My Worst Travel moments of 2024

You can’t have the good without the bad — and I’ve always made an effort to talk about the bad times that happen while traveling! The top thing that people tell me is “You’re so honest,” and I make sure to tell the truth.

Because yes — travel is fun and transformative and life-affirming. But it can also be uncomfortable, stressful, smelly, and expensive.

It’s good to remember that, and it helps you appreciate the good moments more. (And it’s a lot of fun to laugh about it after the fact!)

Let’s take a look at my worst travel moments of 2024!

The Horrible Illness of February

I’ll admit that I am still pissed off about this, months later. I attended a conference in February. A colleague showed up at the conference coughing all over the place, insisting that their illness wasn’t anything anyone had to worry about.

Spoiler alert: it was.

A few days after the conference, on my final day in Paris, I noticed that my ham and brie sandwich didn’t taste…right. Two days after that, I became so sick with a hacking cold that I went an entire night without sleeping a wink. I tested myself for COVID several times and it always came back negative, but the coughing got so bad, I almost couldn’t stop.

This is the sickest that I have ever been — far worse than my bout with COVID in 2022.

I went to see my doctor, who diagnosed me with bronchitis, and it took weeks to finally dissipate.

And you know what? My cough sounded EXACTLY like my colleague’s at the conference — the cough that apparently nobody had to worry about.

My colleague should have skipped the conference — but since they insisted on attending, they should have worn a mask. And you know what I did? I masked at the only other conference I attended in 2024, because there was no way I was going to get that sick from someone again. I was one of two people masking.

Please, people — I understand that you’re not going to mask all the time. I ask that you please mask if you’re sick, even if it isn’t COVID, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE mask if you’re feeling a bit under the weather but you have to attend an event where you’re spending lots of time face-to-face with other people.