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

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

An angry Guy with road rage following us round cape cod!! Was worried in case he had a gun!

Probably my husband having a health problem, and my son getting severe tonsillitis and having to come home early because they couldn't cope on holiday!

On a holiday to Turkey we had a nightmare of a flight as the man in the seat next to us decided to help himself to the booze he had bought in the duty free, and was completely drunk and started swearing and picking fights. 😂🤦🏼‍♀️ Doing my bit, I told him off in best mummy style as his language was appalling in-front of young children. I'm not a confrontational person so went bright pink and counted down the seconds till we got off the plane! He even used his phone and got out of his seat and crawled down the isle as we were landing! I had to press the buzzer to get the stewards to help him up. He ended up being escorted away by security! On the return flight we sat wondering if the guy would be on our flight again, no sign, and was pleased to find an empty seat next to us, waiting for one last person to board ... it was him! 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ I couldn't believe our luck ☹️ thank goodness it wasn't long haul! Awkward!! Although he must of been so out of it that he seemed to have no memory of us, we certainly remember him 10 years on!😂

I developed food poisoning on the day of our return journey from Spain. We had checked out of the hotel and were killing time in town before a late afternoon flight when the symptoms began. I was sick so many times and felt like death. At one point a group of local children gathered around me to watch. Worst journey ever.

I was 18 and on a school trip. Fell for the map trip and lost all my spending money (not tons but needed some money). Same trip was groped on the bus, not fun times. That was Rome. Would still like to go back though!

I fainted on a flight back from Jordan. It was really embarrassing- flat out in the aisle and I threw my glass of water over the air hostess who was trying to help me.

Apparently it's something to do with the air pressure and oxygen levels in the cabin.

My passport mysteriously disappeared a week before I was due to set off on my honeymoon! Cue much hysterics and a fun filled trip not to the passport office in Liverpool.

The holiday itself was mostly wonderful apart from two things. Me getting a gyppy tummy and doing what I thought was a fart in bed. It was not a fart.
The second low point was going on a deep sea fishing trip. We caught fuck all just trawled up and down for 6 long hours. One bloke who was on the trip with us started feeling seasick after 15mins then spent the rest of the time spewing in a bucket. His girlfriend seemed to take offence at this and spent the whole trip either shouting at him or ignoring him. However long that boat ride was for me I'm sure it was a whole lot longer for that poor man....

All our luggage went missing on a trip to Malaysia when I was five months pregnant. Spent the first day in the jeans and sweatshirt I'd travelled in, despite the extreme heat and humidity. Had to try and track down some maternity clothes. Ended up spending a week recycling the same two outfits and washing my knickers out each evening to wear again the next day.

Camping trip to Corsica with keen camper boyfriend. Had to sleep on park bench as we missed the boat from France to Ajaccio . Loos in campsite in Porto so disgusting I took a hose to them. Our "tent"turned out to be a child's play tent which leaked in the torrential downpour we suffered. At another campsite boyfriend pitched tent over a mosquito play ground. A tourist got knocked down by a train along the beach and I kicked off my sandals to run to help( boyfriend was med student but didn't speak French) . Someone stole them. Missed my period ( often did in the heat) and terrified I was pregnant. Dreadful row with boyfriend. Other holidays included dreadful overweight slugs which nestled under sleeping bags when camping in Ireland, returning to tent on honeymoon with above boyfriend after a dreadful storm and glad to find tent still upright. Unzipped the front and the mattress floated out.
Each and every holiday since then has managed its own special problem.

I haven't had any holiday nightmares, but I travel a lot for work and one particular highlight was the three day migraine in Italy where I just vomited and vomited. Being ill on your own in a hotel room is particularly grim, and all I wanted was to get home

When holidaying in America, I managed to book a hotel for the same date the following year by mistake😖

Leaving our passports on the table and not realising until we reached the airport hotel 2 hours away. Had to turn round and go home then drive back again! Ended up getting to bed about 2 am when we had to be up for 4.30am. Not a great start to the holiday but at least it was the night before so we could get them!

I got stuck in Paris at the time of the Icelandic volcano eruption. We couldn't fly back so had to travel across France to get a ferry to Portsmouth then caught a train back to South Wales. It was a nightmare. The car was at Bristol Airport

On a naice holiday with DP I managed to have an episode of Polymorphic light eruption- a big red swollen rash across my feet.

So I couldn't get any shoes on- and I swear to god I could feel them wobble when I walked. Never been so miserable.

