Your best/ worst holiday

[liveoppositeacrazyhorse]

Humour me please, I'm bored waiting for a flight.

My worst was Tunisia in the 90's. Out of season, terrible food, felt like we were locked in a resort at night. Couldn't wait to go home.

Best - California road trip with the kids a few years ago. We all loved every minute of it. So much to do, the food was great and lots of swimming and lovely beaches. Monterey and San Diego were our favourite places.

Best: before DD - Thailand and Canada (Quebec)
Best with DD - Caribbean (St. Lucia and Barbados)

Worst before DD - Tenerife but just the hotel, I never go again on my PIL's recommendation
Worst with DD - Wales. As soon as we drove from Chester into Wales the weather turned and it was either grey and dry or grey and wet. DD's bedroom in the appartment smelt of stale smoke, the agency never returned any messages, we run out of things to do and left early.
DD enjoyed the huge zipline though, it was utterly freezing for me to stand and watch but she was so happy.

I actually love to go back to Wales, it is an amazing country but it would be very short notice of a dry and nice week.

Worst was with TravelRepublic, they had overbooked the hotel and the alternative offered was a filthy hellhole - had some great holidays with them but never again after that one, refused to stay in the hellhole and stayed in three different places in one week. Best - Calabria, Verona, Barcelona

Best probably West Coast Canada - DS was still young enough to enjoy holidays with us properly and he had a great time with DH doing zip lining and mountain biking.
Worst wasn't dreadful, but we were totally underwhelmed by the Algarve and spent two weeks trying to find the nice bit of Albufeira. However we are in Portugal at the minute- Lisbon, Cascais, Porto and now the Douro valley and it's amazing.

Best - pre dd, a canal boat through the Camargue with a group of friends. We drank oceans of local plonk and laughed so much. Breakfast in the middle of nowhere surrounded by white horses and flamingos was incredible. With dd, a marvelous apartment in Antibes, strolling distance to the beach and restaurants. It looked like the owner had just moved out - it had everything plus 3 gorgeous terraces.
Worst - a campsite in the Jura - the site was fine, but the weather was atrocious and everywhere just turned to soggy mud. Only time we ever came home early. A week in Cognac, where dd fell off the swing 30 mins after we arrived and broke her wrist. Night in hospital and then it rained pretty much non-stop. Gite complex had a lovely pool and games room that never got used. We did days out in the rain, but she was happiest playing board games with the elderly couple in the next gite for hours.

Best was Singapore for my 30th, we stayed in an amazing pool villa in a 5* hotel on Sentosa Island that we probably couldn't afford now.

Lucky that we haven't had any terrible holidays although an airbnb a mile up the worst farm track I have ever been on (and I live rurally) with a hot tub you had to pick your way across the farm yard to get to probably wins it. Was just after COVID so paid an absolute fortune too as we were so desperate to get away. Haven't used airbnb since.

Best - too many to choose from but either Canada's west coast or Ghana.... but loved so many holidays in France, Sweden, Thailand, the States, and across the UK

Worst - canal boat in the UK - just didn't suit us - but still not a terrible holiday - other one maybe camping in a storm in the west of Ireland but we just changed to a B&B further up the coast.

Bizarrely enough my best and worst are the exact same as yours, both in places and reasons why! Great minds think alike

Worst. A last minute booking to Minorca with our 2 children aged 7 and 9.
Rained most days. Had to clean the apartment before we felt comfortable.
Owner arranged a football match for the men and boys.
He was tackled by a 10 year old and then went into a big strop.
Called us all racist as he was Argentine his wife was German.(She was lovely)
In the evening we came back about half 8 to go in the entertainment room and he turned everyone away turning the lights off and locking up.
I asked for a blanket for our daughter and he wanted to charge 100 pesos.
Got one from the local shop for 10.

Best. Majorca with our now grown up children and their children.
Lots of fun and love.

Worst - probably one of the childhood ones. I didn’t much enjoy the seaside. It usually rained. We once went to Skegness, it wasn’t warm and none of us had realised it would be an arcades kinda Blackpool place. My mum said Brighton was the worst because it rained constantly, but I was so young I don’t really remember.

Best - probably a Lake District trip we made in April over 20 years ago. Perfect weather and great walks, plus we were joined by friends from New Zealand who were touring the UK

Worst was in Whitby when we weren't allowed to leave the UK.
Worst hotel I've ever stayed in, the whole place was full of dogs & their shit, & stank of fish & chips all day.

