Ask what’s the worst holiday you’ve ever had?

[Alwaysonyonsn]

I’ve been lucky and never stayed somewhere terrible apart from one place.

No one at the front desk for half an hour. I called the number left and no one answered. Knocked on the office door (could hear people) and no one answered.

The room didn’t lock and they pretended not to understand. I had to carry any valuables with me whenever I left.

Holiday back to my home town with my mother who was going through a manic episode, which I didn't realise at the time. She talked constantly, wouldn't let me have any space at all, texted me during the night so I would wake up to 40 messages. Spent hours shouting at me because I didn't want to spend every waking minute with her. Slagged me off to all her friends in earshot for imagined crimes. When I finally snapped at her on the journey home she had a massive tantrum in the station and refused to get into the car, screaming and banging her fists until she was told she would be left there.
Even when she was back on her meds she refused to admit she had done anything wrong, insisted that it was a wonderful holiday and I was making stuff up to get at her

Kenya. Booked into a 5* hotel on the beach. Hotel itself lovely, but room was terrible. Threadbare stained carpet, stained/torn curtains, often no running water, and regular power cuts (basically entire block tripping off constantly throughout the day). Sometimes no water to flush the toilet. Rarely any hot water at all. We complained daily to be told "sorry, but hotel full, no rooms to move to". Then we saw the other block, which had been refurbished - lovely plush carpets, new fluffy towels, and they had no problems with water nor power. Basically, we were stuck in the old block that hadn't been renovated but paying the same for those allocated to the new block that had. Court case for compensation from Thomson and we got all our money back!

The Gambia. Thomson again! Hotel being renovated. Went into our room for the first time. Dust everywhere, every surface, even on the bed. Went to open the balcony windows and it just fell out - hadn't been fixed in. Electrical switches sockets hanging off the wall. Heard a loud bang from outside and the people next door had opened their room door and it had just fallen off - only 1 screw had been put in each hinge that couldn't hold the weight of the door! There were workmen everywhere, trailing power leads across corridors and stairways. The place was clearly unsafe and unfit for habitation. Thomson rep useless. Court case again, full refund as compensation!

Turkey. Supposedly 5* hotel in Kusadasi - another flea pit, with oddments of carpets on the corridors (not fixed down), breakfast was literally just a plate of stale bread rolls and a dish of boiled eggs - nothing else! No cereals etc. Got ripped off when changing money at reception - handed the guy some UK notes and he just handed back some Turkish lira from a tin box, no receipt, not even worked it out by a calculator, we counted it, and there was probably half of what we expected it to be, so we asked what exchange rate he'd used, and he just got the box out and gave us a few more notes, still pretended not to understand when we asked for exchange rate and a receipt. There was no safe in the room, so Rep told us to ask for a brown envelope from reception to seal and sign across the tape and they'd put it in their safe. We did. When we came to ask for it back, it was obvious the tape had been broken and the envelope had been torn to open it - passports and driving licences were there, but cash had gone - again, receptionist pretended not to understand when we complained. Rep useless and wouldn't help us complain. Unsurprising, it was Thomson again, and again, court case, and we got about a 50% refund as compensation.

Cape Verde, literally like visiting the moon! Nothing to do, nothing to seem awful cheap food shipped in. Total waste of money, we looked to come home early but there was only 1 flight a week.

Cancun in Mexico
It was a 5 star resort so the hotel was lovely but its just so boring.
It was all inclusive but the alcoholic drinks were so weak and we ended up getting horrendous food poisoning from the restaurant, as did lots of other people. The toilets in the reception area and bar were full of people being sick or splattered with shit from the diarrhoea.

Outside the hotel felt really unsafe too. Gangs of men hanging around and really scruffy looking.

Am I being unreasonable to enjoy this thread so much?

I feel for all the pps! It makes you appreciate home and at least you have a story to tell...not much consolation at the time.

Haven't got much to add except, in the year after 9/11, when people were put off flying and the demand for UK cottages was astronomical I think we got literally the last available place in Cornwall. (I generally love UK holidays, btw.)It sounded great on paper - and looked nice from the outside. It was an old belfry tower on Bodmin Moor, and inside felt and smelled damp. The kitchen was really dark with very dark units and table - very depressing! The children were very small then, and we didn't like the fact that our room was on the second floor of the tower for some reason and theirs was on the ground floor in a long annexe. The windows were all so high that, when you were in the sitting room, you couldn't see anything but the sky - which had a strange effect on us - rather like being in prison! Both my totally rational husband an I had an unsettled, spooky feeling the whole time and to top it off, we had to drive for miles to get anywhere at all. I was ticking off the days!! Mild in comparison to other people's stories, here though.

My sister had a horrendous trip to Morrocco about 15 years ago - horrible, openly hostile atmosphere everywhere. Then a work colleague came back about a week later from the same area and reported a similar experience. It was so scary and generally unpleasant that they came home early. Made a mental note NEVER to go there.

You must have been unlucky. We have been going for over 20 years and it really is a beautiful unspoilt island. Parts of the old town in puerto del carmen are in need of a bit of tlc but in general the resorts are all very clean, lovely restaurants and friendly locals

I once had a horrendous 2 weeks in Turkey. To the point that I have sworn to never ever visit the country again.

We had abuse from the front desk because we forgot to tip the bellboy (it was 2am when we finally got to our room and we had two extremely tired children who had stayed awake for the night flight)

Day 1 - DS was pushed down a water slide by another kid and split his chin open, it was so deep the hotel got an ambulance to take us to hospital for it stitching. When we got there DS was pinned to a bed while they injected local anaesthetic directly into the cut and he was screaming and thrashing around. Then I was repeatedly catcalled outside the hospital waiting for a taxi back to resort.

