Mumsnet users share their holiday nightmares with Admiral Travel Insurance

[EllieMumsnet]

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We can all laugh about our nightmare holiday moments when we are back in the comfort of our own home, but at the time they can often seem like the end of the world! The team at Admiral Travel Insurance have asked us to find out what holiday nightmares, however big or small, made you wish you’d stayed at home at the time.

So what's the worst holiday mishap you’ve had to deal with? Did you have a suncream explosion in your suitcase? Or realise you didn’t actually book the hotel you thought you did? Perhaps you planned a beach holiday and it rained every day? Or you discovered the major mistake of not practising putting up your new tent before you went camping?

Whatever your holiday nightmare moment, please share it below and you will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 voucher of your choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

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That would be my first holiday, when I said to my friend I was a little scared of getting on the plane. "you will be fine, I will be there to hold your hand" she said.

Well to say we had a bit of turbulance would be an understatement (I have flown a few times since and never experienced anything so bad), my friend who was going to hold my hand was crying and saying "we are all going to die" it was the worst flight of my life.

Booked a lovely cruise and looking forward to dining in style only to find my husband had left his suits hanging up on the bedroom door at home and my son had only got trainers to wear. So we never dined in style!

As a kid mum and dad booked a holiday to Spain from Manchester airport. Unfortunately the night before we flew they realised I was too old to travel on their passport (back before everyone needed their own passport!). We had to go to Peterborough passport office in the morning to get me a passport and then hot tail it to the airport, a few hours away.. still made the flight but mum ans dad we very very stressed!

Have never had anything quite as bad as that in my 36 years!

Mine was going to Spain for the very first time mega excited and it rained every single day, I was beyond upset and have never been abroad again.

Off to Disney World with two very excited children. An hour into the flight there is a problem and we have to turn back. 2 hours later we have to explain to our son and daughter that we won't be going anywhere until the next day. Gosh travelling with little ones is hard enough - I was so pleased when we eventually arrived!

My nightmare is the Airport, absolutely hate them and try to avoid at all costs, much rather drive or sail to where we want to go. Much better for all concerned.

On a family holiday when I was younger, every one in the hotel came down with sickness and ear infection. An absolute disastrous holiday to say the least.

My friend & I went on an all-inclusive holiday to Marmaris, Turkey. I paid for her as she was acting as my carer at the time & had given up work studying to become a teacher so couldn't afford the holiday herself. We arrived in the middle of the night & there were no English speaking staff on duty, just a porter. I'd requested a disabled friendly room with a shower not a bath so when we were taken to a room in the basement of the hotel which was dark & dingy & had a bath not a shower. The shower curtain was completely mouldy & full of cigarette burns despite being a non-smoking room, the wash basin was clogged up with dirty water & the room stank of damp & mould. There was a huge hole in the ceiling & graffiti all over the walls & door and the beds hadn't even been changed from the previous occupants, they were full of sand & dirt. We couldn't stay there so had to wait in reception for hours until English speaking staff told us we would have to speak to our rep about it as they didn't have any other rooms available. Later that day we spoke to the rep & asked to be moved to the sister hotel next door which was almost empty but they told us we would have to pay £300 for the upgrade which I couldn't afford even though they'd moved other people there for free. Eventually they did find us another room which was much better but the towels were full of holes & weren't changed, we were told that if we wanted them changing we would have to bring them down to reception ourselves. The hotel pool had a tiny section which got sunshine for most of the day but it was filthy & was never cleaned, the children's pool was disgusting & full of mud & the walkway to the lift was so dirty that you stuck to the floor. The food was inedible so we ended up going out to eat & the entertainment was terrible, the entertainment staff just used to come round trying to sell us dodgy videos instead of providing entertainment & the karaoke machine didn't work so we ended up going out for our entertainment as well. We had to leave the hotel twice during our stay as there were 2 fires caused by the faulty hairdryers in the rooms & the hotel got flooded during a storm which brought out lots of rats. I wrote a letter of complaint when I got back, I had a report from our rep and lots of photographic evidence of the filth but I didn't get a penny in compensation from First Choice so I would never book with them again

My son has ADHD/ASD so travelling anywhere can be difficult; especially after the first 5 minutes where he gets bored

We turned up to the airport on the wrong day! After some confusion we worked out the flight had left the day before. The next flight was the next day from a completely different airport! A bit of a disaster really.

