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Was traveling with my mum and brother many years ago to get to Singapore where my dad was working. There was a fuel strike with aeroflot (Russian airline) and we stopped via the far east at loads of different airports, it took 48 hours to get there. Arrived absolutely shattered to collect my case which had been emptied except for a belt and a pyjama top!!!! I was devastated after an awful journey!!!

We were holidaying in Malta when the boys were small. Within our first 24 hours, hubby had walked straight into the patio glass door when rushing to look at the view from the hotel room, eldest son fell into a hole in the road and shortly after youngest was floating on bis lilo when he drifted into a buoy which had a dangerous spike which popped it. He panicked and began floundering but hubs swam to his rescue... it got better after that, but at first we thought the holiday was jinxed!

i went on my first ever holiday without kids/grandkids and it rained the whole week but back in the uk they had a heatwave!

Many years ago my family travelled to North Wales. The first flat was filthy and Mum refused to stay. The second was full of bedbugs, so again rejected. Eventually we arrived at a holiday park home and I thought it was ok, my parents spent the whole time moaning about dog hairs!!
Not great memories of Llandudno circa 1972

We left home in the uk to catch the ferry to France for a camping holiday. On the way my husband rooted around in the dark in the car for something and our passports had slipped out onto the driveway. We drove 5 hours with kids and cat. Sat waiting to board for 5 hours. When they called us forward no passports could be found. We drove back 5 hours in silence except for 2 sobbing boys and a very unhappy cat!

holiday disaster was the start of our holiday in Italian lakes. Flying into Milan with 3 DC we were unprepared for 12 hour close of the motorways and spent all night trying to navigate to Lake Garda when all road were closed. The rest of the hols was lovely but will never fly to Malpensa Milan again

My holiday disaster happened on the first day of a cruise.Whilst opening a heavy external door from the deck in sandals,the ship listed, and the door swung back unexpectedly onto my foot. The impact took off most of one toe nail,which needed daily dressing changes and the only footwear I could walk in was tight trainers. I hobbled around all week, not ideal when you have young children who want to explore and swim.

When I was eighteen I went to cornwall with a friend.I drank far too much of the local cider and ended up in bed for three days,my friend was not very pleased.On the fourth day we went to a club and my friend slipped on the dance floor and broke her wrist.

Went to Egypt and had an allergic reaction to the sun!

We were living and working abroad in Jamaica as young parents. We had heard that in Haiti the locals were producing beautiful art which was good to buy.
What a shocking place it was in 1979 in the days before the shocking earthquake. Such dire poverty and only a stone's throw from the rest of the Caribbean where the poverty is bad, but nothing like on Haiti.

The hotel was in a beautiful old French colonial style with metal balconies and verandas. We had asked for a cot for our beautiful blond baby,who was 9 months old. However, they had an American cot ....a put you up bed .......but no baby"crib". So we did a make shift job. Two single beds with a mattress on the floor wedged between the beds....perfect.

It worked well.. So one afternoon we left him for a nap with the door firmly locked and went downstairs for a cup of tea. When we came back the room was still locked, as were the widows, but no beautiful, blond,baby boy. We searched frantically for a good 5 minutes, going round and round the same bits of the room.

Finally we heard a little snore. He was under my bed. He had rolled to the edge of the mattress, kept on rolling under my bed and his mattress had popped up , sealing him under my bed. He eventually woke up non the wiser ready to play!!! Close shave!!!

