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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask for your worst holiday ever?

300 replies

5amisthenew7am · 01/06/2025 06:06

We’ve just got back from what I think was our worst holiday ever.

It rained heavily for 6 days out of 7
The kids fought all day, every day
I had to keep logging on for work because of a crisis situation
We went with my parents who made every excuse not to spend time with us and basically just took themselves off for lovely day trips without us. They didn’t lift a finger to help
Me and one DC both got D&V
The pool at the villa was absolutely freezing with giant bugs in it so nobody wanted to do any swimming
Our flights were delayed there and back

We actually went somewhere really beautiful and I’d been looking forward to it for months. The trip cost so much money and I honestly have never been so happy to get home.

I would love to hear others stories to make me feel better!

OP posts:
BlueFlowers5 · 02/06/2025 19:18

Madeira I meant!

Helenloveslee4eva · 02/06/2025 19:30

Cumbria/ Scottish Borders

  1. Remember that ? On holiday you had to watch what was on tv when it was on. No tablets 🤣😱

kids 2.5 and 5.

Cumbria week on a farm. Had to carry the kids up external stairs from car every time as afraid of ( tied up/ contained a distance away) farm dogs …. Husband re plumbed the washing machine as it filled from the hot and boiled everything ……. The weather was awful - we knew every fish in maryport aquarium by name and went and sat in the barbers when husband had a hair cut as well 🤣🤣

Scottish Borders - they seemed to hate kids , the “ barn conversion “ was so small the kids door didn’t shut with the travel cot assembled - so the baby was up till all hours as it was light till late. The washing machine could be opened mid cycle flooding the place - clearly for a toddler this was such fun 😱too.
Edinburgh open topped bus tour - heaven !

we watched teletubbies or play days mid morning most days to get a moments respite and that was it 🤪🤪🤪

JustMeAndTheFish · 02/06/2025 19:45

Two weeks in Majorca at October half term. Me and ex with 4 yo twins and a 12 week DS; mum and dad wanted to “take us on holiday”.
They booked a two room apartment so me and ExH on a sofa bed with the baby.
Storm had blown the beach away and kids pool so cold the girls were blue after 5 mins. Mother needed to “go to the supermarket” at least three times a day so I didn’t actually se the “beach” for about a week. Girls locked themselves out on the balcony.

Arrived home and said to mum that I’d never even opened my book and she asked whether I really expected to; there were FOUR adults on the trip.
Until the day she died my mum reminisced through rose tinted glasses about that wonderful holiday in Majorca

catchyoubysurprise · 02/06/2025 19:48

crackofdoom · 01/06/2025 16:28

The music on repeat anecdotes are reminding me of my parents' account of their honeymoon in Torremolinos in the early 1970s. It seemed that the hotel bar only had one record - "Delilah", by Tom Jones (great choice for a honeymoon 😆). On about day 3 the guests banded together and hid it.

I’m currently in Portugal. There’s an accordion player outside my window who only seems to know one song - “Can’t Help Falling In Love” - which he plays for eight hours at a time. It briefly segues into “Unchained Melody”, but he always manages to noodle it back round somehow!

WorryWart1510 · 02/06/2025 20:02

Aposterhasnoname · 01/06/2025 07:17

I’ve posted this before.

Dom Rep in February. Plane going out was delayed for many hours because they couldn’t open the hold doors and get the previous passengers luggage out.

Arrived very late at night and went straight to bed. Got up the next morning and it was raining, heavily. All trips were cancelled due to the weather, and for some bizarre reason the entertainment team cancelled everything too. You’d think they’d arrange games or something in the bar, but nope, they just sat around playing loud rap music all day. Anyway, it was an all inclusive hotel so we went to the bar, along with everyone else. I don’t think the entertainment team spoke great English because one of the songs they were playing contained the lyrics “ if you’re scared mutha fucka, go to church” they obviously liked this one, because they played it frequently. This was a family hotel by the way, we were alone, but there were many families with kids around.

