If something can go wrong, it has already been checked before you did.
Travel brochures promise sunsets, cocktails, and smiling couples who apparently never miss a flight. Reality, on the other hand, travels with Murphy, who has elite status, priority boarding, and a deep personal interest in your plans.
Murphy’s Law of Travel is simple: the smoother your itinerary looks on paper, the more creatively it will unravel in practice.
Let us review his greatest hits.
1. The flight will be delayed only if you arrive early
If you rush to the airport, sweating and dramatic, the plane will leave precisely on time. If you arrive early, relaxed, with a coffee and a book, the delay will be announced in cheerful 20-minute increments until your soul leaves your body.
Bonus points if the delay starts after you sit down at the gate.
2. The one thing you forgot is the one thing you will need
Adapters. Swimsuits. Medication. That one document you checked five times and still left on the kitchen table.
Murphy does not care that you packed three pairs of shoes “just in case.” He wants the smartphone charger.
3. The weather will ignore your plans completely
You planned beaches? Rain. You planned museums? Heatwave.
You planned “a quick walk”? Monsoon.
Weather apps will lie to you confidently. Murphy has bribed them.
4. The hotel room will be “almost” what you booked
You asked for:
- sea view
- quiet
- double bed
You got:
- “partial glimpse of something blue”
- elevator soundtrack
- two beds pushed together pretending to be one
The receptionist will smile and say, “This is what we have available.”
Murphy has already tipped them.
5. The local transport timetable is a philosophical concept
The bus arrives when it wants to. The train is “on its way.” The taxi is five minutes away, but it will take forty minutes.
If you ask a local, they will shrug gently, as if time itself is optional here. Murphy nods approvingly.
6. The best meal will happen by accident
You will spend weeks researching restaurants and have an okay dinner.
Then, tired and slightly annoyed, you will eat at a random place and have the best meal of your life. Murphy enjoys irony.
7. Something will go wrong on the last day
Not the first day. Not the middle. The last day.
Lost passport panic. Sudden illness.
A strike you “did not know about.”
Murphy believes in strong endings.
8. The restroom you need most will be the worst one available
If your journey passes through Heraklion International Airport, Murphy insists on one final test of character.
The restroom will be:
- overcrowded
- under-cleaned
- out of paper at the exact wrong moment
And you will discover this after security, with no escape route.
Murphy’s lesson here is humility. And hand sanitizer. Always have hand sanitizer.
Why Murphy always wins (and why that is fine)
Here is the secret travel agencies do not tell you: If everything went perfectly, you would forget the trip in six months.
You remember:
- the missed connection
- the wrong turn
- the rainstorm
- the absurd delay
- the moment you laughed because there was nothing else to do
Murphy does not ruin trips. He creates chaos – and the best travel stories are born of chaos.
How to beat Murphy (a little)
You cannot defeat him.
But you can annoy him.
- Pack one extra essential.
- Leave buffer time.
- Expect chaos, not perfection.
- Laugh early — it saves energy.
And most importantly: If things go wrong, congratulations. You are traveling the right way. Murphy only follows people who leave the house.
If you respect Murphy’s Laws of Travel, 2026 will bring only predictable surprises. If you want to lose your sanity for a brief moment, feel free to expect everything to go well, because…
- Nothing is as easy as it looks.
- Everything takes longer than you think.
- Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
- If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. Corollary: If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then.
- If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
- If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
- Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
- If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
- Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
- Mother nature is a bitch.
- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
- Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
- The Light at the end of the tunnel is only the light of an oncoming train.
As we head into 2026 with fresh travel plans and big intentions, it might be wise to keep Murphy’s Laws of Travel in mind. Flights will still be delayed, chargers will still be forgotten, weather will still misbehave — and yes, airport restrooms will continue to test our patience. Planning helps, but humor helps more. A gentle reminder that the best trips are rarely the perfect ones. ✈️😄