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).

Came home a few days early from a UK caravan holiday as DH had a bad case of chickenpox...........then a week after we got home both the kids came out in spots the same day!

Mobile home holiday in France, we left the site a day early so we could split the drive back to the port. We booked a cheap hotel for the night at a mid-point and left late afternoon instead of early the next morning and the journey was much more relaxing.

Yes.Had to cut short a mid term break to York as I had a horrible cough and felt really unwell.Turned out I had pneumonia .

Woke up to a forest fire. Had to pack up pretty fast. We were watching the helicopters scoop up water from the lake and drop it. We were far enough away we were out of the smoke but still had to evacuate.

Another trip, another forest fire. That one we Drove down the mountain through smoke. It was slow going because the animals were evacuating too. At one point I stopped and used a small waterfall about 2 inches wide to rinse my eyes - it was bliss.

I once went on holiday with a group of friends when I was 21, one of those holiday parks within the UK.

I left them and got a train home on day 3 of 5 after realising that a couple of them were complete arseholes.

No issues with the actual holiday park though- if I had decent company I could probably ride out most things.

Once. Booked a lodge for a week and gave up and came home after 3 days because of non stop work calls and spending the entire time sorting stuff out. It was just easier to give in and go back to the office.

Not a holiday but came home early from weekend camping at Leeds festival as it pissed it down the whole time and I was traumatised!

Only once - camping in the Lake District a couple of years ago. DP forgot his pillow and was rather miserable and as he was driving I thought it was only fair to go when he had had enough so we left a day early on a 5 day stay.

“ To those who would rather leave the night before, don't you go somewhere on the journey home, and it's part of the holiday?”

Sometimes, though usually not. But I absolutely hate the faff of leaving first thing in the morning while also cleaning, bed stripping etc and the kids are much more pleasant in the car when they’re asleep so I still prefer to leave in the evening. On those occasions we leave early, drive halfway home in the evening when the kids are asleep, stay overnight in a last minute travellodge and do something completely random on the way home. We ended up on totally the other side of the country once on a spontaneous two day “detour tour” on the way home from a holiday cottage, all thanks to one small diversion for roadworks that snowballed - the kids thought that was the best bit of the whole holiday! Harder to do at the moment with needing to book everything because of covid.

But generally after a week we’ve all had enough. I like lots of little short trips.

Yes, several times, but mainly when we owned a touring caravan and it looked like we would be trapped in a waterlogged field if we left it too long. That really wasn't fun . Packing up a sodden awning and having to place wooden boards under the car wheels to gain traction to get off our pitch. We then endured a 6 hour journey home after the M5 was totally closed due to a major pile up. (Journey would have taken 3 hours maximum in normal conditions).

Once came home a few days early from Greece when it was unusually wet and chilly for September, and not forecast to change for the foreseeable.

Yes just once though. We went to a holiday park I won’t name and it was absolutely awful. The place was disgusting, the food was shocking, and then to top it off both DC got sick and spent the night vomiting. We just left. Awful ‘holiday’.

The cottage owners were really unpleasant on the phone afterwards as we think they were worried about a negative review.
It would have made more sense to be polite and atempt tp placate you!

One of my earliest memories is lying in our tent seeing the lightning through the roof. Mum tells me it was a hurricane (Charlie?). I also remember being outside the tent during the day and dad shouting thats it! Pack up your stuff - we're going home. I think there was a whole catalogue of events, the hurricane being one, me wetting the bed another. My sisters tell me as he shut the boot on all our stuff the back windscreen fell out

“ To those who would rather leave the night before, don't you go somewhere on the journey home, and it's part of the holiday?”

No, once the car is packed up i am mentally home and want to get there asap.

This thread firmly confirms to me (not that I needed it), why I always book our main summer holiday abroad where to all intents and purposes - guaranteed sun!