So the first day passed in a drunken haze, and we got up the next day, raring to start the holiday properly. Nope, still raining, back to the bar we went, and back to the mouth fucka song. Next day, raining, mutha fucka song. Next day, raining, mutha fucka song, next day, well, you get the idea. By now people, including the kids were singing along. The entertainment clearly though that this was a popular activity, so played the song even more frequently.

Day five of the holiday was my birthday, so we got up and went to the bar for the daily group sing along. At 5pm everything started swaying, so we thought we’d drunk enough and returned to our room, our ground floor, beach front room, and switched on the tv. The Haitian earthquake had just happened, and the Dom Rep was on a Tsunami warning. We went to reception to ask what we should do, blank looks all around, so we went to the bar and a few told other people and word got round. Don’t forget, everyone had been drinking solidly for six days, so reactions varied from don’t give a shit, to complete melt down panic. We, and a few others, decided to head for higher ground, so squelched out way to the top of the hill across the road, where we stood in the pouring rain dolefully singing muthafucka for about an hour, before realising nothing was going to happen, so we squelched back down and went to bed.

The next day, the rain stopped, but the majority of the staff were Haitian and had relatives there, so were understandably very worried. It didn’t feel right enjoying ourselves while the staff were so upset, so the last week was a very muted affair.

Finally it was time leave, and we boarded the plane. There was a baby screaming just a couple of rows in front of us. The pilot announced we’d have to wait for a doctor to check the baby was ok to fly, this took an hour and a half. Finally given the ok, we started taxiing to the runway, the baby was still screaming. Some bloke jumped up marched down the plane and shouted shut that brat up or I will, or words to that general effect, in the mothers face. The father naturally came to her defence and squared up to him. The plane ended up going back to the terminal for aggressive bloke to be removed.

Never been so glad to get home in my life.

You have me in stitches reading that 🤣🤣🤣 of you're scared mutha fucka 🤣🤣🤣
When are you going back??

thaegumathteth · 02/06/2025 20:03

D&V in 42 degree heat with a ferry ride home afterwards. Thankfully we’d all recovered but a boat overnight wasn’t where I most wanted to be! Dd (7) must’ve been sick at least 100 times and there was no TV or anything. A lovely couple on the campsite leant us a portable dvd player and a load of kids dvds which saved the day!

SusanChurchouse · 02/06/2025 20:10

Not as awful as many on here. Unseasonal Torrential rain 6 days out of 7 on the Mexico leg of our honeymoon. The guests spent most of the time in the bars, thankfully without mutha fucka song on repeat. All inclusive + strong booze = people literally passing out by time dinner came round. We did have our romantic dinner for 2 on the beach, behind a windbreaker with our waiters in waterproofs! The Icelandic volcano erupted just as we were about to head home. Ended up with 10 extra days in a shittier hotel, although at least we got some sunshine.

Carpedimum · 02/06/2025 20:14

Tunisia about 25 years with ex’D’P who behaved just horrifically and was the start of a cycle of domestic abuse, get drunk & nasty, sober up & beg forgiveness. I’d paid for all of it, our hotel was the ‘best’ in the resort, really nice, quiet and clean, but on the first night there was an England football match on in a nearby hotel that he insisted going to. It was loud and busy, full of drunk parents not caring a jot about their feral children, lots of screaming and arguments, adults squaring up for fights and generally appalling behaviour, not my scene at all. Of course he struck up a lot with people & wanted to go back the next day. He sat around drinking with the men giving marks out of ten on the women’s body parts, I was meant to just be with the women putting temporary tattoos all over their kids, criticising staff with casual racism. I don’t care if anyone thinks I’m a snob, it was horrible, like a documentary about badly behaved Brits abroad. He said I was too fat and he was embarrassed to be with me, he just didn’t want me there. I looked into going home but there were no flights, so I stayed at our hotel pool and got a lovely tan but it was all a shock that the quietly spoken man I knew had morphed into lairy, abusive character. I finished with him but he love bombed me and I naively forgave him, I was a fool. The relationship did last a while longer and became very toxic and chaotic. I doubt I will ever go to Tunisia or a resort type holiday ever again, the memory of the horror is clear.

