You worst holiday ever

Just thinking about this today. We booked a holiday in a "pet friendly" hotel when our dog was 6 months old. Turned out it wasn't pet friendly at all. We weren't supposed to take our dog into the main house but had to stay in our annex. We weren't supposed to leave the dog in the room (even though we couldn't take him into the main house. It rained constantly for the three days we were there and then the hotelier had the cheek to charge us extra because she said the room was dirty. How were we supposed to keep it clean when all three of us were constantly wet? Absolute disaster.

I think ours was probably in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria.

We flew Balkan Air and the plane was in a very dilapidated state. The toilets weren't working, some seats were missing and the food was awful.

Sunny Beach was quite nice but definitely on the "tacky" side. The hotel was dirty and smelt horrible, many of the guests (including me and my son) went down with a horrible stomach bug (which we think we got from the hotel swimming pool as guests who had not used it were not affected) and the staff were openly rude and unhelpful. Breakfast was curled up cold meats, cheese and stale bread.

Having said that, we made the best of it and there were some lovely places we visited in Bulgaria. Also, I think perhaps we were unlucky with the hotel staff as we met some nice Bulgarians and when I left my purse in a taxi and didn't realise for some time, it was returned to me intact. I believe Sunny Beach is even more "tacky" now - a favourite place for stag and hen parties because the drinks are so cheap. Not much of a consideration for us as I don't drink much and my husband doesn't drink at all.

I don't think I've ever had a bad holiday to be honest.
Luck and excessive planning.
Did stay in a not great AirBnB in Italy once but only for a few days.

My first Greek holiday was horrible. It was recommended by a friend, but when we got there, I realised her idea of a great holiday was not mine. Tacky 'strip' of bars, clubs, take away food places. The beach WAS ok and thankfully, we were there off season so it wasn't as packed as it could have been.

The apartment was also run down and disgusting too though. The beds were damp, so we never actually got in them, just slept on top of them.

Urgh.

Two actually.
Rented a cottage in Scotland 1985, “The Ghillies Cottage” damp, cold and horrible, the Ghillie must have died the week before, we did survive but only just.

A resort in Dominican Republic 1994 it was actually a very nice place but had the chef from hell, nothing was safe to eat. The first night was a barbecue, the whole leg of a cow being cooked and carved kebab style, everything else served warm.
We only ate bread and bananas and drank rum the whole week, we were OK but the queue outside the doctors surgery was never ending.
We did find a nice resort next year and went back several times.

My worst trip was also Sunnybeach in Bulgaria, recommended by a work colleague...I remember ordering a baguette for lunch, it arrived with half the contents missing including the main ingredient- chicken. When I pointed out to the waiter he said I didn’t ask if all the ingredients would be there when I ordered it!! It was so bad that we took off on a bus to Istanbul for a couple of days. The one thing I couldn’t fault was the feta.. Bulgarian feta is to die for!

Dominican Republic. Armed guards at the gate, bandits on the beach and we were warned not to go into the village. After about 2 days we got the worst bug ever. I thought I was going to die but the rep said the hospital wasn't safe. I've never been so I'll and barely made it home.
Food was set out in the morning at various locations for evening meal, not refrigerated and most of the meals consisted of odd things floating in coloured water. We complained when we got home but got no response. Turned out most people had been ill but the company covered it up. I think it was the same hotel where a couple were murdered the following year.

Our worst holiday was when we drove to Cap d'Agde in the South of France in 1984. Our two year old son had a convulsion on the journey through France, due to running a high temperature. On the first night at the site, an intruder passed through the living area of the static during the night and left the doors open, so the mozzies feasted on the three children sleeping there! Next morning we thought they had chickenpox!

On a visit to a hypermarket, we were charged 140 francs instead of 14 for a three bottle pack of wine! I only realised when I happened to check the receipt later that day. Luckily, the Eurocamp courier happily escorted OH back to claim a refund!

One day, we drove to Carcassonne where OH went down with flu so I had to drive back to the site, my first ever experience of driving in France. (Current DH lives there so I’m well used to it these days!)

On a lighter note, our son, recently out of nappies, decided to entertain on the outdoor dance floor by doing a quick “moon”, to the delight of onlookers and the embarrassment of his sisters, father and me! The little treasure is now over six feet tall with a son of his own!

