I’ve always had an interest in the supernatural, as someone who believes in “special things” as my boyfriend likes to put it. In the spirit of spooky season, I have spent the month reading up on paranormal stories. Reading these stories are a guilty pleasure of mine, and they had me thinking about the creepiest experiences I’ve had myself while traveling. Naturally, I only started believing in these things after I’ve had a handful of my own paranormal encounters around the world.
I get serious goosebumps remembering some of them, and I am excited to share them with the internet so you can be scared with me. You don’t have to be a believer to enjoy these stories, as that’s what they essentially are: ghost stories. But, all of these things happened with a witness, so I know that what happened was real. Here are the creepiest things that happened to me while traveling.
Lost Soul in Paradise
Location: North Shore, Hawaii
It was just past sunset, and we were on the way back to town from Sunset Beach on the North Shore of Oahu. It had been a beautiful day in paradise, that left us feeling exhausted and in dire need of some Zippy’s (local fast food place). My mother was driving, and my sister was in the passenger seat. I was seated just behind her, with my brother on my left. He was already falling asleep, unsurprisingly, after our long beach day. The rest of us, however, were in good spirits, chatting away on the hour long drive back home.
I remember looking out the window, while listening to my mother and sister’s conversation. I was looking at nothing in particular, as it was already mostly dark. There were just the last few slivers of daylight left in the sky, barely visible beyond the trees.
As I am staring out my window, about 20 minutes after we had left Sunset Beach, I saw it. There, on the right side of the road, very clearly against the blackness of the night, was a white face. This face was like a human’s face, except the fact that it was completely void of any skin color or emotion. The eyes were extremely hollow and empty looking, and the skin looked thin and taught. I don’t remember his eyes having pupils, and he appeared to have no mouth. It was very disturbing; I don’t know how to describe it, except to say that his face was drooping. It looked like it was slowly falling off the bone.
This white face also had a body, but even in the moving vehicle, I could see that the body was not really there. It looked 80% like a human figure, but not completely solid. Despite this, I could have maybe convinced myself that it was in fact a real person, if it weren’t for the fact we were in the middle of nowhere. The stretch of road we were on wasn’t near any homes or anything for that matter. Just fields of sugar cane and trees. There isn’t even a sidewalk. There is literally no reason why someone would be walking out there.
As this is happening, my mother is still deep into her story, talking the whole time. She clearly didn’t notice anything.
What must have been a second felt like much longer to me. As we pass it, I immediately tell myself, that what I saw wasn’t real, fully intending to brush it from my memory. Afterall, I must have been tired from the day at the beach and in the sun. It wasn’t until my sister, turned around in the passenger seat and whispered to me that my gut turned. In the smallest voice, she said “That was really scary”, then promptly turned back around to face the front again. After that moment of confirming that what I saw was real, we never spoke about it again.
The Ghost in Our Airbnb
Location: Kings Cross, London, UK
In 2018, two of my close girlfriends and a guy friend decided to spend New Years Eve partying in London. We booked an Airbnb flat through booking.com (to avoid Airbnb’s service fees) for the few days leading up to the New Year.
Upon checking in, the apartment seemed completely normal. In fact, it was exceptionally, bright and cheerful looking, due to the chic decor and big windows. The only thing that looked off, was this creepy sketch of a half faceless child, that was mounted right next to the front door. In this sketch, the child, had dark holes for eyes. It was hiding in a doorway with only half his face peeking out, the other half in shadows. It was just creepy.
I remember my friends and I making some cheeky remarks about it, and how the owner must be a bit of a nutjob. We didn’t think much of it further than that. We were much more pre-occupied with which pubs we were heading out to for the night.
Around 9 pm, we head out for the night, and I was the one to lock the door. I specifically remember turning the key and locking the door before we left, and nothing more. I am sure of that. That’s why what happened when we returned disturbs me the most, possibly more than the others.
We came home between 2 to 3 am. Admittedly, we were all tipsy, but none of us were incoherent. I handed my guy friend the key and let him open the door, since he was in front of me. We watched him struggle for a few seconds, unsure why. I just assumed he had had too many drinks. But after a couple seconds, he was still struggling. It wasn’t until he started throwing his shoulder into the door, that it finally busted open.
He had forced the door open, which ended up breaking the doorframe. The door frame had been yanked off the wall, by the chain which was secured onto the door. The frame had broken, and was half dangling in midair, and half supported against the open door. We stood there and stared at it a few seconds. In my drunk mind, I couldn’t understand why that happened. It took a few seconds before I realized what was wrong.
