What is the worst holiday you have had?

Gold coast (Queensland - Tweed Heads). It's only a few hours drive, but we can only afford one week away on holiday a year. September school hols, so expensive. Booked an Airbnb unit under someone's house, it had a private pool, about 200m from the beach.

As we were driving in, a huge, ferocious weather system followed. We went straight to the beach before it hit, then spent the rest of the week inside a tiny unit, which looked at the back of other buildings, and the pool we couldn't use. It poured all week. Roads were cut, everything is outdoors there. We even had to book a bowling lane two days in advance as everyone was looking for indoor activities. Not great with two active DC.

To top it off, there was a horrible wet rag stink in the unit. It was only on day 5 we found the offending item - a mop shoved into a tiny alcove.

If course, the rain system cleared up the afternoon before we left.

Omg Malbec

Wow! Are you still friends with them?

That she brought a book to the restaurant!

Oyr first trip to Thailand went with a stop in Moscow!! Sucked

I never had an outrageously terrible holiday but myself and a friend decided to do a joint holiday with our families to Melbourne, Australia in 2006 (we were living in NZ at the time) for a mutual friend's wedding. Not long after the accommodation was booked, DH couldnt go due to work commitments, which was a PITA and I wasnt happy.

We went separately, our flights were delayed for hours, and when we finally got to the hotel, DD (aged 7) and I had to share a room because my friend, their DH and their two dds decided to put all their crap in what was suppose to be DD's room so it could be used as a play room, and we also had the smallest room. I dont mind sharing but we paid 1/3 of the accommodation costs so it was the principal of the matter. Then all the activities were decided by them, their DDs were slightly younger and they didnt like the beach / pool, so it was stuff DD and I didnt particularly enjoy. Worst of it was, we ended up at bloody Ikea for hours one afternoon.

In hindsight, I wish I stood up to them and went off on our own but our DDs were flower girls and I didnt want to cause a fall out. I learnt a valuable lesson, never do joint holidays.

This is why every penny for travel insurance is so worth it.
Glad all turned out ok.

Our worse was almost the opposite..
arranged a villa for 4 families we knew. Itinerary discussed in advance. One family didn’t want to do discussed plan. They went home.

another disaster was the only holiday we invited MIL on. She refused to even consider getting up earlier than her usual 10am to try and get the beach in before afternoon nap. And blocked the loo with a massive poo and then spent ages in the only remaining toilet.
we’ve never asked her again.

The one where we arrived at the small family run hotel, on the small island the day after the husband had run off with the member of staff he'd been having an affair with taking the contents of the joint bank accounts with him.

Pre Brexit we had excellent care at a Spanish A&E without needing to use our Travel Insurance (which we did have).
On one occasion SIL badly cut her finger and they stitched her up and gave her Antiobiotics with no questions asked.
Another time when baby DS had a bad cough we ended up tacking onto the end of a Paediatric clinic

An all-inclusive in Kos in 2021.

We usually go to a lovely Airbnb in Spain but Covid testing was way cheaper with an AI that year. It just wasn't what we were expecting though.

Gorgeous weather and the public areas of the hotel were beautiful, but the rooms were quite basic (and totally different from the photos).

The other guests were a bit meh - a lot of uneducated Brits with very bad table manners.

The food was very disappointing - it was obvious that many meals were repurposed from the previous nights meal! Nearly all the staff were miserable and over-worked too.

But the worse thing for us was seeing the rest of the island. We hired a car for three days and returned it after three hours, as there's just nothing beyond the big hotels but what looked like poverty - it was like a strange and faintly depressing bubble.

Never again...

noro virus which started on a 13 hour plane journey. Absolute hell. By the time we landed my husband and daughter were in airline pjs and their clothes were in chemical waste bags being disposed of after my DD threw up everywhere. We got to our holiday spot and in turn each got sick over the coming days, finally DS 6months old got it and almost ended up in hospital. We couldn’t wait to leave and go home.

Doesn’t it just ! What a strong lady dealing with all that 😞

3* hotel in Cala d’or. Parts of it absolutely stank of fish. Room was horrible, broken tiles, dripping water from ceiling. First time I’d taken my child abroad post separation, on a budget, wanted it to be lovely. Almost didn’t get there, in airport check in queue with 2 passports - both were my child’s. Thank god for my wonderful dad and the local taxi firm. Cala D’or itself was nice though.

We booked caravan holiday down south quite a few years ago. The site was awful, the food was chicken in a basket or burger in a basket. . It rained every day, we were at the top of a massive hill that was awful to walk up. My car broke down during the stay . Kids entertainment was dire/non existent. Then after an awful holiday on the way back we got stuck in a 8 hour standstill jam on the motorway . It took 14 hours to get home.

@MarSeaLane I do use our story when people make posts about how much insurance costs. It was the best £52 I have ever spent - the costs of the surgeries, evacuation, hospital bills plus new flights came to well over $250k.

However, to add insult to injury, the next year we went to Madeira. DH's travel insurance was really expensive compared the the rest of us. When I queried it, I was told it was due to the claim. My response was that it could never happen again as his appendix wouldn't grow back, but that made no difference.

