Ever been on holiday where you couldn't wait to come home

[GardeningQuestionTime]

OK I'm in the sun and it's February...but I'm stuck on an where nothing to do except snorkel and its too windy.

The hotel needs serious updating, there are cocks crowing all night, the breakfast was minimal. The advertised beach is lovely but literally a beach. My alternative plan of lying on the beach reading are scuppered by no umbrella or lounger.

The hire car is a worryingly battered piece of shit.

I'm being churlish but there's a long 5 days stretching out in front of me.

Honestly some stories of shit holidays would help!

Totally agree
Just horrible

Well there is that, but so long as we don’t drive into the wrong areas, we’re golden 😂 When I was there with my eldest daughter (an adult), we hired a car in Port Elizabeth, had a lovely time along the coast for a few days. Then we drove up through Eswatini (Swaziland) and back into SA (Eswatini is sandwiched in the middle). Drive to Hazyview and had the car collected from us at the hotel there. The next journey was to the Krugar. Tourists travelling alone on that route have been robbed at gunpoint, so we let a professional driver take us. The robberies hadn’t been for a few years at the time, but I’m risk averse when travelling. Our trip was fabulous and incident free. On a trip with my DH last year, we started off in Cape Town and chose not to hire a car in order to avoid the risks of your situation. We flew on to our next destination. Another fabulous SA trip.

That’s a shocker 😮

DS's exGF's parents live in New York @AnnieSnap and he loved it, but I think staying with locals in a nice house/area is different to regualr tourists! We had a nice hotel and were fairly central, but just didn't particularly like the place. We were on our way up to Canada, so just had a few extra days there instead.

Howling at this! Sorry to laugh at your misfortune but I’m actually crying with laughter!!

Well Otterburn is predominantly a military training area! You'd have been better pitching a tent in the middle of Salisbury Plain!
The digs sounded grim too! Some renters don't care so long as they're getting the money in. It's awful.
I once stayed in a B and B in Cumbria on an overnight work trip... Middle of nowhere, next to a beach covered in pebbles like boulders! Dust an inch thick on everything, a huge crack in the gable end wall, there were regular boarders there who worked at Sellafield (think one tooth between them and 6 toes on each hand!) One of them took a shine to my colleague and sat on a chair most of the night on the landing outside her room!!! She daren't come out of her room to come to mine for safety, so we ended up conversing through the windows! It was like a cross between Deliverance, The Hills Have Eyes and the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre table scene... With a fry up thrown in for breakfast!!! Thank fook it was only one night!!! I can only just laugh about it, after over 20 years!!! 🤣🤣🤣

This was 30 years ago & I didn't have a clue about the military connection. Just read the blurb about lovely village, nice walks, Kielder Forest nearby etc. No Google to check back then!

Ah I get you! Yes you wouldn't have known that 30 years ago! It is an absolutely beautiful area, just a shame it's spoilt by troops, firing ranges and tanks! Thankfully we've come a long way now in being able to check and read reviews, back then it was all trust to luck! 💐

I’m sure it is. I wouldn’t want to return as a traveller. DH feels the same.

LOL, Tes the rats are the size of cats out there. I couldn't believe my eyes seeing them scurrying in and out of the roadsides.

My worst was visiting FIL in Wales. It was over the Easter hols but as Easter was super early that year nothing, and I mean nothing was open - not even the local pub and shop (and we are used to Cornwall in the off season, this was like Cornwall 25 years ago). It snowed as we drove there and then rained continuously, couldn't see any scenery or even walk on the beach as the fog was so thick. DH and FIL have a tense relationship at the best of times, and FIL's new partner was not happy our DCs were there and made it very clear she expected them to be neither seen nor heard, talking bitterly about how her ex had remarried and his new kids were the same ages as ours. Not sure why she expected us to come without our two and four year old DCs but who knows. We offered to take everyone out for a nice meal but literally nothing was open, not even a garden centre cafe. And absolutely nothing to do at all except trudge around in the sleet.

On day 2 we decided to drive as far away as we could on half a tank of petrol, and use the other half getting back again. It was preferable to staying there all day. We ended up stumbling upon a gin distillery, buying masses of gin, retiring early and drinking gin and eating crisps in the bedroom. We went home two days early and it snowed the whole time driving home, so my heart was in my mouth on the small lanes that we might not make it out of there and would have to go back.

Barbados. All inclusive but the food was the same every single day. It was very hot but also overcast so didn’t feel like a tropical island at all. Tiny beach covered in washed up seaweed that was about 2ft deep so you couldn’t even reach the water. A wasp fell out of a tree I was sunbathing under & stung me between the toes 😂 DH got ripped off for a massage on the beach. People following us to the shop. Bridgetown was a dump.

Oh and I miscarried on our first day, which was obviously absolutely horrendous and has probably massively clouded my view of the entire trip, but it also meant I couldn’t swim so literally just sat on the beach depressed for a week.

Will never, ever go back.

