To ask for your worst behaviour witnessed on holiday? **MNHQ editing to note that this is not, as it turns out, a light-hearted thread so do be aware**

[tinyme77]

Mine is a father throwing a drink in his daughter's face. She was about six and had knocked it over after he had queued to get it.

We were woken up at 8am by someone kicking/punching the doors on the room below-went on for quite a while and I was just about to ring reception when it stopped.

I mentioned it at reception later-apparently it was a guest returning to his room after being on the lash all night. He was "escorted" by the night porter in the end! He'd had his wallet and phone stolen (someone was taking money out of his account) but he couldn't say where from because he couldn't remember where he'd been!

He was with his partner (I hope to god she's left him!) and his young son. I could hear him swearing at her in the room -such a shit bag! Poor boy's memory of a lovely holiday ruined by his dad thinking he was still young, free and single!

About 20 years ago on an unbelievably cheap, basic package deal to Malta a woman, her boyfriend and her daughter were holidaying together. The woman was in her 50s and not at all a well-preserved or well-presented 50s either. The boyfriend was about 22 and the daughter maybe 18 or 19.

Every evening all three would come to the bar and the mum and the toyboy would be all over each other. Then at around 11ish the mum would go off to bed a bit worse for wear, leaving her boyfriend and her daughter in the bar. The mum’s boyfriend and the daughter would then spend the rest of the evening openly snogging each other’s faces off in front of all the other guests.

Couple years ago we went to butlins, I was in the arcade with my boys when a small boy no more then 8 was walking round trying to take the tokens and any coins that came out of the machines as people (including my sons) were playing. After being caught out he jumped onto the back of his mums mobility scooter and disappeared.

In Spain in a self catering apartment block we were woken up by banging at our door and lots of shouting, we looked through the spy hole and there were two men fighting. Eventually one had the other on the ground against our door and was kicking the shit out of him. I thought the guy was going to die. We were so scared. We called reception who phoned the police. The poor guy ended up in a coma, turns out they were brothers

Coincidentally, a week ago I was in the same place where I saw something horrid almost exactly 20 years ago.

It was a warm summer evening on the south coast and people were settling down into tables around a pub directly on the beach. A young man was playing some gentle guitar music and people were having a first drink, placing food orders and watching the sun go down.

This idyllic scene was shattered by a horrific red-faced man. He was high on alcohol, sitting on the low wall, trying to spin his young daughter around, making her - forcing her - to dance to the music, while all the time she recoiled away from him to her mother who was also in some fear of him. It was a bizarre scene because it was so tangible. Each person approached in high holiday mood because of the music, but on seeing this scene, the mood was gone, we were all frozen to the spot watching what we all 'knew' was an abuser. A wife beater. A child abuser. It was obvious from the body language how much fear they had of him. Yet there was nothing anybody could do, because at that time, in that precise moment, it was just a very strong suspicion. He was laughing, clapping, out of tune and drunk, oblivious to his little girl pulling away, mother frozen, eyes like dead water. The atmosphere between all diners was very tangible.

I just hope the mother and daughter were able to eventually escape from that man, or he staggered off a cliff, by any means. I still think about them.

Years ago in a cheapy hotel, was at the bar ordering a round when the punter beside me blew his nose on the curtains bleugh 🤮

Was in a pub at a caravan site and an all-female brawl broke out over this utterly skanky looking man.

Oh a holiday camp when DS was little a fight broke out and one bloke hit another over the head with a chair. We left, thankfully it was our last night. Never going to that place again. We'd only gone because MIL had booked it for us.

Adults only all inclusive holiday in Mexico, a young attractive American couple who were quite drunk in the pool one day with a few other young couples.

No idea how this came about but the man telling the women to get her tits out and show them to the group. When she refused he said well I paid for them, get them out. As you can guess she was very upset and they ended up leaving the pool and having an argument.

We saw them later in the evening at one of the restaurants looking very sheepish.

Girl holiday in Spain 19 yo, Italian men came smashing on our door asking for entrance in the middle of the night, posting explicit notes under our door, saying absolutely disgustingly awful things to us, demanding entry. About 9 of them thumping and kicking the door, it was moving as they did, and we were unable to get through to reception. One of the girls grabbed a knife and I shouted aggressively hoping they would see we weren’t able to be fucked around. They did finally leave after calling us absolutely all sorts. Woke up the next morning with what we think was piss all over our balcony and piss covered towels. We went to reception the next morning and security lurked for the rest of the trip. It was very frightening at the time, I was so scared. If it happened again, I’d grab the knife.