As I was going away at the beginning of October I couldn’t do sober October so instead did sober September as this also contributed to the holiday diet.
On the first night in Spain after a good amount of cava and in a torrential downpour going back to our apartment, I fell and broke a hand and foot. Of course I did not realise this until the next morning.

Cue a visit to the local A&E where I have to admit I got exemplary care and was assessed, x rayed and out within 3 hours. All free on my GHIC card and it made me realise the sorry state of our NHS. The only fly in the ointment was it was plaster of paris cast not a boot so I needed a wheelchair as I couldn’t use crutches.
It also made me value my travel insurance as equally there were great and arranged extra seats for the journey home and the airport assistance with the airline.

Unlike @Malbecfan who had taken out holiday insurance (OMG can you imagine if you had not!)…

…I went in my teens with my bf, to Spain for 3 months. Of course we couldn't afford ( or didn't think we could afford) holiday insurance for that long and decided to chance going without.

SO…late one evening we ran the car out of petrol, filled a drum at the petrol station but this wouldn't tip enough to transfer the petrol from the drum to fill the car. Decided we needed a funnel….so BF tried to smash the bottom off a beer bottle to make one…🤯

The broken glass split the whole length of his finger, blood gushing from an open wound, something that looked like a sausage that has burst its skin in the pan.

Without insurance we were too scared to go to A&E - not only worrying about how much it would cost to have it stitched, but also how much it would cost to have the stitches removed.
I spent, what felt like days, nipping the gash together with my fingers and bandaging his hand.

I also decided that he was at risk of some awful disease from the dirty bottle, so frequently dipped his finger in near dettol.🤯🤬

Two lessons
Always buy holiday insurance.
Never, ever moan about the NHS ( and the free at source access we have)

Iceland.
I would love to go back but our holiday was a disaster

Day2 went to the blue lagoon. We were snowed in. They evacuated the water and we spent 12 hours sitting on the floor of the hotel reception.
Towels as blankets and a police escort to leave the resort.

Day4 attempted to go home. Dangerous drive to the airport in a terrible snowstorm. All flights cancelled
Spent 2 nights (3 days) in the departure lounge.
Was given a bottle of water and a blanket on day 2. Limited food as all but one of the food outlets were closed. Barely any staff.
Luggage was checked in but I did have a spare pair of knickers in my hand luggage.

Abandoned by our airline and had to spend an extra £1500 for new flights and £300 for a hotel when we were finally released from the airport. We had to say even longer as all the flights were booked up (it was 3 days before Xmas) luckily we had good travel insurance and it was eventually all refunded.

The police closed the airport and we were banned from leaving which is why we were stuck there for 3 days.

Oh the food poisoning stories are giving me a panic. No matter how careful you are, our bodies are fragile. And we are away from home.

Many many years ago I made the mistake of going away in a group that included my ex-boyfriend. He spent the time demonstrating many of the character traits that had caused us to split up in the first place, and we had a couple of lovely rows. To add to the fun another couple in the group were in the throes of splitting up, and disappeared off into the garden for long stretches for soul-searching convos while the rest of us just wanted to get pissed in said garden. Ex-BF's sister spent the time flirting outrageously with another member of the group who was in hot pursuit, whilst another bloke who lusted after her looked on sadly and moaned to the rest of us about what an outrage it was.

The only thing I remember fondly is being taught the finer points of sand castle construction by a friend's brother.

France last year, it was our first holiday abroad as a family (with DS3 and DS1), with us driving all the way to a remote villa near Avignon, with an overnight stay at a hotel just outside Paris. We were to spend the week with four other couples and their children.

By the first evening there, it became apparent we barely knew the other couples (they were more friends or acquaintances of friends). The following three days saw an increasing tension in the house, unpleasant comments being made about our children, the other couples arranging things together and excluding us etc. by the Wednesday, it was very apparent that we were overstaying our welcome. This culminated in overhearing some absolutely horrendous things being said about us in the early hours of the morning when the other couples were drinking downstairs. We decided there and then to pack our bags and make the 1000km journey home, stopping over near Calais on the way home. 24 hours later, both children and ourselves were utterly exhausted after a hellish journey, and almost £1000 worse off, but relieved to be home by 3am and resolved never to holiday with several other couples again!

A weeks all inclusive in Egypt. Whole family got the worst food poisoning. Young kids, dealing with liquid poop everywhere. One morning I finally felt like I was feeling better and thought I might risk a cheeky toot on the way to breakfast. Well, that was a big mistake!

1987 or so. I was a student and had very little money but a friend had a family apartment in Tenerife and I could pay my flight. She had way more money than me and spent the whole time complaining I couldn't do all the things her mum was paying for her to do.

I just remembered a holiday to Kaprun in Austria in the 90s one September. We booked 2 weeks and the first week was great but then basically the whole resort shut down. Seriously, everything closed - we couldn't even hire a bike. I wonder if they still do that.

What was wrong with Lake Como?