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.

Now that's interesting as a holiday I had booked once was cancelled at the last minute due to an outbreak of legionnaires disease throughout the Dom Rep hotel that we'd booked!

Oh just thought of two more.

Chester last year in the run up to Christmas. I love Chester and wanted to take ds because they have a lot of Christmas events on. The activities we did were all fine and whatnot, it was the hotel we checked into afterwards. My mattress was riddled with bloodstains, not even small ones. We're talking large enough to see through the sheets big. Hotel were useless and wouldn't do anything. I was very unhappy (and grossed out). We ended up going home early as there was no where else to stay as everything was booked up.

Turkey - Again a place I love. But we stayed in a resort near Marmais and it was just filthy, full of louts and so noisy. Nothing like the reviews/pictures. The catering was some of the worst I have ever experience while all inclusive. None of it was covered so it was all caked in flies and bugs and looked and smelt like it'd been sitting out for 3 days. I spent the holiday pretty much eating bread and whatever snacks I could grab from the local newsagent style shops.

You had a lucky escape, honestly my experience put me off the Carribean for life. I still shudder at those flies coming out of that fish they were serving to people 🤢

I'd love to go on my own to a yoga retreat

Never had a really terrible one like the ones mentioned here but this summer dh and I went away in the UK for a much needed week. It rained the whole time and dh felt I'll driving up. After a miserable couple of days, I started feeling ill, got a couple of tests and yes we both had covid. First time ever I have come home early from a holiday.

Two weeks cyclo-camping in Brittany with the husband-and-wife owners on an accompanied tour. The husband was one of those 'characters' who talked too much and laughed too loud - I'm sure you know the type. After a day you wanted to murder him by perhaps pushing him off a cliff, just for a bit of peace and quiet.

Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt. First thunderstorm/rain they'd had for about 20 years, for the first few days. Unheated pool at supposedly 5* hotel. Cleaners nicked all our phones/tablets which were charging while we popped out for dinner. DH spent a day in the police station reporting the theft; they weren't that bothered as it was pretty common at that hotel apparently. All v stressful. I won't be going back.

Two weeks on St. Lucia during the monsoon seasons my ex swore it wouldn't rain.... it pissed down every day 24 hours a day.

Spain. My Mum moved there and we went to visit for my birthday. There was torrential rain that sparked a massive flood that cut us off from her house whilst we were out so we had to find a random hotel to stay in with nothing but the clothes on our backs.

The area she moved to was basically little England. Hardly any Spanish people about. For my birthday I asked if we could go to an authentic Spanish restaurant and Mum genuinely said "Oh I don't know anywhere Spanish"... in Spain. In the end she took us to an Argentine themed steak house. I hate steak.

I knew of a family who went all inc in the Dom. Rep., caught a bug and, in three of them, it developed into type 1 diabetes. A friend worked with one.

We tried a UK holiday last year and it was terrible. Went to Cornwall as everyone seems to love it and my god it was awful. Never again. Found St Ives overcrowded, run down and shabby. The seagulls meant we daren’t even get any food anywhere near the front and the roads were terrible.

@BooksAreSaferThanPeople it wasn’t Cabo roig, Playa flamenca or La Zenia was it?

Probably a caravan holiday to North Wales when I was 8 or so. I'd been really unwell that summer and was convalescing really, not feeling 100% still, and had to go to the local surgery a couple of times while I was there to have my wound dressed. So that bit wasn't fun. And my dad couldn't go as he had to work. Parts of it were still fun though.

I've never had a bad holiday as I've always researched where we are going and chosen carefully.

@BooksAreSaferThanPeople where in Spain was this?

A lot of these tales feature rain!