Why I will never do a cruise again.
Some years ago I decided that a cruise would be the ideal solution as a way of taking my mum on holiday abroad, flights being a bit stressful for her. The cruise left from our local port so seemed ideal.Then:
The first night out my mum got up to go to the loo, the ship rocked and she fell to the floor. She was bruised but fortunately not badly hurt, but was now very nervous about walking anywhere. After much complaining I managed to get a wheelchair for her (The cruise people seemed to think we had misrepresented her mobility to get on board and first threatened us with being disembarked at the next port) Anyway I willingly pushed her around. The place mum really wanted to see was Lisbon, but the day we were due to get there the weather changed and we were stuck out in the ocean with a force nine gale. The next three days are a bit of a blur due to sea sicknesss medication. One night I do remember we woke to find all the things on the dressing table shooting off onto the floor and things falling out the wardrobe. Eventually we reached the comparative calm of the North Sea. Half way across it the ship stopped its engines, the swimming pool was covered with a net, and an Air-Sea rescue helicopter appeared in the sky. One poor passenger had had a heart attack and had to be air lifted off. My mum commented, "This is a dreadful holiday, but that's taking it a bit far, we've only got another day."
When we were in the Taxi home the driver asked us if we'd enjoyed our cruise, he must have been shocked by the vehement "No" and "Never again" that answered him.

My boyfriend and I joined a queue outside the Duomo in Florence assuming it was to enter the cathedral. On being let in we started climbing staircases and realised we were going to the top of the Dome with no way back. Once we reached the open balcony around the upper Dome his virtigo hit in big time and he had to be coaxed right round the Dome to the exit. We checked queues more carefully after that!

When I went to a Greek Island with a friend - we were delayed by 33 hours, which in itself was a disaster as we were only going for a week. When we got to the hotel our room was about the size of a broom cupboard at the very end of a tiny, dark & dingy corridor - with not even a window in it. The food was set meals in the hotel - no option if you didn't like what was on the menu that day. Good job my friend and I shared a sense of humour - laughter was the only thing that got us through that trip!

Holiday disaster. Hmmm. Not too many of them; generally we were happy to make the best of whatever came along. There was the year of Hurricane Andrew, though - we were in Florida with the kids, and had been ignoring the news. We cruised down the keys, thinking how very lucky we were that there were so many empty rooms in the middle of the tourist season; found a brilliant room right on the tip of the island; and turned on the TV to an evacuation warning. But not for our island, the road out was flooded...

Must be the time we decided to go camping in Italy with my husband and 3 children. My husband had a bright idea to drive over the Alps in Austria save 20 euros paying to go through the Bremen Pass. He said there were quite a few roads over not too high according to his map. How could we it was worse than we could ever have imagined. Up and up we went until we seemed to be clinging on nearly vertically. It was too dangerous to turn so that was not an option. Eventually we reached the part where it levelled out near the top of one of the Alps. Nightmare.

Did you go over the Fernpass Souperkit? We often took that route precisely to save the toll on the Brenner.

About 37 years ago I was 12 weeks pregnant when I came into contact with Rubella. The results of the test to see if you had contacted the disease (which could be devastating to the health of the baby) took 2 weeks to come in so we decided to go away for a few days to take our minds off things. We went to Scarborough. On the journey up we had torrential rain and thunder and lightening. During this downpour our ancient car decided to coast to a gentle stop in the fast lane of the motorway! We left it as near to the central barrier as possible and ran over to the hard shoulder aware that drivers could see hardly anything in the rain. A police car came by a few minutes later and roundly berated us for leaving the car where it was but did apologise when he realised we had had no option. He towed the car onto the hard shoulder and the AA got us going again.
The rain continued into the next day and whilst coming out of a cafe I fell down a step and twisted my ankle. By the middle of the afternoon I was in such agony that I went to the local A and E department. I had to have an X-ray wearing a lead apron to protect the baby. I had only sprained my ankle but we decided to return home that day as I was in too much pain to enjoy anything!
Luckily we had a lovely, healthy son 6 months later!

