To ask for stories about ruined friendships/relationships from holidays

[Spice22]

Just that really. My family is going to Florida with another family next week and I'm slightly nervous. It got me thinking what stories people have. Basically, I'm looking for some Sunday evening entertainment.

I've only been on a couple of holidays with groups of friends but they've generally been ok because we often split into couples/ small groups and some different things during the day.

The only time I've had awkwardness was on a girls holiday when I was 20. We stayed at one of the girls parents apartment in France. She assured us that we wouldn't need to pay for it, just leave some money for the cleaner. When we got there she sprung on us that actually we needed to pay €100 each to cover rent. Two of us were on really tight budgets (the other two still lived with their parents) so that pretty much cleared us out for the week. We did actually have a lovely time overall. Luckily we were all happy just eating dinner in the apartment and there was a place down the road where you could take an empty bottle and they'd fill it up with wine for €1.50. It was actually some of the best wine I've ever tasted! It's just a shame that there was the slight tension over money.

The day before we left we got an email from her with a copy of her tesco online shopping bill detailing how much we all owed for the weekends groceries including a bag of 12 loo rolls, an enormous box of washing -powder and much much more. She also 'suggested' which alcoholic hostess gifts she would like and said she thought a £10 per head contribution to fuel and laundry would be sufficient. Whilst her husband enjoyed his second, expenses covered break at our place

I have to say, Liinoo, I don;t think what she did was that bad. Granted, she should have given you more than a day's notice about the cost, but expecting her to fund an all-expenses-paid holiday for seven other people is a bit U. I would have done exactly what she did.

I know you were happy to pay for the boys, but that was YOUR CHOICE. And twelve loo roles for seven people is hardly excessive. How many do you think she ought to have had?

Went on a city break in a city renowned for its culture with another couple.

We only had 2 days. Day 1 they wanted to shop for family presents, fair enough, but they didn't buy anything just went around comparing prices.

On day 2 they wanted to go back to all the shops they had noted and actually buy the damn presents. We still hadn't set foot anywhere but shops.

Enough was enough. DH and I decided to leave them to it, went off on our own and had a fab time. They were so cross with us that they couldn't look at us for the rest of the trip because 'we left them'.

On the other hand we have had weekends away with another couple and it's been great fun. The DHs have similar sporty interests so they head off being energetic while myself and other DW drink prosecco while keeping an eye on the kids. It works out perfectly.

This one was a bit of a nightmare actually.
I took a 3 day cruise from cyprus to Egypt to see the pyramids at Giza by myself. I loved traveling solo so that part was great. Shortly after the ship set off I was sitting in the lounge with a glass of wine. A guy (we'll call him "Dude") came up and asked to sit with me so we talked and he seemed cool so he switched with someone at my dinner table so we could dine together. It was friendly but not flirty at all. There were zero sparks but we had a good laugh. After dinner, we played cards in the bar and he walked me back to my cabin. He tried to kiss me goodnight but I politely blocked it and told him I wasn't interested in that. He seemed put off but left. I went to sleep thinking that I should probably try to be a bit more distant if I saw him again as I must have given him the wrong impression.
I woke to dude banging on my cabin door telling me we'd docked at Port Said and it was time for breakfast. I remembered that he'd switched seats to be at my table in the dining room so I told him I'd be skipping breakfast to get ready and I'd see him around. That would give him a hint, I thought.
There was a tour bus taking us from Port Said to Cairo and found me and told me he's saved me a seat on the bus. I politely thanked him and told him I'd be sitting with a couple that I'd been chatting with a dinner. He looked livid and stormed away. Our your guide was very friendly and I wound up sitting at the front and was chatting with him during the tour. Once we arrived at the first stop in Cairo, dude grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him "how DARE you embarrass me in front of all these people!! Everyone here saw us eating dinner together last night and now you're ignoring me. You're making a fool of me" he shouted. I warned him never to put his hands on me again and spent the rest of the trip trying to avoid him - the tour guide and a couple I've met helped me keep him at a distance. It was beyond creepy.

