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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:
Figcherry · 01/06/2025 13:20

Vinvertebrate · 01/06/2025 13:18

Kerala. Decided to eat at a crab shack after several beers (not one of my better decisions!) Got dysentery.

Aside from nearly shitting myself to death in front of DP (now DH), I had to have monthly stool samples taken at the GP and still tested positive for Shigella after 6 months. My least favourite holiday souvenir ever.

Poor you.
Made me think of the film Bridesmaids!

ArtTheClown · 01/06/2025 13:26

@Aposterhasnoname terrible holiday for you but I howled at your post.

I just relistened to "Go to Church", haven't for decades - I am struggling to imagine a less appropriate track for a family-friendly resort!

Crushed23 · 01/06/2025 13:31

Egypt. Just absolutely horrendous. A friend flew home early from Morocco because she got sick of the harassment. I avoid North Africa now completely.

Thegreatescape12345 · 01/06/2025 13:32

We spent an absolute fortune going away one summer. Lovely hotel, right near the beach, special holiday for a family birthday. Kids got poorly and were an absolute nightmare, DH was grumpy as fuck the whole time, I spent 2 weeks calming everyone down, comforting everyone and keeping the peace (or trying to, as DH and I constantly clashing and arguing). Everyone was exhausted and to top it off I got taken advantage of and scammed in one of the shops recommended by the holiday rep. Then when we got home DH and I actually separated and needed marriage counselling 😂 though that probably wasn't due to the holiday, I think the holiday was the nail in the coffin!

We must have spent at least 7k on this one holiday. I was devastated. What. A. Waste! On the plus side, we've just had an absolutely beautiful UK half term week away that cost a fraction of the price and have decided to go camping this summer instead!

mumonthehill · 01/06/2025 13:42

Kos 26 years ago when you could still get £99 deals from Teletext. It was the summer it was super hot and I was pregnant. The room was so basic, no air conditioning and right on a main road with motor bikes going past all night and we had to have the door open. Beach was not very nice and whole place felt abandoned. We had no money but had to hire a car to get out and I desperately needed sone air conditioning!

Sheer · 01/06/2025 13:43

I’ve enjoyed all the holidays I’ve been on, but if I had to pick my least favourite, it was 2 weeks in Tenerife.

I went with a few friends (we were very young, 18/19) It just wasn’t my cup of tea, the strip was too bright and neon, tacky and loud. Too busy everywhere. Even at that age with limited experience of travel, I knew I didn’t like that sort of vibe.

We went out a few times in Playa de las Américas, which was fun, it’s just it really wasn’t that memorable. It felt like a night out back home, just warmer!

We hung out by the pool most days and didn’t do much else. I remember feeling quite bored some days and wandering off on my own a few times.

I think 2 weeks was too long. A week would have been enough.

ByLemonFish · 01/06/2025 13:46

Costa Tequise lanzorate, hope I've got spelling correct

Hated every minute of our 2 week adult only hotel holiday.
It was like Blackpool, so windy and only one Spanish type bar where they made it obvious they didn't welcome Brits, even though my husband is Irish.

Hotel room wasn't clean and had glass wall between bathroom and bedroom, whoever thought that was a good idea???
There was a jacuzzi bath on balcony which needed a thorough clean before we could use it.

The only good point was the food was delicious and staff very pleasant, so most evenings after our evening meal we just went back to our room to watch tv or read. No point going out for a walk, wind was relentless for 2 weeks

Vinvertebrate · 01/06/2025 13:52

Figcherry · 01/06/2025 13:20

Poor you.
Made me think of the film Bridesmaids!

It was pretty similar to be fair! With “regular” diarrhea I always had that “oooh am I going to make it to the loo” feeling. Dysentery you have no control whatsoever and just lay there praying for death while your GI tract empties itself violently in every possible direction. 😂

XelaM · 01/06/2025 13:56

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 has to win 😂

ThomasShelbysfagend · 01/06/2025 13:57

NotSoSlimShadee · 01/06/2025 09:56

Turkey. Disgusting “men” leering at me, following me around and locking me in a cafe to play me “romantic music” when I made the mistake of going out for a morning coffee by myself.

To top it off, I got food poisoning from the hotel.

Never again.

Same.
Turkey, horrific,
Constantly harassed, every stall and shop had these disgusting men outside trying to force us in, when we said no, began shouting, swearing being very aggressive.
Stopped going anywhere away from the hotel after day 1 because of this.
Food poisoning that continued with stomach cramps and diarrhoea for 3 weeks after returning home.
Would never ever go back.

Also Tunisia, same thing happened. Food awful. Drilling & hammering from 5 am on the roof of the hotel every single morning. Mould on the ceiling, awful awful AWFUL.

mangonut · 01/06/2025 14:02

ThomasShelbysfagend · 01/06/2025 13:57

Same.
Turkey, horrific,
Constantly harassed, every stall and shop had these disgusting men outside trying to force us in, when we said no, began shouting, swearing being very aggressive.
Stopped going anywhere away from the hotel after day 1 because of this.
Food poisoning that continued with stomach cramps and diarrhoea for 3 weeks after returning home.
Would never ever go back.

