Liverpool’s footballers “endured” a 23-hour journey to their European match in Madrid, consisting of three first-class rail trips plus a short first-class flight (and a luxury coach between London Euston and St Pancras). What is the worst journey you’ve ever had to endure and what hardships did you put up with?
A two hour hop from Hong Kong to Beijing turned into a 28 hour journey.
After delays in Hong Kong we finally took off 2 hours late, but on approaching Beijing we did not descend. Instead we continued flying until we landed at a military airport in the north of the country. Eventually we got an announcement that we had diverted due to 'Beijing bad 'vether'. We had to stay in the plane for several hours with only water offered, and views of soldiers and military jets around us. Eventually we had the privilege of walking from the plane to the 'terminal building' otherwise known as a building site. Here there was nowhere to sit, eat or drink! At 10pm buses took us to local hotels. The food announcement was in Chinese (so we missed it) and we had to leave the hotel at 5am the following day to return to the airport. Boarding the plane so early we were optimistic that our journey was soon to recommence, it didn’t. We did eventually get to Beijing at 3pm. Our gentile hosts in Beijing had waited patiently for us, so within hours of landing we were straight into an evening business meeting.
This was over 20 years ago, but I still remember it vividly!
Neil Aldridge, Marlow, Bucks
Flying from Taipei to Seoul, the plane failed on the gate before starting. Having “emigrated” from Taiwan I had no passport and no luggage and had to spend the night in a hotel at the end of the airport runway. Took off at dawn the next day and on arrival at Seoul and lost all my traveller’s cheques. Not very high on the hardship scale but I wouldn’t want to repeat it.
Peter Howells, Tamworth
I always find train travel a pleasure, and have travelled across France to Spain and Portugal by train without any complaint. I find train travel much more enjoyable than air travel. More room onboard, a view of the countryside as you pass, the ability to move about at will, better food and drink, leaving and arriving in the town centre, and the civilised boarding make the train a winner over the airline. The ONLY advantage of an aeroplane is time saving over longer distances.
My worst journey was my first ever package holiday flight to Sri Lanka. Being new to the process I allowed myself to be booked into the centre seat of a 3x5x3 plane. I could not move my legs for 12 hours during the flight. When we arrived I was so uncomfortable that I decided it was not worth the trouble to travel so far. Then they opened the plane door and the sweet warm spiced air entered the cabin and I realised that perhaps it was worth all the pain.
Mick James, Swindon
Driving from Sapele to Lagos Airport, Nigeria some years ago, with driver, wife and 5 daughters under 10 in the car (504 estate). Left at 3am. Due to security situation, locals had set up roadblocks. After 2nd roadblock, told the driver to ignore the next. We were shot at, & got flat tyre so had to stop to fit spare. No spare for rest of journey. Children very quiet.
Peter Maitland, Bristol
Journeying is a state of mind, all of life is a journey of one sort or another. The trick is not to be unhappy, under all circumstances let your mind be at peace, and under extreme duress place your mind on the beach, with a good book, regardless of where your body is. IMechE goes Zen...
Nic Bowman, Royston, Herts
At least the footballers got to their destination. Amidst all the hard luck and daring do stories no thought has been given to those who were unable to complete their regular commute to work because of the volcano.
My worst journey? My first F28 from Jakarta to Balikpapan; I couldn't see out of the windows and the view through the open cockpit door suggested we were fishtailing down the runway!
Philip Ansley-Watson, Staines
My plane to East Midlands was hit by a lorry! So instead of landing there at 17:30 I arrived by coach from Luton at 01:30 the next morning. Not exactly a horror story compared to some, I have been quite lucky really.
John Ovenden, Barton-under-Needwood, Staffs
I once put 2 star petrol in a Spitfire (car...) designed for 4 star. It travelled just far enough to reach the middle of nowhere. My dad tried to rescue me, but he'd never heard of the M42, so he went to the M62. By fiddling with the ignition timing and driving at 30mph I eventually got home.
Peter Hewson, Drax, Yorkshire
This had to be our trip from the South of France back to England in the summer of 1994.
We had driven across France secure in the knowledge we had a booking on the Brittany Ferry. We arrived very early at the ferry port at St Malo to find the car park empty and no queue. We checked and were told to just park up anywhere. We wandered off to have a good look at the town and came back to find a long queue of cars tailing back from the ferry. We confidently joined the queue and patiently waited in line. This proceeded until we were close to the ship when we realised there was no room for another car in line! I jumped up and down etc. protesting that we had a booking and why hadn't they organised a queue of those with bookings. We were told they could perhaps get one more car on! It would need to be the smallest. I convinced the crew that my Mercedes 190 was smaller than the Cortina next to me (My French was better than his) and so they bounced my two week old pride and joy onto the back of the ferry sideways! (With a boot full of wine of course!!)
Quite the most stressful channel crossing ever. Never been near Brittany Ferries again; thank heavens for the tunnel!!
Peter Stanton, Derby
My pregnant wife and I went to Amsterdam for a short relaxing break for the weekend. Because of snow, our direct flight from Birmingham was redirected to Denmark and our connecting flight delayed. It took 15 hours and we spent our weekend recovering. Insurance didn't cover because it was an 'Act of God'
And the best, $1600 of flight vouchers for an overfull plane which meant we had to get the next one three hours later. We spent the vouchers on another holiday to Hawaii (and it happened again to the tune of $1000). Thank you United Airlines!