I went away with a friend. I'm a snorer, it was low season so I offered to see if I could pay for a separate room to make sure she wasn't disturbed. She said no, we were on holiday together and she didn't want me to do that. Fast forward to the end of the week when she accused me of ruining her holiday that she so badly needed and making no effort to sort it out....? I backed off from her when we returned home and the friendship witherd

Me and my mum went on holiday with a group of three girlfriends and my 8 week old son, it was fine apart from 2 of my friends keep insisting I should be doing this that and the other and commenting on everything I was doing and basically just doing things there way, including giving him cooled boiled water in a bottle when I had said not to. The night before we went home I had had enough and was very quiet. The ladies commented on this to my mum when I was in the loo and my friend and mum told them straight they were being out of order condstsntly telling me what to do and how to do it. One friend was upset originally but understood and was fine but the other went batshit crazy and wouldn't speak to me and mum and had a full blown aggressive argument with the other friend on my side. We coped by getting drunk on proseco and me and mum smoking (we hadn't smoked for well over a year) we are still good friends but mum and I have agreed we will make our excuses next time another girly holiday is suggested lol x

When me and my sister were younger my parents took us abroad, we went on a pedalo while my parents were on the beach. We didn't pay attention and went far to far out. Then we came across a guy on a windsurf who had run out of wind and couldn't swim! So he tied his windsurf to our pedalo for us to pedal him back to shore. What actually happened is we were blown out to see and almost made it to Africa! My sister and I decided to swim back to shore for help and after an hour or so of swimming we were met by my mum and dad who had 'borrowed' a speed boat and come out to get us. My mum was hysterical, my dad was shouting and swearing, oddly enough me and my sister never saw the big deal! The windsurf guy was rescued by a big party yaucht and when we got back to shore we were met with a very angry pedalo guy wanting to know where his pedalo was. He was very unhappy when we pointed to the dot on the horizon....

When DH and I were in our early 20s we went to my in-law's villa in Spain with friends - my friend who I worked with in my uni years and her boyfriend, we hung out as couples a lot at home so it seemed like a good idea. They had their accommodation free and we agreed that DH would do all the driving of the hire car. It all went wrong because they were really stingy over EVERYTHING, despite us never having a problem at home eating out countless times. Poor DH with a massive sweet tooth had to skip dessert every meal because they would rush ahead and ask for the bill almost immediately after the main course (we would never have made them split a bill down the middle if we'd had more). Of course they were both drinking and DH driving so we were out of pocket from splitting the bill anyway, not that I would care usually, just they were being so determined to not let us have anything 'extra'! On the last night my DH insisted he was having dessert 'no matter what' and in response my friend's partner ordered two whiskies to even things up

The worst part was one morning we woke up and found the hire car gone along with the house keys (to what was for all intents and purposes OUR house). They had taken the hire care, uninsured and inexperienced with European driving, and gone to find a place my friend's partner spotted because he wanted to go and buy DVDs!!! (We had already tried to find it and failed the previous day - we knew it was a TV store but he was adamant he wanted to go there.) So we couldn't leave the house for hours as we had no keys and spent the whole afternoon wondering if they had crashed or got arrested.

I have had other group holiday nightmares but that was the worst. We DO NOT go on holidays with others any more!

Tigermoll

I think part of her reasoning may have been based on the fact that we occasionally go away on big group weekends to large rented cottages, all 8 families bunking in together. On those occasions the rental/fuel/grocery bills do get divvied up.

My outrage (and not just mine, but the other guests too) was that she had invited us and then charged us to visit her home. As a group we have had countless parties/dinners/sleepovers/picnics over the 30+ years we have known each other and have never charged our friends for food and drink. The fact that she was inviting us to her second home rather than her main home doesn't change that basic rule of hospitality (in my opinion).

Incidentally none of us are freeloaders. We all brought wine/cakes/flowers/housewarming gifts etc. We have all returned her hospitality many times over before and after this event without asking her for cash. It was a long time ago now but it still enrages me when I think about it!

and 12 loo rolls for 8 women over two nights plus a giant box of washing powder was pushing it!!

I see what you mean Liiinoo -- you were thinking of it as being invited as her guest, like you would for dinner/a picnic/a sleepover. In which case you wouldn't expect to get a tesco's bill for the food. She was clearly thinking of it as one of those jolly, all-bunking-in-together occasions where bills are split, just at a place that she owned, so no need for renting somewhere. I have to say though, that inviting eight people for a whole weekend and supplying everything for them is a far more expensive proposition than just having them for parties/dinners/sleepovers/picnics.

I suppose I was viewing it as the latter occasion I have a friend whose parents have a holiday home, and when we all go there as a group, it would never occur to any of us to expect food and loo roll to be provided. Maybe there is a difference in assumption about going to someone's home as their guest, and all having a holiday together in which no one is the "host", so to speak. Or if you felt that she was somehow profiting from you all if you ended up stocking her cupboards for the month, or filling her cellar with booze that never got drunk.

