You worst holiday ever

Butlins - twice. Once when very young and my sisters and I got measles...

Then as a young teenager when my mother - who was BiPolar had a full blown episode and, when trying to calm her down, she blamed me and these complete strangers, who did not know the situation, took her side... Absolutely horrible and very frightening. I was 11.

On a lighter note, the worse place we stayed in was near Biscarosse and some very noisy german guests kept us awake all night stomping up and down the stairs, shouting at each other. This went on for hours. The next morning they were sleeping in and the owner, who was furious got me to know on their door, and translate from french into English that she wanted to them to leave immediately. The next evening we were looking forward to a good night's sleep when the owner decided to have a very noisy card game with her friends right under our bedroom. Arrrgh!

Jamaica felt very scared, even at 5 star hotel with armed guards at gates, some dodgy characters found their way in, and confronted me, nose to nose while I held hands of my 2 frightened kids asking for money. I would not leave room without an escort afterwards. Sri Lanka while on holiday alone, I fell asleep by pool, and woke up to find the pool attendant and his mate groping my boobs! I also had other staff follow me back to my room every evening, very intimidating, so all us single girls stayed together for safety.

My 1st trip abroad to Malta , it was over 100 degrees, mega hot, our hotel had been shut down by health and safety, there was no running water, manager would only turn it on for 30 mins per day, so toilets stank, and everyone showered at same time. The pool was on the roof, and full of cloudy water, some even went up there to rinse off shampoo when manager turned off water leaving suds in hair. They then got severe ear infections, ended up in hospital.

Our worst holiday like Eloethan was in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria. The rooms were very basic, menu was in Bulgarian and waiters didn’t speak a word of English. Locals sidled up to you to exchange money so that they could shop in the local Coricom. I know cleaners were going through my clothes and a few items went missing. We were all ill with tummy bug and ended up living on crisps and toblerone for the rest of the holiday. We also had two couples in next two rooms from Yorkshire who came in at 2am and sat on the balcony shouting to each other. My husband used to join in their conversations which totally bewildered them because he was answering questions that the other person asked his friend that didn’t make sense. We counted the days until we returned returned home. Seats in the plane were like deck chairs and food was inedible.

Two were bad. Ist was a holiday in Scotland in August. Ex husband working there we hired a caravan for six weeks It was freezing and rained the whole time we were there , it’s the only time my children have worn a coat and gloves in high summer. He needed the only car for work every day so I had to take two children on rickety buses if I wanted to go to local town/ beach but weather too bad most days anyway. You try keeping a 6 year old and a 2 year old amused with very limited toys for 6 weeks in bad weather! They watched tele wrapped in blankets it was so cold.

The second was in Greece. Had asked for ground floor apartment as youngest child only a toddler. Arrived to find we were on the 3rd floor. Much fighting on my part meant we were moved to a villa on the same complex. Halfway through holiday toddler slipped on tiles by the pool and fell onto a step resulting in stitches needed in the back of his head. Luckily managers wife was a doctor who did the stitching instead of drive to hospital . She charged £90 which was a huge amount at the time (1982) . We had a cleaner at the villa who sold us a tablecloth in local lace. On the last day as we were packing we realised she had taken it away with her . It was the last straw !

Once booked into a Travelodge in North Yorkshire with our then 2 youngest Teenage Daughters, arrive and could not find the place of any signage displaying the familiar Travelodge logo, so asked in a local Shop.
Shock horror, the place turned out to be a privately owned Backpackers Bunkbarn, nothing like a real Travelodge at all. It was Winter, the place was cold and damp, no heating, and two sets of Bunkbeds with stained mattresses was what we were expected to use. It was a horrible place, we were all cold, tired and hungry, and the weather was very foggy with a heavy sea mist, too dangerous to try and drive the 134miles home in.
We went out and bought Fish and Chips for supper, settled down for the night by covering the mattresses with clean swimming towels we brought with us, and used our coats to cover ourselves up with. We all woke up early the next morning, and left at the crack.of dawn, pulling into a McDonald's on the way home for coffee and breakfast. Thankfully we had used a credit card to pay for this accomodation, and after reporting it to the provider, and investigations taking place with the local Trading standards department regarding the Misleading and use of the business name, poor hygiene state, and prior police involvement regarding drug dealings on the premises, we received a full refund. Later that year, we took up Camping, first with Tents, and later as Caravan owners, at least we don't have to worry about the state of the place we will be staying in anymore, or if our food will be of good quality and well cooked!

My worst holiday was 29 yrs ago, my son was just 3 and we booked a caravan at a small site by a beach. It rained, we expected that and came prepared with wellies etc, it was cold, summer we expected that also. However our mattress was so worn we had to grip the sides or end up squashed tog in the middle and the lovely beach was so covered in dog poo we could not let our son play on it. He loved collecting different shaped stones and making dinosaurs out of them.

