall and see her standing by my rail with the moon from the window pouring over her. She’s wearing a long, white nightgown, and her hair is in disarray, almost glowing, and she’s staring at me. Her face is at an angle, so half of it is in shadow, and she whispers, "That’s amazing," and then goes back to sleep. redangdit / Reddit

• My mom was traveling for work and sat next to a man (a fellow business traveler) on the plane. They had a casual conversation and exchanged business cards.
  Later that evening, she’s in her hotel watching TV and gets a phone call from the front desk that her husband is there, and they want to know if they can give him a key to the room. Turns out the creep on the plane was pretending to be her husband to try to get into her room. mmmannino / Reddit

• I was on an overnight ferry and got up in the middle of the night to use the toilets. They were communal, if you know, so I had to go out of my room and a few doors down a hallway.
  When I was done and stepped back out to the hallway, a man turned the corner, and I got some bad vibes from that dude, so I didn't walk back to my room until I knew he wouldn't know which room I was in. I started walking faster and faster away, and he just followed me.
  At some point, I started running and finally turned a corner back to where my room was. I looked back and could hear he was far behind and out of sight, so I quickly got into my room and locked the door. I just sat with my back to the door in complete silence and heard him running past the door. I did not sleep much that night. @playfaire / Reddit

• A friend and I once stayed at a pretty fancy B&B for the night. The lady who owned it was absolutely lovely but would appear out of nowhere.
  We’d be sitting alone in a large room with one doorway, and suddenly she was in the room with us. Either this joint had secret doors or something really creepy was going on. She seemed to know things that we’d said or done as well.
  The thing that tripped us out the most was hearing someone trying to open our door during the night. She was super lovely, and the building was beautiful, but we were relieved to check out the next morning. redraymus / Reddit

• The scariest thing that ever happened to me when traveling was on a trip to Peru, where I planned to spend some time in the Amazon. As advised, I got a prescription for malaria medication and started taking it in advance of my departure.
  One of the common side effects was hallucinations, and that’s what happened to me on my flight down. I woke up and thought I saw a monster on the wing like that Twilight Zone episode. Clear as day. Thankfully, I didn’t make a scene.
  I immediately called my doctor upon landing, and he advised me to stop taking the pills and skip Amazon. I continued to feel off for the couple of days I was in Lima, and it was raining all across the country, so I cut the trip short and flew home. @MyFriendKevin / Reddit

• I worked in a haunted hotel a few years ago. My favorite story happened to a co-worker of mine. He was working late cleaning up after a small private party. We would use the ballroom for table and chair storage when we weren't using it, so he walked in there with a stack of chairs, and there was a Christmas party going on.
  Hundreds of people dressed in suits and evening gowns were enjoying a beautiful party. My friend was so embarrassed that he barged right in there with a stack of chairs and left as fast as he could. He set the chairs down in the hallway and went to ask where to put them since the ballroom was being used.
  He stopped for a second and realized how late it was. It was past midnight, and we never had parties go on that late. He walked back over to the door and opened it up to blackness. The lights were off in the ballroom, and all the people were gone. @daisy_st_patience216 / Reddit

• My first time in Rio many years ago, I spoke about 5 words of Portuguese, and I didn't have a working phone. I linked up with some locals who seemed to be quite nice, and they took me around during the day to do museum-hopping. Late in the afternoon, most of them peeled off, but two suggested we go to this cool local bar, and of course, I was excited to go.
  We get in a taxi, and since I don't know Rio and don't have a phone to look at a map, I immediately have no idea where we are or where we are going. After a while, we start driving through what looks like an extremely dark, wooded area with a smattering of dim streetlights. At this point, I realize I am in a taxi with two more or less complete strangers going to a completely unknown place in a country where I don't speak the language and a city that is notoriously unsafe, and I'm preparing myself to, at best, wake up in a bathtub full of ice.
  What felt like an hour later but was probably 5 minutes later we broke out into an open area overlooking the water to an absolutely packed bar/restaurant with an even bigger crowd hanging out on the street and on the wall along the water, with music, lights, laughing, and a grand old time. @angelicism / Reddit

• We got (weirdly) upgraded to the Presidential Suite in a famous hotel. My then-18-month-old would stop crawling at the entrance to the area where there was a piano and a bar setup. Would not enter it.
  That area held a chill in the air. It was just completely uncomfortable and creepy. The bedroom area was slightly less creepy, and we all slept okay, but I was not sorry to check out. @DuchessofMarin / Reddit

• In late December 2003, I was staying at a bed & breakfast in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK. My roommate Joe and I were in an upstairs room under the eaves of a quaint three-story row house. The room was small, but just big enough for two beds and side tables.
  Late that night, after we’d gone to bed, I woke up, and the bed covers were slowly being pulled up over my head like I was being tucked in for the night or as if someone was making the bed with me in it. The moment after that, a voice in my head said something like, “You’re going to hear a knock on the door but don’t be alarmed. It’s just me.” And then there were 2–3 sharp raps on the door to the room and light footsteps going down the stairs to the second-floor landing.
  I wasn’t scared, and Joe wasn’t awake. I almost felt this comforting presence, not threatening. To this day, I swear that was the only real interaction I ever had with a spirit or some kind of ghostly presence I couldn’t explain. @leonard_x_magnifico / Reddit