Have you considered never leaving your home country again? It sounds like the tide is totally against you 😂

Playa d'en Bossa in Ibiza

it’s so long ago I cannot remember if we put a pin in a holiday catalog or it was a travel agent recommendation. So we’ll never know who to blame

the first red flag was when I went to get some pesetas (yes, it was that long ago) and the young lady behind the glass asked where we were going. But when I told her, this look of horror came over her face ‘there might be some plane noise” she said

some? SOME? How about planes so close they were nearly talking the roof off. It would have been quieter to pitch a tent in the middle of Gatwick airport

every few flipping minutes between 7 am and 8 pm my ears would cave in from the noise. And then there was the hotel

think of a 1970’s council tower block inexplicably dropped in searing heat. The principal feature of this construction are the walkways across the front of each unit, except in a nest twist the bedrooms of each unit were next to the walkway, and no air conditioning meant open windows to the walkway and people stomping passed at 3 am

then there was the resort itself, firmy aimed at the 18-3p crowd with no hearing, except we were mr and Mrs middle class with a young child

we’ve had better holidays

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Honestly going on our first overseas holiday since covid later this year… and I am keeping expectations very very low! Just couldn’t face the stress and hassle for the last few years… but how bad could it be, really? Other than we’ll be in Mafia country… 😱

@PepsiMaxLime I had a similar experience in Antigua - there were signs up everywhere saying 'catch the rapist' I had terrible mozzy bites covering whole of lower legs so spent most of holiday in leggings, we had a small rat running round our chalet and generally it wasn't quite what I expected- the week we got back that poor honeymoon couple were murdered at Carlisle Bay

I was going to say no. Every holiday I've been on I've enjoyed, but I've just remembered the holiday abroad I took with an old school friend. To Magaluf. The entire holiday from start to finish was a disaster. Speeding down the runway Planes making these horrendous noises. Next thing we abruptly stop and the cabin is filling with smoke. Back we turn with fire trucks hurtling towards us. Everyone sent back to the Airport and told to wait further information. Told it was a small engine fire but not to worry they'd have the Plane up and running within a few hours. Not a problem. Then the announcement came we'd be stuck there another 4 hours cos they were awaiting an engineer coming in from Spain. By this time it's all my fault cos we should've flown from a bigger Airport. As they would have pushed every Flight back to ensure we got out. No quite sure it works like that but hey ho. All given a meal voucher for £3. 4 hours came and went no engineer. Now 6 hours have passed and we get another meal voucher for £6 (th

Bollocks!! This is going back 20 years btw so it would probably be more now. Engineer finally makes it only to tell us this Plane is going no where and we'd need to wait for another Plane later that night. By this time everyone apart from me is pissed as anything. I've got the migraine from hell and me and my friend have fully fallen out because again it's all my fault for flying from a small Airport. I'm just grateful we hadn't left the ground before everything went wrong with the Plane Goes to the smoking room and got talking to a family there mentioned where we were staying. They burst out laughing but wouldn't tell me anymore. Doesn't bode well. Eventually set off to Majorca 20 hours later than planned. Pulls up near the hotel only to be told the bus wasn't driving up the hill and we had to make our own way up. Great it's like cardiac hill. Out we get drag our suitcases up to be greeted by a load of stairs. Drag the suitcases up again wanting to check in and get some sleep before breakfast. Goes to get breakfast. Absolutely shite, dinner and tea no better so we ended up eating out at a cheap restaurant most nights. Friend gets as pissed as anything the first night and pukes up all over the bathroom. Doesn't bother cleaning it up and leaves it for me to find when I go to clean my teeth. It got cleaned up when I used her flannel to clean it up with. The swimming pool was freezing and across the road too. I think I managed about a length before I started turning blue from the cold. The male staff were as creepy as anything and locked us in a room with them and wouldn't let us out. It was another holiday maker who managed to get to us. Met some guys there who asked us to go to a foam party. That didn't start till stupid o clock but off we went. I got cracked on the head by a metal pole, my friend was almost refused entry into the taxi coming home cos her clothes were wet and the driver took us down these dark country roads. All I could envision was 2 19 years old getting murdered in Majorca. When our hotel came into view I burst into tears. We did make it through the rest of the holiday pretty unscathed although checking out. I wrapped everything breakable up in towels and clothes and lobbed my suitcase down the stairs. After that holiday I vowed never to go back to Majorca. I've been back twice although a different part and also to never go all inclusive again. Also gone back all inclusive and thankfully never had another issue. As for what happened to our friendship once we got home. Well we stayed friends for about 5 months until her dad started sexually abusing me. God that was long and also very therapeutic!

V* Hotel in Cromer, Norfolk 18 years ago. Room over the kitchens, so lots of noise from extractor fans all night, and staff screaming at each other. Candlewick bedspread. Wall-to-wall chintz. A smoking room by the hotel entrance, so every time you walked in or out you just ended up stinking of fags. A 97 year old breakfast waitress who insisted they had never offered boiled eggs, but I was pointing to 'boiled eggs' on the menu.

A cross between Fawlty Towers and Julie Walters Two Soups then?!!! 🤣🤣🤣

Poor you. I did a Viking cruise years ago and it was great. Everyone - guests and staff really friendly.

🤣🤣

Malta in high season with then bf. Freak cold weather and endless rain and not a pair of socks between us. Cold apartment and a british chap whom appeared everywhere we went and tried to get us into his car. We always said no thanks and splashed away.

Surprise tour of the Scottish Islands. I had packed for a sunny beach break as instructed ' so I didn't guess' Midges midges everywhere. Car sick. Mist all the time so could have been anywhere tbh. Bf embraced experience by living in grey jogging set, dirty trainers and many many pints of beer then large greasy breakfast then hours in the hire car with him farting and belching, in the rain and mist. We bought me warm trousers and a jumper, put away my bikini and floaty dresses. He thought it was hilarious.