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Mumsnet users share their holiday nightmares with Admiral Travel Insurance

315 replies

EllieMumsnet · 03/04/2018 09:03

This activity is now closed

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:
Jayfee · 08/04/2018 15:03

Losing traveller's cheques on the first day of the holiday. Beng interviewed by American cop about loss of the travellers cheques. Horrible. Now we just use credit card abroad.

ClashCityRocker · 08/04/2018 16:09

Mine and dh's first camping trip.

We had arranged to borrow dfils tent, who had been a seasoned camper and had quite a state of the art set up.

At the last minute dfil doubted our ability to set up said tent - so popped to argos and got us a flimsy two man pop-up job.

Whilst this was very kind of him, it was the type of tent you'd use for a festival and chuck at the end. Not the type of thing you'd take to the lake district in one of the rainiest summers ever.....

Needless to say, by 2am in the morning we were lying in two inches of water and decamped to the car for the rest of the night.

NineteenForever · 08/04/2018 16:51

Coach holiday to Poland from the UK in 1998. 30 hours on a coach, me, DH, My mum and dad. On arrival we walked towards the hotel lobby whereupon my dad dropped the bag he had with a bottle of duty free whisky in it and the bottle broke..... I still remember the chink sound....

dadshere · 08/04/2018 19:23

Dh had our holiday money stolen from his bag, we lost 600 euros, and it was not covered by the insurance. He doesn't get to carry the money anymore!

k8vincent · 08/04/2018 20:35

Going to Sweden for a friend's wedding. Missed the flight due to a massive accident on M25. No insurance so had to buy a more expensive ticket for super early the next day and pay for a 'night' in the hotel. To top it off - the hire car company (for which we did not pay the extra insurance fee to cover someone else making tiny dent in the door) charged us.

sealight123 · 08/04/2018 21:03

This is my favourite holiday memory but it was also a complete and utter disaster.

Stayed in a caravan owned by my partners grandparents.
Arrive at the caravan to find that the bedrooms are completely full of random bric a brac so we cant sleep in them. Meaning me, my boyfriend, my 3 year old daughter and our springer spaniel puppy all slept in the living room in a makeshift cushion bed.

We then think, well it'll be reet, lets get some food for the fridge for dinner....the fridge doesn't work, so we ate bread and butter, and snackfoods for the entire stay.

It'll still be fine, we can just spend most of the time out of the caravan. It rained for 95% of the duration of our stay.

We found some video tapes to watch, all snuggled up, in the living room bed. We watched Babe, Ice Age and Annie. Well 90% of Annie. The end was taped over by Countryfile.....everything went wrong but it's always going to be my favourite worst holiday

ncullinane · 08/04/2018 21:21

Mine was a shampoo bottle leaking all over my bag on the way to Italy!!!

Sugarhouse · 08/04/2018 21:34

My worst holiday nightmare was as a child on holidays with my grandparents me and my nana both got terrible food poisoning

LooksLikeImStuckHere · 08/04/2018 21:39

Spain - rained all week, hail the size of ice cubes, hotel caught fire and we had bed bugs. Awful, awful holiday.

like7 · 08/04/2018 22:56

Tenerife - one child had chickenpox. It rained (most days)and everyone kept saying it hadn't rained for 13 years. Our apartment leaked with the rain and soaked one of the matresses which we left out on the balcony to dry in the sun - but it got drenched as it rained again when we went out. The window frames swelled in the rain and one evening we heard a noise and discovered a burglar had climbed in through the window we could no longer close. We left a pushchair behind in the car park on a day trip the other side of the island. It was one thing after another but actually we still had a good time!

newmummalion · 08/04/2018 23:09

Went on a group trip to Brazil and one of our friends baggage didn't arrive with us! Luckily none of his money was in the bag but all his kit for the Amazon was! We had to spend a day in Rio so he could buy new clothes. He ended up with some questionable outfits and lots of souvenir tshirts to bring home!

Dixiestampsagain · 09/04/2018 04:50

My parents went to the south of France for 3 weeks and I saved up so I could fly out to meet them for a few days (flight to Paris then Bordeaux, then a train). It was my first time travelling alone, although my luggage had a better holiday than me. It went to Budapest instead of Bordeaux and I got it back the day I went home!
Maybe I won’t mention the time we went on a cruise from Southampton and both assumed the other had picked up the passports...

Badgerthebodger · 09/04/2018 08:13

On holiday in Tenerife with ExP we arrived to find our lovely quiet hotel was having building works carried out and they had moved us to the neighbouring 18-30 hotel. We were kept awake most nights by drunken loons shouting, trying the door, banging on the door, knock a door run, and lots and lots screeching. I woke up one morning and went out to the balcony to have a coffee and there was a used condom and a pair of knickers on the only chair which some grotter had obviously flung over the side of their own balcony. ExP also broke his foot in the water park so he spent the next 5 days after in bed moaning and groaning. Never been so glad to get home in my life.

DollyLlama · 09/04/2018 08:29

Oh I have another one! Last year my partner and I along with all his family stayed in a house in France. We all decided to drive to the town and we left slightly later than everyone else and got trapped on the motorway due to protests and had to drive the wrong way up a slip road to get out.

Finally got back to the house with toddler and settled her down in the living room and made lunch, only to discover someone had been in the house with us and snuck out past us as we were making lunch!

No one believed us but we found an that there was a flimsy door in the extension that wasn't locked that led to the house and the side gate had been opened. I felt sick!

We spent the rest of the holiday with the door barricaded with chairs so we would hear if someone came in. Luckily nothing was taken, we think we disturbed them but to think if we hadn't been caught in the protest, we may have been robbed blind!