We went to Tenerife over a Christmas period. We had stayed there before. The couple owned and ran the restaurant on the ground floor. We loved their food but were expected, at our expense, to dine there all of the time which we did not want to do and even tried to sneak out in the evening to dine elsewhere.
During the day there was a tinny record player playing the same carols repeatedly. Our window overlooked this area. I was glad to get home.

An island off Tunisia, 2013, I’d been five times previously, three of them on my own, as I was this time. Previous times this had been a vibrant, comfortable, busy place where I felt very safe. Not this time, deserted, no other westerners for the first couple of days, then a French couple, I was on my own in the dining room for the first few days. Friends and family of the staff were using the minimal facilities as their own, women in the pool in full hijab, no way could I go in or anywhere near in western dress. There was none of the former activity, windsurfing, boat trips, music, quiz nights etc. I felt totally marginalised and quite scared. I contacted the travel company who were extremely unhelpful. Fortunately I’d only booked a week, got home and began a process of attrition to get my money back. I was furious with the travel company, their brochure was a pack of lies. I got the money back, but it was an idyllic memory from previous visits shattered, never mind my faith in the company.

It wasn't a bad holiday, so much as bad accommodation, we had damp in a gite we were staying in one year down in St Jean de Luz, particularly in the bedroom that my children were sleeping in and as one of them had asthma that concerned me.

We also had to come home early another year from a lovely place on the Tuscan coast, Marina del Pietrasanta when I got a lung infection. My husband raved about that place, was particularly impressed that the gorgeous beach, which swept daily. All lost on me sadly I felt so unwell, it's the only time I remember not being able to eat anything. We'd driven down there with two over night stops in France, but my husband drove like the wind and got us back with just one over nighter. I'd actually lost 11lbs during that holiday, at a time when I didn't need to lose any weight, I'd probably be delighted with that now!

Liljan that sandwich incident made me laugh!
It reminded me of a meal we once had on holiday in Benidorm, it was off season, and nothing on the menu was available, so we all had ham, egg and chips. By the time it came to dessert, the only option was ‘today’s special’. We’d had plenty of wine by that point, and when the waitress came out with four uncut oranges on plates we were all hysterical with laughter - it’s the incidental things you remember most.

We also went to Bulgaria, not Sunny Beach, one near it.

It certainly wasn’t our worst holiday, just different.

My abiding memories are of cabbage wrapped round not sure what for dinner, the waiters constantly with their hands curved round their sides expecting tips for saying ‘Good Morning’ to you, and best of all, our daily walk along the rather lovely beach, somewhat spoiled by the carcass of a dead cow which seemed to be wallowing in the shallows every day. DH was fascinated by it, and we had to keep going to check if it had been washed away (it hadn’t).

This was years ago, but we enjoyed the holiday overall,

Mine was Bulgaria too. Golden Sands. The hotel was full of Russians who were incredibly rude. Food was awful. Prostitutes everywhere - even approaching men with families. Went on beach one day. Paid for sunbeds. Went in sea and when we came back he’d packed the beds up and wanted us to pay again. Never again.

What looked on the site, a beautiful, quaint cottage in France. We had had wonderful holidays before in French gites. It was described as a rural retreat with every amenity including a barbecue.There were four adults and two small children in our group.

What a shock when we arrived. It was literally a filthy hovel. There were fly papers hanging from the ceiling complete with dead flies. And dead flies everywhere else. There was a hole in the living room floor. There were bricks and rubble in the shower.
The sheets on the bed were wet with damp. We took the sheets off and put them on the line in the 'garden' after we had negotiated cow pats and beer cans. The 'barbecue' was three house bricks one side, two the other with a rack from an oven laid across it. We had no alternative but to stay one night as the owners were in England.
The night was awful. We could hear something scratching about outside.
The next day we had to look for somewhere else which was far from ideal. We came home early.
After a fight, we managed to get a refund. The owner said we must have very high standards! I still have the photos I took.

I split with my partner (of 2 decades) one week before our holiday. I decided I would still go and he did the same. We were polite to each other but two days in he decided to befriend the hubby of another couple and they went on the booze. They continued to do this throughout the holiday, both being obnoxious and going missing, coming home hours after I was asleep and causing mayhem, showing off, swearing and farting all night. The other man’s wife wasn’t too amused, she had left her kids with her mum for a well earned Caribbean break!