Daughters laptop taken out of hand luggage at security in Geneva, but they kindly zipped up bag again, so we didnt know they had taken it out - only discovered back in UK, and had 2 terms of Uni work on it, which hadn't been backed up!!

As a child we went on a huge family holiday to Butlins, it took several cars to take my brother, me, my cousins and other family members there and took roughly 4 hours to get there!
When we arrived my grandad turned to my nan and said 'You did lock the front door didn't you?' - she replied that she had. My grandad kept on 'You're sure now?' and the more he went on the more she doubted herself, my grandad ended up driving all the way back to find she HAD locked it and then drove back to meet us all again, bonkers!

When I was on holiday at 13 in Lanzarote, I didn't like any of the food and spent the whole two weeks eating nothing but watermelon. Apart from one night at a resturant when I was served peach snapps that almost burnt my tongue off haha

None other than one when it rained alot .

Ending up in a ropey Jakarta hospital,on the way to Bali,after passing out due to malaria tablets Lariam and whacking my head on a shiny marble floor.

went to center parcs and the food deliveries had dried up so there was nothing in the restaurants - ended up having tuna salads every meal made up from what we could get from the local shops :(

Went skiing in Alberta with my school when i was a kid, had a McRib at Mcdonald's and ended up in bed with food poisoning for several days.
Without a doubt the worst i've ever felt.

We went to India a few years ago, the day we were due to fly home we all became very sick, thn our flight from goa to mumbai was delaed by 3 hours, then our flight stopped over in instanbul, we were due to fly to romania the next day but the flight was cancelled due to bad weather and we spent the night in the airport. worst holiday ever!

Shortly having a baby, extremely sleep deprived and 100% suffering baby brain.. I booked a holiday, something to look forward to in a few months time.. only to realise because I'd booked the flights and hotel separately, I'd not even booked them for the same week!! So we get to the hotel and we are only booked in for the week after!! It took a lot of hotel searching but we did get there and my husband has never trusted me since, he books the holidays now, say no more!!

A snow bound winter in London and British Airways website cancelling all flights. The following morning when went to the travel agency they said the flight had departed. Luckily I had the taxi driver of the travelling company backing me up. The company had to re-arrenge my trip.

my boyfriend knocking his thumb on the metal door jam in the hotel bathroom and having to get three stitches... plus blood all over his linen trousers!

we are vegetarian, back in the '80 our attempts of speaking the local lingo wasn't working well, no matter how much we said we were vegetarian, the hotel kept serving meat meals. in the end we gave up and ate out. after our 14 day holiday on the plane back home, I discovered that instead of saying "we are vegetarians" we had infact been saying "we are veterinarian surgeons!"

We booked a last min 4 day trip to spain with our two young children.We hired a car when arrived at night and drive to our apartment. As it was so late the keys were kept in the hotel across the road. We got the keys and would our door unlock....we tried and tried to the point i was in tears and the kids were screaming because they were so tired. We went to the hotel across the road and they said it wasnt their problem. No one was answering our calls so we had to pay a fortune for another hotel stay that we slept in for about 4 hours. What a stress to start our break with

Flight to Mexico was delayed by 5 hours which was bad enough but once we had left and reached PNR it was announced that there was an issue with failed hydraulics (brakes & flaps)... After a VERY scary landing i.e. overhead compartments emptied, and overshooting the runway, rows of emergency vehicles awaiting our arrival, there were loud cheers and a big round of applause for the pilots. Then halfway through our holiday I got Salmonella poisoning from some dodgy eggs at the hotel! Never felt pain like it in my life, and for the first time in my life I came home nearly a stone lighter whereas I usually gain weight!

My shower gel leaked in my suitcase all over my clothes. Luckily it was a light coloured one. I did smell nice for the rest of the holiday.