Your worst ever holiday

[DanteThunderstone]

I know this has been done before but it's cold and grey outside and I haven't been on holiday in years and can't afford to any time soon. So please make me feel better about being stuck at home surrounded by rain puddles with tales of Holiday Disappointment. My worst ever holiday was when I was 19. I went on a two week package holiday to a cheap hotel in Rhodes with three friends. Almost immediately I got the worst flu of my life and spent pretty much the whole fortnight in an uncomfortable bed in an overheated room feeling like death while they all went on day trips and beach visits and nights out. Them rolling in pissed every night and waking me up was especially fun. I barely saw any of the island and I wasted two weeks leave and a few hundred quid lying in bed wanting my mum

TBH nearly every holiday I've had has had a problem...me being ill, awful accommodation, a row with someone I've been with, family member dying when I was away, days of bad weather, my insomnia, terrible beds, strange cottage owner perving, cornered by a group of men on a remote beach [frightening but I got away], travel problems/delays etc.etc. There have been the odd good days though.

Practically given up now and do day trips.

When I was 19 I went on holiday with my parents and little brother to Mexico.

My parents argued the whole time. We stayed in a nice resort but overall it was just so boring.

My dad hired a VW convertible bug and we took a long drive one day to some tiny town. Hours spent in the car driving down dirt roads, top down baking in the sun with no ac.

Everyone was in a foul mood the whole holiday. Half way through, we stopped one day to get a snack at a food store. My mum choose a cream filled pastry. Of course she got terrible food poisoning. Never seen my mum so ill.

My mum, brother and I flew home early as soon as she recovered. My dad stayed on his own to golf. My parents announced their divorce about 6 months later. I haven't been back to Mexico.

[quote FrazzledCareerWoman]@Marmite27 !!! You need to explain the arse physio thing...!![/quote]
From sitting on the bloody uncomfortable plane seat without being able to move for hours on end I trapped a nerve or compressed a muscle or something (it’s a decade ago, I can’t quite remember ) it took ages to get right again!

Went to my mothers home country. We have family there but it was the first time DH and two DC (who were 7 and 4 at the time) had been there, so it was a special trip. We went with my mother and her DP (he is from the UK, as are we).

My mum's DP's behaviour was horrendous throughout the trip. A summary:

He insisted on fitting the child seats into the hire car (he has never had kids) and got angry with me when I refused to let him drive off with the seats fitted incorrectly.

My godmother and her husband arrived to the holiday home with very generous gifts for us all. When they were out of earshot he said to DH and I that he just wished "they would leave the gifts and piss off". It was then it dawned on me that he had no interest in seeing my family.

He left a citronella candle in metal casing directly on a deck board in the holiday home and it burnt a circle into it, then asked my mum to call my godmother and her husband back to help him fix it.

Micro aggressions to our 7 year old son all holiday including giving him the silent treatment, shouting at him for not eating his dinner in a restaurant and clipping him purposely with a pull along suitcase. DS has now been diagnosed ASD so has always struggled with food etc.

Was sullen during a lake trip and then walked ahead and got DD changed out of her wet swimming things before we got there (she was aged 4 at the time). As I said, he was not a parent himself and it felt very alarming that he was so simmering with anger with us yet felt the need to get a small girl changed instead of waiting 5 min for a parent to do it.

We went to stay with a family friend and her family who kindly moved out of her apartment in the city to let us stay. He screamed at her in the car as she was chatting and he didn't know where to park.

Went to a cafe (but like a petrol station type thing) with same family friend and her DH. He presumed they were paying for all our drinks and walked off at the till, when called back he caused a scene.

Marched us angrily through the city and would not slow down for the children, we were having to carry them and rush along behind him as best we could.

Hissed at my mum who was pretending to have a back ache by this point.

My husband wanted to have a row with him but I was scared and worried about a ruined holiday so I didn't let him (I used to be a people pleaser and was scared of him)

Am now NC with him because of many other things too and as a result have barely any relationship with my mum.

It was a horrific holiday!

I also have two more from my teenage years.