We stood in that doorway confused as fuck. The reason he couldn’t open the door was because it was chained shut, from the inside. But, how? There is no way that chain could have been locked from the outside, and since I was the one to close it, I knew for a fact I hadn’t touched that chain.
Our initial thought was that someone was in the apartment, which was a huge reason for concern. My guy friend, armed with liquid courage, went to inspect the small apartment. It didn’t take long for him to announce that there was no one in there. Moreover, we were located on the 14th floor, in a glass building with no balconies. There is no way someone could have gotten in while we were out, except through the front door. If they did come in through the front, they’d have to unlock the chain to get back out the front.
I started to get a really tense feeling in that hallway, and I remember just not wanting to look towards that creepy ass sketch on the wall. I felt like something was there with us, looking at us.
The realization that someone or something had been in our apartment set in. Whatever it was, it had the ability to physically lift and secure the door chain into the latch. In England, the chains are big and heavy. You have to lift it up and slide it with intention through the latch to lock it. There was no chance of trying blame it on the nonexistent wind or anything somewhat rational. Needless to say, we were pretty scared.
Some of us in the group didn’t believe in the paranormal before that, but I think that changed after that night. We slept together that evening, and I’m pretty sure we left the light on. We didn’t have any other incidents for the other two nights we stayed, and I don’t remember thinking about it that much. However, I will say that I definitely avoided looking at that sketch by the front door for the rest of our stay.
After we checked out, I emailed the owner telling him about the experience. He confirmed that no one could have gotten into the apartment, but did not divulge further. Recently, upon doing some research, I learned that the apartment is no longer on Airbnb or booking.com. I wonder if it received negative reviews from guests who experienced what we did, preventing it from getting booked on those websites. I did find it on Expedia and Travelocity, though.
The Bell
Location: Kilkenny, Ireland
We visited Ireland this summer, when Europe was starting to reopen during a low point in the COVID case numbers. Kilkenny was one of our favorite stops. It was a sunny, beautiful medieval town. There were castles, green parks and gardens, and a charming old town with cobbled alleyways to get lost in.
It also was known as one of the most haunted places in Ireland. That is an impressive title in itself considering how haunted Ireland is in general. We heard stories about dismembered apparitions, faceless ghosts and witch burnings from local legends.
On our second night in Kilkenny, I was up late due to my work schedule. Around 4 AM, I finished my first shift and was ready for bed. My boyfriend was deep in sleep after a long day of sightseeing.
I turned off the lights in our Airbnb bedroom. We were staying in a cottage not far from the old town. Our bedroom window faced the front of the house and we had a sheer curtain covering the window.
I got into bed and try to fall asleep. I heard some faint tinkling sounds, which I mostly ignored, and started dozing off. The sound seemed to get louder and louder, like it was following a path towards our cottage. I remained unbothered, and was already half asleep.
The tinkling sound now seems to be in front of our lawn, a few meters from our window. The sound is now distinguishable, and I recognized it as a bell. Stubborn and tired, I still continued to try to sleep.
The sound started to creep up closer to our window. I didn’t hear any footsteps, or see any shadows outside. We had a huge streetlamp outside, so there should have been shadows if anything was there.
At this point the bell sound is very loud and I can’t convince myself it’s nothing anymore. I sat straight up in my bed, and stared out the window. I listened to it get closer and closer. Soon, it would be right outside our window. Still, nothing. I saw nothing outside.
I started to get scared, and I whispered to my boyfriend to wake him up. I asked him if he could hear what I did. At first he was annoyed that I woke him up, then suddenly, silent. He was listening, and he could hear it too.
We said nothing as the sound came right outside our window. We could see through the curtains, and there was nothing there. I remember wishing they weren’t see-through. I didn’t want whatever was out there to see us. I don’t know how long we sat there, looking out the window expecting whatever it was to reveal itself.
Finally, it stopped. We didn’t hear the sound slowly slip away, the way it slowly crept closer to us. It just stopped. My boyfriend doesn’t believe in ghosts at all. When I asked him the next day he admitted he heard the sound, and that it was weird, but we never discussed it further.
So, those are a few of the creepiest experiences I’ve had while traveling. I still have no explanation for any of these things that happened to this day. I feel uneasy just thinking about these stories again, but they sure are fun to retell. I do have more stories, but I’ll save them for another day. Do you have any travel ghost stories? I would LOVE to hear them!
Leave a Reply