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it always rains when we are on holiday, even when i went to Spain in 1972 with my parents it poured down and we were camping.so probably the worse holiday disaster again as a child and camping was our Irish setter would howl if forced to sleep in the car. so he was tied to the tent poles overnight (otherwise he would be out chasing rabbits)and in his excitement he pulled the tent down on all of us. i prefer to stay in a holiday cottage and apart from the weather no major problems except forgetting to pack a waterproof.

How a minor holiday disaster can become a family legend.-When my grandson was two and a half, myself, my mum, grandson and son (who had recently split from his partner) took a holiday cottage in Yorkshire. One day we bought from a local market some pasties for our tea, we took them back to the cottage and I popped them into the oven (I thought)to warm up. Unfortunately I had turned on the grill! Within minutes there was smoke billowing from the cooker, the smoke alarm was screaming and we pulled from the oven the pasties, burned black and flaming. All that holiday GS kept asking "Why did granny set fire to the pasties?" And he continued to do this from time to time for a long time after the holiday , even though we assured him it was an accident. Fast forward ten years, we are all at a cottage again, also with us are son's wife and their daughter aged two and a half and the baby. GS takes great pleasure from telling GD all about the pasties, coaching her and then sending her over to me to ask "Granny why did you set fire to the pasties?" I'm obviously never going to be allowed to forget- grrr grandchildren!!!!

When I was a child we went camping across Europe including Bulgaria which meant holes in the floor loos, I was bitten by a small Scorpion, My poor mother had dreadful piles and my father acted like we were on a expedition so everything was regimented and lacked comfort - horrendous!

A holiday disaster happened to us when going on a driving holiday to France many years ago. The car was full with our belongings and locked while we went to get a bite to eat at a nearby cafe, as a break on the way to the South of France. While inside our car windows were smashed and many contents were stolen. It was most distressing, so the next couple of days were spent reporting the crime, getting the car fixed and buying replacement clothes, towels, etc. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but it did spoil the holiday

Dec 30th three years ago and driving across Germany with some friends to join family in their house for New Year. About 50 miles to go and the car started 'coughing' before finally coming to a halt, luckily just giving us time to drift onto the hard shoulder. Car still under warranty so long phone calls to help line in England and advised to get out of the car and stand behind the barrier. It was absolutely freezing and we had to wait for nearly 4 hours for a pick up truck to take us to the nearest town during which time both police and a couple of motorists stopped to offer help. Family came out and rescued us from the garage and on New Years Eve morning they rang to say they had fixed the problem......it had run out of fuel! The fuel gauge was faulty and hadn't registered the level or turned on the warning light. Needless to say there were many jokes made at DH's expense to do with how to use a petrol pump!

it had to be when our flight was cancelled and we had to re-book

We went on a short stay to a Legoland few Easters ago which was a disaster. It was freezing cold and snowing and we forgot to pack daughters coat. We ended up having to spend £40 on a Legoland fleece and even then we were so cold all the kids were crying.
Then to top it all the ride broke when we was at the top of it and we had to wait 30 minutes to get down and I'm scared of heights.
All in all not a good break.

Not so much a disaster...but when my little boy was little (3 i think) whilst I was unpacking he was exploring the chalet we were staying in and of course I let him. He was very good (or so I thought). But turns out he had been taking clothes and flushing them down the toilet - or trying to (only ended up one pair of pyjama bottoms missing in the end!

When, as a child (a long, long time ago!) we were camping and being eaten alive by mosquitos. My mum rubbed glue on my legs instead of bite relief cream, as the tubes were very similar and mum wasn't wearing her glasses.......it still makes me chuckle.

A very rainy holiday in Scotland - despite our best efforts we ran out of rainy day things to do - including woodland walking- and the cottage was so dark we couldn't find much to occupy us indoors, so we ended up going home early.

Getting lost in New York and missing my flight back home

It has to be when we went to Spain for a week we all came down with food poisoning, it was horrendous and my worst holiday.

