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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We have been lucky with our adventurous kids no trips to A&E bar one..... one in the middle of the night (12.30) from rural Portugal we had to drive into Faro and find the hospital (thank god for google maps)
DS1 fell out of bed, caught a glass on the way down & cracked his head open on the tiled floor (he'd never fallen out of bed before and hasn't since) - there was blood everywhere cue major panic by me. DH is a dr so was eerily calm but said we did need a hospital to remove any glass and get stitches (8!)
The hospital was brilliant as was DS1.
When we got back to the villa it looked like the scene of a murder, blood everywhere and on all the towels as I had used them to staunch the flow. We only had 2 more days of holiday after that and although DS1 was absolutely fine afterwards he perfected a sad face to illicit as many treats from mummy who had major guilt for the whole thing!

The worst holiday mishap I have had so when I put a flask of coffee inside my suitcase. I thought I secured the lid on properly. The next time I opened my suitcase, there was spilled coffee all over my clothes.

Getting lost while pregnant in a foreign country!

We went on our first family holiday to Jersey on arrival I realised I forgot to pack my daughters clothes. Not good. Cost me a fortune to replace her clothes.

We had a wonderful cruise a few years ago, and got married while on board, so there was a LOT of luggage. DH was exceedingly organised and gadgety before we went, and printed and laminated all the luggage labels, marking them as 1 of, 2 of etc.

Unfortunately, on the return journey, we were technically on a different cruise, with a new number, so were given new labels.

When we went to collect our luggage from the giant shed in Southampton, DH had absolutely no idea how many cases there should have been. He finally declared he'd found them all, & we drove home to Yorkshire.

Unpacking, I found that - you've guessed it - one of the cases was missing! We had a choice of driving back, or paying a small fortune to the cruise line to have it couriered back to us.

When I was a kid my parents loved to take us on driving holidays exploring Europe. One year we went to Spain, but, because I used to get dreadfully car-sick and sea-sick, instead of taking the ferry there we took the overnight train from somewhere in northern France.

As it was my 15th birthday on the first day of our holiday, our parents splashed out to treat us to dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant on the first night in France.

The following day, my birthday, I woke up puking. Dad extended the room booking by another night so that I could puke in peace, while he and mum took turns sitting with me while the other took my siblings out.

That night I puked my way across France, care of SNCF. By the time we arrived in Spain I had got it out of my system.

But then the others started going down with it. And I added motion-sickness to the mix.

By the time we reached Grenada we looked like zombies escaping an apocalypse. Between us, every garment we had packed had either been puked on or pooed in, or been used to wipe up puke or poo.

We didn't make it any further. Apparently we stayed in Grenada for a week, then returned home. I don't remember any of it.

Mum says the hotel laundered everything for us, but dad bought new suitcases to go home with, as our old ones reeked.

Apparently the journey home was lovely, but Idon't remember that, either! I was poorly for several months after. I was able to go to school, but I had chronic diarrhoea and seemed to pick up every illness that went around, which I never normally did.

My parents reported the food poisoning to Michelin (I think). Turns out I wasn't the only one affected! IIRC the restaurant lost its star rating.

Going by Ferry to Jersey, with a 5 AND 8 yr old departure location changed from 7 am Weymouth to Poole, and at 5 am with a 3 am check . so we had to change the hotel we where planning to stay in to a premier inn..the air con had broken the rooms where registering 43C, luckily they did give us a full refund and we left at 2:45 am, hoping to sleep on the catamaran crossing . Unfortunately the channel was fog bond so for the whole 5 hours crossing the crew sounded a fog horn ever 2-3 minutes.. so no sleep there. But the holiday was quite nice... the return experience was worse, it was Bank holiday in August Saturday, our noon cat was cancelled and we where told that was no alternative until Monday at the earliest and there was no hotel accommodation on the island as it was the bank holiday, I did point out that we could hardly sleep on the beach for 2 nights, they then said we could get a regular ferry that took 10 hours to Portmouth instead that leaves at 10pm, and arrives in the morning.. I took this, it eventually departed after midnight apparently they had no cabins so we had to all sleep on the floor of the bar. in a gale force 8 with the boat crashing up and down, I have never been so frighten in my life, I was so happy to see Portsmouth come into view. So we got home 24 hour later then planned and again very sleep deprived. Think I will fly drive next time

We went to Norfolk in August when ds1 was 4.

We rented a hovel. Can't describe it any other way. Dirty, damp sheets, grease laden kitchen. We spent as much time out of the place as poss!

This was rather hampered by the unseasonal monsoon weather.

Each night we would look at the weather report for the next day and every day the rest of the UK would be enjoying lovely sunny skies and high temps....
Where we were had a sort of "cloud hat" sat over it for the whole week 😔
Seriously...norfolk was the only place on the UK with bad weather that week!!

On the 4th day we were driving in the hills outside sheringham when the car made a clanking gurgling noise and the exhaust fell off. The wind was howling and the rain was lashing against the car. We had to wait 2 hours for the AA. Luckily ds1 thought it a great adventure!

The next day was spent at the garage/waiting for the car to be fixed/dodging the rain.

The day after we were driving through the pelting rain and ds1 - for some reason - decided to fiddle with the window.

Next thing we know the back passenger window fell out. I kid you not. Put a black bag over it and back to the garage we went!

By the next day I had had enough 😔
I begged dh to take us home a day early and he agreed.

However, the holiday from hell had one last surprise...as we were packing up the car...

The bloody sun came out!!!!

😡😡😣😣🤣

Leading a school trip and discovering you're the only person who forgot to renew your visa...that's embarrassing!
Water seeping through the floor of my tent was grim.
The worst was probably arriving and immediately having norovirus ..

