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Mumsnet users share their holiday nightmares with Admiral Travel Insurance

315 replies

EllieMumsnet · 03/04/2018 09:03

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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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Mumsnet users share their holiday nightmares with Admiral Travel Insurance
OP posts:
orionleah2012 · 16/04/2018 15:56

arrived at the hotel and they said they wanted £1000 deposit off my credit card immediately. I thought be it would be taking imprint of your card, not taking and holding the money. this was all our spending money. We agree to £300 eventually and that meant we could stay in hotel. It was few hours wondering what to do and where we were going to stay.. as everything at this hotel was paid for and we were never told about having give this amount out by the travel company who booked it all for us.

mooota1514 · 16/04/2018 15:57

the time we went camping and my dh forgot the stopper for the airbed and we had to sleep on the very hard very cold ground

IrmaFayLear · 16/04/2018 16:08

Went to Hong Kong. Didn't realise it was Chinese New Year and everything - everything - was closed. Even the hotel restaurant. Also it was unseasonably cold and had to wear all my clothes on top of each other. Then we went to Thailand. Where I got dysentery and spent two weeks in bed. Then went to Bangkok. It was a special holiday for a random public event and everything was closed. Even worse was I didn't realise you had to bring your own paper in public toilets and looked around the cubicle after a sprint only to find... nada. The flight back to London had come from Australia so by the time the plane reached Bangkok it stunk, the toilets were blocked and people were stretched out sleeping over our seats.

I have never ever been so glad to get back home.

janeyf1 · 16/04/2018 16:39

I once flew to Australia with my mother and had a stopover in Singapore but the humidity made her seriously ill and I was terrified I was going to lose her. I couldn't understand the language or signs anywhere and felt completely hopeless, it was the worst day of my life. Fortunately she pullled through and was able to go on to Oz and fully recovered but I won't take her anywhere that humid ever again!

rwgray · 16/04/2018 16:54

Flight diverted from Gatwick to Heathrow and delayed by several hours. Only flying from Edinburgh!!

lalalauren416 · 16/04/2018 17:25

We stayed in a cottage in Dorset for our honeymoon, it was so dusty that my husband couldn't breathe and had an asthma attack, we had to leave the next morning!

Ikea1234 · 16/04/2018 17:50

I have several that I can laugh about now, but at the time, they were truly awful....
When I was about 20, my friend and I booked a trip to Malta on her recommendation. I was suspicious on arrival at the number of Zimmer frames going round on the carousel with the luggage....turns out the travel agent had failed to mention we were on a "Young at Heart" package, so we spent two weeks attending tea dances, bingo and boules tournaments,which wasn't helped by the worst thunder storms in forty years.

Again in my twenties, I booked a trip to Mexico with some friends. Turns out the hotel was an adults only resort with a policy of naked pool games and its own porn channel (I kid you not)

Finally, flew to Egypt a few years ago, only to find my luggage hadn't. Luckily, as a family, we share suitcases, and pack a few of everyone's clothes in each other's cases. Unfortunately, none of my clothes that did make it coordinated, so I had to wear some "interesting" outfit choices (plus a hideous lime green swimsuit two sizes too big from the hotel shop) until my suitcase arrived two days later.

strawberrisc · 16/04/2018 18:15

Quite some years ago I holidayed in Turkey for a fortnight. There was so much to do, everything was so cheap and the people were lovely - both the native Turkish people and the other guests. However, the whole region had also been hit with a pretty bad stomach bug. It didn't help that you couldn't flush toilet paper and had to put it in a bin that was collected the next day. The maids left open bags of used toilet paper along the corridors as they emptied the room! All the guests made sure they were close to a toilet at all times. The only upside was that there was no sickness involved and the food in the hotel was really good. I ate what I liked and came back 2 pounds lighter!

helly27 · 16/04/2018 18:27

Daughter 6 had never flown before and got up set at going through the metal detector and in doing so hit the metal detector and ended up getting searched too not a good start

katieskatie82 · 16/04/2018 18:30

my luggage got lost the first time i ever flew. My boyfriend and i went to Ibiza. Had to buy everything over there. Wasn't the best experience when holidaying abroad for the first time x

Minnibix · 16/04/2018 18:36

We always stayed in hotels, however one year we decided to go it alone and booked a self catering apartment in Elunda, Crete. It was a disaster, It was there where I first heard about El Nino (it rained every day) also it seemed to be in an estuary as it wasn't so much sandy as muddy with fine dust. There was no air conditioning or ceiling fan and to top it all every time someone in the block flushed the loo we had an almighty banging in our room (day and night). I should have complained but I was so very naïve back then.