Pollyanna87 · 02/06/2025 21:26

TattiePants · 01/06/2025 21:03

I’ve never had a terrible holiday (I’m ignoring the ones when I was a child with my abusive father) but we arrived in Praia da Luz, Portugal on the morning of 4 May 2007. It was our first family holiday with 9 month old DS but it was difficult to enjoy ourselves surrounded by police, media etc.

Not to be insensitive, but this must have been fascinating.

Chattygirl123 · 02/06/2025 21:31

I've had a few 'experiences' on holiday abroad. First was Mexico. Hol was fab but ate a burger at the hotel for handiness b4 we got the flight home. Puking and diarrhea on an 8 hour flight was NOT fun. Just glad I was near the toilet. My friends said I looked green and had to get my suitcase 4 me as I just couldn't. 3 of us had the burger were ill but I was by far the worst.
Next 2 holidays were with exhusband. Lanzarote which I love. Been on girls hols to Spain and Greece knew you need to use plenty of suncream and regularly. But he wouldn't listen. Burnt his foot and spent most of the hol in the apartment.
Third again with exhusband. Had to go out for tea at 6 EVERY night so we were back to apartment about 8. No going to a bar for a bit of craic. I had a health scare at the time and I kept thinking I can't leave my son to be brought up by this man if I die. We divorced 18 months later!!

naffusername · 02/06/2025 21:31

Husband booked us a cruise to the Baltics for my birthday. Airline lost our luggage (took a month to get it back). So no formal night, no Captains Welcome Party.

Spent the entire cruise in three outfits. Every time we stopped in a port, on the phone to the airline to see where the cases were. They had our ports of call and kept promising the cases would be at the next port. Then had to nip into varous town to buy underwear and the odd outfit.

Cases arrived home a month after checking them in. They spent their time in Paris by the baggage stickers. Insurance claim wasn't settled for six months.

It's a tie for the one where I developed bacterial food poisoning and spent 8 days on IV antibiotics in hospital. When we got home, I developed C Diff from the antibiotics. That took six weeks to recover from.

Work said I shouldn't go on holiday anymore as it was bad for my health and stress levels.

Mama17xx · 02/06/2025 21:41

Cuba.
I went with my then boyfriend, who I lived with. He had a history of cheating on me. Got to Cuba, he went for a walk but left his phone, so I checked it. All inbox and outbox messages were deleted, but saw one in drafts. It read something like ‘I just got here baby, will call you shortly, love you’. I took down the number on my phone, and called it. A girl picked up. I asked if she knew my then partner, she said yes, he was her boyfriend. I told her who I was and that I was on holiday with him, she said he told her he was on holiday with his friends, and she named his friends. I asked if she had sex with him, she said ‘of course, he’s my boyfriend’.
When he came back into the room I confronted him, and he said she was lying. Of course I didn’t believe him. This happened day 1 of our holiday, still had 7 days to go, couldn’t afford another room or a flight home so had no choice but to continue on the holiday with him. It was awful.
Didnt help that the mosquitoes ate me alive, for some reason they only wanted me! Spent the whole holiday slapping myself / the mosquitoes. At the airport on the way back the airport doctor spotted my bites, stopped me and brought me to his first aid room and slathered cream all over me, and covered me up in bandages like a mummy. The most uncomfortable flight ever. I was bitten so bad I had to take an extra week off work because wearing clothes hurt me too much!

catmum44 · 02/06/2025 21:46

Flight delayed from 7.20 to 15.30 due to fixing engine. Took off, 30 seconds 1 of the 2 engines blew up, plane shaking, emergency landing. Reboarded new plane 11.30 pm, 2 hours waiting while they sort luggage out. Flew 1 30 am. Scheduled airport of arrival closed, flew to alt & long bus transfer. Arrived. Went to look at beach. Fell into exhausted sleep (48 hrs travel at this point) brother got sunburned really bad on his feet, needed medical treatment and spent entire holiday in his room. Just the two of us, so I was alone. Apart from delivering food to him. He could have come out and stayed in shady areas for food etc.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 02/06/2025 21:47

Went on holiday with two lungs .
Came home with 1+ 2/3
Not my best holiday Shock

anon666 · 02/06/2025 21:48

Oh gosh, you poor bugger.