Not remotely funny, but every time I try to get insurance I have a nightmare. 7 years cancer free and things are no better with insurance than when I was in treatment.

*travel insurance

I havent had any major diasters but was on a short break to Cornwall and i went by train. I felt so poorly about an hour into my trip and spent the 7 hour journey lying on the toilet floor halfway between being asleep and sick :( was horrible!

Honestly the worst one was the holiday cottage in Norfolk.
Damp running down the walls
Cold ('central heating'=two radiators in whole house.)
Snail trails on the breadboard.
Sofa smelt of wet dog and partially collapsed.

We are seasoned campers, but when we are indoors we don't want to feel like we're outside! And we had our two DDs who were very little, with no heat in their bedroom.

Landed about 1am after a very unpleasant and turbulent from New Zealand to the Cook Islands, with an 18 month old who had been airsick. Except I had misunderstood the International Date Line meaning there was no one to pick up from the airport, no accommodation waiting for us as we were a day early. Cue lots of panicked calls and a very unimpressed guest house owner who I woke up and came to get us. Meant we had a whole unexpected day to enjoy there though!

The only nightmare (and not really a nightmare; just an inconvenience!) we've had is a wheel getting snapped off the biggest/heaviest suitcase on the flight out, so impossible to wheel. Jet2 were great though, accepted responsiblity and sent us a lovely new suitcase :)

Me and my husband got confused on a trip to Symi island from Rhodes, and almost missed the last boat back..it doesn't sound that bad but we were panicking a bit.

Oh crikey - me and holidays do not mix. You would have thought I’d learnt my lesson the first disaster but no. Anyway here goes my holiday disasters (in no particular order!):

12 weeks pregnant with DD1 when flew to Tenerife for a weeks holiday, contracted gastroenteritis the 2nd day and spent the rest of the holiday in hospital on a drip. Poor DH spent his holiday either cleaning up vomit in the apartment, in the chemist or in a taxi back and forth to hospital visiting me each day. It rained too!

Honeymoon in Bali - 2 weeks in dream resort. Husband picked up wrong suitcase on arrival at Bali airport - only realised when we were in way to hotel. Our hotel rep managed to bribe the security guards to let him in the back way to see if his case was still there - it was! I then spent 10 days In bed ill with tonsillitis and tonsil abscess. Then the flight home via Hong Kong with diarrhoea.

On way to airport in uk to catch 7am plane to Greek island and the catch on my hard case breaks - cue frantic search for straps at airport to close it back up before check in.

Many more but I’d be here all day. Safe to say I stay at home now!

Renting a place in Dublin that had a good rating on TripAdvisor but ended up moldy, noisy, and uncomfortable. I left after one night and booked in at the Conrad instead... which was bliss.

We mistakenly left our 8yo son at home, alone, when we flew the rest of our big family including cousins/aunt/uncle to Paris for Xmas. Only realised on the flight - too many kids, alarm didn't go off, you know how it is. Security was a bit more lax than it is now as it was 1990.
Took days to get back to him as the flights were all full, including having to bus with a traveling polka band.
Poor kid, but he did at least stop our home getting burgled. I won't do that again!

Oh no Kate! You’re not the same who lost their son in the airport one year and he ended up on a flight to New York are you? Nightmare.

I know! I don't know how it happened again, but it did!

Not a mishap as such but I started my period on a trip to Florida whilst walking around a busy theme park wearing white shorts!

I had to steal my Grandads massively oversized vest (classy!) to wear as a makeshift dress until we found the gift shop and bought some hideously expensive replacement shorts for me! I was mortified!

Our first holiday abroad to Disneyland Paris. With DS8 DS 6 and DD4. Ds6 is severly disabled and has epilepsy, severe autism and cerebral palsy. He never sleeps but was sleeping ... bad sign. He is fed via gastrostomy but has a taste for McDonald's fries. In French McDonald's he chocked on a chip and then went into seizure .....
Then continued to have seizures for the whole holiday but not long enough for rescue meds....
Sat in a steak House and smelt the smell.... changed a biggest nappy every that had gone through to his shorts. We were the only family in this nice sit down restaurant with a kid sat in the floor with an iPad in just a Mickey mouse t-shirt and a nappy ....we couldn't wait to get on the train. Then got home and spent 2 weeks in hospital with pseudomonas in his inner ear arrgghhhh we just wanted our first holiday!!!!
Never travel with a disabled child .....

We've booked for Orlando this year ...it's been 2 years since the disaster and DH is back in YOLO!!!!

ARRGGHHHHHHH.....

We just had a disaster with the snow last month. First holiday in a decade booked away for more than a night / kids sorted... no one was ill... all good till BA cancelled our flights. Not to worry... husband rebooked something in the uk. We lost a night but were still optimistic we'd have a nice time. Unfortunately i'd left the car lights on all night and we had no battery when it came to leave in the morning. I then sat on the stairs and sobbed. We did eventually manage to get away but it did feel like something was against us.

Weekend in Brighton, friend booked hostel for ten of us, four had lovely room, separate beds. The other six inc me, were in a room with 3 bunk beds and no room to move. All of us aged around 35-50 and more used to places like travelodge as a budget hotel.

In one way it was brilliant laugh, in another it was a nightmare. I enjoyed it though.

Couple in room above us had noisy sex at 3am. We were in hysterics, every time you thought they’d finished it started up again. My friend ended up banging on the ceiling. Steep narrow stairs to rooms, above a noisy bar. We had such a laugh but some said never again.

They booked a large apartment next time they went