Ranita · 16/04/2018 18:42

Rural village in Tuscany, youngest falls out of bed onto tiled floor. Panic at possible broken nose, no idea where nearest hospital is and First Aid kit in the house.
Saved by very kind neighbour who didn't speak English but could obviously see what was needed.

ang65t · 16/04/2018 18:44

Went to Tenby in August a few years ago it rained non stop, managed to go to a car boot sale one day and bought a jigsaw as we were so bored, there were 3 pieces missing! we couldn't go swimming as everyone had the same idea and the indoor pools were full, then the car car wouln't start as it was too damp and had to call out the AA, 2 days later the same thing happened when we tried to get out and about needless to say our bags were packed waiting for the AA man again and went home 4 days early, I am not superstitious but the caravan number was 13, oh and Tenby town was flooded. What a nightmare!

user1496053440 · 16/04/2018 18:47

I once got to the airport and realised that I had left my phone at home, had to borrow my mum's as a last minute replacement!

Marg2k8 · 16/04/2018 19:13

I've not had any major catastrophes. Just the occasional bad room or top floor room when the lift broke.

sm2012 · 16/04/2018 19:31

Tantruming two year old in the car on a loooooong journey through France. She was so cross she managed to get half out her car seat. We were in a traffic jam at the time and I can clearly remember people looking in with horror from the surrounding cars!

frances93 · 16/04/2018 19:44

Major bust up with my mil before we had even got to the airport, she had left my car park booking at home but swore she'd given me it! While on holiday my nephew got chicken pox, so we were shunned from the pool and given filthy looks all week

sheilads105 · 16/04/2018 19:49

Turning up to our holiday rental in a small village in Bulgaria and finding all the shops shut for a long weekend of religious festivities.

kittykomp · 16/04/2018 19:57

our hotel was fully booked so we had to get a new hotel

laurac1987 · 16/04/2018 20:00

I got gastroenteritis on the morning of our two week flight to Portugal. My partner (at the time) just told me to pull myself together and get over it, when I suggested seeing a Dr, he pretty much laughed at me and said 'for a stomach upset?'. A week later, after ALMOST being admitted to hospital due to losing so much fluid... I started to recover. I was young (18), naive and had no idea why I was so ill. If I had called a Dr from day one, all would have been fine!

freefan · 16/04/2018 20:29

My worst holiday horror was when hubby and I took the kids to Holland for a holiday and we got the dates for coming back all muddled and ended up at the ferry port a day too early for our ferry back to the UK ... luckily we were able to find a lovely B&B after lots of hunting.

Dormouse1940 · 16/04/2018 20:34

Camping in the New Forest a couple of years ago... my partner started things off nicely by snapping one of the tent poles (we had to gaffa tape it together- fortunately it just about held), forgot the pump for the airbed, it started raining and this idyllic campsite went from dryish to Atlantis with an inch of standing water within a couple of hours.
The normally very good toddler point blank refused to sleep. At all.
Partner left his jacket hanging in the toilet block after his shower- it had his wallet and carkeys in it (thank god that was handed in!)
And to top it all- we didn't pack a bottle opener, and blimey did I need it!
Not the most successful trip...but we can laugh about it now...

twinklenic · 16/04/2018 20:41

The last family holiday we had was our only holiday abroad. We went to Egypt for 10 days and 7 of those days myself, and 2 of my children were very ill with stomach upsets. It was awful and ruined it completely for us. My son and hubby got ill on the last day and the plane home was very interesting!

towser44 · 16/04/2018 20:45

The start of our 2 week holiday to Fuerteventura with a 2 year old child. Arrived at Liverpool Airport to discover that a fire at Air Traffic Control had caused lots of disruption. Our flight was due to take off at 12.30pm, we boarded the plane at 2pm and sat on the plane until it took off at 4.30pm for the then 4 and half hour flight!

Lisapaige24 · 16/04/2018 20:55

We had one nightmare after another All in one holiday from delayed flights both outbound and inbound ,lost suitcases to food poisoning that was my honeymoon it wasn’t mean to be but luckily we had an amazing second one a few years later to make up for the first disastrous experience