We went on a cruise to the Caribbean - but our luggage didn't make the plane at Schipol, so we had three days sailing with nothing more than a clean t shirt which they gave us and some toiletries. Not ideal when you want to enjoy a formal night!

Not really a disaster but my daughter arrived early when I was on holiday in Scotland.

We had an 8 hour delay on our holiday to Cyprus, and an earthquake while we were there!

When I was younger our entire family used to go away together to caravan parks, aunties, uncles, cousins ... the whole lot. One year we went to one in the Isle of Wight, we got off the ferry and found out we had to make our own way to the campsite as our transport had fallen through, so we walked miles through fields and so on (my cousin lost his shoe in the mud it was so squelchy!!), and then when we arrived, after a few days I started to develop spots... yep, I had chicken pox, and it literally spread through the whole family ... all us kids were covered in calamine lotion and spent the whole time inside!!

My holiday disaster was last year. Me and hubby got really bad food poisoning. Luckily our friends were arriving a few days later and were able to bring more Imodium !!! Phew

we were returning from a self catering holiday in cornwall.we had cleared the food out of the kitchen.i stupidly gave my daughter some tomatoes to eat before the journey home.you can probably imagined what happened,we had only been travelling for about half an hour when the lot came back,i never did that again!

Many years ago whilst in New York we managed to lose my younger brother on the subway - he jumped off at a stop but the rest of us realised it was the wrong one. Unfortunately we weren't quick enough to tell him and the train pulled away without him.
We found him eventually but it involved several backwards and forwards trips between stations!

Compared with some of the posts my tale is more of a hiccough than a disaster. We were holidaying independently in Crete and were moving to a hotel on the south of the island by bus. We arrived in good time at the bus stop but there was almost no one in sight, but assumed this was all part of the casual Cretan timekeeping we had encountered elsewhere. We waited over an hour until people started arriving, followed eventually by our bus. We then discovered that the clocks had changed and we had arrived over an you early for the bus

My holiday disaster was going on a camping trip to Devon, we chose a 'family friendly park' Firstly it took over two hours to put up our tent in monsoon rain which was so bad we couldn't see more than about 2 feet in front of us. Finally having settled down to sleep the nightly entertainments finished around 2am, at which point all the drunken revelers had an impromptu party outside our tent for the next hour.... needless to say we packed up the next day!!!

my sister and I took all of the children to london for a long weekend. It rained so hard that my makeup ran, and my underwear was wet. Several years later, the children all remember the holiday but none of them remember the weather

Just a couple of months ago, we'd booked the holiday of a lifetime to Zambia and South Africa.
Lots of flights, the first of which was from a regional airport to Heathrow with BA, we were just about to set off for the airport when we got a text to say the flight was cancelled.
Advice? 'Contact your airline' It was a bank holiday, and neither BA nor SAA (who our Africa flights were with) had anyone we could speak to! We had no choice but to book a car park near Heathrow (thank goodness we could do that!) and drive the length of the country on a Bank Holiday to try to make our main flight to SA. Every time another motorway stantion had a sign saying "queue ahead" my heart sank! What a nightmare.
We made it! Caught the flight, and the holiday was brilliant, although I aged approx 10 years on that mad dash across the UK!

Skiing in Val Thorens, France. My partners first time skiing & I was desperate for him to enjoy it. Well, first day he had a lesson on the beginners slope, fell badly and hurt his thumb and wrist. Trip to the doctors -he didn't ski again for the rest of the week! Second day I left my skis outside a cafe while we had a drink. Went to find them & they'd gone. I had to go back to the rental shop & pay to hire another pair. They never turned up! We both had to put a claim in on our insurance when we got home-not the best holiday we"ve had & we haven't been skiing since!

Oh, I had a "significant" birthday and my husband and I were joined by friends for a long weekend city break. Unfortunately, one couple failed to tell us they were at the tail end of Noru virus. The rest of the party saw nothing of the city or its sights having caught the bug from them! That said, I probably improved my language skills from lying on the sofa watching local daytime TV and news!