Peter Tindall, Warwick
I was in Italy when all UK airports were closed because of the terrorist attacks a couple of years back. I left the hotel in Turin at 06:00 and drove to Nice where I found the Easy Jet flight to Luton cancelled. Quickly transferred to the Air France flight to Paris. Caught the local train to the Euro Star terminal. Caught the Euro Star (which I pre booked whilst at Nice airport whilst waiting for the flight to Paris). Underground across London to Euston station then another train to Milton Keynes. Taxi from MK to Towcester to arrive home just before midnight. No real hardships and the journey, although time consuming, went very smoothly. The moral is the minute flights are cancelled you have to act quickly to book alternatives before everyone else does.
Martin Lewis, Towcester
Several years ago a friend's car was stolen at the Milton Keynes Bowl during a Bruce Springsteen concert. Four of us ended up walking for several miles and then hitching a lift to a coach/truck stop just off the M1 Motorway near Milton Keynes. We then waited in the cafe until the early hours of the morning when we got the coach to Heathrow. From their we took a taxi home to Bagshot arriving at around 6 am just in time for a shower before being picked up by car to travel to Hamble on the coast near Southampton. We then raced a Sigma 33 civil service yacht across the channel in a RORC race around the west of the Channel Islands to St Malo through a gale where I lost count of the number of times we broached until finally, in the middle of the night, the spinnaker shackle exploded and we had to save the spinnaker and change to a smaller sail before limiting into St Malo the next day. The epilogue is that several days later returning from the trip the driver of the car fell asleep at the wheel on the M3 and fortunately we made it to the hard shoulder without incident.
Neil Sparshott, Bagshot
I don’t think I’ve ever suffered badly that I can recall – the worst journey was trying to cross the North Yorks Moors in a snowstorm, at night, in winter on the way home from college in the late 80’s. Good job I had a vague idea where the route was. It was a very slow ride (and I think there was only one more behind me that made it through before they closed the road).
Alison Owen, Leeds
Without my car for the usual 8 mile, 20 minute commute to work on 16th January 2008 I embarked on a 15 mile, 2hour adventure using public transport comprising walk, bus, bus, walk, bus, walk. This was my quickest choice from a variety of bus, train and walk combinations. To top it all it cost £6 for a totally miserable, uncomfortable and cold experience.
Paul Gaskell, Prescot, Merseyside
Some years ago, I was en route to Osaka, Japan via Hong Kong on business. I left on Thursday to ensure I was ready to start on Monday morning. My flight was diverted to Kaohsiung (Taiwan), due to a Typhoon. Stayed in Taiwan for one night, then another night in HK, eventually arriving in Osaka at midnight on Sunday, for an 8am start on Monday morning! (Last week I was stuck in Beijing, but I was lucky to have 2 days sightseeing on the end of a month’s business trip!).
Neil Dinmore, Derby
My worst travel experience was either being upgraded to First Class on Singapore Airlines – it was hell or being 39 hours late travelling BA Jakarta to London via Kuala Lumpur for my sister’s wedding with a four year old, but managing to arrive on the morning of the wedding.
Nicholas Crosby, Holmfirth, Yorkshire
Monday: London_Houston, Friday: Houston_Manila via San Francisco/Japan (left Houston Friday evening, after delays into Manila at 1am Monday) Friday: Manila_ London (delayed via Singapore due to Hong Kong hurricane). Tuesday: London_Houston, Friday: Houston_London, after which I didn’t know my occidentals from my orientals…!!!
Mike Philip, Orpington, Kent
I can't think of a better way of spending 23 hours.
Paul Doggett, East Grinstead, Sussex
I had quite a few rum journeys in my youth, where hunger, cold and sleep deprivation played their part. However, nowadays I would say that any journey involving an airport would qualify as a bad one, especially when travelling alone for work.
Peter Kerr, Cockermouth, Cumbria
When, with a bunch of SCUBA diving friends returning from a week in Achiltibuie in the North of Scotland, the cylinder head gasket blew on our Transit van with only 12 miles gone, we called the AA. It took them 12 hours to get to us, and then a further 24 hours to get back to Nottingham, having gone through three of their regional zones each requiring a change of towing vehicle and several hours wait. We slept where we could, in the back of the lorry cab, or on seats in the waiting rooms, and otherwise fought off the boredom of the journey. The AA was brilliant and will always have my admiration.
Peter Ingamells, Hook, Hampshire
My nightmare journeys pale compared my colleague who was stranded for 9 days as a result of the recent Volcano. However, I think we all need to be reminded occasionally, of the fragility of our comfortable existence and our assumption that it is guaranteed in perpetuity.
Nick Lyons, Lincoln
The flight Leh to Srinagar was cancelled and that’s it, you are on your own. It’s a 2 month wait for a flight so I decided to book a bus. There were eight buses available at the seat allocation time when the army marched in and commandeered six of the buses. That left two, I got the last seat! At the pass over the Himalayas, the road was closed so we waited along with hundreds of trucks. Two days later I arrived back in Srinagar.
Peter Airey, Perthshire