Mumsnet users share their best and worst travel stories with Arla BIG Milk

[JustineBMumsnet]

This sponsored discussion is now closed.

Whether you’re going on a day out or on holiday, the journeys to your destination and back can make or break the entire trip. They help to determine if you have memories of a BIG adventure or a disappointing day. Arla would like to hear about your best and worst travel stories.

Here’s what Arla Big Milk has to say: “We know how important it is to get your little explorers out in the world around them, so we’ve partnered with Magic Light to bring you yearlong BIG Adventures. We’re also running an on pack monthly prize draw, available across UK grocery retailers, to give you the chance to win an amazing trip to Chessington World of Adventures Resort. Helping to fuel these BIG Adventures, Arla Big Milk is simply fresh whole milk that’s enriched with essential nutrients. So, if you want to join in on the adventure, come visit our site to explore activities for your Easter holidays.”

Do you have any travel stories that were memorable for all the wrong reasons? Perhaps you’ve experienced the misfortune of a child vomiting all over the back seats of the car or all over you following too many sweets? Perhaps you checked into your hotel and found that you’d got the date wrong? Have you had to fill time after your flight was delayed playing a dreaded game of eye-spy for hours on end?

Or, maybe you’ve been lucky in your travels and you managed to sleep throughout an entire journey, arriving bright eyed and bushy tailed at your destination? Perhaps you remember a journey where your children gave up bickering and actually liked each other for once? Perhaps you’ve been unexpectedly upgraded to first class or premium service and lapped up the free luxury?

Share either your best or your worst travel story on the thread below to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

Worst journey was when the car broke down on a very wintry day. Myself, hubby and our twin babies had to stand in the snow while we waited to be rescued, as it wasn't safe to stay in the car. We were classed as priority, but it seemed like forever before help came. It was so worrying, as we were so cold and trying desperately to keep the babies warm. I could have have kissed the recovery man when he arrived!

My historic/legendary travel fail was having our first family holiday abroad to Ibiza and missing the flight home.....

Some might think we were partying hard but no, was just getting the date totally wrong and thinking we were flying home the following morning!

Caused mass panic and stress and we landed in the opposite end of the country a £1000 lighter! Eeeek. A memory we will never forget!

ok so we took our daughter on holiday, queued to get through security, not too bad either, Ava mubbled that her belly hurt, so tried to rush through as much as possibly could, just about got through the other side, picked up phones, bags passports, to hear mommy toilet, start panicking now, looking for signs for toilets, oh no not anyway near ..... then Ava start projectile vomiting, so I leave my hubby with bags and run, not realising that I had to run through the duty free shops and further, my hubby just followed the trial of sick to find us

We stayed on a VERY well known campsite in France, near Paris having booked through a VERY well known company. We were looking forward to the break for such a long time. It rained non-stop from the moment we arrived (so much so that Paris flooded as the Seine broke its banks). The boiler is our accommodation broke and was repeatedly fixed, before repeatedly breaking. We couldn't get our clothes dry because it was so damp and cold. We discovered mice were eating our food, driven presumably indoors because of the flooded campsite. We decided to take a trip to the Asterix park to cheer up the children. Bought our tickets on the campsite and drove for over an hour to get there only to discover that it was closed! We eventually decided to go home early as our endless complaints were ignored or met with indifference only to be told that we would have to pay extra if we wanted to leave! We could do nothing in the end but wait it out in the damp and cold. We saw sunshine again eventually, around about the time we could see the white cliffs of Dover! Never again!

My worst one was probably when my friend came with us on a family holiday to Wales. Her parent's said she suffered from mild travel sickness so wore travel bands to help - they did not help. On the way there she said she felt iffy, so i dutifully passed her the sick bowl. She managed to skim the bowl, get it all down the back of the driver's seat and a full chip landed on my foot!!!

The car broke down, was winched onto a low loader which then broke down. Eventually got home in the early hours of the morning.