Portugal - Albufeira, with hubby and 10 yr old daughter, our luggage went missing but there was a case that looked very like ours still going around on the belt?!? It was almost midnight and I said to airport staff we had a coach waiting to take us to airport, let them know we are here filling out forms, they said "they will wait" which of course they did not! ALL my daughters clothes were in that case, so she had nothing, thank god we put all her medications in our case! Coach had left without us, so we got a taxi, got to hotel to skanky room, so dirty , there was blood on our sheets and hairs and had obviously NOT been changed since last guests. I stormed down to reception who just shrugged shoulders at me. we sat on sofa all night waiting for 10am rep meeting where they try and sell you tours. I explained state of room, she came up and had a look, called manager, he called team of 20 cleaners, lots of shouting in our room. I demanded to be moved to another hotel, rep said whole of Albufeira was booked out. I asked about our missing case, she said just go and buy daughter more clothes, few days later our case turned up, some idiot took ours, it was theirs on the belt going round at airport. They did not move us and we counted down days till we went home.

We have had some wonderful holidays, stayed at some really weird places but had so many laughs.
The worst holiday was when I broke my leg on the 4th day of a 22 night cruise and had to be helicoptered off and taken to hospital in Ibiza for an operation as the bone had snapped in 2.

A couple of nights in the Mawenzi hotel in Dares Salaam, Tanzania. 1978 and the middle of a cholera epidemic. No fire escape in the hotel. Grubby grey blankets and a telephone which rang all night. The food was grim and when went back to our room on the 4th floor after breakfast (no lift) I fainted in the heat.

I couldn't say that we have had a worst holiday and luckily haven't fallen ill either when away. Reading about paying for sunbed at hotels reminded me of a girls trip with a friend to Egypt. We tipped the pool guys to get us a couple of sun beds and keep them vacant, when we were at breakfast. When we had settled we kept getting dirty looks from a Russian couple next to us, my friend was the closest so she bore the brunt of it. They had made a play for our beds and were not pleased to be told no. It was our last day and we were leaving after lunch. By then my friend had had enough so when they went to lunch, leaving their books on their sunbeds, she ripped out the last page. I know it was an awful thing to do to a book but we still laugh about it now.

Years ago in Marbella when baby was nine months old, we all went down with gastric enteritis. Baby very ill. Had to get home asap.
Since then pretty fortunate until my big milestone birthday October 2019. Went to tour the west coast of Scotland, do the train ride Fort William to Mallaig etc. My dream trip. High up the bucket list. It heavily rained & rained & rained ALL week. We spent the entire time, when outdoors, wrapped up in wet weather gear. It was cold & the hotels were drab, sad & badly in need of refurbishment apart from one at Fort William. I went down with a really bad chest infection & was so glad to get home. I'd go again, but earlier in the year. Scotland is beautiful but without the endless heavy rain, probably even better.

Our worst holiday was in Majorca. It was our first holiday without our grown children and 20th wedding anniversary in June. We chose a 4 star hotel next to the beach. Brochure claimed fine dining after sweeping down the spectacular spiral staircase. Well it rained the whole week. Our room wasnt even up the staircase, it was behind reception on the ground floor next to the air con unit and bin store. The whole place spelt of boiled meat and my OH got food poisoning.

Backpacking through north India and crossing the border to Nepal. The guest house where we had to stay at the border was ghastly. I was expected to share not only a room but a double bed with a total stranger. When we both refused to do so we were given a separate room each. In the morning I discovered that there were rats tooth marks in my soap.
We got into the dilapidated bus to go to on Pokhara and the bus driver was racing on the treacherous mountain roads. I was sitting at the front of the bus listening to music on my iPod and quite relaxed when there was an almighty crash as the bus hit a lorry coming in the opposite direction.
The bus was wrecked. Many of the seats were not secured to the floor and crashed to the rear. I was terrified that it was going to explode and managed to leap out of the window. I checked my day sack out first forgetting that my SLR camera was in there and it smashed favourite lens. The bus driver and conductor ran away.
Most of us escaped unscathed, a few were taken to hospital and the 4 other westerners on the bus set up a makeshift first aid post as we were carrying kits. We became surrounded by army types carrying machine guns.
Eventually the road was cleared and we got into another bus, (new fares charged) arriving late at night some of the journey spent sitting on the roof. The 5 of us became friends for several days and spent time together.

We had a holiday in Albea, Spain. The apartment was tiny, the bed just about filled the bedroom, no air conditioning, so stifling hot, but the worse part was the building going on close by - from 8am to 8pm a Jackhammer was in use. It could be heard in any part of the town - nightmare!!

Looking at some of these makes our horrible caravan trip look great in comparison.?