We were on a short break near Lake Garda with my daughter and her friend who were both 14. My husband after studying the map decided that we would go over a mountain range and head back to the hotel. He was somewhat pig headed when it became apparent that the 'pass' was not suitable for motor vehicles and was determined that we would drive it. Quite early on we passed some cyclists who looked somewhat flabbergasted....not surprising as it was a narrow unmade track with loose rocks and gravel .i had to keep getting out and shifting rocks out if the way so we could continue upwards, and each time we stopped, we then had to do a fairly hairy hill start with wheel spins and gravel/ dust flying all over the place.The hairpin bends were terrifying with no protection from the sheer drops but we actually got to the point where we had to go on as there was absolutely no way you could turn round and to reverse back would be suicidal. I think it is the only time in my life that I have been truly terrified and absolutely furious with my husband...especially as we had my daughter's friend with us and it was before mobile phones were the norm. After what seemed like hours we emerged over the top smelling of hot rubber and only able to get the car into first gear and nothing else. We ground slowly back to the hotel in stony silence.......

On the way back from Wales I got completely and utterly lost as there was a road closure and I just couldn't get back on track. The satnav was useless as just kept trying to get us back onto the road that was closed. After 2 and a half hours I was only 38 miles away from the holiday home. The journey ended up taking 7 hours in total and I had a toddler and a baby in the back. bloomin nightmare!!

I went with my family to Costa Del Sol and we decided to go for a little walk the first night there. Somehow we found ourselves far away from the hotel and right in the middle of where all the locals live. It took us 3 hours to find our way back. That's what I get for not paying attention. :P

On our first camping trip to Cornwall it rained for 13 out of 14 days. Our campsite turned into a quagmire with streams of water running through it and under our tent. Fortunately we had our wellies with us and the tent had a sewn-in groundsheet. Motorhomes had to be towed off the site by a tractor. In the end we went home a day early as hubby reckoned that otherwise we wouldn't get our vehicle off the site.

I had heard of delhi belly, and turkey trots, but i hadn't heard of Montezuma's revenge. Food poisoning in Mexico isn't pretty - and lasted about a week and a half.

Went to France towing a caravan. Found a site but it was not open so. We followed a French family who said they knew of a picnic site we could all use, by now there at least 3 other caravans. We stayed there the night only to be woken up by the local gendarmes who banged on our doors and told us it was illegal to camp on a picnic site. They let us go but fined all the French families!.

Went
out for a meal, it was a ferie day so only set menu. Electricity in restaurant kept going off, first course came OK Parma ham etc so cold. Next course not properly cooked and it was very pink, cold gigot de mouton. Sent it back said it was inedible, did not want it reheated. Offered steak that was ok. Meanwhile second course for friends was langoustine, came with shells on smothered in sauce they were not keen to pick through sauce but managed. As electricity kept failing the meal went on for hours. We left very late only to find, back at the camp site the gates were locked so we had to climb over the gate.That night there was a huge storm and the tent next to us was flooded out so we had to take in the two people who were just lying in water!
Altogether a disaster albeit
, at times
a very funny one!

I love travelling but our family always ends up in unfortunate situations when doing so. One of the worst has to be when we went to Turkey, my mother in law and I decided to go on a spa trip. The 'thirty minute' bus journey there ended up being over 2 hours, we were on there in the boiling heat with no air condition and we ran out of water. We got there finally, the lovely mud baths that we were promised made my skin itchy I think it was an allergic reaction which has never happened before. The other things in this spa were covered in mould and were just very unclean, we decided we wanted to leave early but when we went to find out the bus times we had just missed the bus and there wasn't another one leaving for 2 hours. Both of us were close to tears at the end of this trip, couldn't of been worse.

We went to south of France end of June. Everything went wrong at the airport. Suitcases were not checked as we were a few minutes late. They say we have to take the,,with us but they went through them and all our stuffs(over 100ml and more were thrown away - from 4 suitcases. By that time, we were rushing to the gate with our big suitcases, hand bags 2 little kids - we were the grand parents to the gate. They tell usWE COULD NOT BOARD. We lost so may items which we will have to buy again when we reach our destination. The worst thing we have to book another floor flight which would go to a different airport, so hire another car - longer drive. It was a nightmare and we lost so much money as we have to buy every single tickets (4 adults and 2 kids). Not a good start at all. X