What's the worst start to a holiday you have had?

Forgot to add being fired on and almost hujacked in Egypt, then the Nile cruise company went bankrupt and we had to fly back via Manchester, as the plane would be grounded if we’d gone to Gatwick first. We left the plane at Manchester - nearly lynched by the other passengers and hired a car to get home to Durham, as DH was flying out to Paris that afternoon. Nightmare.

Arriving in a flood with the fire brigade pumping water out of the block of holiday flats we had booked.

I was nine, my sister five and my parents were taking us on holiday from Scotland to visit our Danish grandmother.

We were sailing from Newcastle to Esbjerg and left our home the evening before to drive to Newcastle.

Daddy had had his car service the day before to be certain nothing would go wrong on the way. Important as we were taking a caravan with us.

We got to Carter Bar sometime in the late evening and were half-way up that steep hill when the car stopped dead.

Nothing Daddy did helped, so he set off to walk a quarter mile back the way we had come to a lay-by where he had noticed an AA phone box.

Long story short: the AA towed both the car and caravan to Newcastle and found a garage that could and did solve the problem.

When the car had been serviced, the gear-box had been drained, but not refilled with oil!

I wonder if a garage could be found to replace a gear-box in the early hours of Saturday morning these days?

We booked a hotel for 3 nights when we went on holiday with the intention of moving to a different hotel later. We didn't know the hotel but asked ourselves how bad could it be. It turns out very bad. Honestly the bedroom smelled like there was someone buried under the floor boards. We tucked our noses into the necks of our pyjamas and left swiftly the next morning.
My Mum went to stay in a town in France. She literally arrived on the ferry and went to find a hotel. It was so successful she advised us to do the same. Unfortunately, the day we arrived there was a big festival being held and not a room to be had! We slept at the sister in law of one of the staff in the Information Bureau which was right out in the sticks and were quite worried about what we were heading for.

When I was 21 I went on my first plane ride to Corsica with my best friend. We were to stay with her French penpal. When we arrived we learned that she’d misbehaved in some way and her Mum had refused to let her come to Corsica! We managed to contact her sisters who were staying in a shack in the mountains and they kindly agreed to let us stay with them. To cap it all it turned out there are 2 airports in Corsica and we’d gone to the wrong one. We ended up having to hitch rides across the mountains to the other side of the island. The sisters were very kind, although I think they were fed up with being landed with us. On the way home we managed to get a train across the island. It was overcrowded so the driver let us sit in the engine cab which was fun. When we arrived at the airport for our flight, which was the following morning, we couldn’t find anywhere to stay and the airport was closed, so we settled down on a bench. We were woken by security guards who said we couldn’t sleep there. They took us into the airport to warm up, then separated us and tried to sexually assault us.
Apart from all that we had a fabulous time! 😂

After an exhausting 24 hour journey to Sydney getting a telephone call the minute we arrived at our hotel telling us that my husband's father had died unexpectedly..

Last year had to get early flight back from lanzarote. Husband needed aortic valve replacement.
Two years before we had another incident. Arrived home from lanzarote. December. Late. Dark. Lounge and kitchen flooded. Kitchen ceiling was on the floor. No heating or hot water. We'd had 6 burst pipes after cold snap. Took 8 months for the house to be dried out and then repaired.

Worst start? Well, it was the start AND end, a massive blizzard across much of the South led to us being stranded, couldn't get even a mile from home.

We were supposed to be embarking on a Cruise - from Dover or Tilbury, can't remember which -- but we had no chance of driving there, and the trains were sufficiently affected that we couldn't travel that way either.

We heard later that the ship had very few passengers!

We only had one duff holiday out of dozens. Two weeks in Cancun . A few days after we arrived husband started to feel ill . Cold or flu symptoms. After another few days he was coughing and we went to a local pharmacy to buy antibiotics. We chose amoxicillin as it cures a lot of. He didn’t get any better so when we got home he went to the doctors who took a sputum sample and sent him for an xray . Two days later had a phone call from the doctor and told to attend hospital. He had legionnaires disease and had to have more antibiotics . This time erythromycin as that’s the only one apparently that works on legionnaires disease .
If in Cancun we had bought erythromycin instead of amoxicillin we may never have needed to go to the doctor or find out what illness he had .
It turned out that it was the hotel shower that made him ill . I didn’t get it as he showered be me and the spores were already dispersed before my shower .
Husband was compensated for his illness which paid for a few more holidays😀

We arrived in Costa Rica to a message from my sister who told us all the fish in the tank had died, the cat had run away and our home had been burgled. Further more she was in hospital suffering with stress!

The following time we went to Costa Rica for our honeymoon. To our horror they wouldn't let my husband in to start with. They made him sit with an armed guard until they ascertained that he wasn't the "Wanted" man on Interpol's list. It was a heart stopping moment or. many moments.

