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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask for your holiday from hell stories

57 replies

QuitChewingMyPlectrum · 03/09/2023 20:15

Just back from 2 weeks away

Food poisoning x 2
Concussion x 1
Attempted abduction of teenager x 1
Mosquito bites x around 22

I could do with another holiday to get over it!

Please share your funny/awful holiday tales for solidarity and so I can continue to see the funny side of the 2 weeks we've just endured 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

OP posts:
Ilovegoldies · 03/09/2023 20:16

Oh my goodness where did you go?

MereDintofPandiculation · 03/09/2023 20:16

Well, at least you got away lightly with the mozzie bites

MrsElijahMikaelson1 · 03/09/2023 20:18

Where the duck did you go?

GrandTheftWalrus · 03/09/2023 20:19

Bad food poisoning in Tunisia to the point I had to get injections to stop it from the doctor.

And yes, where were you?

QuitChewingMyPlectrum · 03/09/2023 20:33

Ilovegoldies · 03/09/2023 20:16

Oh my goodness where did you go?

Turkey.
We've been many times before to the same area but never the same hotel.
Love the country but this hotel was hell.

OP posts:
QuitChewingMyPlectrum · 03/09/2023 20:33

MereDintofPandiculation · 03/09/2023 20:16

Well, at least you got away lightly with the mozzie bites

😂

OP posts:
QuitChewingMyPlectrum · 03/09/2023 20:33

GrandTheftWalrus · 03/09/2023 20:19

Bad food poisoning in Tunisia to the point I had to get injections to stop it from the doctor.

And yes, where were you?

Yikes, that sounds awful!

OP posts:
Trenchfootinthescottishhighlandstoday · 03/09/2023 20:35

A camping trip with 6 of my dc. 3 teen ds's in 1 tent. Up half the night throwing wet loo roll round the shower block. Contemplated sending them home via train but no station nearby.
Luckily they hated it as much as we did and they never came again.. We now have stress free trips with their siblings. Now actually well behaved teens. They are a rare breed I accept!

Gettingbysomehow · 03/09/2023 20:38

Trenchfootinthescottishhighlandstoday · 03/09/2023 20:35

A camping trip with 6 of my dc. 3 teen ds's in 1 tent. Up half the night throwing wet loo roll round the shower block. Contemplated sending them home via train but no station nearby.
Luckily they hated it as much as we did and they never came again.. We now have stress free trips with their siblings. Now actually well behaved teens. They are a rare breed I accept!

6 of your children!!!!!! How many are there? 😙

GrandTheftWalrus · 03/09/2023 20:40

QuitChewingMyPlectrum · 03/09/2023 20:33

Yikes, that sounds awful!

The hotel was a nightmare as well and that was the 2nd time I'd been there as we enjoyed it the 1st time.

Nevermind31 · 03/09/2023 20:42

Just back from a lovely holiday, but the flight back was awful. At least 10 kids listening to their phones/ playing games on their phones without headphones. It was SO BLOODY NOISY. And the parents all had big (probably noise cancelling) headphones.
just when did this become acceptable???
alas - no one tried to abduct any children, and no food poisoning

QuitChewingMyPlectrum · 03/09/2023 20:46

Nevermind31 · 03/09/2023 20:42

Just back from a lovely holiday, but the flight back was awful. At least 10 kids listening to their phones/ playing games on their phones without headphones. It was SO BLOODY NOISY. And the parents all had big (probably noise cancelling) headphones.
just when did this become acceptable???
alas - no one tried to abduct any children, and no food poisoning

Oh we had similar on our flight! It's bizarre. I am v noise sensitive so earplugs all the way for me these days! Sorry you had to put up with it!

OP posts:
GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 03/09/2023 20:50

Any holidays where my exh was there! Put paid to any kind of relaxation as you didn’t know what mood he’d be in next.

Particularly crap holidays included - one where there weren’t enough beds for everyone, air bnb with hypercritical owners living on the top floor, but mostly just his general presence!

Entwhit · 03/09/2023 20:50

Got stuck when easyJet cancelled our flights home.

Prior to it happening to me I'd always thought "oh, what a shame, those poor princesses who get extra holiday days" ... NO

The initial cancellation was bad enough - checked our bags in, got informed there would be a delay shortly after, delay was initially two hours, then four, then TEN ... no way of contacting easyJet, sitting in the hinterland past security, eventually we all got a text to say no flight at all, airport staff herded us to checkout our bags, another two hour wait, this was already twelve full hours since we'd checked in, airport staff put us on coaches to various places at 2am, still unable to contact easyJet.

