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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask for your crappy holiday stories?

152 replies

Thisnamechanger · 13/02/2019 22:00

Oooh MN I've ballsed up big time. Have arrived at AirBnB in Fuertaventura after eighty years of travelling and the place in basically in the middle of nowhere with loads of massive hotel complexes but virtually no other life to be seen. We walked for about an hour and found a pizza place where they're showing some trans-universe football final with locals roaring at the telly. Now full of pizza and chugging beer but I feel like a total git for not choosing the accommodation more carefully. DP is prentending he's having a great time. Help - give me your stories!

OP posts:
MrsIronfoundersson · 13/02/2019 23:05

CricketMum a face on the pillow?!!!!!

CalmdownJanet · 13/02/2019 23:08

Running surely wins, that sounds horrific!

We stayed in a complete dump in Turkey, there was a huge empty water bottle on the balcony, with the air conditioning hose running into it, if you didn't empty the bottle every night in went back up the hose and poured freezing cold water out the bedroom unit which was over the bed. The first two mornings I was woken and stupid o'clock to water pouring out the unit on to my head. Thank God the drink was cheap!

I love Fuerteventura, where are you staying?

HarryPlotter · 13/02/2019 23:11

Tilly that is so funny!

TheFaerieQueene · 13/02/2019 23:19

Water sports 😧

GreatWesternValkyrie · 13/02/2019 23:28

Also there's no coffee in the apartment

Utterly unforgiveable. Call insurance company. Demand emergency evac!

Wincarnis · 13/02/2019 23:34

DH booked surprise second honeymoon.....Hong Kong. He knew I hated it. The really big surprise was that his mother came too. Yes, we are divorced now.

halfwitpicker · 13/02/2019 23:36

Why the fuck did you go to futuervenatua?

It's super windy all the time

userschmoozer · 13/02/2019 23:37

Parents saved up for ever to take us Abroad. We went to Spain for a week. Huge adventure.
I get car sick so I spent the car ride to the airport with my head in a bag, vomiting.
The aeroplane was tiny, it was ridiculously bumpy and I spent the flight vomiting.
At the other end we had a 2 hour bus journey and I get car sick so I spent the next 2 hours vomiting. At this point I'm already feeling doom laden at the thought of doing all this in reverse.
I spent the next day in bed recovering from all the vomiting.
The next day I managed to eat toast and jam, went outside and got sun stroke.
I spent the rest of the week lying down in the one room we had rented. Vomiting.
Then we got on the bus for the return journey and I wished we would just crash and get it all over with.

donajimena · 13/02/2019 23:42

Fuerteventura translates as strong winds?
My story isn't about a crap holiday as such but this year in Southern Spain (Atlantic Southern not Mediterranean) the pool was so chuffing cold we bought shorties to use it! This was in August Sad

SpringForEver · 13/02/2019 23:44

First holiday abroad I got food poisoning and was dragged around by friend and her parents as if nothing had happened. They finally let up and let me stay in bed when it was discovered that many of the other guests had also been poisoned by the fish.

Next holiday. Went to Majorca with a friend. Instead of being in the hotel we were put into the annexe which was watched over by a very old man who took his evening break at the same time each day, keys were inside the door where he sat.

We became friendly with a couple of other girls and all booked to go on a night out. Friend had poker straight hair and spent the entire night and day before with rollers in her hair and finally removed them to reveal lots of waves on the night.

While getting ready someone opened our door, saw us in the room, said something and shut the door quickly, we thought it was just a maid, finished getting ready and off we went.

First thing to happen was we had sat at a table with vacant seats and a drunken guy comes up and tells friend to get out of his seat. She said there were other seats and stayed put, he throws a drink over her, she picks one up and throws it back, people drag him away leaving her with one side of her hair curly and the other soaking wet and poker straight. Off we go to clean her up, just as a girl runs in and vomits on her foot on the way to throw up in the toilet. We finally clean off the booze and vomit, and dry her off to discover that the drunken guy has been decked and is walking about bleeding. It turns out it was one of the girls we were with that had done it but no-one will admit to knowing.

We return to the annexe with short lived relief to find groups of people wandering about outside and a distraught French couple come over to tell us that the rooms have all been robbed and their clothes have been stolen. We go inside to find that none of our things have gone, however we do remember the woman that opened our door and realise we had a lucky escape by being there even though we had nothing of value or any designer clothing.

It turns out that we were the only ones who saw the thieves and their car which had been parked below our windows, and experience the must-do holiday attraction of a trip to the Police station to help track them down, no-one spoke enough English to make any sense, followed by a tour of the gypsy camps to identify them even though we explained that they were wearing expensive clothing and driving a flashy sports car. Suspect it happened often as they knew when the old boy was on his break and the keys unattended.