I’ve a few - not well a few years ago in Pakistan, checked into a slightly posher hotel (than backpacker type standards) as a result in Islamabad. Husband went out to look for food and when I got out the shower (just a towel on me) one of the hotel staff was knocking on our door and burst straight in. I screamed and shouted at him to leave but it was frightening and especially as I was feeling weak after the shower. Spent the next couple of days in bed while my husband ate fabulous food and explored!

and I feel really bad for saying this but the Isle of Wight where we had a cottage for a week in summer2021. First holiday after Covid, kids super excited, as we rolled off the ferry onto the island my kid started a vomiting bug. The next day the torrential rain started and went on and on. Our cottage owner thought my daughter has Covid and insisted we got a test done at a testing centre across the island. Everything was so expensive and we ended up doing crazy golf three times in the rain! Took the kids to a public paddling pool/small pool type thing where I saw a parent absolutely wallop their preschooler, dirty nappies lying around the pool edge. Sorry IoW I’m sure you’re lovely in the sunshine!

Cornwall in 2021. Horrendous weather. Ridiculously expensive. We came home early as we couldn’t stand it any longer.

Wales in PIL’s caravan. The caravan itself was fine but it rained every bloody day right in the middle of the day so you couldn’t plan anything. It was OK when DS was small but there’s nothing to do for an older child especially in the rain and the seagulls woke us up at 5am every day walking on the caravan roof. We came home after 4 days as it was just miserable.

UK, dirty and damp accommodation. Pouring rain. The DC developed a vomiting bug on the second day. As soon as they were well enough to go home we escaped, five days early.

Also, one night in a cheap B&B for an event. It was all we could get, the city was fully booked, and it was grim. There were some creepy men around so although we had two rooms, one for us, one for the DC, DH and I slept in different rooms with a DC each. We spent ages checking for hidden cameras and I draped towels over the mirrors etc and we pushed furniture up to the doors. The actual event was good though 😁

Ah yes, another. A week in a semi-detached tatty self-contained cottage. Next door belonged to the holiday cottage owners and theirs was very swish and swanky - their carpet wasn't threadbare or dirty, I bet their bed wasn't lumpy - and they had a telly. The brochure said that the garden was 'private' which we thought meant it was secluded - no, it meant we weren't allowed in. If we wanted to sit outside, we were welcome to take out a couple of dining room chairs and put them by the front door.

The woman even tapped DH for an extra tenner for a deposit for possible breakages as he got out of the car, no 'Welcome to Somerset, have a good journey?' We left a day early. Our last stay in a British holiday cottage.

I've never had a really bad one but I don't book package holidays and I'm a serious holiday planner. I do loads of research on my hotel and destination and usually plan a full itinerary so I have a very good idea whether we'll love it or not.

If pressed I'd probably say Croatia because I found the locals quite rude but we still had a good time. Or Vietnam because I got really bad food poisoning but the first week was amazing. We once had a 24 hour stop over in the Seychelles that I was excited for but it poured rain the whole time which was very disappointing. It was rainy season however and we still went in to the sea which was gloriously warm.

At least it wasn't as bad as a friend of a friend's holidays. After enduring yet another fortnight of solid rain In Cornwall they decided to go abroad. The first holiday there was a military coup, and the next summer suffered a tidal wave. They decided to stick to Cornwall.

@Kazzyhoward I don't understand why you kept booking holidays with Thompsons if they're so bad you opened court cases after these 3?

Malta, years ago. "Harbour Cruise" was constantly yelled at us in Valletta. And whenever we took the bus to a museum, it was closed.

I've been pretty lucky, although DH and I did stay at a bit of a rubbishy B&B in Edinburgh in the 1990s when we were students. The breakfast was rubbish so the next day we decided not to bother and got up later and went out for breakfast instead. He made comments about us having reasons to stay in bed. Ugh, no, your breakfast wasn't worth getting up for!

In 1996 when I was 16 and on a family holiday to Menorca. My mother has mental health issues and she was a nightmare - constantly bullying my dad and drinking too much on the first night, getting drunk and then spent the next four nights in the bed sulking. There were several other family holidays she spoiled but this holiday was the last family holiday I went on...