I was age 13 in Greece, my parents had a terrible relationship and for some reason invited a lady who lived in the next street along. She was mid 50s and I had to share a room with her. I had to listen to her masturbate every night for two weeks, and she spoke to me like shit when we're in the room together. She was topless every day.

Age 14 in Turkey and we took my school friend along (I'm an only child). My dad's alcoholism was worsening and he was stumbling around arguing with people in shops and restaurants. I was in a shop looking at a rack of belts, I was groped by a shop worker and my parents did nothing. Then on another day there was a man wanking in the sea in front of us, parents did nothing.

Aged 19, holiday with first boyfriend to Cornwall. We'd been together less than a year but the writing was already on the wall for our relationship as I was realising he was very boring.

Friends of my dad who owned a house in Cornwall offered to have us to stay for a few nights. They put us in separate rooms, undermining my attempts to look grownup.

We were planning to camp after that but BF was unimpressed by Cornwall and the weather was awful. Decided to look for a B&B in Penzance. BF was not from the UK so I was in charge of negotiating. Went round knocking on doors of B&Bs and I remember turning down one on the grounds that £25 for a double room was too expensive (!) Walked round some more in the rain and finally found a cheaper place. We were both throughly fed up with one another at this point.

Got on train back to London the next morning and sat glowering at one another in the carriage. Everyone was listening to portable radios and eventually I heard enough of the coverage to work out the breaking news that Princess Diana had died.

My very worst holiday which with hindsight is hilarious and my sister and I still mention it now ten years later

It was me, DD (nearly 2 at the time) and my male friend who was only ever a friend. No sense of anything more from either side, spent loads of time together and he had been going out with a mutual friend. Camping in France with my sister, her husband and kids. Separate compartments to the tent, all above board.

Pack my absolute heap of shit car up, rammed to the rafters and DD’s little face in her car seat is the only thing thing visible. Friend refused to drive for some reason even though we’d got him insured just so we could share the driving. He’s in a foul mood from literally 2 mins in, DD happy eating snacks and singing away. Ferry, massive storm throwing us around the place, DD scared and crying and clinging to me as I’m trying to keep us on the seat and friend buggers off. Get back in the car; everyone a bit green and into the French motorway for My first abroad driving. 5 minutes later DD says mummy… and projectile vomited into my hair, my back all over the duvets, tent, bags you name it everything was covered. So I pull over on the hard shoulder, French police pull up behind me, I speak very schoolgirl French. Policeman is heaving at the smell as it trying to wipe down a very sad and puke covered toddler and not her run over. Friend sits in the car…

Anyway, 6 hours driving in a sick covered car and unhappy child and sulking friend. We arrive as the heavens opened. My sis is there all set up, looking like an advert for a camping brochure. I get DD out who immediately runs for the duck pond, so chasing her, cleaning up everything we owned and trying to put up a tent in the rain. Friend went off somewhere, and bless my sister as she helped me while dry heaving 😂

This was day 1. It didn’t get any better, DD did not sleep more than 2 hours at any point. The tent leaked like a sieve and the only time I saw my friend was when he tried to get me to shag him every.bloody.night. I had to padlock us in the Damn tent compartment as he wouldn’t stop pestering me.

Oh and it rained for the entire 7 days, I got stuck in a boat on a kids paddling boat lake thing and DD was screaming for help. We accidentally spent £400 on a meal out due to friend ordering lobster and refusing to pay for it. And DD got headbutted by a goat. All in all a shite holiday but it’s given me a lot of giggles since 😂

Flew out to India to meet my boyfriend who was out there got a few months, travelling. As soon as I arrived, he took me to his room and dumped me. But said he really wanted us to be friends and that he still wanted to do the two-week trip that we had planned... I was too young and afraid to do anything but sadly followed him around, even sharing a room with him. Awful. We were actually living together at the time so I had to look for a flat to rent and move out before he came back. Hell.