Subsequently the week of solid rain and tornadoes in the West Indies was a doddle compared to the above, as was the time I passed out at Passport Control after a long haul flight and was delivered in a wheelchair to my loving partner, it turned out not to be the romantic trip we had planned.

Backinthebox · 13/02/2019 23:45

Oh, this is my Mastermind specialist topic! Here's a list of my more memorable ones:

The time I ended up having 75 stitches in my back while youth hostelling.
The time my friend broke her elbow (same holiday saw us refused entry - by car - to the entire country because we didn't have snow chains. Took us 3 more hours to find somewhere selling snow chains because it does not snow that much in Spain normally!)
The time my friend's exH left a mixed bag of Ibuprofen and Haribo in the footwell of his car and our 2 year olds found it (on my actual 40th birthday! Happy Birthday to me. Hmm)
The time we had 5 babies in the group party and our flight got diverted to an entirely different country and the tour operator didn't turn up to meet us.
The time we travelled on standby tickets and got stuck in Central America for days longer than expected.
The time DH put the wrong fuel in the hire car on the way to the airport (in Australia!) and we had to leave him there with the broken down hire car waiting for the tow truck and we had to get on the plane. He got home a day later than the rest of us!
The time that we booked an AirBnb and the owners didn't turn up to let us in and we ended up sleeping in our car. It was -16C outside.

I've got loads of them. not a proper holiday if you don't have an adventure! Is there anywhere else nearby that you could move to that might have a bit more going on? With the last one on my list we gave up trying to get into the apartment at about 1am, slept in the car and by 7am we were in a cafe looking for somewhere else to stay for the rest of the trip. By 7.40am we were in a lovely hotel with a very nice room. And when we got stuck in Central America we found a hotel immediately. You can find somewhere within the hour to go to if you need to. Is there a better resort around the corner somewhere? If not, crack open the gin and start honing your cards game skills!

Backinthebox · 13/02/2019 23:49

@Wincarnis, but Hong Kong is fabulous! What didn't you like? I've done city culture stuff there, late night partying, and very rural hiking and beaches, depending on who I was there with and what I fancied. One of my favourite places.

Warpdrive · 14/02/2019 05:04

My DH developed a fear of flying a month before our trip of a liftetime, 2 weeks all inclusive in a luxury 5* hotel the Far East. He managed to get there but because his anxiety was so bad, he visited the hotel doctor a few times who ended up having him admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where no one spoke English.

After confirming the extent of our travel insurance, the doctors treated him for everything you can think of from removing one of his teeth because they declared it rotten, to prostate issues, medicating him for who knows what! The tooth removal was done at a local dentists : One morning, DH had his drip removed and was ushered into a minicab , driven to a remote spot and driver indicated he should go inside a hut. Inside, the ‘dentist’ was sterilising his tools over a fire. No one spoke English to him. He was so stressed and scared he just complied with everything they indicated. After they pulled his tooth out, he was driven back to the hospital and the nurse hooked him up to his drip again in silence.

On top of this, our 3DC had outrageous d&v and so I was confined to our room with them, calling room service every hour or so for more sheets/towels etc. Hotel doctor administered all sorts of medicines but they wouldn’t keep them down.

The hotel didn’t have a service to deliver food to the rooms and made no exceptions. For 2 days I couldn’t eat because I couldn’t leave my poorly children to go and get food.

We were advised to come home after 4 days which we did (looking back I think the hospital must have been worse than the idea of flying by this point) but insurers refused to pay up so ended up buying our own return flights.

A remote spot in fuerteventura doesn’t sound too bad 😀

cricketmum84 · 14/02/2019 07:38

@TheWickerWoman some seriously creepy stuff happened while we were there. My daughter kept hearing someone tapping on the bathroom door while we were all the opposite end of the huge apartment. The face on the pillow, I looked up from my book to see a woman stood next to DH, she then disappeared. Saw shadows out of the corner of my eye. I'm not usually very woo but this freaked me out so much!

Aberforthsgoat · 14/02/2019 08:41

@cricketmum84 did you have a thread about this at the time?! I vaguely remember reading something similar and being chilled by all the updates!

cricketmum84 · 14/02/2019 08:43

@Aberforthsgoat haha yes I did! X

Aberforthsgoat · 14/02/2019 08:46

It obviously horrified me so much it stuck with me!!

M1lesandM1les · 14/02/2019 08:58

Ferventura - try the land sailing ( buggy on wheels with sail) and horse riding. Also some local markets. When I went there was a beach where people were flying enormous kites.