We recently went to Paris with our 6 year old and 5 month old. We were fully prepared with spare change of clothes for our 5 month old. However what we didn’t anticipate is my son actually being the one who would throw up, not once, not twice, but three times!!! The first time he somehow managed to avoid his clothes (but landed all over our friends car, who was taking us to St Pancreas for our Eurostar journey!)... however we weren’t as fortunate on the eurostar! About 20 minutes in he was sick all over himself, which involved my partner having to get our suitcase out to get him clean clothes!! In the panic he didn’t get another spare set out, so was on his knees again an hour later getting another set out!! It was pretty awful... but fortunately it was just travel sickness / excitement and we had an amazing time! No sickness on the way back, but we did have 3 spare change of clothes for him to hand this time 😁

Worst would be before I had children on holiday with my ex in Spain. We were at a market, there were some people with potatoes with a pea underneath and you had to guess which one the pea was under after they were shuffled round. My ex just handed over 150 euro over without giving it a second thought, all of both of our moneys that we had taken out. It was a total scam and he lost the lot.

Went to france there was a fire in the holtel we all had to leave in the middle of the night with only the pjs were were standing we were put up in a grotty bedset for the night it was two days before it was all sorted.

Worst travel journey, when my eldest was 12 and had gastroenteritis, was hospitalised overnight (the night before we were due to fly home) and was given sickness pills to help us get home. Within 30 mins of taking the sickness pills her eyes kept looking up to her hat she was wearing. By the time we got to the airport her chin was forced upward and she had lost control of her cervical spine. This is apparently called an Oculogyric crisis.
We were taken to the airport medical room where they tried to give her muscle relaxants. Somehow we got her on the plane and 4 hours later when the pill had worn off she was completely normal again. It was the scariest 4 hours of our lives!

Our worst was spending nearly a day delayed at a basic airport in Spain, recovering from a dodgy belly, with only a sandwich and a drink as a sorry. Back before places really took credit cards etc and we had already spent all of our money

Returning back home from a holiday in Australia and admitted to hospital 3 hours before flight. This ended in a very expensive medical bill but on the plus side an extended holiday!

Trying to get home in the 2007 floods, Every route was either underwater or gridlocked. a 40 minute journey took several hours

Worst is being late for check in by 10 seconds and told the next available flight was in five days time when we were only going away for three !! not great with three children one who is non verbal and has autism

the diarrhea incident of 2015, in the airport terminal, dripping everywhere, leaving a trail to the bathroom. Nearly shut down the whole airport.

worst ever journey - we got split up - H went to sit with my sister by the window (to contain her!) and I got sat in the middle 3 seats - wedged between 2 incredibly large americans - I'm talking over 6 foot tall and XXXL. They had purposely booked their seats so the middle seat would be empty in the hope noone would be sat in it s they could spread! But the flight was full! They lifted the arm rests up and poured onto me.

Super uncomfortable and they were sweating so where they were on me it was wet! and smelly. This was before take off!

I complained and they had nowhere to move me.

But after take off the air steward moved me to first class! the only part of the plane which wasnt fully booked. I had my first and only taste of flying first class before being shifted back to my original seat for landing!

My worst journey was when I was traveling to the Far East several years ago. The plane was due to land to refuel in a country which did not permit alcohol before continuing to Bangkok, Thailand where I was going to catch a connection. Before landing, we were warned several times, in several languages, to consume and finish all alcoholic beverages and to store any duty free purchases in the overhead lockers. For some reason, one passenger decided to ignore all the instructions given, and covertly carried on drinking and evading all inspections. When we landed, the religious police embarked on the plane and caught this gentleman drinking alcohol. We spent two hours on the tarmac with the captain of the plane negotiating with the police to not detain the passenger.

After two hours, the gentleman escaped the detention of the religious police through the efforts of the captain and we were finally given permission to leave.

Unfortunately, this delay meant that I missed my connection in Bangkok to Hong Kong. I spent several long and tedious hours side in Bangkok waiting for a new connection due to the selfish behaviour of one individual.