About to drive to airport for a holiday first without kids and find a Walker or rider left a gate open and our cows got out on the road and had to get them back.We got the flight by the skin of our teeth and I thought I would burst with rage at the thoughtlessness of the user of the footpath.It was proper latching riding gate and no excuse for not checking it was shut

In Malta on arrival at our room in April 89. Cockroaches on bathroom walls, no flush as chain was hanging off. Ground floor room, with bar and disco just outside the windows. Food inedible and so much more. We moved hotel with one day at their expense.

butterandjam

We arrived at our holidy rental on Alderney during a huge thunderstorm; torrential rain.. The kids immediately stripped off and went to swim in the pool. DH and I put the bags upstairs then made a cup of tea. Youngest arrives dripping at the door to inform us
"A river of water is running into the swimming pool". Dashes off.
A minutes later he's back to say
" Now there's a river of water coming out of the swimming pool towards the house. Oh look, here it is. "
We looked outside and sure enough there's a flash flood pouring down the garden to the house and rising fast at the doorstep.
Well, I was raised in a flood area so went into flood mode. . I sent the kids upstairs, rolled up the rugs and put them on the table, and put the chairs on top of the table; by now water is running in from the front door. The owner had left a welcome pack of bread, milk and jam; we take it and our mugs of tea upstairs and announce we're going to have a bed picnic. I phoned the owner and left a message "Your house is flooding" By now the thunder is continuous, the daytime sky is black, huge flashes of lightning.

Suddenly; there's an almighty bang, huge blue sparks shoot out of all the light fittings. All power gone. DH says "That was a lightning strike on the house". Its now pitch dark in the house. So we finish the picnic, all get into bed and tell stories until the kids fall asleep.
That night there's a torch and shouting outside; I open the window and it's the owner below, in a canoe. We say hello and we've been struck by lightning, power off, but we're all fine. No, we do not need to be evacuated tonight, thankyou, safer to stay put till morning. He says in the morning he will move us to new accommodation. Would we like fish and chips? An hour later hes back with fish and chips and a flask of tea, very thoughtful. So we eat another bed picnic.

In the morning the storm and flood had all gone leaving a tidemark a foot high downstairs. Owner arrived in a landrover, very pleased to find his rugs and chairs dry, and took us and our baggage to a different property where we spent the rest of a very enjoyable holiday.

That's a real adventure! How thoughtful of you to put the rugs and the chairs on tables, too.

1982 my husband's company travel agent booked tickets for us to go from London to Tokyo. Told us Heathrow, fortunately arrived very early to be told flight left from Gatwick. He drove like a bat out of hell, we had to rush through all the controls with our suitcases which they stowed in the cabin, slammed the doors behind us and we were off. Apparently Belgian travel agents didn't know there was more than one London Airport.

Arriving at holiday caravan to see all windows open; very cold day. Walking in to overpowering smell of cleaning products, wet carpets and soft furnishings with underlying smell of dogs and urine. Needless to say we got an upgrade. What amazed us was that we should be given the keys to that caravan when there were very few visitors anyway. Cleaners must surely have reported issues with the caravan. Yes, I did complain to holiday company and just got a "sorry about that, we'll make sure it doesn't happen again".

Last year. We went to Scotland. We got to Luton airport to find that our flight had beencancelled in the middle of the night and the next flight to Inverness wasnt untlthefollowing evening.

The only. alternative was a flight from Gatwick to Aberdeen and drivefrom there. We got a taxi to Gatwick.where we were told ourflight was delayed two hours. We got to Aberdeen to find that the carhirecompanies computers had gone down and we had to wait an hour for our car, during which the car hire man told usa better riute to Inverness and claimed there were several fish and chip shps in Ballater where wecould get supper.

The route we had been given turned tobe by single track roads with passing places, there are no fish and chip shops in Ballater. Wegot to ouraccommodation 10 hours late and nearly had to sleep in the car because the duty manager had gone home. We had to get up early the next morning as we had booked seats on a. Steam train and had a 2 hour drive toget there.

The rest of the holiday was great.

Well, after reading some of those accounts, I reckon I got off lightly! Some 20 years ago both DD and I were down in the dumps. My boyfriend had done a sudden disappearing act and DD had moved back in with me after splitting from hers. We decided to cheer ourselves up and booked a coach trip for a long weekend in Paris. Due to a last minute problem, the central Paris hotel had been swapped for one which turned out to be on an Industrial Estate way outside. No time to stop for the promised lunch en route or the drivers' hours would be exceeded. Eventually the two coaches arrived at the hotel, where we were to have an evening meal before bed. It was a Bank Holiday. The Hotel had run out of food. Half the passengers settled in the Bar to get drunk. The rest of us plus the coach drivers split up to search the area for somewhere to eat. It was pouring with rain. Eventually, after walking around for almost an hour, a friendly native pointed to some lights showing through the trees and we found a Chinese restaurant. We found one other coach passenger there. The food was excellent and, thankfully, affordable. We three had been the only ones to eat. Those in the Bar were roaring drunk when we got back. We were propositioned for a "threesome" by another passenger who got quite nasty when we declined his offer..