Another one. On a day trip to the beach one August bank holiday. A kiss-me-quick kind of beach.

Kids jump onto a fairground ride when it comes available. I get the money ready, but nobody around. Out of the booth pops a very smiley dwarf with a packet of cigarettes. He lights one while studying me and holding his crinkly smile. Ah, I think the fairground ride operator. Then out from the booth pops a young boy aged about 7 who grabs the cigarette from his mouth, takes a puff and then asks for the ride money....!!

At the Trevi Fountain this year a man grabbed my 11 year old DD and shoved her out of the way so he could take a better picture. She was just standing waiting her turn.

We travelled around Europe this spring and awful tourist behaviour was everywhere. Littering, entitled behaviour or just general rudeness. It was pretty eye opening!

I don't know whether this counts, but anyway - when I was 7 or 8 we were staying in a villa for the summer holidays somewhere on the Costa Brava (this was the early 60's and we used to drive there from Surrey). I got friendly with the resident Spanish children next door and one evening was playing with them in their yard. Even better, they had a lamb in the yard that evening, and we were all petting it. They were trying to explain something to me about the lamb, but even their mime didn't enlighten me, and I didn't speak much Spanish, so I just shrugged my shoulders and we carried on playing. Then their father came out with a large knife, upended the lamb over a bucket and cut its head off. I stood there transfixed, not really with horror, more stunned surprise. At that moment my mother came out, saw what was happening and dragged me indoors.
Not bad behaviour at all, just the rural way of life in Spain at that time I suppose, but still, not something you really want to see.
The family next door also ate a lot of chicken - I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

8 years back we were in a nice family type place caravan park,it was term time so very quiet but there was a couple with a baby about 1 a few caravans over and she was noticeably pregnant but not heavily pregnant so i would say under 6 months.my kids were 10 months and 6 at the time

first night at 2am we heard shouting then banging and fighting from inside,a baby screaming and the man screaming at the woman

within 10mins it escalated to outside and he was beating her up,my partner rang security when i went out as i wasnt having that as my children were scared and crying(im a take no shit kind of person)

i confronted him with a what the fuck do you think your doing?im not having this, the security are on their way
im 6ft and was 18 st then and he was roughly 5ft8/9 and 11/12 stone(rough estimate)so i was way bigger than him weight and height wise

i then noticed she was crumpled on the floor in a pool of blood and had blood running down her legs

he did get mouthy and came face to face(well tried to) with me and said mind your fucking business but i held my ground and said try it pal as you can see im not her,he then shoved me and with one punch he went down like a sack of shit

3 security men turned up then and asked me whats happened so the man cried that ive hit him for no reason and when i told them what really happened 1 picked him up and bundled him in the car grinning,one took her and the baby away and the other stayed behind to find out what went on fully so i told him and he was gobsmacked that i confronted him like that with him being a man and me a woman

the next day we had a knock on the door with police and security to take my statement
turns out hes been beating her for years and she suffered a miscarriage by his actions and was in the hospital

police didnt take no action for me hitting him as they said it was self defense and th security man asked if i wanted a job with them as because they are not police thy are not allowed to use violence

the caravan park also gave us a long weekend on top of our stay as an apology for what we went through as this was a very isolated incident so a 7 day holiday turned in to 12 day stay

been to that park a few times since and never had a problem

Brilliant 24hours !

@itstrue we were at the Trevi Fountain a few weeks ago and it was mental. They need a system!

We were at a holiday camp last year, the type with a small disco and a children’s club.

DS who at the time was 3yo is incredibly shy and polite, couldn’t argue with anyone if he tried.

We had encouraged him to go and sit with the other children to do some dancing or whatever while we sat a few feet back and tried to let him join in on his own.

DS is really enjoying himself, clapping along and I’m so happy he’s finally been brave enough to sit there when another boy around 4yo completely unprovoked walks over and kicks him in the back of the head and then stamps on his face a few times before I reached him.