Years ago, on our first trip abroad, I underestimated how hot the weather was, as that particular morning was overcast, and chilly, and I refused to put on sunscreen. The next morning, I woke up to a bad case of heat-stroke, and we planned an expensive excursion, so OH had to take DD, then 7, and DS, then 10, on his own. I could only lay in the hotel room, throwing up, skin on fire, and feeling sorry for myself! A valuable lesson was learnt though, always respect the Sun!

When my son was younger used to travel late at night as he would sleep through the journey, until he didn't and all we had the next day was a super grump tired boy...

My then 11 year old DD was going to be a bridesmaid at my niece's wedding and she and I had to travel by train for about an hour and a half to meet my SIL and niece and then travel with them by car approximately 50 miles to the shopping centre. All the way on the train my DD had tummy ache and of course she threw up in my niece's fiance's car. Worst nightmare ever. We stopped at an out of town supermarket carpark, I paid for a full valet, then had to buy DD a full change of clothes, flowers for my niece etc etc. And DD was so ill that her bridesmaid's dress was basically the first one we saw on arriving. What was meant to be a lovely weekend was basically one to seriously forget!!

Worst journey in the UK was when I packed the car up for a journey to a UK seaside caravan holiday while the kids were in a play scheme for the day. The theory was that I'd pick them up and we'd go straight on from there and it would all be nicely planned out and stress-free. All went well, the cat was put in it's travel crate for the journey and I picked the kids up. Unfortunately not long after we set off, the cat got stressed out by the car journey, pooped in the crate and got covered in it. The smell was horrendous and we couldn't take him to the cattery like that so we had to turn round and take the cat all the way home. I then had an interesting crash course in "how to shower a cat" without getting scratched. We dried it, cleaned the crate and got back into the car, by this time I was all stressed out instead of feeling relaxed and organized like it should have been and I had to deliver a very subdued, damp cat to the cattery and explain why. Luckily the holiday itself went really well.

My best travel journey is definitely the road heading north to the Scottish Highlands, the further north we get the more we relax!

My best travelling journeys are of my childhood holidays to a chalet that belonged to friends of my parents. I remember clearly the effort my parents went to keep me and my brother occupied throughout the 3 hour journey, and also how as we got nearer to our destination I'd start to recognise set features in the countryside or certain buildings and how each time I recognised something else then the excitement level just increased, then when the salty sea air smell finally hit then we knew we were close. Even the dog would get excited at that point and all she used to do was just sleep! A few years ago I went to have a look at my old childhood holiday stomping ground and it brought back all the feelings those journeys used to give.
I haven't had many bad journeys but the one that stands out by a clear mile is when I went to stay at my Dad's for a break due to my health playing up, and the night before we left mine I started a major flare up, that 90min journey was pure hell, I felt every bump and hole in the road, it was like being stabbed with thousands of huge needles right into my bones, and the wooziness, nausea and vomiting throughout the journey made it the worst experience I've ever gone through when travelling. Fortunately the happy trips far outweigh the severity of all the bad ones.

The time we went to the South of France and got food poisoning as soon as we arrived, which meant we couldn't eat any of the lovely food!

Our dream trip was a holiday to South Africa for our honeymoon. We saved up and waited two years after our wedding for this as we were so broke. Anyway, mymother-in-law was house sitting for us whilst we were aware. (Purposely mentioned for a reason bare with me!) Terminal 5 had just opened at Heathrow and we were super excited to arrive and check out all the restaurants and shops. We pop into WHSmith as I wanted to pick up water and some magazines and we get to the till point. Where is my bank card? It isn't in my wallet. Ask my husband to pay using his as I forgot mine at home. He checks his wallet. He doesn't have his bank card either. Suddenly he remembered he had left them on the scanner at home as the hotel required a scan for check-in. The woman at the till looked at us like utter idiots (yes we were!) We went to BA to see if we could get a later flight, called our bank, talked through how we could manage without our cards on holiday and get MIL to post them over (stupid I Know!) in the end we called MIL begged her hop on the train (from South London to West London, anyone who knows this journey in rush hour knows it to be a nightmare) and drop them off to the airport. She did it. We got our bank cards and made our flight. Could have been an utter disaster though!