Have you ever left a holiday early?

[LudoBear]

We were booked into a caravan in Cornwall for 7 nights but came home after 3 nights as the caravan was dreadful at the site owners (independent place, not a company like Parkdean) wouldn't move us as they disagreed anything was wrong. The mattresses were about 1 inch thick and you could feel the frame underneath, the window in the lounge didn't shut properly and let the cold air in (it was October), the shower didn't get hot and at best was tepid, toilet didn't flush properly, the carpets were absolutely filthy.

Came home on day 5 of a 2 week holiday in Orlando due to my uncle being in a serious car accident and we didn't think he'd survive (he did).

Another one, we stayed but DF came home early during a 2 week trip to Greece.

I am not sure why but he chose to sleep on the balcony, yes the balcony, of his apartment. You can guess what happened, he was eaten by mosquitoes. It was August (what were we thinking) and almost 40 degrees, he spent most of the holiday in hotel lobbies playing pool where there was air conditioning and delighted in telling me about their facilities. It was the first time I'd seen him drunk which was actually hilarious. One evening we were lost walking home and he navigated us home by the location of the moon in the sky. I have no idea if he was making this up still but it did get us home eventually! Anyway I think he left to go back to work as he didn't get paid holiday. He also hates the heat.

Yes. From a caravan in Devon. Park was rank. And kids started vomiting do we left after 2 nights. We were only meant to be there for 4 but that was my 1st and last caravan holiday.

Returned home 2 weeks early from Thailand in 2020 due to flights being cancelled, due to covid
Cancelled hotel & received refund ASAP on a refundable booking
Cancelled flights took 7 months for refunds from airlines

Yep self catering cottage in the UK. We had a one year old and a three year old that just didn’t sleep at all for some reason whilst we were away. They were both just in a really difficult behavioural stage which we couldn’t have foreseen when booking. We left two days early so we could all get some sleep and relax again.

Many years ago (pre-internet, so researching in advance wasn’t really a thing) I ditched a holiday cottage I’d booked for a week away on my own. Didn’t have a boyfriend and no friends to go away with, and frankly I was very lonely at the time, but I thought it might be OK if I found a nice little place in the Cotswolds where I could visit interesting places, stately homes, eat cake etc. and generally relax.

I didn’t have a car and discovered quite quickly that there were only about 2 buses a day in and out of the (pretty) village, so unless I got taxis it wasn’t really possible to get around easily. The cottage was picturesquely lovely but the weather suddenly turned freezing cold and there was a tricky fire/water heater I couldn’t manage to light no matter how hard I tried. I was cold and miserable and isolated. After about 3 days of not speaking to a soul and trying to stick it out I gave up and went home

I’d be OK now and would work out how to sort it, but then I was young and inexperienced and couldn’t hack it. I just remember feeling incredibly alone and a bit frightened.

@Anne1958

Me too, I hated it. Came home early from Kiln Park (2006 this was) it was horrible, I will never go on a caravan holiday again either

Tenby and Kiln Park were a fabulous holiday way way back. My mum used to take all of my children for a week and my kids still talk about the holiday 30 years later.

But I note that you weren’t actually there!

@Anne1958

*Never I spend a ridiculous amour researching holidays And a small fortune Never book less than 5 star Never take a risk*

I also research very carefully and enjoy really good holidays but no amount of research or money could have forewarned us about the all pervading odour of dampness throughout a very expensive hotel/island in the Seychelles. It was what it was - Just one of those things due to the climate.

Given that even very expensive and well researched holidays can throw up the unexpected my rule of thumb for a holiday is don’t go if you can’t afford to leave there and then if you don’t like it, or you would regret walking away on a financial level because you’ve paid a lot for the holiday.

@Annapops1

Reviews? Or was the pervading damp just something that happened when you were there?!