Went on holiday with my ex bf when I was 18, hotel was awful they decided to change our room and went through all our things, this resulted in me getting very upset and us wandering around the resort looking for another hotel as we didn’t feel safe (hotel tried to withhold our passports) when it was time to travel back to the airport our coach was hit by a truck and span nearly off the edge of the hill we was going up and the window where me and ex was sitting was smashed resulting in me being covered in glass and lots of small cuts, this resulted in us missing our flight home and having to wait around in the airport for 9 hours for another flight back to the uk. We broke up shortly after returning home I think it was all too much

Aged, 18, Ibiza, two weeks, first time abroad with best friend and her family. She met somebody within a few days and went off with him and his family, and I had to hang out with her mum and dad and their couple friends who kept taking the piss because I couldn't baste in the sun as I was prone to burning.

It was so expensive for my mum to pay for me and I was so miserable and then I had to phone home to find out I hadn't got the grades to get into University.

Or maybe, Seville with boyfriend who told me he was still in love with his ex. We were staying in his family's apartment, I had no way of getting home, before mobile phones to even talk to anybody so I was stuck for the rest of the holiday heartbroken.

My lovely parents always brought us on a family holiday every year and most were great. But the year I was 12 funds were low and one if dad's colleagues offered him use of his caravan which was on the coast of co Derry. It seriously was like Father Ted. Mum, dad, 6 kids including a 3 month old baby. And as usual in Ireland, it rained constantly.

After A levels I organised a holiday with 4 "friends" in Somerset. I booked it, did the driving etc etc. First night there they basically to,d me they hated me and all the things we'd teased each other about "in jest" were fine when it came from them but apparently from me were evil insults. The rest of the week I had to drive them around to activities but couldn't participate in them. By the end of the holiday I was a nervous wreck due to them excluding me from all the fun and talking about me behind my back. Ended up on anti-depressants and in therapy for years afterwards.

A few years ago I ended up on holiday with my then BF (now an ex, thank god), his parents and his sister/her dp. I didn't know his family at all.
My ex had never been abroad so was very keen to go on this family holiday (mainly because his dad was paying and he was as tight as a duck's arse in water so would never have paid to go abroad himself) and his dad decided he was going to pay for me too because I made his son so happy.

I was very uncomfortable being paid for (basic flights and a cheap hotel b&b) but he was insistent. The flight was shocking - cheap European no frills type which was full of drunken stag parties all screaming and shouting across the plane at each other, people so drunk they were passing out in their seats leaving their kids unattended. The hotel was manky and the security guard refused to let us in to our rooms as we arrived after 10pm. His sister and her DP dumped their cases and went off to continue their marathon drinking session which had started while we were waiting for the taxi to the airport, leaving us to negotiate entry to the hotel.

My DP became weird by the next morning. Firstly he banned sex because his parents were next door, then he decided it was too weird to fart or use the toilet in case they heard him through the paper thin walls. He also decided that as his dad paid for us we should spend every minute in their company. All they wanted to do was get pissed every single day. Bar hopping, drinking round the pool or drinking on the beach. Me and ex rarely drank but my ex turned into a huge drinker while we were there. Made it very obvious he thought I was purposely hating the holiday and making up feeling ill (food was shockingly bad). We argued every single day and he banged on about his ex GF at every opportunity. Within a few days I was looking for flights home but they were either too expensive or fully booked.
He then decided to inform me that our sex life in general was too active and that there was something wrong with me. Also hinted that he wasn't happy with other things but denied it when I asked.
He got badly sunburned and expected me to deal with it for him, then slipped by the pool and bruised his balls (in hindsight it was hilarious and a pretty epic fall in front of a full sunbathing area). I had to agree with him that no one had probably seen it. He then chapped said bruised balls on a long walk we did and expected me to rub cream on them every day.
He spent all his money the day we all went out for an expensive meal and expected me to pay for his extortionate meal. I refused (as it was his own fault and he refused to use his credit card) and he caused a scene telling me how ungrateful I was and asking why I came when I clearly hated everyone there. I left the table as I was upset and when I came back his dad asked me why I put up with him as he was clearly a prick . I of course ended up having to pay for that meal and for everything else he wanted to do before we went home. He'd clearly already decided to dump me because he changed his mind about sex and wanted it several times a night, then pass out asleep while I was kept up by the pounding dance music coming from peoples rooms.
When we got home he made sure anything of mine in his case was given back and I made a joke along the lines of 'oh so am I not invited back to your house ever again then?' - he ignored me. He asked his dad to drop me off home and then dumped me by text.
Within a couple of weeks he was back begging for a second chance. Like a complete idiot I took him back. Didn't take long for him to dump me again when his ex got back in touch. He then pestered me for months after his ex told him she wouldn't shag him and he tried to ruin my new relationship.
Worst of all was that we weren't 18 like it sounds, I was early 30s and he was pushing 40.