Got to hotel and it's an armpit, no other way to describe it. Built in some kind of post industrial hinterland that never happened, on a dual carriageway surrounded by decaying half finished concrete buildings, you couldn't walk anywhere as no paths, no shops, fleas jumping off the carpet, dirty beds, getting automated messages from easyJet to book an alternative flight, go onto the app and each flight that seemed to be available, clicked through various screens and permutations, only to get a message that it was full. This took another three hours.

Slept a little, next morning went for "breakfast" which was actually mouldy food, spent another four hours on easyJet app, also ringing them but obviously no answer ... It really was not like a continuation of the holiday at all.

In the end we paid a couple of thousand for flights with a premium carrier from an airport across country as we were so desperate to get home and having spoken to insurance we were covered.

But honestly that feeling of being cut adrift was awful.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 03/09/2023 20:51

QuitChewingMyPlectrum · 03/09/2023 20:46

Oh we had similar on our flight! It's bizarre. I am v noise sensitive so earplugs all the way for me these days! Sorry you had to put up with it!

We had a massive several family group whooping and being noisily overexcited in the few rows in front of us on a 6 am flight last week.

Luckily my 9 yo had his tablet with headphones , my teen was reading and I put my silicone earplugs in and still managed to get some sleep despite their noise (I’m a bit nervous of flying and sleeping in the main thing that helps!)

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 03/09/2023 20:54

Entwhit · 03/09/2023 20:50

Got stuck when easyJet cancelled our flights home.

Prior to it happening to me I'd always thought "oh, what a shame, those poor princesses who get extra holiday days" ... NO

The initial cancellation was bad enough - checked our bags in, got informed there would be a delay shortly after, delay was initially two hours, then four, then TEN ... no way of contacting easyJet, sitting in the hinterland past security, eventually we all got a text to say no flight at all, airport staff herded us to checkout our bags, another two hour wait, this was already twelve full hours since we'd checked in, airport staff put us on coaches to various places at 2am, still unable to contact easyJet.

Got to hotel and it's an armpit, no other way to describe it. Built in some kind of post industrial hinterland that never happened, on a dual carriageway surrounded by decaying half finished concrete buildings, you couldn't walk anywhere as no paths, no shops, fleas jumping off the carpet, dirty beds, getting automated messages from easyJet to book an alternative flight, go onto the app and each flight that seemed to be available, clicked through various screens and permutations, only to get a message that it was full. This took another three hours.

Slept a little, next morning went for "breakfast" which was actually mouldy food, spent another four hours on easyJet app, also ringing them but obviously no answer ... It really was not like a continuation of the holiday at all.

In the end we paid a couple of thousand for flights with a premium carrier from an airport across country as we were so desperate to get home and having spoken to insurance we were covered.

But honestly that feeling of being cut adrift was awful.

That sounds horrific. I was so worried about that happening with the air traffic control strikes.

We once had an easyJet flight back from Edinburgh cancelled (not so bad with it being Edinburgh) - just sorted hotel and a train home myself and claimed it back afterwards. EasyJet wanted to put us on a flight after I had to be back at work.

Conkersinautumn · 03/09/2023 20:56

Oh god. I just had a holiday in Turkey and I was pickpocketed (never happened to me in my life before London, NY, Paris, Rome, Naples, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Prague, Copenhagen, Dublin, Belfast, Washington, Delhi, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Athens, Madrid, Seville then wham, small town in Turkey -admittedly touristy) and had a glass door shatter all over me! The hire company for the car csncelled the booking so we had to pay out again, plane made a diversion to drop off a mechanic at a different airport on the way there. Mozzies were a bit active too. Equally, never had a problem before. I'm not woo at all, but I really don't think I'll be going back in a hurry.

Missingmyusername · 03/09/2023 20:57

Balkaya hotel. Ovacik, Turkey 15 years ago…. Hell

New2schoolrun · 03/09/2023 20:59

@AuDHD4Me what on earth happened with the attempted abduction?! Hope everyone is ok? How scary

Stayeduptoolateagain · 03/09/2023 21:04

I went to Greece and ended up with a kidney infection. I was told I couldn't go in the sea or pool and my ABs meant I couldn't go in in the sun either. Spent 8 days lying in pain in a dark room and flew home 2 days early. I had a trip to hospital in an ambulance whilst I was there and got shouted at by lots of medical staff. Oh, and the water kept switching off at our villa so we couldn't shower or flush the loo.