1972. I had arranged to rent a cottage in the Torridon district of Wester Ross. As we lived in Nottingham at the time, we would spend a night in Dundee with my sister and BiL before heading for the Highlands. DS1 was 16 months old and knowing he was not a happy traveller I had asked the GP for a sedative. Well, that didn't work. I was singing and telling nursery rhymes with him until Edinburgh when he finally went to sleep. Half a mile from my sister's home, we ran out of petrol. BiL had to come to the rescue. Arriving at the cottage the following day, we found it damp and gloomy as was the weather. We had no facilities for drying nappies. When it wasn't raining, the midges came out. Some of you will have met the West Highland midges and possibly lived to tell the tale. The only safe place was under water. Four days later we cut our losses and made for Dundee again.

A cruise to the Norwegian fjords in Sept, the weather was foul the seas so rough outside the fjords you had to stay in your cabin.The pool was shut, no dancing , no entertainment, sick everywhere, people falling over, injuries glory. It was that bad when we docked at Bergen several couples booked flights home. Most expensive holiday, first cruise.Never again!

Mine was years ago in Majorca with my mum and a very sulky boyfriend. The hotel was ok, but I picked up a terrible bug and was ill for months after I got home. I broke up with the boyfriend. Lucky escape. Another disaster was Tunisia, filthy hotel, many many flies, camel dung everywhere, inedible food. I’m sure it’s not like that now, but you don’t ever forget!

We went to Looe in Cornwall with my recently widowed mum and our young children. We stayed in an upmarket guest house set in lovely grounds. The woman asked if we were having dinner the first night. We said yes and had the longest wait ever. She was cooking it herself and it took about three hours. Our children were hungry and tired and didn't eat until 10 pm. The next day I said we would eat in town as the children needed to eat early. She took offence I think. A few days later I washed a few items of the children's clothes and hung them on the clothesline in the garden. When we got back from a day out the washing had been left on our bed in a bin bag. Still wet, with a note saying "there is a laundrette in town"! That woman certainly didn't make us welcome. She huffed every time she saw us. This was in the days before you could leave an on line review!

My worst holiday was in 1976 and we had gone to Benidorm . The food was absolutely rubbish and my parents wasn't getting on . My sister had taken her boyfriend with us who was sharing a room with my dad , which wasn't the best mixed . My father was very stuck in he ways and I think it was his behavior that ruined the holiday . Also the hotel caught fire we was on the 8th floor and the fire engine could only reach the 3rd floor . We had no water the next day because it had been used to put the fire out . Apart from that the beach was lovely the weather was great . My mum got sun burnt badly and it blistered . So all in all it was a holiday that I have never forgotten .

Our worst holiday was in the UK. Our daughter was 16 and wanted to do her own thing all the time, resulting in lots of arguments with her dad.

It poured the whole week, but I thought how great it would be to pick up our dog from the kennels on our return. We were shocked to learn that our beloved pet had died. We were all heartbroken, and the kennel owner even charged us for his stay.

My worst holiday was in Turkey We did a week causing the Greek Islands which was spectacular. Then we had a weeks stay all inclusive in a hotel not far from bodrum . We arrived at the hotel along with others to be told the hotel had been double booked and they were taking us to their sister hotel (it haf actually been closed down for foid poisoning) Arrived at their sister hotel Well it was awful . To say it was filthy is an understatement . The cereal dispensers were full of ants the bowl of salad oil full of flies and the smell inside the hotel turned your stomach. It was carpeted throughout and filthy carpet at that. The beach and sun loungers was full of stray dogs and dog mess . Just wanted to come home. All in that hotel came home with terrible stomach bugs Never will I venture to Turkey again

Kate1949 sounds very like our first gîte. We were very young and we didn’t know what to expect, so when we found uneven floors and damp bedding, a shower that leaked into the toilet cubicle downstairs, a very dilapidated living room, generously hung with cobwebs and a kitchen that we couldn’t use until we had thoroughly cleaned it, we thought it was what French gîtes were like.
We contacted Brittany Ferries and they told us that we had booked a ‘gîte rural’ so evidently black beetles creeping across the kitchen floor in the evening was to be expected.
After 2 days we invited our French friends to visit and they were horrified. A very brisk conversation by them with the company saw us moving to an hotel that night and another gîte arranged. It was some distance away but the hotel and difference in price was covered by Brittany Ferries. All the same the memory lingers!