@Shehasadiamondinthesky

I went to Sunny Beach for two weeks in Bulgaria in the 1980s. It was an absolute shit hole then dont know about now and stank of drains and excrement. Came home after a week. Id sooner be at home these days

I went there in 1991 and it was no better. I read that in the 21st Century it's become very much a sex tourism venue, but no idea if that's true as I've never gone back.

Some of these camping holidays sound more like an endurance rather than enjoyable

We arranged a replacement AirBnB on the first morning.

Arrived that night, Northern Ireland in October. House was freezing and we assumed the oil heating would take a while to kick in so put the kids to bed with hot water bottles. Drinking wine on the sofa in coats and gloves 3hrs later was apparent the heating was doing nothing and checking AirBnB reviews saw the last 2 guests had also complained. Kids came in bed with us later that night (DD says it was her favourite holiday at the ‘snuggly house’!!) The next morning the host was non committal about sorting the heating so we sorted a replacement then and there, left and Aur BnB refunded us later that afternoon

I left my honeymoon in Mexico, 3 days into a 14 night stay as I received news that my mum had died suddenly.
I have left a couple of camping holidays after only 1 nights as it was just pouring with rain with little prospect of the weather improving. God I hate camping and have no intention of ever camping again!!

I had some package holidays in the sun in my youth that I would have liked to have gone home early from. Remember the days when you could just go into the travel agents and say 'I want to fly next Wednesday' and they would book you a holiday but you didn't know which hotel until you were on the coach?
The weather was wonderful but some of the locations were a bit .

A couple of times have left a cottage/caravan the afternoon before if weather forecast is bad for the original departure day.

The only one we left properly early was a holiday park in Scotland where they'd let lots of workmen hire a caravan next to us and they had a huge drunken brawl throughout the night, police called etc. Was terrifying as they kept hitting the sides of the caravan.

Walked in to reception on them opening the next day ready to complain and I promptly burst in to tears, after explaining the events of the night before they moved us to a lovely site in the Lake District in much better accommodation.

DPs went home early from Lake Como because it was too hot.

On our last trip before covid I left a hotel after my 2 year old presented me with a couple of brown pills from under the bed. Thankfully my DH saw him lifting them so we knew he hadn't taken any. The manager was an obnoxious shit and didn't see any issue with the fact that my toddler could easily have consumed the unidentified pills.

I still feel sick/furious/wracked with guilt when I think about it. I always check the floors but somehow missed those.

A day early after a cold week in the Lakes when the last day was due to be very wet.

A night early when camping: had had a nice day, seemed easier to pack and leave in the evening and have a clear day back home the next day, rather than be rushing to pack in the morning and spending half the day driving.

Came home early once from a disastrous holiday in a gite in France. Our boys were about 7 and 5 so it was the first summer we felt that a swimming pool would be fun for them. The weather in Normandy was awful that August, to the extent that it was the main item on the evening news one day! It was so cold we could only use the pool for about 10 mins before everyone was miserable, then we couldn't get towels etc dry for literally days because we couldn't hang them out and the weather was so wet that even indoors was ridiculously humid. The gite we were staying in was the first of a few which the British owners had renovated in their courtyard and while lovely, they were new to renting holiday accommodation and didn't have a clue about the practicalities. They were unwilling to turn on the heating because it was Summer and they hadn't budgeted for it, even though we offered to pay! The reality that the weather was the worst for years and years didn't really seem to register. Spent all the time inside wrapped in blankets, avoiding the low-hanging mood lighting and trying to find somewhere with enough light to read. It was the first season the house had been rented out and while it was great to have a dishwasher there were only 6 of literally everything - plates, glasses, forks etc so I washed up after every meal anyway. The low point was a day out when it rained so heavily in a local town that we took refuge in the cathedral and were trapped inside by the arrival of a funeral! Came home at the beginning of week to equally wet UK but our lovely, warm comfortable home and spent the rest of the holiday funds on meals out, cinema etc.