To never ever in my whole life want to go on a package holiday AGAIN !!!!!

[medmadness]

Before i start i'm fully prepared to admit my own stupidity in having even gone on this holiday.
we have just got back from a week in majorca in one of the more family orientated resorts,we had our main holiday earlier in the year and this was just a cheap and cheerful week to break up the school holidays a little.
Before we even took off we had to put up with youths swearing on the plane,badly behaved children climbing over seats and shouting and screaming whilst their parents remained seemingly oblivious.
Upon landing i realised benidorm is not a fictional tv comedy! I knew i wasnt going to get culture and the 'real' spain but did not expect to be in england still,surrounded by vicky polland and family.
I cant believe that people come to these places happily year after year as there were some 'normal' families there amongst the 'get here' brigade(if i had a pound for everytime i heard a parent shout this).
Before this holiday i hadnt been on a package holiday since 1996 and i can honestly say if i went again in the next 15 years it would be too bloody soon!

ledkr
ANyone who thinks its just the poor who misbehave on holiday should spend some time working as a chalet host in some of the top ski resorts. Very enlightening

Too true, my one and only snow boarding holiday in Chamonix was atrocious, loads of city boys ehaving like complete arseholes, the worst drunken behaviour I've ever ever seen, never again.

That said in my mind all inclusive often means chav in my experience and package holidays are often bizarrely more expensive than booking it yourself. I'm not one for staying by the pool in some nasty complex for 2 weeks I'd be bored out of my mind.

However, I thought Mallorca was lovely when we went out of season, pretty beaches, nice countryside, quite a lot of culture, I'd e interested to know of any resorts you could get package deals (not AI though) which were a it classier and family friendly and where the local culture was easily accessible.

I think Majorca is a lovely island. Nothing like the Benidorm resort on mainland Spain.

Agree with ledkr which again is why I avoid the English on holiday. It's not a class thing but I think it is an English thing.

I don't just avoid them on summer holidays. When I go ski-ing I also make sure its a resort not popular with the English because they are still often really horrendous. I tend to book hotels and flights myself as you an get to resorts less popular with them and IMO it is often cheaper. That's why I don't do package holidays.

Of course it is possible the Italians / Swedish / Germans I do encounter on holiday are just as hideous as the English, but I can't understand them so if they are screaming at their DCs and calling each other "little pricks" at least I can remain blissfully ignorant. :) I don't think they are though as they just don't seem to be as drunk and loud.

I went to majorca last year and tbh the Germans made the Brits look fabulous. Pushed in all the time,kids badly behaved and rude.
I was 5 months pregnant and had the lift doors shut on me more than a few times,one day i was near the back of the lift and when it stopped at the ground floor i couldnt get out as everyone rushed in and ignored the fact i was trying to get out,i had to go back up to the top floor

My favourite thing was when you wre in the loo,they would bang on the door as if that would hurry you up,they also by passed the queue for the toilet and rushed in as soon as one became vacant.
You can tell i was pregnant as all my time was spent in one.

they sound lovely! Perhaps the Germans I have encountered have actually been Austrians! :)

Can't believe people would bang on a loo door!

I had a nice time on a package holiday earlier this year. I didn't go on package holidays pre DC, but I thought a small child probably wouldnt appreciate the sort of holiday I used to go on.

Anyway, it was fine, I didn't expect it to be particularly life-changing or enlightening travel. It was just to let DD potter about in the sand in the sunshine for a week somewhere she would be likely to come across other toddlers to play with. Nobody shouted at their kids in the hotel that I witnessed, and I didn't see any pies, chips, or stag dos.

It must depend on where you go.

catgirl-they were truly awfull,i was shocked,the women stared at me too,one said something to her mother and then they both looked at me and laughed-im pretty normal looking,was just a bit pregnant.
If you were walking into a doorway a child would just push past you standing on your feet and child in the process.
In Disney Paris in June a big german man moved my dd out of the way so his child could push in,i went mental and he was laughing at me in an attempt to make it look like a joke,another spanish family were trying to push in and when i stood my ground called me a stupid English bitch in spanish- i replied in spanish haha they werent expecting that,i also slipped them the finger as i disappeared into the tunnel on the pirates of the caribean hahahaha

It wasn't the fact that it was a package holiday that was the problem, it was the destination.

We do both packages and independent travel. Packages are useful if there are cancellations due to a volcanic eruption or air traffic control flights - everything will be sorted out for you whereas if you book everything independently you won't get anything other than the cost of your flight back in most cases. When we booked our honeymoon last year during the ash cloud fiasco we deliberately booked a package for that reason because no one knew how long the problems would last and if it would happen again later in the year. We went to Borneo. We saw very few English people out there. Lots of monkeys though! I've done packages to Egypt and Sicily too.

I've had lovely packages in Norway or booked from the kuoni brochure.

Book it from first choice ai package and what do you expect?

Has the OP been back lately?

I think Ledkr my rubbishness at languages has perhaps been shielding me from a lot!

Nice work replying in Spanish though - for some reason I am now thinking of you like William Wallace where they speak in Latin assuming he won't understand them and the he owns them :)

I take your view eurochick-I do both but a package is safer if things go wrong. I always did it as a single parent-just for the security.

