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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:
Dustmylemonlies · 01/06/2025 11:03

Toss up between:

  1. a holiday with a girlfriend in Turkey in my 20's. We were harassed by men literally everywhere we went, were begging the holiday rep to find us a flight home and ended up pretty much confined to the hotel for the week.

  2. holiday in Yorkshire with DH, autistic DS. DS is normally Ok with travel but had a particularly awful week and had meltdowns every single day - screaming that went on for hours.

NotSoSlimShadee · 01/06/2025 11:03

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 in stitches at this 😂 the daily sing along to the muthafucker song! 🤣🤣

GreyCarpet · 01/06/2025 11:06

Disneyland Paris when my son was younger. Never been to a less child friendly place in terms of, well, anything really.

glittereyelash · 01/06/2025 11:15

I'm on hols at the moment and its been a bit of a nightmare. My dad broke his arm the first day, my son has fallen three times and hurt his legs, I'm having terrible cramps, it's so hot during the day it's unbearable to walk in. Can't wait to go home.

TheFormidableMrsC · 01/06/2025 11:15

Copenhagener · 01/06/2025 07:33

Touched down in Cuba to learn that Castro had just died during my flight. Everything shut down for 9 days of national mourning. Every bar, restaurant, public transport, and even music, was shuttered. It was considered disrespectful to be outside doing anything at all. Tourism operators were arrested and beaten for defying these rules.

We managed to get a flight home early after not having anything except bottled water and vending machine snacks for 3 days.

Thanks Fidel!

I vaguely remember my ex in-laws going to Cuba at the same time and it being a disaster.

WitchHag · 01/06/2025 11:19

Morroco, Stupid enough to go with a female friend only.

I’ve been all over the world and never felt so uncomfortable/unsafe. Went to the Souks during the day and people grabbing at you (‘accidentally’ grabbing the wrong parts, obviously. Men trying to persuade to come look at their special shop that happened to be just down this dingy alley (no chance)
Blatantly hearing the different prices quoted to Male/female couples who were treated respectfully before they tried to rip the absolute arse out of the the two girls.

We went out once in the evening, tourist type
bit, first night, groped, stared at and blatantly approached with ‘where’s your man’ over and over again, as they try and draw you down an alley,
Second day organised a trip round Marrakech through the place we were staying (owned by French, allegedly trusted) They took us on a half hearted tour of bits you wouldn’t want to see and then literally stranded us in a shop in a middle of nowhere owned by their ‘friend’ while they had to go sort something quickly. Left us for nearly an hour deliberately to be hard sold to by an increasingly demanding man annoyed I didn’t want his crap. Ultimately I did buy a large ornate knife from him, it felt the best purchase at the time!

I have never felt so unsafe in my life.

Stayed in every single evening after as didn’t dare go out.

I am widely travelled, this was not my first Islamic country, it wasn’t about that, it was Morocco specifically - it’s a f***g medieval hell hole. And the toilets were worse than any I’ve ever seen.

Best advice - Only go if a man is in your travelling party.

RosesAndHellebores · 01/06/2025 11:20

It involved MIL and FIL.

Highlights:
They read the papers until almost lunchtime and after lunch DS needed a nap - so trips were limited.

Popping to a pub with MIL to collect fish and chips and suggesting we have a G&T whilst waiting to be told that was very extravagant.

MIL and FIL bought DS one of those little windmill things and it broke or he dropped it and they went on and on about it for the rest of the day. Then went on some more when I spent £1.50 and bought him another one because he should learn to deal with disappointment.

MIL and I were to take dinner in turns. My dinners were local produce/Cromer crab, etc., and they rubbed their hands together asking what I'd cook next. When it was her turn, it was tomato soup and cheese toasties because she was on holiday.

The following year they offered to pay to do it again. I said no. 29 years later, the memory has not faded.

Going to Santorini with two friends nearly 40 years ago. They didn't agree with hiring a sun bed so invested in mats to use at the grotty end of the beach and decided we needed a daily "spends" budget and to put the budget into a separate purse to make things fair. So plenty of cheap Greek wine and ouzo. They were quite put out when I suggested cocktails at a roof top bar in the nice bit of the Island. Oh and the black grit sand on the beach.

DoggyLoverz · 01/06/2025 11:20

Ugh yeah. I was invited to go with the kids to stay at my dad’s new girlfriend’s villa in Portugal. She was late collecting us from the airport, turned up in a foul mood and then didn’t speak the whole way back. Then the two of them fought for most of the time we were there with me and the kids trapped in our bedroom as the villa was open plan and we didn’t dare leave.

