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

Our trip to Peterborough for a passport renewal at 6am on the morning of a flight to Italy was a bit hair-raising.
Our flights were from Birmingham and the passports went out of date whilst we'd be away.

Our youngish son (15) was woken as we left and given a wad of money and train times to Birmingham airport.

I was relieved to see him at the check-in.

My worst start was a trip to Rome back in 2019. I’d booked the wrong return date by mistake and only realised at the airport. Ended up spending nearly twelve hours at Heathrow sorting it all out and missing the first evening we’d planned around the Trevi Fountain. The whole day felt wasted, and dinner turned into a packet of crisps from a vending machine. Since then I always triple-check flight dates the night before travelling.

On a holiday in Rhodes, the hotel reception was unmanned, the food was brought in from a neighbouring hotel on the back of an open truck, the menu had veal every single day, we found cockroaches in the
bathroom, rats near the pool. Holiday rep was unavailable. On day 3, the hotel put notices on everyone's door saying it would be closing the following day, and that we all had to move to a large hotel down the road. That hotel was clean, well-staffed, had good food, but was visited daily by lots of stray cats and dogs (guests felt sorry for them and we all kept feeding them)

Another holiday was a mix of my 20s son and daughter and 2 friends and child driving to a villa in Tuscany. On arrival my daughter decided she wanted to get used to driving the big suv and set off.
Half an hour later she phoned to say the signs were pointing to Florence and how would she get back. I didn't even know our address but luckily one of the boys was able to talk her back.

Not mine but one of my daughters: they arrived at their holiday house to find several builders in with a cement mixer, bare brickwork and some plastered walls, totally uninhabitable! They had to go to a local hotel.

Oh my goodness Annapops that's terrible!
What on earth did you say? And did they give you anything by way of recompense?

It was a toss between the Malta holiday fiasco and the time I was frog matched at gun point in an airport abroad

Arrived at a National Trust holiday cottage and let ourselves in with the key code. Place was absolutely freezing (December). We attempted to turn on the central heating but it failed. We then discovered there was no electricity working either. Storm Arwen had hit the area quite badly two weeks previously so our minds began to whirl. We contacted National Trust who informed us our holiday weekend had been cancelled but because we lived locally (50 miles away) they were going to contact us later in the day to inform us.
Needless to say we were both very cross after our 100 mile round trip. Local indeed!

I love your story butterandjam
Thanks for sharing it.

Happy days!

One holiday wth many disasters
.
Dh Wore slippers to the airport
Went to the wrong airport car park, problem finding the right one.
Plane was late, luckily.
Terrible crush at Faro waited like sardines for 2 hours in passport control. Eu control desk empty, 8 planes from uk waiting for the other control desk. They did not allow us to use the empty eu one….!
Luggage lost by the time we got to luggage hall, after ridiculously long wait
Missed hotel transport
Spent day and next day in same wintery clothes. Boiling heat. Had to find shops which sold sensible sized underwear, dress, swimwear flip flops comb toothpaste…..everything.
First morning 10 am bad fall on rocks, hidden under sand, couldn’t walk for the rest of the week. Hospital X-rays revealed 2 broken toes. Still painful after 2 years….
Enough said!

However on a positive note I got my luggage back after 3 very long hot frustrating days.

The worst start was a holiday in Scotland. Just outside Perth, there was a traffic jam and we broke down. Not an unusual event with that car ( Russian make beginning with L!) because it always broke down outside the county borders, fine for short trips. ( I cannot count how many times we were brought home by the AA). This was the hottest day of the year and as we stood on the verge, a car the same make and model as us but one registration number different gaily drove past us. Several hours later we reached the cottage. It was an expensive hire and we had a much cheaper one booked for the following week so we were expecting something quite comfortable. Instead, we found pans not properly washed with dried food stuck inside. It was the days when you took your own bedding and to our horror we found nail clippings in the bed. I think there were mice if not rats because there was a large hole in the bathroom skirting.
We would have left if we did not have another cottage booked further into Scotland and we were on a budget. It was with fear and trepidation we rolled up at the second, cheaper cottage. Our relief when it was clean , tidy and very cosy.

ClicketyClick

One bank holiday we had to have DH's gran for Sunday lunch. Her DS and DD were both on holiday and both due back the next day so the plan was to drop her back to her home after lunch then make our way to the airport for our flight to Malta. Why do the best of plans fail. During lunch she started choking so I called for help and was told to do the Braxton Hicks on her which didn't work and by then she was turning bright red and really struggling. Ended up being admitted to hospital. She'd got a bit of hard meat stuck deep down. I never cooked pork again after that. As this was in the days of no mobiles and family didn't have landlines, had to post notes through doors letting them know where their mum was and what I'd done. Then rushed back home to do last minute ironing/packing before the airport taxi arrived. Half way down the motorway, the taxi had a puncture. We did manage to catch our flight to Malta. You just know it's going g to be a bad hotel when you're the last drop off and this hotel was so bad it was good in a strange way. We still laugh about it now. The hotel smell made me gag, the food was so bad that I and many others went down with serious food poisoning. The first night there we were woken by something/things on the bed and crawling on us. Jumped out of bed to put the light on, whacked my knee on the wardrobe, the saw loads of cockroaches everywhere and even climbing the walls. Not exaggerating when I say the were about 6 inches long. Spent the night hitting them with shoes. Told next day that no other rooms free so back to the cockroaches we went armed with half a dozen cans of cockroach killer which didn't work. We spent alternate nights on cockroach duty. It was my first holiday abroad

And last, I would imagine!!!