When I was a child in the 1980s, my mother and I came gone early from a holiday abroad. We had gone with her violent, alcoholic partner. Before we left the UK I had bad feelings about what was in store as things were so miserable at home with him. sadly, I wasproved right as he beat the shit out of her one night and smashed the hotel room up. She and I were moved to another hotel by the holiday company and then flew home. The weather was awful as well and the town we stayed in was being developed as a resort so was a building site. Happy days 😔

Oh yes.

1981, a camp site at the foot of Snowdon near Beddgelert. My parents had borrowed a trailer tent from my uncle and off we went for our annual two week June break.

And it rained. And rained.

I remember stepping down from the sleeping area in the trailer and my foot disappearing in mud underneath the groundsheet. All our clothes were damp. My baby brother wouldn't stop crying.

A night or two later, the trickling stream that went through the campsite broke its banks and everyone was awake in the middle of the night moving tents and caravans away from the water. The wind caught the poles of the awning, flinging them back over the tent and ripping the canvas across the top.

We left the next morning and drove home. We hadn't been home long when a neighbour came knocking on our door, excitedly telling my mum that she and her husband had got a last minute deal to Spain or somewhere and they were going the next day.

My poor mum. I still remember her tears after the neighbour left. Forty years on and we're all still scarred!

@MsTSwift

We didn’t leave early but should have due to ghosts.

Stayed in apartment in old dilapidated French chateau. Very creepy feel quite basic. Owner the duke showed us this weird church / barn next door. Every night there was loud banging and crashing in the kitchen but when you went down - nothing. Then one night I heard fingernails scraping down the outside of our first floor bedroom window. But when I looked nothing there. Dh played it down but as we drove away even he admitted there was no explanation and it was all bloody weird!

We had this at an isolated cottage in the Highlands. I didn't like the feel of the DDs room but DH played me down. Well, we ended up not using that part of the house and the girls slept with us. It was really cheap, though!

Once. Cornwall. DH was ill, weather was crap. There was just no point so we came home.

But I note that you weren’t actually there!grin

Not for the whole week. No. But I would go back and forward throughout the week. It was really nice.

In fact I still go to Tenby when I’m in the UK with my grandchildren but I mostly do Folley farm and the Dinosaur Park as day trips.

What is it with illness in Cornwall ?
My son got food poisoning from eating out and was quite poorly and we had to come home early ( plus it poured down the entire week too!)
I know it's beautiful and so popular but everyone I know who goes there ends up ill or it's bad weather all week.
Perils of a UK break.

@etinox

Never, but I've been twice forced to stay longer because of weather events. Wonderful!

Me too - caught behind a hurricane on a 7 night Caribbean cruise, which turned into 10 nights as we stayed well out of harm's way, enjoying beautiful weather

The final straw though was an owners caravan nearby occupied by Neo-Nazis complete with flags. My relatives were killed in the Holocaust and I just couldn’t cope.

Fuuuuuuck!

Caravans are great. For the first 30 minutes !
My OH and I had some dreadful holidays with our son when he was younger ( UK based). We never thought to come home. We just got through it ; laughing about it, mainly. We still laugh now about those holidays. When he was about 7 though, we ditched the holidays at home and always went abroad.

I can't stand the thought of holidaying in the UK. Am always cold.

Yes, from a tiny caravan in Mundesley. It was smaller than our kitchen. We were a family of four. Never went back to Mundesley and never had another caravan holiday. We decided if that was all we could afford we would stay at home, so we didn't have holidays for the next two or three years.

OH, I forgot. Went to Cornwall for a week and left two days early as OH had some lurgy and was in bed ill.

@ElectiveAffinities

Many years ago (pre-internet, so researching in advance wasn’t really a thing) I ditched a holiday cottage I’d booked for a week away on my own. Didn’t have a boyfriend and no friends to go away with, and frankly I was very lonely at the time, but I thought it might be OK if I found a nice little place in the Cotswolds where I could visit interesting places, stately homes, eat cake etc. and generally relax.