My DH was chased out of a shop because "you English have too much money". He was trying to buy a football kit for DS, didn't barter or anything like that, they just took exception to him.

Final night I was sexually assaulted by one of the cleaners. To be fair they sacked him immediately and were fully supportive of if I wanted the police there but by that point I just wanted to go home!

Tenerife around 2000 last minute teletext deal.

Piles of vomit in the communal walkways, Windows that wouldn't open, dubious stains in the bathroom and bedroom, cockroaches (it was nicknamed the roach hotel) and Tony from Hollyoaks holding court by the pool every day (which was an odd colour and full of leaves.

We also had the misfortune to be on the same plane as him there and back.

We were suppose to be going to visit my family (who live in a holiday destination in Scotland) with our new baby but my Dad needed to have an operation so we ended up in a small flat in Aberdeen visiting the ICU each day with my Mum.

Holiday cottage in wales near Tenby.
Nowhere to eat, unfriendly people. Hated it.

Where in Tunisia was this? I've been 3? times and never experienced this

One time we went was just after 9/11 and we were worried it would be a bad experience, but it was fine

Crete.

I hated the place.

Stayed with some friends in a villa. They’d clearly been very creative with the photos online, the village name sign had actual bullet holes in, everywhere felt grubby and run down and all the stray dogs really upset me. Friends were really annoying which didn’t help.

Tunisia. Hotel was OK but the resort was tacky and run down. The food was horrible and I got hissed at by a restaurant owner because I looked at the menu outside but neglected to go inside.

@ofwarren came here to say the same, it was so boring!
We couldn't leave the resort as wasn't safe (unless on an excursion), hoards of loud drunk Americans taking over the pools and leaving half eaten food everywhere so the seagulls were swarming everyone trying to relax by the pool. Food was ok but very samey. Definitely wouldn't go back

Turkey.
The villa we'd booked was lovely but on a huge site that was still being built, there was no one else staying there apart from the builders and it was literally in the middle of nowhere at the bottom of some mountains.
Woke up on the first night around 2am and heard a noise downstairs, shook DH awake and he went down to find we'd been robbed of everything, someone had forced a window open.
We usually put our valuables in the safe but as we didn't arrive until late we simply forgot,
All our money, phones, camera and passports had been taken.
Spent the rest of the holiday feeling incredibly unsafe and trying to sort out insurance and emergency passports.

Absolute nightmare and it put me off going abroad for a good few years.

A few years later we got a letter from the owner of the complex with our stolen passports enclosed, they had been found by a Shepard half way up the mountain!

We went when it was spring break so I totally agree about the loud drunk Americans.
The only good thing we did was an excursion to Isla Mujeres which was beautiful and really interesting and rustic.

Booked a week in Otterburn, Northumbria. Self catering lodge as part of a hotel complex. Unfortunately discovered it was next to a military base. The week after Farnborough airshow. The aircraft were being showcased for foreign buyers, all day everyday from 8am. Some were flying so low you could see the pilots faces.

The lodge stank of cigarettes. The beds had pubic hairs on the supposed clean sheets. Went to the hotel reception who did not apologise & argued against changing the bedding! A bug infestation in a kitchen cupboard nearly finished me off.
It rained constantly. 3 days in we gave up & went home.

A weekend camping in mablethorpe. Someone shit in the pool 🤢, husband got bad stomach from the on-site chippy first night we were there and we had to come home after one night due to high winds destroying our tent. 2 am packing up the tent and kids was not the best outcome however was probably better than whatever may have come had we stayed another night 🤣
Laugh about now but was in tears at the time 😂

@ofwarren yes the excursions we did were great but felt like we could have been anywhere doing them.
I don't recall it being spring break but it was one of the group's birthday (they were all definitely over the age of 40) and were just absolute animals with no regard for the other guests.

I just remembered there was water coming in through the light fitting in the bathroom when we arrived so moved rooms. The hotel was luckily nice but yes could have been anywhere really nothing stood out (well apart from odd sign warning of crocodiles)

A shitty, smelly, mouldy and leaky caravan near Barmouth.
The electrics kept tripping (which we only found out after a whole evening of thinking there was a power cut )
I cut the underside of my foot on some glass on the beach on the first day and just about held it together for 5 whole boring days before I put my unwounded foot down and demanded we went home.
It was, without doubt, the most crappiest holiday spent in a complete shithole I've ever had.
I will never sleep in a fibreglass fucking coffin again!

Altinkum, Turkey in 2010. We all got food poisoning on the first day along with most of the guests from our hotel and the sister hotel next door. DH, DD1 and DS all ended up in hospital. Didn’t get to see any of Altinkum (shame as I was quite excited about seeing the Apollo Temple) as we were all too ill. We got a full refund from First Choice.

I agree hated it . Where we stayed was like a UK run down seaside place in the sun . The beach was vile .

Wales - pissed down for a week solid.
Scotland - pissed down for a week solid.
Dorset - Storm Francis.
Cuba - Hurricane Katrina.
Northern Spain - due to circumstances beyond our control we went on a two week holiday with two small children on the same day as we moved house and suffered a catalogue of disasters whilst away.
Algarve - sister in late stages of undiagnosed cancer and father in early stages of undiagnosed divorce.
Sicily this year - had a marriage ending argument on day six.

Just out of curiosity, but how does it get to a court case? Did they refuse to refund you initially? Did they cover your legal costs?

It's not even real sea it's the estuary . The beach is dangerous as it's easy to get stuck in mud and there's no warning signs . Maybe there is now it was years since I went there