(CNN) -- The car breaks down. The lover jilts you mid-trip. The hotel turns out to be a dump.



Pericles Rellas thanks a dumpy hotel and a kind stranger for showing him Old Cairo in Egypt 20 years ago.



Travel snafus can throw upside down the most thought-out of vacation plans. But what the mishaps lead to, and how people deal with them, can be blessings in globe-trotting disguise.



"When things go wrong, travel gets more interesting," said Jim Benning. "If everything goes exactly as planned, the trip may be all right, but is it the trip you'll tell people about for years to come? Probably not."



No stranger to travel trials -- he's heard about and lived plenty -- Benning is the editor of World Hum, an online travel magazine that focuses on the journey as much as the destination.



In 2001, he found himself on a 20-hour-long, overstuffed train ride across China. It was so unbearable that he jumped off in Chengdu in Sichuan province, an area he never intended to explore.



"The only reason I got off is I couldn't stand another second on that train," he said. "It led to the best week I had in China."



Travelers who can stay flexible and roll with the glitches do well, even "thrive," when adversity strikes, Benning said.



Nancy Donohue of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, is one such person.



Back in 2003, the artist joined her grown son, Jeremiah (or "Maia"), in volunteering at an orphanage in Guatemala. Once the three-week stint was over, the two set out on a road trip to take his car back to his home in California. But only two days into the drive, the car broke down north of Acapulco, Mexico, leaving them stranded beneath the hot sun for three hours, she said.



They found refuge in the town of Coyuca -- her for one week (she had to fly back to the states) and Maia for two weeks -- before the right car part arrived and he could move on. While there, they found bliss, bonding with the locals and spending their days at the beach, swimming in a lagoon and feasting on 10-cent mangoes. iReport: Read about this lucky breakdown



"It's the story of my life," Donohue said. "Anything that happens is for the good."



Even in the worst of times, there can be blessings, Shirley Brooks-Jones learned.



The Columbus, Ohio, resident was on Delta Flight 15 from Frankfurt, Germany, to Atlanta, Georgia, on September 11, 2001. The terrorist attacks had closed U.S. airspace, and for 24 hours, she was on one of nearly 40 airplanes on the tarmac in Gander, Newfoundland, getting bit-piece updates and trying to understand what had happened.



When it became clear that they'd be going nowhere anytime soon, she and the others deplaned -- without their luggage. The people of Gander and the surrounding villages wowed Brooks-Jones, 73, and the other stuck passengers with their kindness. Locals gave them shelter, food, and access to phones and televisions so they could follow the news. They made sure prescriptions were filled, gave them clothing when needed and made sure they had every toiletry they lacked.



The people of Lewisporte, the modest village where she was stranded, did all of this without allowing the passengers to pay for a thing.



"We just landed on their doorstep," said Brooks-Jones, who's been back to visit 16 times since that initial four-day layover. "I fell in love with those people and the area."



She wasn't the only one. Those on her flight who were touched by the people of Lewisporte helped fund a scholarship for students there. The Lewisporte Area Flight 15 Scholarship Fund has raised nearly $900,000, she said.



For Celeste Botha, a far less warm, even icy, reception turned her travels topsy-turvy.
When things go wrong, travel gets more? What went wrong? What happened at 9/11? Car breakdown leads mother and son to? Where is Cairo?
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question: When things go wrong, travel gets more?, answer: interesting," | question: What went wrong?, answer: car breaks down. | question: What happened at 9/11?, answer: terrorist attacks | question: Car breakdown leads mother and son to?, answer: spending their days at the beach, swimming in a lagoon | question: Where is Cairo?, answer: Egypt