Most of our bad holidays were my mad decisions.

One time I went to Cornwall camping. Dh borrowed a tent from a friend. His friend had successfully camped in the tent in TEXAS, a desert.

We camped in rainy Cornwall. It was freezing, the tent leaked, and honestly it's a miracle we're still married. Surprisingly we went back to Cornwall camping many times, usually beaten to an early finish by some hurricane or other. Got flashbacks watching the salt path.

Next bad holiday was in Littlehampton. Dd2 and I had been for a successful day out to the beach there on a very hot sunny day. Truth be told, I cba with a big holiday. It was during or after covid and we had next to no money.

So in my wisdom I booked us a week in an Airbnb in Littlehampton, an hour and a half from home. 😬 This was 2 years ago.

My daughters, now 21 and 19, were unimpressed to find their "bedroom" was a kind of suspended cage from the ceiling. Exciting perhaps for two children. Two young women, not so much.

The place was tiny, with every room being somehow connected and every sound was audible throughout. Snoring, talking. It was so claustrophobic.

Add to that the coldest, wettest summer days in living memory, and you have a very weird week, the highlight of which was sifting through local charity shops for bargains. 😬

It was unthinkable. I still shudder.

Movingon2024 · 02/06/2025 21:55

CrepuscularCritter · 01/06/2025 14:35

Boston. Hydraulic failure on the way into Logan so arrived on a remote stand and with a two deep guard of firefighters escorting us from the stairs to the terminal. I'm not a nervous flyer, but keeping up the "it's all perfecly normal" to my travel companions required RADA skills.

Rented a lovely Prince-imspired Little Red Corvette, which turned out to be something of a death trap, with seatbelts at choking level. Also difficult to see much in traffic owing to the very miniature nature of said Corvette relative to other vehicles.

Chest infection. Bought a strong bottle of cough mixture which made me pass out. Thankfully not in the Little Red Corvette.

Discovered that freeways have entrances and exits on both sides of the carriageway, as this was our first drive in the US. White knuckled.

This all sounds a bit me, me, me, but I seemed to be a troublr-magnet that trip. We have laughed about it a lot since.

😂. Crying here at the minature Little Red Corvette. Will not be able to listen to that song again without creasing up,

worst holiday here was Iceland 2021. The country itself is amazing, ‘fire and ice’. Was with now ex-H and that pretty much summed up his behaviour for the week. From volcanic rage to freezing cold, all on the same day.

we split up shortly afterwards.

Annie1919 · 02/06/2025 22:03

Our first long haul journey with young kids- I think I was pretty stressed before we started. Landed on a beautiful Caribbean island, with 2 DC (2.5yrs and 4yrs) staying with DH family (far away from the beaches etc in a small crowded bungalow with lots of ornaments!) to find the island had just gone into 'a state of emergency' and that there was a night time curfew of 7pm (gang related)- the roads were gridlocked from 4pm everyday. So getting back from anywhere was impossible with young kids.
MIL had news on permanently and it turned out there was also a REALLY bad outbreak of Denge fever! It seemed to be be the only news topic (like early days of COVID). Various well known people on island in serious condition in hospital. At one point I thought the Prime Minister had died of Denge. Later found out it was a minister. Spent the entire fortnight beyond anxious, thinking if they can't save the Prime Minister, how can I keep my 2 DC safe. Insect repellent in short supply in the shops. I had brought some with us but not heavy duty stuff. The worry was unreal.
When we returned to UK DD 2.5, who had picked up a few bites, became v unwell (temp of 41 for days) and ended up in hospital with suspected Denge. She spent 10 days in hospital but thankfully it turned out to be salmonella!

Luckily, we've had lots of lovely Caribbean holidays since.

ThePinkPanda · 02/06/2025 22:12

Aposterhasnoname · 01/06/2025 07:17

I’ve posted this before.

Dom Rep in February. Plane going out was delayed for many hours because they couldn’t open the hold doors and get the previous passengers luggage out.