DownInFraggleRock · 09/04/2018 09:28

Developed D&V on a 7 hour journey across the desert... but not remote desert- the whole road was built up so every time we had to stop I drew an audience!

vickibee · 09/04/2018 10:18

On holiday in Kos the air traffic controllers went on strike at short notice and we were stuck in a crowded airport with a disabled child for over 12 hours. The Wc's were overflowing and there was soiled water in the check in area. My son who is ASD had a total meltdown and there was no support from TUI or airport staff. Truly horrible

MrsMarigold · 09/04/2018 12:33

I was a bridesmaid at my friend's wedding abroad, I had been waiting for the blasted dress to arrive, I'd had to send my measurements off and it came from states, it arrived on the day I was supposed to leave, and I had to get it couriered across London to my office. At the time I was working as a journalist and literally the biggest story of my career broke, I had to get it out there and fast. I managed but then had to dash to the airport, my editor kept wanting to check things and even though technically I was on leave from lunchtime, I only left for the airport at the last minute, I dashed across the airport and missed the check in by three minutes, so had to go the next day, after the faff with the dress I just paid for a locker at the airport and left my bags there and went back home. Spoke to friend who was being a total bridezilla. Went the next day, flew half way across the world, luggage got lost and didn't arrive. Bride went apeshit that I hadn't had the bridesmaid dress in my hand luggage. The luggage finally turned up the day before the wedding. All fine on the big day but very stressful.

Other dreadful trip was to Florence, I was heavily pregnant, there was a heatwave, it was 46 degrees, the apartment had live wires hanging out the sockets, which we had to get the owner to repair before we moved in as DC1 was 14 months. There was a dying pigeon on the terrace, the cot for DC1 had a flea infestation and poor little mite got chomped. There was a market that started up at 5am a few metres away and it was rowdy, there are very few playgrounds in Florence, it was just flipping horrible.

ifigoup · 09/04/2018 13:05

We got bumped off our flight en route to our honeymoon, as the airline had overbooked it. No sod offered to swap with us. We were young and very poor and we missed half our holiday.

slbhill42 · 09/04/2018 17:36

took my car onto the islands on a ferry. It broke down the day after we arrived and there were no parts available on the island.

On the plus side, getting to ride in a tow truck was DS6's highlight of the entire holiday!!

maxmissie01 · 09/04/2018 23:42

Having to walk through the lovely French doctor's garden on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, past his family and friends having Sunday lunch, for him to send me to the nearest A&E where I was admitted to hospital for three nights with the most horrendous gastroenteritis. My French is very poor so couldn't watch the TV, and read all my books for a two week holiday in three days. Meanwhile my one year old DD had chicken pox so couldn't visit me in hospital! Thank goodness for travel insurance!

Taking three month old DD on her first holiday, sit down on the sofa to feed her and find both of us covered in fleas, and flea bites within a couple of minutes. Never left a holiday cottage so fast!

First holiday with my then boyfriend, now DH, camping in Pembrokeshire one summer, lovely campsite on the cliff tops. After me driving for six hours (he couldn't drive at the time) put the tent up, only for the torrential rain and howling wind to start. Tent ceiling rips open from one end to the other. Attempt to sleep in my Ford Fiesta for the rest of the night. Get up to scene of tent devastation across the campsite. Drive for another two hours to South Wales to spend the rest of my holiday at DH's grandma's house, with both his grandmas and his auntie. Sleeping in separate rooms! Turns out DH's younger brother had taken the tent to a festival, had rolled it up whilst it was wet and not dried it out, so it had rotted!

SalutHallo · 10/04/2018 00:36

It was so wet and windy (in August!) that our pre-put up tents on a site in the South of England were no longer deemed safe and we had to sleep in a marquee for the night! They separated by sex and we were all there on air beds!

user1498854363 · 10/04/2018 08:03

My dp and I surprised my 80yr mum for her birthday a few years back. Got cheap flights, (long haul), first stop over in Abu Dhabi, after 10 hrs stopover dp was stopped from boarding flight with armed guards as no transit visa for Oz (I didn’t need one), I wouldnt leave DP, ticket company closed, had to buy new ticket at huge cost and visa, got flight 12 hrs later, got to Mums, great party. Had to pay for new tickets home (£2k holiday cost us £8k. ) Still paying it off!!!
Ticket company messed us around and refused to reimburse, airline agreed to but didn’t. Nightmare.

ChocolateChipMuffin2016 · 10/04/2018 12:02

We've done a number if UK driving holidays (on a budget!) and there was the time we drove to wales and went over a pot hole and managed to get a hole in the exhaust. So we went to halfords to buy a patch kit, that latest about an hour! So we had to drive around with a hole in the exhaust, people could definitely hear us coming! The worst thing was we had booked a fancy hotel for the way home. A special treat to end our holiday (camping) so had to drive up the driveway to this expensive hotel with a really loud, broken exhaust! How embarrassing! Fortunately the hotel was lovely!

rachaelsit · 10/04/2018 12:07

I don’t think we have done enough yet to get into the nightmare category of some of the above but nightmare enough for me was 6 hours delay on the flight home from Orlando. 3 hours sat ON the plane not moving kids fell asleep then we all had to get off, walk half a mile to another terminal and get on a different plane. We then still had a 7 hours flight and 2 hour train journey ahead of us until home time. All for a 6 night trip with a then 3 and 1 yo

MummyBtothree · 10/04/2018 12:49

Dropped our eldest DS off at the airport with his friends, only to receive a phone call when we got home that he'd left his passport on his bed. Luckily we are only half an hour away otherwise he would have been very unhappy and coming home lol.