13 People Who Went on Vacation and Came Back with Horror Stories

Sometimes, what seems like the perfect vacation turns into a painful awakening. From unexpected betrayals to hidden secrets, these stories reveal how things can take a sudden turn when trust is broken. While vacations are meant to be a time for relaxation and connection, for some, they have become the backdrop for heartbreaking discoveries. Here are a few real-life stories of trips that went from dream getaways to unforgettable lessons in trust and honesty.

• My friends and I rented a beautiful cabin in the woods for a weekend getaway. We were excited to disconnect from everything and enjoy some time in nature. After the first night, we noticed a strange noise from the attic, but we shrugged it off as an animal or the wind. The next day, one of us found a hidden room behind a false wall in the living room. To our horror, inside there were old photos of previous guests, and a notebook filled with personal details about our lives. It turned out the owner had been keeping track of their guests, monitoring their habits, and writing about their every move. We packed up and left immediately, but it was too late—the unsettling feeling of being watched stayed with us for a long time.

• My boyfriend planned a romantic weekend at a luxury hotel. Everything felt perfect—until checkout. His card got declined, and he turned red with embarrassment. I smiled and paid for our stay. As we were leaving, the receptionist discreetly pulled me aside and said, “Be careful, I’ve seen this guy do the same thing with other women. He comes here, his card gets declined, and they end up paying for everything.”
  I chose not to believe her. We were still early in our relationship, and I trusted him completely—I had no reason not to. But over time, he started pulling similar tricks more often. I noticed he was making me pay for shopping trips and other expenses. The final straw came when he tried to steal my money by pressuring me to invest in a shady scheme.
  I broke up with him. Yet the memory of that hotel stay still haunts me because it was the beginning of it all, and I wish I had listened to that girl.

• A few years ago, I was staying at a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, and they had construction going on. Construction-related faulty wiring or something kept causing the alarm to go off (false alarm), and periodically a recorded voice would announce there was some kind of incident and to stay in your room until otherwise notified.
  All. Night. Long. I couldn’t get any sleep, and I had to get up early and work all day. © harbac / Reddit

• The hotel I stayed in years ago to spend the night with my then-boyfriend when he was coming back from being away for months was a disaster. The building was under construction, so it was a mess with tradespeople everywhere.
  And the reason it was under construction was that it was being converted from a hotel to a senior’s residence! It was already operating as such while still taking hotel bookings. None of this was disclosed on their website, which showed really nice rooms.
  When I checked in, the staff member had to move a sign advertising their upcoming diabetes workshop out of the way. The room I stayed in had already been converted. Emergency assistance pull cords were everywhere, all the furniture and the bathroom were set up for accessibility, and it had the most uncomfortable bed ever.
  I couldn’t believe it. I was so embarrassed to have to bring my boyfriend there, but it was too late to cancel and rebook. Haha! © GrammaMo/ Reddit

• Last year for Valentine’s Day, I got a room for my wife and me at a really nice hotel. It was pretty expensive, but all the reviews said it was really nice, and the rooms were big.
  We got in, and the staff was extremely rude. We don’t look like the kind of people who can afford to spend a lot on a hotel room, and the staff made us feel like we didn’t belong there.
  We got up to the room, and it was super tiny. It was boiling in the room, and the air conditioning didn’t work. I asked the staff if there was a way to fix it, and they just ignored us. © sksksk1989 / Reddit

• My family had gone to Florida for vacation and were staying in a cheap but relatively nice hotel. After the first three days, we noticed they had a mini-fridge in the room, so naturally, my brother looked inside. Someone before us had opened two of the soda cans in the fridge, half-drank both of them and placed them back in the fridge upside down.
  After a few days, what seemed like the hotel's entire ant population had swarmed inside the fridge. When my brother opened it, so many ants came pouring out that it might have looked like a movie scene. The fridge was promptly shut, and after my brother's quick shower, we decided we didn’t want to stay in the hotel after that night. © NikolaTesla1 / Reddit

• I went to a motel while on vacation with an ex. I went to take a shower and locked the bathroom door. When I was done, dried off, and ready to go back into the main part of the room, the door wouldn’t open.
  My ex had to call the front desk, and they sent someone up to the room, who proceeded to disassemble the doorknob to open the door. After that, they upgraded our room for the evening. © vesnapukanic / Reddit

• My dad went to a hotel once and checked into a first-floor room. He went into the room, put his stuff down, opened the curtains... and a man was hiding there.
  My dad said, “Excuse me,” closed the curtains, got his stuff, and left. He went to the front desk to explain that a man was hiding in his room. It turned out the guy had just robbed a place and somehow got into the room through an open window. © arcant12 / Reddit