We went to our room, (alone!), nearly tripping on the tape holding the stair carpet together. We found our two single beds were pushed and bound together with a single set of scruffy sheets and a torn coverlet. One lady and her adult son found themselves sharing a similar arrangement.
Next morning we were in the second sitting for breakfast. Actually, standing. No chairs. The first sitting had scoffed any food that was available and there were no clean cups so we had to wait for coffee and swig it quickly as the Drivers were anxious to get going on our promised tour of Paris, about an hour away.

We had 5 minutes standing in the rain, viewing the Eiffel Tower in the distance before being dumped in the Champs Elysee to amuse ourselves. Everthing was shut. The rain was pouring down. We had left the doggy bag of left-over Chinese food at the Hotel in our hurry. Luckily, the scheduled visit to an eatery in the Latin Quarter was still on. The restaurant was called something like "The Cave" and it was. We were packed in like sardines, watching we didn't get an elbow in the face. Live music was provided, a piano accordianist who played loudly but not well. The food was barely edible, there was no choice and there would be nothing available at the Hotel. I am claustrophobic. I had a panic attack and had to fight my way outside. That's when my otherwise successful bid to stop smoking (clean for 2 months) came to an end, as I scrounged a calming cigarette.

The next day the weather was getting worse and the coach drivers decided to leave early for the Calais ferry. There was supposed to be a stop for Duty Free en route, but half of us decided to skip it. We went in the first coach, the drinkers in the second. It was a full blown thunderstorm with torrential rain by this point, with a danger of aquaplaning, so our Driver was careful. We were beseiged as we passed through "the Jungle" but got to the Ferry without extra passengers. Coming down the Motorway we had been passed ostentatiously by a young man in a very swish sports car travelling at speed.
As we pulled into the Port, our driver announced that it had come through on his radio that the road behind us had been closed because of the weather. We had just made it. The coach that was stopping for the Duty Free was stuck in France. We got to Dover without incident but as we trundled onto shore we saw the swish sports car again. It was no longer swish or sporty, it was crumpled and on the back of a transporter.

It was quite a relief to finally get home. I haven't been abroad since.

Arrived at a 4 star hotel in Tunisia. Only one pillow on the bed which had a dent where someone had slept. Full ashtray on the side. No apology whatsoever from the manager.

DS was 6 months old and we were holidaying in a gite in France. 36 hours before we set off our car caught fire and was wrecked. Fortunately we had travel insurance which covered the car. I spent the next day discussing alternative arrangements with the loss assessor, who agreed to a hire car to Portsmouth, then a hire car in France would be cheaper than cancelling the holiday. None of it easy with a baby!

I'm trying to think of a holiday where we haven't had a mishap or incident of some kind and am finding it difficult!

Perhaps it's best to stay at home, although even that can have its hazards.

Camping on the Isles of Scilly (St Martins) in the driving rain for a week..cricked neck....no sleep, damp and miserable..... ended up giving up.and getting a lovely BnB on St Mary's. I saw the bed and wept with joy.

Breaking two toes minutes before we were due to leave. Fell over lawn mower in garage while checking door was locked properly.

My daughter and I arrived at our lovely but isolated cottage on Harris and Lewis on a freezing February Saturday in 2018.
Had a relaxing evening and set off to explore on the Sunday morning..
We came upon the Callanish stones and,as we walked over the frost covered grass,I slipped.
My left ankle was broken before I hit the ground.
Ambulance took over an hour to get to me , then had to wait for paramedic with a morphine license to give me adequate analgesia.
Ended up in hospital in Stornoway.
Ankle a total wreck.
Poor hubby flew out during the Beast of the East !
Surgery and a 10 day hospital stay.
Journey home a nightmare.
No weight bearing on left foot for 12 very long weeks.
Thankfully, excellent job done in Stornoway.
11 months later I was back in my walking boots and everything is fine 7 years later.
What a holiday!!?

Not me, but my son and family this morning - They got to their hotel (Cofru) at 2am, went to unpack some things, found that one of their cases was missing and one was someone else's. He got a bus then walked back to the airport, got his case, had to pay to send the wrong one on. A 3-hour round trip.

It’s great reading all these! Even though we’ve had mishaps on arrival, we have never had dreadful holidays and we laugh about them years later. 🤣