The parent didn’t even move from her chair and I had to take the child back to her but she couldn’t have cared less. Didn’t even say one word and dad didn’t look up from his pint.

Made me realise how kids turn out so badly with parents like that

@hopeishere it was just crazy! Things have totally got to change. I've read about the law changes in Italy around tourist behaviour since we got back and it so needs to be done!

Your poor son Man what scumbag parents.

When I was a small child we were in a greek bar. A bunch of guys were playing darts. One got a dart in his foot and it severed an artery. He died in a few minutes. At the tome I barely noticed as I was given a free hot chocolate in a fancy glass to distract me by the staff. I remember the people didn't seem too rushed to get help though, nobody seemed to take it seriously enough, even the man himself wasn't very distressed. Later it really got to me how quickly and stupidly life can be snuffed out

In Disneyland Paris, a mother berating her young (around 6/7yo) son telling him he has "ruined everything" because he wouldn't smile for a "nice photo to send to Granny". The poor boy was in tears. They weren't even at the castle, they were standing under the railway station at the entrance and it was quite early in the day.

Disney does funny things to people, and our similar aged DC was a total PITA on our trip, but the guilt trip that woman was giving such a small child was totally over the top and she had lost all perspective.

TBH the level of phone/camera usage on the whole was crazy. It is so sad that people can't just be in the moment any more.

In the USA, this 'posh' women (American) was sunbathing, floating on a blow up thing in the middle of a smallish kids' pool. Some small children jumped in playing and, of course, splashed her and she told them off. Up comes the mother screaming at her that she's the silly ...... being in the kids pool. This went on for a while , then they both said, 'Have a nice day!' and went on their merry way.

I need to hear more stories from Marmaris!

This one is more lighthearted. Me and my mate were on the dance floor in a place in Bali and she felt something hit her face a few times. She looked around and somehow came to the conclusion that a nearby bloke had spat at her. She went over and confronted him and he was all apologetic even though he hadn’t spat at her at all (you can take the girl out of Co Durham 😝). Just then she noticed the aircon was leaking water and that’s what it had been.
Anyway to cut a long story short, we both laughed about it with the Australian lad and they actually ended up going out with eachother for a while and visited us in England.

Incidentally the same club we were in was the site of the Bali bombing about a month later.

And honestly, as a kid I felt pretty badly supervised on holidays abroad. One of my earliest vacation memories is of being sent to the beach alone before breakfast, then wandering too far picking up shells and not knowing which hotel was mine because I couldn't read and they all looked the same.

When I was 8 we went to Rhodes and my dad and step sister left me alone in the apartment at night to go to a bar. I woke in the night to find myself covered all over in cockroaches and they were running all over the walls and ceiling. I panicked and fled outside in my nightie and sat on the steps till they returned. It felt like ages.

Later when I was 9 my father and step mother were both unwell and stuck in the apartment for the day. I was sent alone ten minutes away to the beach for the day. I spent the whole day alone swimming. Got really badly sunburnt and had my bag pinched. I got a telling off for leaving my stuff unsupervised.

Then when I was 15 my Dad watched as I drank retsina after retsina at a dinner we attended. I was testing him to see when he would stop me, but he didn't. So I was violently and horrifically sick for hours with just the poor tour guide to hold my hair out of the toilet. That same vacstion I was allowed out every night so long as I found a friend to go with... so I ended up in a bunch of unsuitable situations with men who thought we were 18. It always struck me as so odd that one parent let me have so much freedom and so little security, while my step father wouldn't even let me ride my bike outside the front gate. I sometimes wonder how I never got kidnapped. Maybe I was too ugly 😂

I went to the Caribbean when I was 13 with my dad (not our usual kind of trip, he won it someday or another) - really nice hotel. One night after dinner I wanted to go back to the room but he wanted a drink at the hotel bar so he took me back and then left again. A few minutes later one of the staff who I felt had been looking at me strangely for most of the trip knocked on the door and tried to force his way in. When I tried to close the door he put his foot in the way etc. Luckily I managed to eventually get rid of him but my heart was pounding and I was absolutely frozen on the spot until my dad came back who was absolutely livid. My dad spoke to the hotel and we never saw the guy again I can still remember how frightened I was. Scary to think what would have happened if he’d made his way in.