• My fiancé and I were staying at the Best Western Primrose Hotel in Toronto, Ontario. It's like 4 am, and I can't sleep. I turned off the TV and rolled over when I heard my fiancé whispering in his sleep. It's super faint, but I can see in the darkness that his lip movements are really exaggerated for someone who is whispering.
  As I'm trying to figure out what he is saying, I notice something swaying in a steady motion on the wall beside him. I then realize that what I'm looking at is a hand swaying above his face, back and forth, back and forth. Then, I realized that the hand is attached to an arm, the arm to a body, and the body has a head.
  Out of nowhere, there is a man standing beside our bed. He is leaning over my fiancé, waving a hand in his face as if to say, "Can you see me?" Naturally, I'm frozen in fear. As I'm watching, the man stands up, turns around slowly, walks into the darkness of the hallway, and disappears.
  To this day, I have never been able to explain what I saw. He was almost completely transparent. I remember noting that the light from the window behind me reflected on the curves of his arms. Most bizarre experience of my life. @kaayraws / Reddit

• My girlfriend and I took a weekend trip to a picturesque lake town. From our balcony, we had a perfect view of one old mansion, its windows dark. Curious, we decided to take a walk and see it up close. The path led us through the woods. The closer we got, the more we felt it—a feeling that we were being watched. When we reached a clearing and saw the house in full view, something in me whispered, "You shouldn’t be here." We turned back without a word.
  Later that evening, we started looking up the area’s history, and what we found sent a chill down my spine. The house had once belonged to a family who had mysteriously disappeared. No explanation, no clues—just gone, as if they had walked into the lake and never come back. Some believed they had fled. Others said the house had kept them.
  The strangest part? Every attempt to restore or sell the house had failed. The few people who tried to live there left within weeks, some claiming they saw figures at the windows, others waking up to find objects misplaced or missing. Then, that night, something happened to us.
  We were both startled awake by a loud knock at the window. Sharp. Intentional. I sat up, pulse racing. The window was half open, exactly as we had left it before bed. I got up, looked outside—nothing. I closed the window.
  Then, the strangest part. I heard a voice in my sleep, "Give it to me. The black and gold one. I want it." I didn’t think much of it until the next morning when I realized my black and gold lighter—the one I had used just before bed—was gone. We searched everywhere. The room was small, and we hadn’t moved much. It was simply gone. Like something—or someone—had taken it.

• We were all sitting at the bar, I and some people I didn't know, and were just chatting. I was there alone on business, so these people were strangers to me. There was a guy in the seated area with a yellow shirt on by himself.
  I said to the others we should invite him over; they agreed. We turned round to shout him over (he was about 40 feet away), and he was gone. The only way out was a narrow channel walking past us. He hadn't walked past us.
  When we talked to the bar girl, she said, "Yellow shirt?" And then admitted it had happened before. @Boring-Pilot-6009 / Reddit

• When we got married, we settled for a trip to Niagara Falls. We stayed at a hotel. We got into our room, put stuff away, and both put on our pajamas. We were so tired that we just went straight to bed. I woke up a few hours later to her shaking me awake. She said, "There is someone in the room." I turned on the bedside lamp and looked around in the bathroom and under the bed—no one.
  The next night, we were awakened by noises. She grabbed onto my arm, and we both kind of sat up looking into the darkness, and we heard loud footsteps pacing around our room. I said out loud, "HELLO," then we felt like someone sat at the edge of our bed. I jumped up and turned on the light, and no one was there; our door was locked, and with that interior lock that hotel rooms have. No one was hiding in our room.
  The next morning, I went to the front desk and said that our next-door neighbors had been a little loud the past couple of nights. She said that we didn't have anyone next to us last night.
  We fell asleep, and once again after midnight we heard footsteps in our room, right next to my side of the bed, and we could hear it walking in what seemed like a circle. I whispered to my wife that it was not from next door; as I did, we both felt our bed go down like someone sitting in our bed. My wife yelled out, "Please leave us alone; we are on our honeymoon." Then we felt the bed go up.
  We went back down to the lobby and asked them if we could switch rooms; they asked us why. My wife blurted out that the hotel room was haunted. I thought the lady was going to look at us like we were crazy, but she said, "OK, I can put you in room #..." She even offered to have our stuff moved for us.
  We decided to move it ourselves. That night we got a good night's sleep without a pacing ghost to keep us awake. @4thdegreeknight / Reddit

While hotel stays can be creepy, airports are like a never-ending reality show—complete with bizarre encounters, unexpected mishaps, and moments that defy logic. Think you’ve seen it all? Buckle up, because these wild airport stories may leave you shaken.