Between marriages, aged around 40, I had a close male friend, not relationship material, with whom I went on activity weekends related to a shared sport (I had a car, he could drive but didn't, and he was good company). He introduced me to another friend of his, a younger woman who came across as totally sound and sensible. So when my friend was given free use of a house in Edinburgh belonging to one of his workmates for a week I suggested all three of us should go. By the time the holiday came round my friend was deep in a bout of depression. The house was derelict and we had to shift stacked up furniture to get into the bedrooms and to buy a kettle. The young woman turned out to be relentlessly demanding, bursting into tears all the time, screeching that she was going to cut herself or take an overdose until the small hours of the morning (she never did) then not appearing till midday, having pseudoseizures, and refusing to eat and sitting at the table scowling when we tried to have meals out. I did all the driving and neither of them offered me a penny piece towards the petrol. They got increasingly on one another's nerves and bickered all the time.

Towards the end of the week I retreated to my room to have a little cry over the waste of a child free week and my holiday companions appeared at the door laughing and going, "Ha ha, you're depressed too, you're just like us."

I can't believe now that I didn't just pack the car, drive home, and leave them there.

Haven holiday, by myself I was pregnant, with a 14month old and my 5yr old then, got their fine, 1st day was fab then the sickness and loo bug got my son, I caught it on the day we left.... the 3hr drive home was intense to put it lightly 🙈🤣

Went to Indonesia for ten weeks with my just turned 1yr old, as you do.
I actually had an amazing time despite the Bali bomb happenning when we were on the next island, getting malaria and having to pay a bribe fine to leave as I overstayed my visa.

First holiday abroad - Ibiza 1989. Hotel was ok, even split between British, German and Norwegian tourists, and laid on some decent food, trips and entertainment so was all good. The work friend I went with was nice enough.

Early in the second week, taking part in a game at the hotel one evening, I slipped and twisted my knee; ended up in an ambulance off to a clinic where they diagnosed a fractured and dislocated kneecap; wanted to operate but I was worried my insurance wouldn’t pay fit the operation side lined beyond letting them reduce the dislocation and put me in plaster. They insisted on keeping me in as felt the knee might be unstable if I went back to the hotel (despite a full cast from hip to toes!). I was in a room with an old lady who was clearly dying with her entire family sitting at her bedside (and with chairs touching my bed through the curtain) 24/7. They would not give me crutches to get about so I had to ring the bell if I needed the toilet - and they would send a male order ley who would wheel me into the bathroom then stand and watch me with a thoroughly disinterested look on his face. They wouldn’t give me pain killers as I wouldn’t let them operate - so the hotel reps had to go and buy me pain killers from a pharmacy.

After 2 1/2 days like this, a British family in the next room came to see me, their son had us appendicitis and been operated on a couple of days earlier. He had an empty space in his room and so, his parents ‘rescued’ me to there and I spent another 3 days in their company until I returned to the hotel the morning of the day before we were due to fly home. They took such good care of me during those days but I never got their contact details to thank them before leaving the clinic.

The hotel were so lovely on the last day, upgraded us to a suite so I had space and a huge bed for my leg to rest without getting in anyone’s way and we had a gorgeous balcony with stunning views. They brought me fabulous food and flowers and drinks - I’m sure they didn’t want me to sue them (I wouldn’t have done, it was an accident and I had willingly taken part in the games night!). They even organised private transfers to the airport the following day for our flight back to Gatwick. My friend’s parents picked us up at the airport and took me straight to the local hospital where I had surgery the following day to sort my knee out. And I spent a couple of days in as my parents had gone on holiday so had to wait for them to be back.