Also Tunisia, same thing happened. Food awful. Drilling & hammering from 5 am on the roof of the hotel every single morning. Mould on the ceiling, awful awful AWFUL.

Same here. Would never ever go to Turkey and NEVER to Tunisia. We were so harrassed that we couldn’t even go out to eat in the end. Harrassed as in them grabbing hold and not letting go. Nobody helped us.

Aposterhasnoname · 01/06/2025 14:06

sandrapinchedmysandwich · 01/06/2025 13:36

Look what I found 😄

The mothafucker song 🎵

Now that takes me back. 😁

ChiliFiend · 01/06/2025 14:06

AnnaQuayInTheUk · 01/06/2025 08:30

Worst holiday ever:
Went on holiday with friends, one of them drowned. Absolutely horrendous. This was before smart phones/internet, making arrangements for his body to be repatriated was unbelievably difficult. As was having to call his parents to tell them, although thank God it wasn't me who made that call.

Second worst holiday was a few years ago in Greece where we had our passports, credit cards, DHs mobile phone etc stolen. DH was distraught, I was ok about it as I just kept thinking "well, nobody's died, we can get this sorted".

Puts it all in perspective

That is appalling. Your poor friend and his family. Was he caught in a rip tide? How traumatising for everyone.

x2boys · 01/06/2025 14:10

mumonthehill · 01/06/2025 13:42

Kos 26 years ago when you could still get £99 deals from Teletext. It was the summer it was super hot and I was pregnant. The room was so basic, no air conditioning and right on a main road with motor bikes going past all night and we had to have the door open. Beach was not very nice and whole place felt abandoned. We had no money but had to hire a car to get out and I desperately needed sone air conditioning!

I had a similar experience in kos in the early 00,s I ended up buying a fan as the room was so hot.

SoSoLong · 01/06/2025 14:11

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.

Sorry for your horrible holiday experience, but I couldn't help laughing at your story 😂

mangonut · 01/06/2025 14:13

DH booked a very much needed long weekend for us, over New Year. Had a horrible year and Christmas.

We arrived at the hotel ten at night only to find out that he had booked the right dates but wrong year.

Pickled21 · 01/06/2025 14:20

One holiday with mil, fil, bil, sil and their son. Parents in law were never up before midday but we're happy enough for us to crack on with our day without them. They were happy to lounge around the house and by the pool and meet for dinner.

Bil and sil wanted to do all excursions together which for the first 2 days meant us waiting around for them and we ended up missing a boat ride because of them. After that dh said that we would just meet them at an excursion and if they turned up great, if they were 3 hours late and missed it that was down to them. It was meant yo be a chilled out holiday with a few excursions but a lot of time spent on the pool or by the beach.

Sil is also a fussy eater in that she enjoys pakistani or Indian cuisine and not much else. She forever wanted to eat burgers and chips or pizza when we were in a country known for its cuisine. Cue a long search for a restaurant that met her requirements and a face like a camels backside if we dared to eat anywhere different. I said never again and despite many offers of a holiday together dh has declined. He told his brother that we don't holiday abroad every year but when we do we don't want to have to wait around or make so many compromises that we end up not enjoying ourselves.

Entero · 01/06/2025 14:24

@Aposterhasnoname I have just cried laughing at this , sorry you had a bad time, but that had me picturing loads of families singing away to the mutha fucka song, pissed as farts hilarious.

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.

Renamed · 01/06/2025 14:44

DinoLil · 01/06/2025 07:25

Tunisia just over 30yrs ago with XH. He was 24 and sobbed every night, crying that he didn't like it and wanted his mum. I got hassled every time we stepped out of the hotel - I was 21 and very blonde.

A camping trip about 10yrs ago. Drove six hours to the camp site and discovered I'd packed the wrong tent poles. We had a week in the rain with a very wonky, propped up tent.

Hard to tell which of the two holidays was worse!

Sorry what, he what?

Paintbench · 01/06/2025 14:50

mangonut · 01/06/2025 11:24

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

Of course she could

but nope… instead she, husband and children stay in moping around.

all very odd

Paintbench · 01/06/2025 14:52

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 🙄

Please come back and elaborate on this @DoggyLoverz because there is so much about this that doesn’t make sense

Paintbench · 01/06/2025 14:54

DoggyLoverz · 01/06/2025 11:52

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.

Edited

And your mother joined a holiday at your fathers new girlfriend’s holiday home?

BombayBicycleclub · 01/06/2025 14:57

Not me but I’ve seen many many videos on TikTok of a delayed flight from California to Orlando and the flight was stuck on the tarmac for 5 hours because of storms in Orlando and someone (flight attendant and parent) thought the best thing to do was to get a 12/13 yr old girl to sing Moana over the tanoy to 300 hostages and because it was over tbe tanoy all the films and music on the entertainment system was paused for them to listen to it.. I’ve seen so many point of views from that flight. Delta have apologised. Don’t sing if your audience can’t leave..

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