It doesn't matter two hoots if you book the hotel and flight direct or pick a package-you will have both lots of people there and you won't know which are which.
It is the destination that matters and you can get candid views on the internet and even see the hotel on google. If you quickly book a cheap holiday, without any research, you are asking for trouble.

haha catgirl my sister did the same in Egypt to a Russian! I dont think its that common to speak fluent Russian!
I told them that i did understand Spanish and that i was not a bitch and my Husband was very big and coming soon i was there just with dd hehe. I now need to learn German for my next holiday.

I understand completely. We booked a package holiday a few years ago.

The hotel was lovely, the place was lovely but the tour operator (one of the big ones: am I allowed to name them?):

1. changed our flight times without notifying us so we missed the flight then charged us £180 for the next one.
2. Sold us a whale watching cruise (on a overcrowded catermaran) on which we bought the 'luxury option' which included a 'buffet lunch' which was only chicken and rice (and I'm a veggie)
3. Cancelled two trips at the last minute without notifying us and which we had to fight for our money back.
4. Sold us another bus trip - half hour when we asked - that took three hours either way without air conditioning or rest stops.
5. Didn't pick us up for our trip back to the airport (although I'd confirmed it that morning) so we had to take a taxi at the last minute.

I tried complaining and getting my money back esp over the missed flights but didn't get a response and finally gave up.

Never, ever, ever again.

I would never go on a package holiday - what do you expect? Awful, soulless resorts in the middle of nowhere with tacky bars and restaurants and only other tourists for company. You could really be anywhere in one these places. I've been to one as a teenager 20 years ago - never, ever again.

Do not go to Bellevue hol aparts in Alcudia, it is like manchester by the sea!

but it did have wicked entertainment

YABU.

I book package but am able to chose places that suit what I am looking for.I am low income (but I may point out not chav etc and definatly not socially inept )

There are some places which are a bit like our Butlins/ Pontins/ Haven etc in the Sun - They are marketed as such and therefore that's what your provided.

Look at the description in the brochure/ Online.

I am however sorry you didn't maybe enjoy it as much as you should a holiday.

MotherOFHobbit please name and shame!

People have peculiar ideas of package holidays! You can book the hotel and flight separately or you can find a company that does them together-THE SAME HOTELS and very often the same flights. You can do research very easily and not end up in the middle of nowhere with tacky bars etc etc.
OP didn't have a problem with package holidays she had a problem with the wrong resort and the wrong hotel-which led to the 'wrong' people being on the flight. The last one we went on we were the only guests with the travel company in that particular hotel and there were all nationalities staying. We could just as well booked the flight and the hotel ourselves-many did.

We did extensive research first. Looked up the hotel on Google street view etc. Trip Advisor may not be very accurate but you can see guests own pictures and if everyone is saying the same thing you can be sure it is accurate. e.g. rowdy in the evenings.

islawhiter which manchester is that, the one with the most sought after postcode outside of London? (M20)

Or the one that's just hosted an international festival of culture and an internationally renowned jazz festival?

Or the one where the BBC are locating to?

Or the one with the best musical heritage past and present in the whole of great Britain?

I could go on but you're clearly talking out of your arse..

nomoreheels Sun 04-Sep-11 09:42:19
I would never book a package holiday to Spain unless it was a private apartment or villa. I agree you could pay the same for hotel vs villa.

You could not pay me to go somewhere like Magaluf - it's hell on earth. Why would I want to travel all that way to see binge drinking idiots? We stayed in Illetes which was lovely. Stunning views, beautiful beach & an easy bus or taxi to Palma, which a fab city full of great bars, restaurants & culture (as well as some lame nightlife, but it's easily avoided.)

I agree about Magaluf - vile place 'yak'. Palma though? fab city? IME full of druggies shooting up in broad daylight - one city where I have never felt so scared and avoided any eye to eye contact - fantastic architecture agreed :)

And bimbo if you can cancel the club mac holiday PLEASE do, the review sites are not exaggerating, it's hell on earth - We booked a last minute holiday and am so pleased we'd hired a car just to get away from the hideous place each morning to spend the day at the wonderful beach.

YABU. I've just come back from a fabulous package holiday to Crete. The resort was small and quiet, the apartments were excellent and the whole holiday was relaxing. I never saw any British pubs/restaurants, anyone drunk, swearing, being vile to their DC or wearing a football shirt in the whole 2 weeks. In fact I've never had a bad package holiday but I spend a lot of time researching before booking.

To be honest the saddest thing I saw in Crete was on a day trip. The bus picked us up from the AI place about a quarter of a mile away at 7am. Everyone from the AI hotel arrived with their packed lunches in paper bags. We then had a 2.5 hour trip to the destination, a 2.5 hour tour and a 20 minute drive to the town for lunch/free time. We had one of the best meals ever for 6 Euros each for 3 adults at a taverna overlooking the sea, whilst our AI companions sat on a bench and ate their packed lunches. I dread to think what the food would have been like after 5+ hours, even if -which I doubt - it had been prepared that morning as we saw an awful lot of the staff arriving just before 7am. The night before I reckon! I know if you go AI you've paid for it all but even so, is lunch on one day out in a proper Greek restaurant too much?

Oh and from what I saw of Alcudia when our coach did drop offs and pick ups there a few years back it is a hell hole.

But people also told me Butlins was hell on earth,we loved it as did the kids!