...but with loo roll, too much is far more preferable than too little

(I've shared houses with people whose loo roll consumption made me wonder if they were eating it.)

Some of these are awful.

One of the worst for me was camping with the in-laws.

They are retired and live in the country. We both work FT and live in the city. We left the city on a Friday night (after work) and drove through awful traffic out to the campsite. FIL complained we were 'late'. Campsite was about an hour from their house, through easy traffic. They had been there since mid afternoon, chilling on white wine.

We had to stop en route and buy groceries (because, you know, they are too busy relaxing to do that) which included a detailed list of food stuff such as lamb steaks. No steaks at the supermarket, only chops. Not good enough, according to FIL, recipe called for steaks. The menu for the whole weekend was super elaborate - soup to start - lamb steaks and gratin potato, dessert, wine, cheese etc etc. Breakfast was pancakes, bacon, all cooked on a camping stove. Yum, but so time consuming and we usually just have burgers or pasta, something easy!

MIL was ill and spent most of the weekend in the tent sleeping or being sick. FIL was obsessed with tidying the camp, spraying bug spray on his legs and generally getting on my nerves. Check out time was 3pm - and they stayed till the bitter end to get their money's worth.

Never again.

A PP mentioned the 12 rolls of loo loo roll and washing powder - I had the same with the SIL.

She insisted on buying (and drinking) loads of vodka and Jack Daniel's. This was included in the shopping list, divided up equally. She pretty much drank it to herself the whole weekend, I didn't drink any, I hate vodka and Jack.

It cost me something like 100 quid just for the food for the weekend!

Never again.

I'm on a roll here.

We've had the family holidays with all of DH's extended family.

It's a fucking nightmare.

Cooking for 15 people? No thanks. And it always seem to be the same 3 or 4 people pulling their weight - everyone else is just pissed on the terrace or whatever. Or 'useless' at cooking

It's far too intimate, you can't get away from people, have to make conversation all the time, hearing other people have sex is not fun.

And the last time we went we were miles from anywhere. The nearest cafe/park was a 30 minute drive away. Not fun when you want to escape!

Was dumped by then-boyfriend half way through a skiing holiday with 3 of his his couple friends. I had never skied before and I sucked massively at it. Couldn't even keep up at beginners ski school and kept sliding arse over tit (no actual fluffy snow - just packed sludgey ice).

My performance on the nursery slope was so embarrassing that he announced he had realized he didn't see a future for us as we had nothing in common. I was dumped in a bar and had to sit through breakfast the next day getting sympathetic looks from his female friends while trying not to cry.

Two days later he started spending a lot of time doing "black runs" (euphemism) with a rather fit Scottish female ski instructor. One night he just didn't bother to come back to our hotel. I got up early and took a taxi to the airport, whacked a massively overpriced flight on my credit card and got out of there. The cuntychops ex bf never even called me again or made sure I got home.

Delighted to say that DH is massively uncoordinated and hates cold and snow so my lack of skiing proficiency has never bothered him! We have lovely holidays together and no dumping so far!

love threads such as these. am off to eat dinner and sort child but will be back to share disaster story.

Place marking. This is a GREAT thread!!!

Honestly some of these are makin me want to cry ; from laughter and sympathy !

Some of these are shocking! I have nothing dramatic but won't go on holiday with friends again, I can't relax properly and feel we have to be chatting all the time, considering others meal choices, not going where we want for how long we want, constantly splitting bills.. It just gets awkward. I need time alone after spending a few days with people (apart from DP and DS) and so go a bit quiet, and hope the other couple go off and do something by themselves but they insist on staying with us. It's just so much more relaxing going by ourselves.

Oh no, I think I've been the guilty party in one of these situations. I split with an ex two months before we went on a remote villa holiday with six friends. Amicable split so I thought it would be fine, but it was a bit awkward. He locked himself in the bathroom crying a few times. It was awful. Luckily no friendships have ended over it (that I know of..).

Cheap holiday as a teen with some friends in 3x 4-berth static caravans. (shit idea, but we had no money)

Two of them spent most of the time locked in "their" caravan shagging.. Refused to answer the door. Other occupants could not get into the caravan to get their coats so we could go for a walk.

The shaggers are now married.