Thisnamechanger · 14/02/2019 09:10

It's super windy all the time

DP used to be a professional windsurfer Grin and I bimble along in the shallow bits occasionally screaming and falling in

Apparently there is a surf bar down by the water so I suspect there we will find our people. They're usually full of friendly tanned silver foxes who speak eight languages and treat DP like mild celeb so that should cheer him up Grin

OP posts:
Thisnamechanger · 14/02/2019 09:12

Christ alive warpdrive !!

OP posts:
CigarsofthePharoahs · 14/02/2019 10:41

A camping holiday in Devon.
We've been camping before and since, but this time we had bad luck.
The moment we arrived it started raining. I was in my first trimester with ds2 so couldn't help pitch the heavy tent and was also feeling rather rough. Instead I sat with ds1 in the car who was being a total and utter pain.
Day two we had a hailstorm and I was kept awake a lot by the sound of canvas flapping on the next door tent.
I was feeling more and more sick and less and less up to the things dh wanted to do as they involved a lot of walking around. He was in a bad mood due to the weather.
Towards the end of the week a seam in our tent split (due to dh hanging too many heavy things on the wardrobe pole) and I had had enough. I'd put a brave face on all week and pretended to be happy, but realising that almost all my clothes were now soaking wet I sat down in the tent, declared enough was enough and burst into tears.
DH then told me to buck up and "see the bright side". I told him I'd put up with bad weather, feeling crappy and him having a face like a slapped arse all week and that if he knew what was good for him he'd bloody leave me alone.
Thankfully he did and he did all the packing up. I sat in the car drinking orange juice and feeding my toddler Fox's Party Rings.

The only holiday that was worse was a school camping trip. Not sure if it actually counts as a holiday. We were camping in the Peak District in spring and it rained heavily every day. Our tent was very old and leaked and the toilets were either a bucket in a small tent or a 20 minute walk to a farm. I went down with a bug and had a fever and my period started. I should have been sent home. My so called best friend ditched me as I was being "annoying" and tried to get me lost in the centre of Sheffield.
I cried myself to sleep almost every night but I did rub the canvas above my "friends" head so that she was dripped on all night. Petty I know, but I did feel better.

thecatsthecats · 14/02/2019 10:44

Waking up to a flooded tent was certainly a low point - woke up in an inch and a half of water.

However, the time our tent was ripped apart by a gale whilst we watched from the campsite reception (literally torn to pieces by the wind), was pretty special. We went off to another island (in Scotland), and camped in a bothy on the beach. It was spectacular.

morningconstitutional2017 · 14/02/2019 11:27

We went to Brittany with two new friends (who turned out to be very heavy drinkers) who were doing up a derelict farmhouse. The plan was to spend a few days at beginning and end of hol with them and we two would go off camping/touring in the middle iyswim.

While at the house the sun shone beautifully but guess what? After one day at a beach campsite it began to rain torrentially nearly every ruddy day. We were cycling - at one point we even sheltered in a phone box it was so bad. We looked at each other and said, "One day we will laugh at this." We sort of grimaced slightly, eventually.

MatildaTheCat · 14/02/2019 11:45

Worst night of a holiday:

SAN Francisco, all good. Woke really early due to jet lag and for some reason I allowed DH to persuade me that we should deviate from my careful planning and drive down the Pacific highway and stay ‘somewhere on the way’ before visiting Hurst Castle ( he knew I wanted to go.)

So off we went, how lovely. By about 4pm we were getting pretty tired and decided to find somewhere to stay. Suffice to say we were still looking/ driving at about 11pm when we found an establishment that had a room for us. Money upfront. Got to said room and I can only describe it as a shack placed in a circle of other shacks, in the centre of which were a dozen or so drunken, drug taking bikers around a huge fire.

I cried, we left. After another hour or so we finally found somewhere we weren’t going to risk being murdered.

Hurst Castle was indeed lovely. Then we had to find another night’s accommodation on the way to Yosemite ( due to change of route), all I will say is please don’t trouble yourself by visiting Fresno. Apparently the crystal meth capital of the world. Hmm

I now am in charge of planning and do not permit random deviations.

Mari50 · 14/02/2019 11:56

No idea where you’ve ended up OP but costa calma down the southern end of the island is a mecca for wind surfing (allegedly) but it’s not very busy or populated. Jandia which is further south has a bit more to offer, some Brit’s don’t like it as it’s very German. I prefer places that Germans like as I reckon they usually know what’s what. Northern end of the island is corralejo, lots of kite surfing there and typical canaries resort, round the top of the island is much smaller town el cotillo (I think) good for surfing there.
Caleta de fuste in the middle is popular but no good for water sports imo, purpose built tourist resort near the airport.
I quite like fuerteventura, beaches are lovely. But it’s a bit windy which is why the water sports crowd love it.