Arrived very late at night and went straight to bed. Got up the next morning and it was raining, heavily. All trips were cancelled due to the weather, and for some bizarre reason the entertainment team cancelled everything too. You’d think they’d arrange games or something in the bar, but nope, they just sat around playing loud rap music all day. Anyway, it was an all inclusive hotel so we went to the bar, along with everyone else. I don’t think the entertainment team spoke great English because one of the songs they were playing contained the lyrics “ if you’re scared mutha fucka, go to church” they obviously liked this one, because they played it frequently. This was a family hotel by the way, we were alone, but there were many families with kids around.

So the first day passed in a drunken haze, and we got up the next day, raring to start the holiday properly. Nope, still raining, back to the bar we went, and back to the mouth fucka song. Next day, raining, mutha fucka song. Next day, raining, mutha fucka song, next day, well, you get the idea. By now people, including the kids were singing along. The entertainment clearly though that this was a popular activity, so played the song even more frequently.

Day five of the holiday was my birthday, so we got up and went to the bar for the daily group sing along. At 5pm everything started swaying, so we thought we’d drunk enough and returned to our room, our ground floor, beach front room, and switched on the tv. The Haitian earthquake had just happened, and the Dom Rep was on a Tsunami warning. We went to reception to ask what we should do, blank looks all around, so we went to the bar and a few told other people and word got round. Don’t forget, everyone had been drinking solidly for six days, so reactions varied from don’t give a shit, to complete melt down panic. We, and a few others, decided to head for higher ground, so squelched out way to the top of the hill across the road, where we stood in the pouring rain dolefully singing muthafucka for about an hour, before realising nothing was going to happen, so we squelched back down and went to bed.

The next day, the rain stopped, but the majority of the staff were Haitian and had relatives there, so were understandably very worried. It didn’t feel right enjoying ourselves while the staff were so upset, so the last week was a very muted affair.

Finally it was time leave, and we boarded the plane. There was a baby screaming just a couple of rows in front of us. The pilot announced we’d have to wait for a doctor to check the baby was ok to fly, this took an hour and a half. Finally given the ok, we started taxiing to the runway, the baby was still screaming. Some bloke jumped up marched down the plane and shouted shut that brat up or I will, or words to that general effect, in the mothers face. The father naturally came to her defence and squared up to him. The plane ended up going back to the terminal for aggressive bloke to be removed.

Never been so glad to get home in my life.

This made me howl! Hahaha

Bowies · 02/06/2025 22:22

Mini break in York, most people love it but found it generally dull.

Capped off with an ‘off’/contaminated seafood item at Betty’s. Really unwell after that and had to ensue a horrible journey home the next day as a consequence.

TattiePants · 02/06/2025 22:23

Pollyanna87 · 02/06/2025 21:26

Not to be insensitive, but this must have been fascinating.

@Pollyanna87 it was certainly a unique holiday experience. We’d gone to bed early for an early flight the next morning so had missed any news. The first we knew was seeing posters of a young girl in all the shop, cafe etc windows and assumed it was a Portuguese child that had perhaps been missing for a while. By mid afternoon lots of people were searching bins and waste land and the police helicopter was overhead. Then the press descended.

Solaire18381 · 02/06/2025 22:40

Probably Cape Verde. Flies over food in (what is rated, by Tripadvisor) 5 star hotel. Birds as well. Got bitten by mozzies. Nothing to do and nowhere to go outside of hotel. Was paranoid was going to get sick.

Also Morocco. Unfriendly and standoffish hotel staff, fine to native French speakers!

anon666 · 02/06/2025 22:40

After reading these, I just feel grateful we were relatively unadventurous and skint, so didn't spend a fortune going somewhere that gave us food poisoning combined with cockroaches and harassment. 🙏

Missj25 · 02/06/2025 22:50

5amisthenew7am · 01/06/2025 06:06

We’ve just got back from what I think was our worst holiday ever.