I didn’t have a car and discovered quite quickly that there were only about 2 buses a day in and out of the (pretty) village, so unless I got taxis it wasn’t really possible to get around easily. The cottage was picturesquely lovely but the weather suddenly turned freezing cold and there was a tricky fire/water heater I couldn’t manage to light no matter how hard I tried. I was cold and miserable and isolated. After about 3 days of not speaking to a soul and trying to stick it out I gave up and went home

I’d be OK now and would work out how to sort it, but then I was young and inexperienced and couldn’t hack it. I just remember feeling incredibly alone and a bit frightened.

This has made me feel really sad .

Once years ago, I left a friend looking after my dog (paid) In the time I was there she left the dog home alone for 14 hours (neighbours contacted me) then when I messaged to check, mistakenly sending a text intended for a friend slagging me off. Then she lost the dog (found it after a couple of hours) then she lost my house key whilst out walking the dog so said she would take the dog to stay at her boyfriend's house.....at this point I cut my losses, drove home and rescued the dog.

We have returned home early a few times, mainly due to poor weather and high winds being forecast for Towing/Camping.

Once when DH was taken ill during the night with Kidney Stones, and admitted to Hospital, leaving me to pack away and hitch up with the help from the Site Wardens.

After mistaking a rough B&B in an advertisement Calling it a Travelodge, only to find that on the cold Autumn night when we turned up, it was no such thing, just a filthy Tatty room with no heating, sagging mattresses, and Bunk beds for DDs with no top safety rail. Needless to say, we did not stay, and DH and l took turns to Drive back through the night whilst DDs slept soundly in the back.

Our extended family of 14 of us took my Darling sister for a final pilgrimage visit to her beloved Scarborough, North Yorkshire, just after she received confirmation that her Cancer had progressed to become Terminal, in June 2015. Five of us who went had come from Nursing Backgrounds, and were confident that we could fully look after her while away. However, it quickly became apparent that the tumours within her Brain were causing her eyesight to fail, and she was starting to deteriorate rapidly. We packed away and hitched up quickly, handed over the keys back to the Haven site where most of us were staying, and travelled back in Convoy to get home as quickly as possible.
We Nursed her until the end, she died peacefully in her Husbands arms 15 Days later, aged 36 years. She never was able to have any Children due to Male infertility in her DH. This year, 5 years on, we are hopeful of making that pilgrimage again, but this time to say a final Farewell to my Father, on the First anniversary of his death during Lockdown in 2020.

A ski holiday in France many years ago. I had organised it for a few mates and me, but when we arrived it transpired the travel company had overbooked and we were allocated “overflow” accommodation in a town about 30mins drive from the resort. The hotel was like something out of a horror movie, complete with plumbing which rattled loudly every time anyone in the place turned on a tap. I slept in my clothes. After just one night me and my mates grabbed our bags, jumped in a taxi and booked into a lovely 4 star hotel in the resort. We had a great week. I felt awful for the dozens of people stuck in that horrible hotel. We were young with disposable incomes and credit cards. When we got home I successfully sued the travel company and reclaimed the cost of the holiday including the 4* hotel for the week. It took dozens of solicitor’s letters but again I was young and didn’t have kids and had the time to follow up.
Like a PP had said, these days I research and research and spend a small fortune on holidays to minimise the chance of a disaster - holiday are so precious. We do tend to throw money at fixing problems that arise on holiday, and wouldn’t really hesitate to pack up and leave if being at home (or checking in elsewhere) were preferable.
I’m slightly dreading our planned U.K. holidays this summer having read some of the posts here! We never normally holiday in the U.K. - sounds like the weather will be a deal breaker.

SavannahLands

Those who leave the night before - geniuses!
That never would have occurred to me, and I hate getting up and out early, I'm much more a night owl and prefer to drive at night when the traffic is thinner, I can't believe I've never thought to do that!

But you are wasting a night you’ve paid for if you leave the night before..