A travel insurance company has announced the winners of the World's Unluckiest Traveler awards for 2024, featuring a collection of terrifying and bizarre travel adventures. This travel nightmare contest received nearly 500 entries from across North America. After weeks of voting, a winner has emerged.
Julie S was named the world's unluckiest traveler and won $10,000. Her story, “From Bodybag to Skydiving,” chronicles a trip to Phoenix with her boyfriend Sam. After a night of accidents, Sam had to be transported in a body bag due to lack of space, but he recovered and insisted on skydiving.
The runner-up, Jennifer G, shared her story “MexiNO!” about her diagnosis of kidney failure and her decision to travel before starting dialysis. Her vacation in Mexico, intended to escape the Wisconsin winter, turned out to be disastrous: There was no beach, a closed pool and a moldy, bedbug-infested room with no water. She spent the night in the bathtub and won $5,000.
Photo credit: worldsunluckiesttraveler.com
Third, “Don't Look Up While Walking” shares a cautionary tale about visiting Maho Beach in St. Maarten to see planes flying low over neighboring Princess Juliana Airport. The third-place winner received $3,000. Fourth place went to “A Trip That Took Many Years Off My Life,” about a mother and her teenage son visiting southern Italy for the first time, where the child ended up in hospital with a bacterial infection that required seven days of ultrasound . . The fourth place winner received a set of Victorinox luggage.
According to the web portal from the company, Anna F received the fourth highest votes (1,082 votes) and won the fourth prize, a new set of Victorinox luggage (valued at $1,900). Our thanks to Victorinox for donating this great prize. And Sweepstakes winner Melanie A was a randomly selected voter and won the sweepstakes prize, a GoPro action camera and kit (valued at $450).
