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.

Sorrento. Much colder than expected, no winter coats. Apartment was freezing, tired and dated, only thin blankets and I simply could not get warm. There were radiators but the owners said they couldn't put the heating on because it was against the law in April (didn't really believe them). It got 5 on AirBnB, and it's really made me question reviews on sites like that. They made it very difficult for us to leave a 3 public review for example. Also, Sorrento itself - I hear many people gushing about it, but clearly no one sticks to planning rules, so houses/buildings everywhere, which makes the whole place look a mess. It reminded me of Bali in that respect. Heaving with tourists, and views not that great because of buildings everywhere. Food not that great either. It clearly was a lovely place once (again like Bali), but it's been ruined.

Sorry about the bolding , it was meant to be 5 stars, then 3 stars.

I'm sad to hear about all the negative experiences of North Africa. The only country I've not been to (on the NA Mediterranean coast) is Algeria, and I've not had hassle anywhere in the places I've gone. But I did visit some years ago, pre-Arab Spring. I wonder if the social and political turmoil has made things more hostile for visitors?

Two spring to mind:

Centre parcs longleat. Friends raved about CP so thought it must be good. Bloody awful place. Lodges are tatty and depressing; pool was a human soup and you are guaranteed to go down the water slide and end up with your foot in some stranger's bollocks; restaurants were mucky; DD2 started the tag team norovirus (no doubt picked up in the pool) so 24 hours of her chundering over every surface in the lodge. Prior to her vomiting we felt we had to escape and explore the area as it felt like we were locked in and on our return to the site the back seat puking began. Left early once DD2 had expelled her stomach lining. To be honest the illness obviously made it bad but we were already hating it before that started. And it's no expensive, cannot fathom why people love it (and I say as such every time there's a thread on it).

Also Paris. Not because I dislike the city. Been there many times and do like it. But DH booked it for a big birthday recently and we took out now teen DDs. Great hotel and he's organised restaurants and activities but I had a stomach bug the first evening so spent it vomiting in the well appointed bathroom and DH took DDs out alone. Then by the time I recovered enough to go out DH was struck down. So bloody frustrating. Was thrilled to get home.

Malta always comes up on these threads.

I loved it. Tons of ancient sites, forts, museums covering hundreds of years, everywhere was really easy to get to on the buses. It was one of my favourite places. Lots of nice bits to just walk around. Mdina was fascinating.

Not had any as bad as some of these. Butlins wasn’t great we got a cheap deal. When we got there we were on the lowest accommodation the carpet was disgusting. I thought it would be a family place but there were groups of drunken people staggering back to their chalet through the night. We left after that one night.
we went through a phase of leaving holidays early left a Gite in Normandy to come home weather wasn’t great and not much to do

I loved French Polynesia. But there not much to do there if you don't dive.

I likes Lake Garda …it might not have the History of Florence but it’s pretty.We stayed in Sirmione for a few days.There is an interesting little museum in Salò where Mussolini made his last stand.The boats are easy to navigate and fun to go up and down for a day.Easy to get to Verona where there is lots to see. Also the opera is a must. A Valpolicella wine tour is fun.

Albufeira, Portugal

Beautiful looking beaches and the Old Town was nice too but you can't actually swim as the waves are violent and there was nothing at all to do. Nothing interesting like excursions, no boat trips and the town itself was almost dead.

We were so bored. There is only so many times you can wander the same shops or have the same drinks at the same bars. It's all on steep hills as well so just going to lie in the sun at the beach was a trek and overall, the food wasn't great.

We had a few high points but overall I wouldn't go back. It also wasn't reasonable or cheaply priced. Basics like water or lollies were the same as UK prices. This annoyed me because Spain is cheaper.

I disliked parts of Majorca - it’s just concrete land and dull. Tenerife is another boring place. Also not too keen on the Algarve for the same reason even through we did a day trip to Lisbon to add interest. Faro is ok for a quick wander. Tangiers is a dump and a man out a snake down the front of my dress which was a bit yuck. Also was not that keen on the Dordogne as the chateaus have nothing in them mostly and don’t compare to National Trust. There is nothing to see in places like Bergerac. The boating on the river is fun. My preferred place is Vienna - lots of amazing museums and you can take day trips to other capital cities such as Budapest. Seville was very pretty and easy to get to Cordoba.