Minor compared to yours ClicketyClick! 😳

Arriving at our accommodation in Paphos, Cyprus some years ago. We’d started to unpack, then were aware of the floor tilting, and I began to lose balance, whilst running down the sloping floor. It was an earthquake (6.5 on the Richter scale). There was some minor damage around us, then extremely heavy rain and hailstones. By the third day all had calmed down and the weather was beautiful.

One bank holiday we had to have DH's gran for Sunday lunch. Her DS and DD were both on holiday and both due back the next day so the plan was to drop her back to her home after lunch then make our way to the airport for our flight to Malta. Why do the best of plans fail. During lunch she started choking so I called for help and was told to do the Braxton Hicks on her which didn't work and by then she was turning bright red and really struggling. Ended up being admitted to hospital. She'd got a bit of hard meat stuck deep down. I never cooked pork again after that. As this was in the days of no mobiles and family didn't have landlines, had to post notes through doors letting them know where their mum was and what I'd done. Then rushed back home to do last minute ironing/packing before the airport taxi arrived. Half way down the motorway, the taxi had a puncture. We did manage to catch our flight to Malta. You just know it's going g to be a bad hotel when you're the last drop off and this hotel was so bad it was good in a strange way. We still laugh about it now. The hotel smell made me gag, the food was so bad that I and many others went down with serious food poisoning. The first night there we were woken by something/things on the bed and crawling on us. Jumped out of bed to put the light on, whacked my knee on the wardrobe, the saw loads of cockroaches everywhere and even climbing the walls. Not exaggerating when I say the were about 6 inches long. Spent the night hitting them with shoes. Told next day that no other rooms free so back to the cockroaches we went armed with half a dozen cans of cockroach killer which didn't work. We spent alternate nights on cockroach duty. It was my first holiday abroad

Oof, that’s a rough way to kick things off — nothing says “relaxing holiday” quite like fumbling around in the dark before you’ve even unpacked.

At least it happened early, so hopefully they got it fixed before your food went warm and your phone went flat!

Honeymoon in the 70s. Going to Barbados on BOAC via JFK. At check in we were told, you can't go, no US visa. We were in transit so didn't think we needed one. New FIL jumped in his car, took us to Grosvenor Square and we got visas there and then. Those were the days!! Caught later flight to New York and flew down the next day.

Dottydots

Oh dear, after reading all these stories I think I will stick with Warners.

😂
Or stay at home.some stories are real humdingers.

Oh dear, after reading all these stories I think I will stick with Warners.

First evening in Barbados, newly arrived, we went to the beach bar for a rum something, only to find it closing very early. Barman said there was a hurricane expected! It didn’t quite reach official hurricane levels, but the howling wind and rain all night were really something to behold!

In the morning, a lot of trees were down, and the sea looked like the North Sea on a bad day, rough, wild and grey, masses of debris in it.

We had to paddle around the breakfast area in the morning - roof only, it never had walls - but were so impressed that at least some of the staff had managed to make it in, despite so many trees down on the narrow roads and debris everywhere.

TBH it was astonishing how quickly the locals cleared up most of the debris, hats off to them! - and within 48 hours the sea was back to its tranquil Caribbean blue.

Went away with DH and some of his single friends. Was fine on the flight, settled into the apartment and unpacked, all was well

First night we went to a favourite restaurant of ours, within minutes (before I had eaten or drank anything) I was throwing up. I proceeded to vomit constantly for the next two weeks, spent a lot of time at home in the apartment alone.

Got back to U.K., went straight to the GP only to find out I was pregnant 😱

We took 4 children to an hotel in France having booked a large family room with a cot. When we arrived there was no cot available so DD2 ahed about 8 months slept in the bath with every pillow we (and the hotel) could muster.

DH booked a Spanish tour as a Christmas present. When the plane touched down I stood up to retrieve my bag from the overhead locker and my back went. I managed to hobble off the plane looking like the hunchback of Notre Dame and, once at the hotel, the tour guide called a doctor who gave me an injection in my back and some tablets. I managed to visit most of the sites but it was a bit of a struggle.

Being given the darkest smallest room available with a Baby Belling cooker (if anyone out there remembers them!)
Then to top it all a fight breaks out in the stairwell and the next morning there was blood on the walls. This was in Malta by the way!!

Thank you for the great topic. Sorry but I really did have a good laugh at some of them.
Once we set off for a classic car weekend. DH was driving his little classic car with his son. I towed a caravan with my son using DH’s estate car which I’d never done before. Plus I’d never towed a caravan either. The car just got slower and slower until it conked out while straddling two lanes and right near a massive roundabout! DH had disappeared into the distance and my youngest son was having a massive hissy fit! I had to stay calm. Phoned the AA. DH came back and the AA had to trailer the caravan and tow the car. The engine had blown up on the car. DH had only bought it that week! His son then went to his mams house after deciding that he’d had enough. My son stayed at home and me and DH had a nice weekend on our own.