It rained heavily for 6 days out of 7
The kids fought all day, every day
I had to keep logging on for work because of a crisis situation
We went with my parents who made every excuse not to spend time with us and basically just took themselves off for lovely day trips without us. They didn’t lift a finger to help
Me and one DC both got D&V
The pool at the villa was absolutely freezing with giant bugs in it so nobody wanted to do any swimming
Our flights were delayed there and back

We actually went somewhere really beautiful and I’d been looking forward to it for months. The trip cost so much money and I honestly have never been so happy to get home.

I would love to hear others stories to make me feel better!

About 4 years before covid , went on a holiday with the kids to a mobile home on the beach , lovely place , water sports for the kids , nice restaurants & shops ..
The weather was awful, water sports cancelled most days cause of weather, & like you , kids fought for the week , 2 couples at either side, no kids, & mine were wicked & loud , with the couples at either side looking on with tut , tut expressions on their face every time they saw us 🙈..

Solaire18381 · 02/06/2025 22:51

Experience related, rather than located, a couple of years ago we decided to "treat ourselves" and book Premium Economy long haul. Going there was fine. Coming home, flight delayed, tired, not looking forward to going home etc. To top it off couple with a baby on their lap in the row directly behind us, baby screaming most of the time.

I can understand why they'd booked PE to get more space when baby is on your lap but when you've paid a few grand more for a bit more "luxury" in what should be a quieter cabin, it's slightly annoying!

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 02/06/2025 22:55

Aposterhasnoname · 01/06/2025 07:17

I’ve posted this before.

Dom Rep in February. Plane going out was delayed for many hours because they couldn’t open the hold doors and get the previous passengers luggage out.

Arrived very late at night and went straight to bed. Got up the next morning and it was raining, heavily. All trips were cancelled due to the weather, and for some bizarre reason the entertainment team cancelled everything too. You’d think they’d arrange games or something in the bar, but nope, they just sat around playing loud rap music all day. Anyway, it was an all inclusive hotel so we went to the bar, along with everyone else. I don’t think the entertainment team spoke great English because one of the songs they were playing contained the lyrics “ if you’re scared mutha fucka, go to church” they obviously liked this one, because they played it frequently. This was a family hotel by the way, we were alone, but there were many families with kids around.

So the first day passed in a drunken haze, and we got up the next day, raring to start the holiday properly. Nope, still raining, back to the bar we went, and back to the mouth fucka song. Next day, raining, mutha fucka song. Next day, raining, mutha fucka song, next day, well, you get the idea. By now people, including the kids were singing along. The entertainment clearly though that this was a popular activity, so played the song even more frequently.

Day five of the holiday was my birthday, so we got up and went to the bar for the daily group sing along. At 5pm everything started swaying, so we thought we’d drunk enough and returned to our room, our ground floor, beach front room, and switched on the tv. The Haitian earthquake had just happened, and the Dom Rep was on a Tsunami warning. We went to reception to ask what we should do, blank looks all around, so we went to the bar and a few told other people and word got round. Don’t forget, everyone had been drinking solidly for six days, so reactions varied from don’t give a shit, to complete melt down panic. We, and a few others, decided to head for higher ground, so squelched out way to the top of the hill across the road, where we stood in the pouring rain dolefully singing muthafucka for about an hour, before realising nothing was going to happen, so we squelched back down and went to bed.

The next day, the rain stopped, but the majority of the staff were Haitian and had relatives there, so were understandably very worried. It didn’t feel right enjoying ourselves while the staff were so upset, so the last week was a very muted affair.

Finally it was time leave, and we boarded the plane. There was a baby screaming just a couple of rows in front of us. The pilot announced we’d have to wait for a doctor to check the baby was ok to fly, this took an hour and a half. Finally given the ok, we started taxiing to the runway, the baby was still screaming. Some bloke jumped up marched down the plane and shouted shut that brat up or I will, or words to that general effect, in the mothers face. The father naturally came to her defence and squared up to him. The plane ended up going back to the terminal for aggressive bloke to be removed.

Never been so glad to get home in my life.

I’m sorry, I’m sure this was awful, and actually really tragic for the poor staff worried about their families.

But you’ve made it sound so funny, with the mutha fucker song!