• I needed to find a hotel because of my daughter’s gymnastics competition. I read online reviews, and they were good. The price was good too, so I booked it.
  I had difficulty finding it because it was dark, and their sign wasn’t lit. The parking lot was pitch black. Just outside the entrance, there were two sketchy guys.
  Inside, the motel lobby was dimly lit with flickering lights. The room was no better—stained sheets, holes in the bedspread, and hair in the shower. The fitness room consisted of a broken stair stepper and an old TV on the ground that was also broken.
  I told the front desk that I wanted to cancel our reservation. She said, “I don’t blame you. This place is gross. I had an interview at Kohl’s and hope they hire me so I can quit this place.” © DareWright / Reddit

• I showed up at a very nice resort hotel, extraordinarily late, for a company-wide meeting. My flight from the East Coast to the West Coast had been delayed, re-routed, and so on, and I ended up walking into my hotel at 4 AM.
  The scariest-looking guy I’ve ever seen behind a hotel desk greeted me. When I said I was checking in, he seemed immediately flustered and started calling rooms. He apologized if someone answered. It took me a couple of seconds to realize he had no idea who was in which room, and he was calling rooms at 4 AM to see what was empty.
  He finally located an empty room and gave me the key. I went to the room, closed the door, and hoped to get about two hours of sleep before my morning meeting. Realizing what he had done, I thought I’d be smart and take my phone off the hook before I went to sleep.
  At 5 AM, someone was trying to get into my room. Apparently, he still couldn’t figure out who wasn’t answering and who was busy.
  I found out the next morning that the person who tried to get into my room went back to the front desk and was told there were no more rooms. The desk clerk offered him the sofa in the lobby for an hour or two if he wanted to sleep there. © gjallard / Reddit

• I was about 4 at the time, so this is mostly based on my siblings’ stories, though I remember a few still shots. We were at a hotel with some family friends and their kids (5 kids total, us included, ages 4–13). The parents put us all in the same room to chill in the evening while they went out to do adult things (probably a fancy dinner).
  We were chilling on the bed watching a movie when, all of a sudden, we heard a loud noise, the floor vibrated a bit, and then, I kid you not, hundreds, if not thousands, of mini spiders started flowing up the walls from two of the bottom corners of the room.
  After a failed attempt to defend our ground by using marshmallows and ice cubes as projectiles, we huddled in the bathroom, sealing the bottom of the door with a towel. I slept in the bathtub with my sister that night. There were no phones to call for help (this was before kids/teens ever had cell phones), and we were very clearly instructed not to leave the room under any circumstances. We took those instructions a bit too seriously.
  My parents discovered the scene in the middle of the night and probably woke up the whole floor with their initial scream. We all ended up okay, though. © SKirby00 / Reddit

• I was staying with a friend at a hotel in Philadelphia. It was around midnight when we got in, and I realized that the maid service hadn’t given us enough towels. So, I went down to the front desk to get some more, but for whatever reason, they couldn’t give me any there and said that someone would bring towels up to the room within an hour.
  As I was getting ready to take the elevator back up to our room, I noticed this creepy guy also waiting for the elevator, and he kept staring at me. Right after the elevator doors closed, the guy started asking how my day was, what I was doing later, if I wanted to hang out, etc. I kept saying no, but he didn’t seem to get the hint.
  Finally, the elevator reached the floor we were staying on, but of course, our room was at the end of this really long hallway. As I was walking back, I heard footsteps behind me. I immediately thought, “This is how I die.” I started walking faster down the hall but didn’t want to turn around because, that’s when they get you, right?
  At this point, I was practically jogging to our room, and when I got there, I started knocking loudly and banging on the door for my friend to let me in. They seemed to take forever, and I could hear the footsteps behind me getting louder and closer. My friend finally opened the door, and I took a chance to look down the hall to see...
  A guy that worked at the hotel bringing me some towels. I assume he took a different elevator up to our floor and exited a few moments after I did. © I_Need_To_Get_A_Life / Reddit

• We went to Paris for what was supposed to be a celebration of our anniversary. But by the second day, I noticed my husband seemed distracted and kept stepping outside to take calls. When I finally found the courage to check his phone, I saw messages from a woman he had met while we were there. He had been secretly meeting her during our trip, all while pretending to be fully engaged with me. The romance of the city of love turned into the heartbreak of betrayal, and I had to face the reality of his infidelity.

Here you'll find photos and stories of people whose vacations took unexpected and unfortunate turns.