There are some beautiful beaches and resorts in the Algarve.

depressing landscape? God that's why it's full of blue flag beaches and EU heritage sites 🙄 weather forecasts are available online and yes there's a slight erm history with the British 🙄

@Oaktree1233 Ooh I love Majorca and large parts are gorgeous but you do need a car to get the best out of it- if I was stuck in say alcudia or Magaluf for a week I wouldn't rate it either

Fuerteventura, it was bleak grey skies, poured with rain, torrid wind constantly, zero culture or history, sod all to do, naff town centre with hideous British pub replica, shite.

I know a few people who have been to Malta and their favourite thing is doing the tour of the Playmobil factory 😂

Thailand, would never go again.

Have to add in that I love Lake Garda too.
Very pretty place, boat trips and easy train access to Venice and Verona. Plus great food.

Puerto Rico

Great place yes

But

We have a lovely relative born there who has a house

One year she put us in the basement - much cooler I thought

Hmm
Cockroach invested
The little Fckers were flying everywhere

It was utter hell
They even came up through the plug hole in the shower

Told my relative and she said she could not afford to fumigate them out
So we felt so bad

We lay in bed wrapped in blankets over our heads
I did not know these wee Fckers could fly

Gosh it was rough

Feurtaventura was by far our worst. Booked ten nights in a hotel that was AI and really not a lot around there (my fault for limited research). There were red cockroaches infesting the first room they gave us so eventually they moved us where the same thing happened. The food was pretty repetitive and after I'd seen cockroaches in the restaurant kitchen as we walked back to our room late one night I knew it was a matter of time before we got food poisoning. Went on a hotel arranged whale watching trip...cost an arm and a leg but no whales and others who had been before started saying the boat wasn't even in the right area: the crew became quite nasty.
Loads of Russian families at the hotel who were rude and entitled and touched the buffet food and put things back.
Could not wait to leave.

Smugly I can say I've never had a truly bad holiday. But I've had some bad days lol. Most memorable being a gastric disaster following an ill judged profiterole in a hotel in Madagascar. A hotel with limited electrical supply. I woke up feeling ghastly and sweaty then unfortunately as I sat up I gross liquid pooh just flowed from me. All over the bed and my sleeping husband.

Presumably your dh will be along in a moment to talk about HIS worst holiday

Back in the days when you could book cheap deals on ceefax 😂

We went to Spain on an all inclusive and it was a sprawling hotel full of families who left their tween kids to run riot while they drank at the bar. One kid fell out of a tree and broke his arm, and staff couldn't find his parents.

To top it all our toddler got food poisoning. I saw the hotel on tv a few years later, I think it was a program called "Holidays from hell" or similar.

I've loved all my holidays, from all inclusive beachy to high altitude trekking, city culture to scuba-diving. They all might have had the odd irritation, but on the whole I just love being away from home!

If pushed I'd say Egypt, partly for the endless touting - we once hired a horse carriage for a romantic trip along the corniche, only to end up in some alabaster workshop being pressured to buy something before he would take us back - we declined! Partly also because I got the raging trots once we boarded our scuba charter - managed some (amazing) dives though. Still, I loved that holiday, and we laugh about the bad bits now.

Just as a counter to some of the stories, one of the best holidays we ever had was to Turkey. We were on a sailing charter, so not stuck in a resort, but the villages we visited along the coast were all gorgeous with friendly people and amazing cuisine. We also walked about in Bodrum without any hassle at all.

Worst holiday - Tunisia by a very long way! In fact it's the only bad holiday I've ever had, and we go away a few times a year.

Surprised to hear some of these on the list, we love Iceland, Vegas, Orlando, DLP, Rome. Off to Portugal in a few mths for the first time so hope it's better than this thread suggests.

We had a similar experience with cottage in France and babies. Everything broken and no bath and giant insects and ages to drive anywhere to do anything. It was us and another couple with a baby and we couldn't all go out together. Pool was nice though.