Best ? Several contenders,

Egypt, Nile cruise
Jordan
Southern Africa safari etc

Hard to pick a best, touring across Southern Spain, mainly by train (from Malaga, to Cadiz and back on ourselves to the Barcelona area, for 5 weeks (2 without the DC’s) was pretty fab!

Christmas in a gorgeous hotel in Budapest - Budapest was so beautiful and twinkly, markets just perfect.

A tour of The Netherlands, well-being hotel, bikes and white beaches, a stay in Den Hague and a drive to Maastricht for the therme.

Worst ( I'm really picky about hotels) a nursing home hotel recommended by my DM, in Northumberland and a ‘suite’ in hotel in Conwy, chosen by my partner (1990’s tatty brown leather furniture).

Not the worst holiday but one experience in alghero in Sardinia was the effing annoying Chinese women harassing you on the beach every five minutes asking if you wanted a massage. I come from a country of beaches and we don’t do that. I think I lost my rag and told them to piss off

Out of curiosity, how long ago was your holiday to the Isle of Wight?

Worst was Bulgaria, the area was an absolute shithole and it felt genuinely unsafe to be out and about outside of the hotel as two women. Never ever again. Nothing could convince me 🤣
Best was New Zealand, one fo the times we went purely as a holiday as opposed to working seasons over there. We hired a campervan for 6 weeks and just drove around. No plans, no sims and certainly no responsibilities, it was amazing.

Don't think I've ever had a bad holiday, but if I had to pick the least fun I'd say Tenerife on my own. I don't love the place, only went because it was cheap, pleasant enough time but not amazing.

Too many good ones to narrow it down, but Costa Rica is the best country I've been to, Majorca was a lovely first holiday with now DH (Summer 2020 so basically had it to ourselves) and Mauritius on Honeymoon was special too. I've also had a couple of amazing work trips to Switzerland; working as a tour manager so getting all the same holiday experiences as the groups I was with.

Best: skiing in Canada or a European road trip with DH and DS in our camper van.

worst: PIL’s static caravan in Llandudno. It was very kind of them to let us use it but it rained every day, seagulls stopped about on the roof at 4am every day and there was surprisingly little for an outdoorsy 8/10 year old to do. We came home early both times although we did have a nice time there when DS was 3.

2021 because we couldn't go to France. Bad times 😁

Worst- Puno in Bolivia. Lake titicaca. Freezing. Cold water in lodgings. Shit food. I was glad to get back on the train for a cheese sandwich.
On the same trip Guayaquil in Ecuador. Horrible hotel - walls did not go up to ceiling. You could hear people shagging in the next room.

Best - Shanghai

Worst - a trip to Nice with exh and the kids where there just wasn't a lot to do, the hotel was horrible and the flight a nightmare for some reason

Worst, Zante early 1990s
Lots of power cuts and the tour reps were rude when we complained about the hotel.
Best, Canada ( Toronto and Montreal )

Edinburgh 2018. I woke up with a migraine that just wouldn't go. Spoilt the whole weekend

Best: touring Europe's forests in a camper van

Worst: Toronto! Here right now and it’s really grotty. The whole place has Isle of Dogs vibes (used to live near Island Gardens for context!)

What a shame 😭

I quite enjoyed the bric, but we didn't have children at the time. The parents on the trip virtually mutinied. This was an award for the most successful salespeople in the company, and we all expected the trip to be out of this world. We'll it was other worldly, just the wrong way.

Best - a 5* island resort off Phuket, Thailand. Absolutely the most relaxing & beautiful place ever; beats the Maldives hands down (and was a lot cheaper).

Worst: Anglesey. We love exploring the UK, but the hotel was a dump and they hadn't told us the kitchen was closed for a refurb until we checked in. All the pictures of rooms online looked like a fairytale castle but they dumped us in a brick built outbuilding decorated from the early 1980s. Nearby was Bangor aka Briatin's most grey and depressing town. The deal was 'spend 2 nights, get one free' so I didn't feel bad about leaving a day early.

Not a holiday as such, but booked a hotel for one night once that overlooked a lovely lake and rolling fields and ended up with a view of the bins and the overflow car park in an annexe part of the hotel! Was disappointing.