Tortiemiaw · 03/09/2023 21:06

First holiday dh (then boyfriend) and I went on in 1997. Amazing time on one of the Greek Islands but an 18-hour delay on the wayback.
We were transferred to a lovely hotel for 11 of the hours, but were told to keep well away from the paying guests!
I had horrific heatstroke and it took h about an hour to get any water and coke to give me without being asked for ridiculous amounts of money

Then we got £25 compensation. It amazes me to hear how much people can get now!

Entwhit · 03/09/2023 21:11

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing aye, it was rough. Also it transpired afterwards that they'd never had any intention of running that flight, but didn't let us know because they'd have been liable for us all booking pricey last minute alternatives. Which is what we all had to do in the end anyway, because none of their alternatives came good , but they kept saying they would with their pos app.

Absolute state of a company they are.

AnonymousArmadillo · 03/09/2023 21:14

Got the ferry and drove in two cars. Made it to about 30 minutes from our holiday house and BIL’s car was rear-ended by a massive Land Rover and pushed his car into my dad’s car. He drove a small hatchback which was incredibly squashed and my dad’s car seemingly only had some minor damage to the boot. That was until we were trying to ferry all 6 of us about, doing multiple trips, and my dad’s car refused to drive properly and went into complete limp mode. We suddenly had no cars on the holiday in a place where having no car meant not going anywhere.

The WiFi and phone signal was awful as well so trying to contact insurers was really difficult too. BIL, sister, DH and I were all under 25 at the time so nowhere would hire a car to any of us. My dad’s car was a company car so not as easy for him to just hire a bigger car and they said they’d only replace like for like (a 5-seater). My mum begged in the end and they gave us a 7-seater but we were about 5 days into the holiday at this point.

We then had to get both cars back and they wouldn’t let us take the 7-seater with us and return to another branch. My dad’s was buggered and needed shipping back. BIL’s was ladened down with all of our stuff in its squashed state but still drove ok somehow. We got off the ferry at the other end and they replaced my dad’s roomy saloon with a Fiat 500. At this point it felt like the world was trying to mock us.

The cherry on the cake? The Land Rover was uninsured and, rather than receive the consequences of this, the insurance company said that the man must have meant to insure and that was that.

dinoice · 03/09/2023 21:18

@AuDHD4Me

I need the abduction and concussion details. 🤔

For me, I thought, 2000, honeymoon. Engaged at 16, married 18, naive wee Scottish lass, booked Dominican Republic for two weeks with farmer husband.

I got food poisoning day one. Thought I might die. By day seven managed to go on a bus trip, very weak. DH a got attacked by a MASSIVE wasp type bug, causing driver to swerve, peoples stuff to fall out, so he slammed into reverse up motor way.

We then stopped at whatever it was we were seeing, told NOT to return to bus. I think it was a plantation. I felt faint, the bus was behind me, went for water, a man in his 90s pulled a machete out, I was so unwell and confused I just remember being knocked to the ground and coming to in hotel in day 8. Apparently the tour guide had saved me, but then wanted DH to pay him, he luckily didn't follow and some others helped.

I thought that was the worst, till our center parcs nightmare.

Took our first dd, the most precious thing, age four months, ended up in hospital for two weeks. The scariest time of my life. A swimming pool bug.

CP were wonderful, but I cannot begin to describe how scary it is to not be able to get to a car and drive when a child is so unwell. It had been our safe place. Now it haunts me.

DreamTheMoors · 03/09/2023 21:35

I flew to San Diego one Easter week to visit my cousin.
She & her boyfriend & his mates decided to drive down into Baja Mexico to Ensenada & Rosarito.
We stopped in at the Rosarito Beach Hotel and had drinks - those margaritas went down easy & we got tipsy.
We decided to leave & go to dinner. On the way out, somebody grabbed me by the arm - I was delayed by a minute or two. Not even.
When I got out to the car park, the car was gone. GONE. They had left without me.
There were 2 federales (Mexican police) standing there and I asked them if they had seen a beautiful American girl with dark hair with a group of American men - they replied “yes - come with us,” and I stupidly got in their unmarked Ford Bronco.
They took me deeper & deeper into Mexico until I began to sober up and started to complain - they finally stopped at a bar and let me out.
I ended up having to hitchhike about 85 miles back to San Diego with complete strangers. It was terrifying and the closer I got to the U.S. the more pissed off I got. I beat the others back to their place by over an hour.
I was furious.
I didn’t speak to my cousin for years.