I took DS and DD camping. DS had major sensory issues with the tent as he has ASD (at that point undiagnosed). Spent the first night with him not being able to sleep at all. Tried to move us into a caravan but they were all booked out. I was too tired to drive home so we stayed. The next few nights were a bit better, but involved me reading Mr Majeika for hours in the middle of the night to keep him calm. I got rid of the tent and we have never been camping again.

When DS1 was a baby,we thought it would be a good idea to go on a caravan holiday.
We usually love caravan holidays, and thought it would be great as our first proper holiday together as a family.
I suppose it would have been, if the weather had been kinder.
Instead, it poured it down the entire week and turned the camping field into a mud pit.
Which would have been OK but when you have a great big pushchair to push, and the wheels kept getting stuck in the mud so you couldn't go anywhere, then not so much!
The beach was a big trek down a hill too which made pushing it hard work.
We ended up with biceps the size of some kind of strong man but grumpy in the process
We took a small fold up buggy on holiday for the following years.

Missed our plane due to someone breaking down on motorway
Had 4yo and a 4 month old
Got a plane to another canary island instead and then a flight to the correct canary
Arrived 2 am - no room, exhausted and told no room until 10am. As we were late and our room booked, I lost my temper and told them I needed my room and eventually got it 🙄
Anyway, learned that if our car had broken down, them travel insurance would've covered it but as delayed by someone else, we had to cover our own travel.

Most definitely everyone's worst nightmare - the comfort/favourite stuffed animal being left behind made worse by spending the whole holiday hoping that it really was left at home and not in the service station we stopped at on the way, or dropped in the street on the way to the car at home

I would gladly have turned the car right back round and missed the holiday completely and not cared about the wasted money, but it was a big celebration holiday with family so we had to stay. I spent the holiday worrying, comforting DC and contacting anyone and everyone incase it wasn't safely waiting at home

Luckily we got home to find him safe and sound!

My husband insisted we wouldn't need to book a campsite for a nights camping adventure on the way back from a cottage break, even though it was a bank holiday. We spent hours driving around Newquay campsites before anyone had enough room to pitch a tent! And when we did eventually find somewhere it was late and dark, and unfortunately no tent pegs had been packed! We ended up having to shut the tent in the car door and weighing down the other end with our luggage, and trying to sleep under that! Needless to say I was not impressed!

Had holiday cancelled because the company had gone bust. Got refunded everything but air fare. Booked another holiday somewhere hot. Had a great time, but when coming home realised we had got the flights muddled up and had arrived at the airport 24 hours late!!

Managed to re-book seats that day - a very expensive way to have a holiday is to pay for two lots of airline tickets that weren't used

Went to Rome with DH and DS for a friend’s wedding. DS was 1 year old so thought an apartment would be better than a hotel. This was before Airbnb & there wasn’t much choice. Apartment was on Rome’s equivalent of Oxford Street and the promised travel cot never materialised. DH ended up on the sofa with me in bed with DS but slept badly as I was so nervous DS would roll out of bed onto the tiled floor.

My holiday nightmare was our holiday 2 years ago to an all inclusive hotel in Menorca, on day 3 of our 7 day break we and other families were struck down with gastroenteritis, we all spent one night either on the toilet or throwing up, the children ran out of clean clothes and we had to wash what we could, throw away many and buy new for travelling home in. The hotel had a medical centre of sorts, and gave us a medicine which settled our symptoms. We spent the last 2 days recovering, drinking bottle water and pasta. I was so upset that a much anticipated holiday and all those memories I wanted to make with my children had been lost. We did not get to the bottom of the cause, as we heard on the plane home other families in different hotels had very similar symptoms. I wished we were able to claim something from our insurance, but I did not have the energy to go over the experience.

First visit to my home country with my husband (who needed a visa to enter it) the said visa wasn't received until 7pm the night before we were leaving at 6 am the next day, we packed but had no idea whether we will be going or not.

We booked a lovely holiday to Crete but the company went bust three weeks before and it was cancelled.
So we booked somewhere cheep in Ibiza as we couldn’t afford anything too expensive until the refund.
When we arrived (2 couples) there had been a mix up and the appartment only had one bed. The advertised 4 berth included 2 very small, not even child sized, bench like cushions around the table.
We had to stay there for 2 nights until another appartment became available.

The day that we moved onto the new appartment I got serious food poisoning and spent the rest of the two week break in bed only getting out to vomit.

I seriously wished that we’d stayed at home.

top of a cliff in wales camping.awoke to younger brother screaming because we were no longer covered in out tent!