Found out on day 2 of 14 my then husband had been having a year long affair. I was in a foreign country with a baby and toddler. Ex walked straight out of hotel and got a flight home!. Called my dad in tears and he got straight on a plane to holiday with us. Turned out the best thing looking back, but a horrible experience at the time.

A couple spring to mind:

The walking holiday in wales my parents insisted I go on, where it rained solidly for a week and then 9/11 happened, after which the mood was rather sombre.

The weekend in Amsterdam I arranged for my halls in Uni. We had to share the trip with another group, who were awful, there was a fight on the coach on the way out, it had snowed in Amsterdam and was turning to knee deep slush and, while I was busy organising things, my mates went out without me and I was stuck on my own. By the time I found them, it was late so I overcompensated and had to be taken home.

And the week in France where it rained all week, me and baby DD got horrendous colds and didn’t sleep and we decided to come home early.

reading about disastrous camping trips reminded me of a camping trip to Tenby, Wales, lovely looking place but it rained and rained, no let up at all, our son was 3 yrs old, so no fun on the beach and the tiny town house National Trust place we went to, to be dry, he wanted to sit on the chairs and we had to keep saying no you can't, while being given disapproving looks. We lasted 3 days until the the rain started leaking through the tent and our bedding was wet. We threw everything into the car boot and came home. Over the Severn Bridge and the sun was out but on the news when we got home Tenby had terrible flooding and the campsites were washed out.

We spent 6 months planning a road trip with our friends who live in Denver. Flew there and next day drove across Wyoming. (Avoid if possible, it really is just wide open country). the next day we visited some cave paintings and then in the car my DH started complaining of back pain. I knew we were in serious trouble because he accepted my offer of painkillers. I asked our friends to head to the nearest hospital. We ended up being airlifted to the biggest hospital in Montana. So there I was 5000 miles from home with my DH in ICU for 9 days after two operations to clear his lungs. I lived in the motel next to the hospital for 4 weeks. By the time we got home we owed over £250,000. To cap it all, the travel insurance didn’t want to pay up and when we got back we had to engage a hot shot city solicitor to fight our case. We never did see Glacier Park!

Every bloody family holiday

Every year we’d go to Bridlington in the last week of the summer holidays

We’d get up,go for breakfast,head to the beach-12 hours sat on sand,not allowed to go into the sea,no buckets or spades,fish and chips for lunch then we’d go back for our evening meal

After that we’d go back out to go on the rides (there was about 5 of them-we could choose one a night) that where on the sea front

That done,we’d get back to the b&b and we’d be put to bed then our parents would go to the pub

Rinse and repeat for 7 days until we went home again-with my parents banging on about what a lovely time we’d had

Thankfully we stopped going when I was 14-I know I sound ungrateful but all we did was sit on the beach-no one armed bandits,no bucket and spades,no dip in the sea,no ice cream,no shops to spend your holiday money,nothing to look at than the sea and endless sand

Rome. As soon as we arrived there was torrential rain and I didn't have appropriate shoes so was absolutely soaked through. Air Bnb didn't look like its pictures and was really small and dirty in a very dodgy neighbourhood. Actually I didn't realise how dirty Rome in general would be. I had the worst cold of my life the entire time as the flat was freezing the whole time so couldn't really enjoy anything either. It also felt quite unsafe. When people say Rome is their favourite place, I just can't relate! Really overrated for me but then maybe tainted by my bad experience.

@tokyo1

Rome. As soon as we arrived there was torrential rain and I didn't have appropriate shoes so was absolutely soaked through. Air Bnb didn't look like its pictures and was really small and dirty in a very dodgy neighbourhood. Actually I didn't realise how dirty Rome in general would be. I had the worst cold of my life the entire time as the flat was freezing the whole time so couldn't really enjoy anything either. It also felt quite unsafe. When people say Rome is their favourite place, I just can't relate! Really overrated for me but then maybe tainted by my bad experience.

Oh that has brought back memories of the first time I visited Rome! The rain was biblical and I was wearing cheap pumps, which were totally ruined. I had to go to H&M to buy new shoes 😩