Where was your most disappointing holiday, and why?

[wholetawn]

I'll start off. Our most disappointing trip was to French Polynesia in the South Pacific. The scenario is stunning, but we found the people unhelpful and quite frankly, lazy, unless you were offering to pay them a lot of money to do something small.

Borneo was really depressing. Whilst there are still areas that are stunning driving past endless palm plantations was not a great feeling.

I have a feeling my worst one might be coming up very soon. Off to rain-soaked Italy next week ...
And what makes it worse is that DD and her family are coming too, they've got limited time and funds, and it was my idea, so it'll be a wash-out and I'll spend the whole time feeling horribly guilty.

I hated Dubai.
Very materialistic & fake place. Bad values too.
It was a handy place to break up a holiday in Australia but I’ll never go back, would prefer to stay in Singapore next time. Equally expensive but more honest about it somehow. In Dubai people kept trying to rip us off.

A gite holiday in Cognac. Arrived in bright sunshine to a lovely complex, nice accommodation, pool, play area etc. Made a cup of tea and within 30 mins dd fell of the swing and broke her wrist in 2 places. Spent night in hospital as it needed to be reset under GA. DH came to get us in the morning and then it pissed down the rest of the time. Never went near the pool. Ping pong and pool in the games barn were off the cards. Did some sight seeing in the rain and read a lot. There was no wifi nor TV. Luckily there was a lovely elderly couple in the gite next door who loved board games. Dd became their adopted grandchild for the week. Only holiday I was really happy to go home.

Where did you go in Borneo Mercurial123 I was due to go there in 2020 but lockdown happened and I still have AirAsia credit vouchers for internal flights rest refunded but not sure if worth using them, its all gone up on the flights so much.

We're off to Italy next week too - the weather is meant to vastly improve! 🙏

Skipton in a camper van. Dad sold it to us as just like our canal boating holiday. But unlike canal boating you have to strap everything down for every journey (several a day to meet dads itinarary), can hop on and off and walk for a bit. The kids can't drive and we only ever stayed in cities during the day so no nice countryside views.

Pissouri

Tunis was not nice. (Even before the terrible attacks on tourists). The hotel was lovely but the town was incredibly crowded. A man who spoke good English spoke to us and advised me to take off the jewellery and watch I was wearing. DH tucked them away -- it wasn't as if I was loaded with diamonds, just a gold necklet, a ring and watch.
But Carthage was very interesting, our taxi driver guide gave us chapter and verse on the Punic Wars.
Otherwise the general vibe was really edgy and the constant jostling was very unpleasant.

Morocco. Can’t for the life of me understand the appeal. Marrakesh was revolting. So much misogyny, animal cruelty, just awful. It’s gained a bit of a Disney-fied reputation but it couldn’t be further from the truth.

Babymoon in the Lot in France.

When we booked I forgot that I wasn't allowed to eat all the things I love to eat in France.
DH got food poisoning.
The cottage we booked was awful.
The weather turned from lovely 17 degrees to freezing and snow overnight (end of March).
I was hormonal as hell and if we hadn't planned to visit friends as well I would have flown home a lot faster than planned.

Oh no! The fench Polynesia was my fave holiday ever! We went for our honeymoon and the staff couldn't do enough for us. We were impressed.

I guess it all depends on which resort/hotel!

For me it was a trip to Goa, we were ready to come back after 3 days! Didn't enjoy it at all!

Mykonos.
Windy af, horrible faux rich people trotting around everywhere, treacherous roads, overpriced, and I got the shits.

Much prefer the other less fancy Greek islands.

I found Egypt very disconcerting. Armed guards on the coaches for the trip to Valley of the Kings, being hassled a lot out and about by men (and I was with my husband and young son!), and general dirt and mess.

Having said that, the staff in the hotel couldn't have been lovelier and more helpful, so it wasn't an awful holiday.

Costa Rica.

Travelled around a bit but a few places were wet, windy and cold - not what I was expecting. I knew it rained a lot, but assumed it would be warm rain, like Bornea. 🤔

Decided to go zip lining, despite not liking heights, but I like to challenge myself and do things outside my comfort zone.

It was another freezing cold, windy day. I started to get worried when we had to take a cable car up the side of a mountain. When I got to the top and realised how high we were I said that I couldn't do it and wanted to go back down.

Was told the only way down was by zip line. There was zip line, after zip line as we descended - it felt like forever. The wind was blowing me side to side and all I could think about was how this was going to be the day I die. I just kept my eyes tightly shut the whole descent.

At the end of the trip, we stayed at a beach resort and I was looking forward to some warmth, but it was unbearably hot and the beach area was not that impressive.

To cap it all, I didn't see a sloth, in fact, I hardly saw any wild animals - apart from a tarantula.

Coming back our taxi did not turn up to take us to the airport, which we had paid for through the tourist company. In the end, we had to book another one and nearly missed our flight home.

Rome, a large rat ran over my foot in an outdoor restaurant

Eurocamp near paris. Staff were sullen and unhelpful. Pools were freezing. Nearby market was limited. French people came across as hauty generally.

A trip to New England, most of it was great but there's a town named Stowe in Vermont that just freaked us out. Everything was heavily themed and very weird, all the food had maple syrup as an ingredient (salads, meat dishes, desserts, everything), the hotel we were staying at seemed to be hobbit themed or possibly tree house themed so every surface was uneven (not the floors, but walls, ceilings etc) and very textured plus there was a huge fundamentalist Christian convention of some type in our hotel and they would fall silent and watch us when we walked past.

Todd up between makati bay in Egypt or Dubai

Makadi bay because all 3 of us got amoebic dysentry by day 2 and were stuck in the bedroom the whole time

Dubai because my H hated the whole blingy and subservient vibe, booze was extortionate and not good and my H spent the whole time moaning as it really 'wasn't him' and I had booked it

South of France not far from Perpignan

Absolutely filthy villa when we ran the shower the water was brown

Pool infested with mosquitoes

Air conditioning had broken

Nothing to do and 40 degree heat . Well I say nothing to do, we spent most of the time driving around in the car just cos it was air conditioned.

Gran Canaria, late 90s. I was 9 at most, grabbed away from my mum by a group of women. When my mum tried to get me back they beat her to the ground and started kicking her. My early teens sister ran and found someone of authority, a security guard but looked police-y enough that the women ran away.

It was the first day of our holiday. They took most of our money and left my mother with broken ribs and a black eye amongst other bruises.

Spent much of what remained of the holiday in the safety of our complex. Not a bad thing, there was a pool and I loved to swim. But looking back as an adult, I can see all the things my mother was hiding from me after what had happened.

Centre Parcs in the Netherlands. I knew CP wasn't for us, but Covid and airport chaos persuaded me it would be a good idea.
It wasn't!

Miami- a horrible, crumbling, concrete, humid mess with a beach.
Stayed in a ‘cute’ art deco hotel on South Beach- it was the worst ‘hotel’ i have ever been at. The standard was worse than a student hostel in Bangkok. It was expensive as well
Tacky restaurants, astronomical prices, tips expected for just existing, everywhere is a loooong taxi ride away, ‘the best cuban restaurant in town’ was in a parking lot off a highway ? (It was not good either)
I lost $700 by rebooking for an earlier flight back home just to get away from that place.

Porto- there are pockets of lovely areas including a stunning beach.
BUT all the empty dilapidated houses, people living on the streets and very expensive tourist traps.

Turkey.Whole family were ill.The animal cruelty,I can’t even write down the things we saw.

The sleazy vile men.Hated it and would never return.That holiday was my idea as well!! What a mistake.