My daughter was bursting for a wee but she ended up going in a bowl I found under the bed as I didn’t dare leave the room. Anyway, after 3 days of tension, we left (along with my mum) to check into a hotel where it rained for the remainder of the holiday before going home. It was shit.

About three weeks after the holiday dad got a phone call from her friend to say she’d died 🙄

mangonut · 01/06/2025 11:23

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.

Absolutely brilliant 😂😂

mangonut · 01/06/2025 11:24

Could you not have taken yourself on lovely outings just like your parents did OP?

sandrapinchedmysandwich · 01/06/2025 11:29

DoggyLoverz · 01/06/2025 11:20

Ugh yeah. I was invited to go with the kids to stay at my dad’s new girlfriend’s villa in Portugal. She was late collecting us from the airport, turned up in a foul mood and then didn’t speak the whole way back. Then the two of them fought for most of the time we were there with me and the kids trapped in our bedroom as the villa was open plan and we didn’t dare leave.

My daughter was bursting for a wee but she ended up going in a bowl I found under the bed as I didn’t dare leave the room. Anyway, after 3 days of tension, we left (along with my mum) to check into a hotel where it rained for the remainder of the holiday before going home. It was shit.

About three weeks after the holiday dad got a phone call from her friend to say she’d died 🙄

This is bonkers. You actually got your dd to wee in a bowl rather than use the bathroom? You did the right thing in the end by going to a hotel, but you should have taken your dd to use the bathroom then gone out for the day. Why on earth were you hiding away in your room?

MumofCrohnie · 01/06/2025 11:30

Anglesey, two months before my daughter was diagnosed with Crohn's but after I had taken her to the GP and been referred to the gastroenterologist. She was unable to walk more than a couple of hundred yards without being completely breathless. She was pale and her legs were like sticks. She would barely eat anything except mashed potato and we could hear her having diarrhea in the bathroom next to our bed. I couldn't wait to get home and the pictures from that holiday make me feel sick. I had no idea what was wrong. Coeliac had been ruled out. I thought it was leukemia. I was on antidepressants because my daughter was fading away in front of me. An awful awful time.

Picture on the river was taken that holiday (second picture in bamboo is same leggings 6 months later, after 2 months of treatment).

To ask for your worst holiday ever?
To ask for your worst holiday ever?
mangonut · 01/06/2025 11:32

DoggyLoverz · 01/06/2025 11:20

Ugh yeah. I was invited to go with the kids to stay at my dad’s new girlfriend’s villa in Portugal. She was late collecting us from the airport, turned up in a foul mood and then didn’t speak the whole way back. Then the two of them fought for most of the time we were there with me and the kids trapped in our bedroom as the villa was open plan and we didn’t dare leave.

My daughter was bursting for a wee but she ended up going in a bowl I found under the bed as I didn’t dare leave the room. Anyway, after 3 days of tension, we left (along with my mum) to check into a hotel where it rained for the remainder of the holiday before going home. It was shit.

About three weeks after the holiday dad got a phone call from her friend to say she’d died 🙄

How weird to let your child pee in a bowl. Odd signal to send to her that the situation was so scary she couldn’t even go to the toilet.

TigerRag · 01/06/2025 11:36

Flew to Edinburgh. Woke up the next day with a horrendous migraine. Totally unaware (because it's dodgy anyway) that I'd lost some of my vision. All I wanted to do all day was throw up. Went out for dinner, had something to eat and then threw the whole thing up

I did feel slightly better after but it was still awful

Slatterndisgrace · 01/06/2025 11:37

@Aposterhasnoname

….”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.….”

I cracked up at your post, particularly this bit. Sorry for your utterly shitty holiday though.

FeelinTwentySixPointTwo · 01/06/2025 11:38

Some of these are genuine misfortune and/or hilarious (I know the Ice Cube "muthafucka" family dance along shouldn't be funny, but it really is!)

However, others are just poor planning or ignoring the bloody obvious. Eg booking a holiday cottage in the Lake District with a dog, then being surprised the garden isn't secure, and then being surprised there are tourists everywhere (tip - it's very easy to find quiet spots in the Lakes with great pubs at any time of year, just avoid the likes of Bowness like the plague).

Or complaining that you can't put paper down the toilet in Greece. Well that's normal too in huge swathes of the world; not just Greece. Hardly something to be surprised by.

Koazy · 01/06/2025 11:41

Love all these

Cardshade · 01/06/2025 11:42

They read the papers until almost lunchtime and after lunch DS needed a nap - so trips were limited.

