The sights of Sydney, Canada. Spot Harbour Bridge!
When Italian couple Valerio Torresi and Serena Tavoloni set off on their dream holiday to Sydney, Australia they were rather perplexed to see, instead of Sydney Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Bondi beach – a cruise ship port and flocks of Canada Geese!
To their horror the couple realised that instead of sending them to Sydney in Australia, their travel agent had mistakenly booked them to go to Sydney in Nova Scotia, Canada!
Their dreams of lying on the beach and seeing all the sights of Sydney had to be swapped instead for the charms of the world’s largest fiddle and the Glace Bay Miners Museum.
The couple initially thought, as the plane touched down in Canada, that they were stopping for a plane change, not quite realising that they were 10,500 miles from their planned destination and quite on the opposite side of the world! Mr Torresi told the UK Daily Telegraph of his thoughts when he realised just where they were: “The first reaction was fear,” he said. “And the second reaction is, ‘No, it’s a joke.’ But unfortunately it’s true.”
The couple had to try and make the most of their time in Sydney, Canada. Luckily their plight came to the attention of a local hotel who offered them free accommodation.
Perhaps they will be heartened to know that in 2002 a British couple made the very same mistake. They too thought they were having the holiday of a lifetime in Australia, only to end up in the small town in Nova Scotia, Canada. Perhaps next year they might consider a holiday in Melbourne – Derbyshire, or how about Darwen in Lancashire? Or for the weather I hear Perth in Scotland is very nice this time of year!
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One Response to “Travel to Sydney, Australia – End Up In Canada!”
Comment by Annie from Gold Coast Australia — July 22, 2010 @ 2:42 am
I had a similar experience that happened on my website, but no where near as dramatic.
As some background, am not a travel agent, but my website gives people info about travelling to the Gold Coast in Australia, because I am so sick of seeing the WRONG information written about the Gold Coast by people who must never have been there.
I thought it was pretty obvious that my site was about Australia but I had a guy book tickets through my site for Wet n Wild and Sea World – except he thought he was buying tickets for Orlando! He worked it out straight after he bought the tickets, and it was easy to organise the refund, but imagine if he had turned up at Orlando thinking he had bought the tickets (mind you he would have thought he got such a great deal LOL!),
I had to go back and check my pages to see if they were misleading – but I must mention Gold Coast Australia like a million times!
It does get confusing when there are names of places that are the same or similar, but really a Travel Agent should know better!
What happened to the couple? Did they get a refund from the TA?