I have always been useless picking accommodation. Have never stayed anywhere I could rave about. Took our 3 month old son to a lovely cottage in Dorset. Fine until the door was opened and the smell of dogs hit us. Turned out the owner kept six dogs in there because her husband didn’t want them in his cottage (adjoining ours). I couldn’t put the baby down anywhere downstairs because of the dog hairs everywhere. We left after 4 days (spent either in the car or upstairs).
Had a property in Brittany which had such an overpowering smell of damp we didn’t unpack and even being outside in the rain it was preferable to being inside with the smell. Had a chalet (shed) in Dorset smelled damp all over. Sheer steps to a patio area with small fence and a twelve foot drop.
Went away with good friends when our babies were 1. Couldn’t make any noise at all, because their daughter was such a bad sleeper. Our car broke down and they just abandoned us, no mobiles in those days, miles from the nearest village. Luckily someone stopped and asked if my husband needed a lift. He was taken to the village to phone the AA and then taken back to the cottage (hut). I think we decided to come home after that.
Readers, I bought a tent. Have had wonderful accommodation ever since. Even have my own loo and shower.

If it hadnt been for GG's first trip with us, we would have packed up & gone home!

Worst start of a holiday.... many years ago - two little boys recovering from whooping cough - DH Scottish so decided to go to remote part of West coast. I had booked an AA 'starred' cabin on the shores of a loch. DH wearing kilt strode over to the cabin with baggage etc to be mobbed by geese; he shooed them off so they turned on me (I was carrying one of the boys) ending up with bitten and bloodied legs and rathe shaken.
On top of that the 'cabin' was filthy with dirty sheets, kitchen area disgusting - DH and I sat up clothed all night. At dawn I ran to the phone box (no mobiles) and booked a cottage on Mull.
The owners said they used to have alsatians as guard dogs but the geese were better and more aggressive!!!! We had paid a deposit but left at the crack of dawn.......
A wonderful week on Mull followed....

A caravan holiday a few yrs ago, for me, my 2 youngest sons, and one of my GD's(then 4) she was so excited, as it was her 'first holiday with grandma' but we we near a huge high stone wall and sodden grassy mess at front, so no view, there was only one tiny 'clubroom' that never had any entertainment, no dining facility, and when i asked about food in clubroom they gave me one local takeaway leaflet.(they didnt ever seem to be open.)There was a little playroom, and as it was full of those plastic playballs, thank goodness my GD thought it was fun, so she and my youngest, (then about 12)played in there most of the time, the weather was cold, rainy, and it was thoroughly miserable.we had no car then either.and a bus was every 2 hours to nearest town.Thank goodness it was only mon-fri. Never again.

The only bad holidays I have ever been on were as a child, when I went away with my parents!
My father and I didn't get on - he was a bully and made most, if not all, of my childhood miserable. At least I had some respite from him when I was at school and he was at work! My mum did try to stand up for me, but he had a fearsome temper, and she was no match for him! I was an only child, and he wanted a son, so I was the target for his hateful behaviour! ?
He always chose where we went on holiday - usually some hotel where the food was dreadful, and then he had the cheek to complain about all the money he had spent, only for me to refuse to eat! Two weeks cooped up with him was my worst nightmare!
I left home when I was 18 to get
away from him! I trained as a Nurse and lived in the nurse's home! I made a lot of friends and in our final year, our whole class went on holiday to Spain - I had the most wonderful time! I got married in 1984, and my husband and I plus our 2 children had some wonderful holidays over the years! ?

Sadly, our honeymoon in the Algarve! We arrived at Faro Airport to be told we were going to a different hotel to the one we booked. The rep reassured us it was of an equal standard but was in a more remote location. It wasn't the fact there was nothing around it at all .....BUT.....it was the fact that we shared it with the Portuguese National Football Team that spoilt it! They hogged the whole resort and were so noisy - monopolising all the amenities and demanding attention from the staff. That was 35 years ago and we have never been back to the Algarve - probably should because it looks great!!!!

In the early 70's I went on my own to Normandy. I wanted
to do some painting and booked a hotel in what I thought was a small picturesque town. However it turned out to be some miles out of town, on a busy main road, with nothing else around. And the bus into town ran about twice a week !
To add to my lovely week I got food poisoning from some seafood I had in the hotel restaurant. I couldn't go further than 5 metres from the loo until I got it out of my system, only for it to come back when I got home. Still kicking myself all these years later that I didn't ask for my money back.

Looking back , after not having been on holiday for over a year they all seem so wonderful

Corfu 4* all inclusive had boil kettle to make hot drink at breakfast, bar open 12-22.00no high chair hotel went out and bought one fine until other little ones arrived ,only one dinner in hotel ate out every night, mini bus took rubbish down hill to bins then used it for beach transfer. We hired a car and made the most of it.