I don’t get this. Why didn’t you and your husband get yourselves ready and your children and head out and enjoy trips out? Your in-laws didn’t want to. You did. So… go @RosesAndHellebores

Cardshade · 01/06/2025 11:42

FeelinTwentySixPointTwo · 01/06/2025 11:38

Some of these are genuine misfortune and/or hilarious (I know the Ice Cube "muthafucka" family dance along shouldn't be funny, but it really is!)

However, others are just poor planning or ignoring the bloody obvious. Eg booking a holiday cottage in the Lake District with a dog, then being surprised the garden isn't secure, and then being surprised there are tourists everywhere (tip - it's very easy to find quiet spots in the Lakes with great pubs at any time of year, just avoid the likes of Bowness like the plague).

Or complaining that you can't put paper down the toilet in Greece. Well that's normal too in huge swathes of the world; not just Greece. Hardly something to be surprised by.

Or having any kind of backbone!

Cardshade · 01/06/2025 11:45

mangonut · 01/06/2025 11:32

How weird to let your child pee in a bowl. Odd signal to send to her that the situation was so scary she couldn’t even go to the toilet.

Even weirder was

a) the poster’s mother joined them in the holiday to the dad’s new girlfriend’s place
b) the woman’s friend rang the op to tell her she was dead rather than her dad tell her (him being her partner would likely have known!

very weird @DoggyLoverz

hellohellooo · 01/06/2025 11:46

NY with my disgusting abusive ex
4 months pregnant

He arrived a day later than me

First day with out him was so much fun
Met up with old friends
Had a blast

He arrived second day
Took him to a lovely NY diner
Amazing place

He sat and complained all the time
I paid for everything the idiot

He found a bagal place he liked 1.5 hours by subway from the hotel
We had to go every day cause he liked it

One day I said
That's it
You are awful I'm out of here

He raised his fist so I hid in the shower
Tried to escape via the bathroom window
Got stuck 🤦🏼‍♀️😝😝😝

Finally he calmed down
I suggested a calm walk
On the way out of the building he told me he would flatten me to the ground

Worst trip ever

Looking back I should have ran off and stayed with relatives or called the police
I stayed like a total fool

Got food poisoning on way home
Bed for three days and then he went to punch me multiple times because I left a smell in the bathroom after puking for hours

This was after scrubbing the place for ages

Anyway

  1. now free and single
  2. will never step foot in NY again

Lesson learned

DoggyLoverz · 01/06/2025 11:50

sandrapinchedmysandwich · 01/06/2025 11:29

This is bonkers. You actually got your dd to wee in a bowl rather than use the bathroom? You did the right thing in the end by going to a hotel, but you should have taken your dd to use the bathroom then gone out for the day. Why on earth were you hiding away in your room?

It was actually quite frightening and I didn’t want my children exposed to it. People are asking for their most horrible holidays and this is it 🤷‍♀️

RosesAndHellebores · 01/06/2025 11:51

Cardshade · 01/06/2025 11:42

They read the papers until almost lunchtime and after lunch DS needed a nap - so trips were limited.

I don’t get this. Why didn’t you and your husband get yourselves ready and your children and head out and enjoy trips out? Your in-laws didn’t want to. You did. So… go @RosesAndHellebores

Because they would be shifting in a minute and wanted to do family trips. We did after a few days and they shifted to join us but there was huffing and puffing.

DoggyLoverz · 01/06/2025 11:52

Cardshade · 01/06/2025 11:45

Even weirder was

a) the poster’s mother joined them in the holiday to the dad’s new girlfriend’s place
b) the woman’s friend rang the op to tell her she was dead rather than her dad tell her (him being her partner would likely have known!

very weird @DoggyLoverz

Edited

I 💯 agree it’s weird. The dying thing is particularly weird but my dad hadn’t actually spoken to his partner since the holiday (as it was so horrendous) The partner was found in the villa by a friend after a heart attack and had been there for at least 24 hours. It’s a story on its own tbh but I don’t want to hiijack the thread.

mangonut · 01/06/2025 11:53

DoggyLoverz · 01/06/2025 11:50

It was actually quite frightening and I didn’t want my children exposed to it. People are asking for their most horrible holidays and this is it 🤷‍♀️

What exactly was so frightening?

What was your mum doing at her ex dh gf’s house in Portugal?

And why did you not remove your own daughter from a situation you found very frightening fir 3 days? That is not good parenting. Worrying actually.

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