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

Years ago we were on a flight that was passing through a lightning storm. Enough to put me off flying forever, the cabin crew turned out all the lights on the plane and insisted we had our window blinds up so we were all sat in the dark and all we could see out the windows was pitch black but with lightning all around us.

I have a general travel nightmare and it is travelling on a train when one person is holding court by speaking loudly and specifically for the benefit of anyone who will listen. It is almost impossible to listen and not absorb everything that they are talking about. My husband always wears headphones and listens to podcasts and music, but I can't wear earphones so have to suffer. You can't even concentrate on a book!

An hour before we were due to leave for a flight, 3yo DS cracked his head open. I never thought we would make the flight, but a quick stitch up at A&E and we were on our way! However in the rush we forgot some key documents which meant we couldn't pick up our hire car at the airport, resulting in a train/bus/hitchhike to our final destination. I look back fondly now, but it was a bit of a panic at the time.

Was travelling to the artic circle, flight was cancelled and missed my connecting flight only to be told there wasn’t another for 3 days.... so had to cancel my trip and spent 32 hours getting to Heathrow and back!!

First holiday with DH. Early flight to Corfu so wanted an early night once we'd been out for dinner. Got back to the room to find the bathroom flooded because the toilet was spraying water all over the place! It took HOURS before the hotel moved us to their sister hotel because the plumber couldn't get the water to stop. The next day we're told to return to the room but the pipe is still dripping all over the floor (albeit not spraying any more). We stay at the hotel all day waiting for it to be fixed as we're not sure if we will be moved again (we came on holiday to see the island not just the pool!) so that's a day wasted. We'd much rather have stayed at the sister hotel (heart of the nightlife) but our travel agency said that hotel wasn't authorised by them (despite being way better with no leaking toilet!). The hotel is in the middle of nowhere so we have to catch the bus everywhere. We have to buy breakfast on our way home each night (pastries) because the hotel only serves full English and equivalents. Except the kitchenette we have in our room is HEAVING with ants so we have to play 'hide the croissants' each night. All in all it was a dreadful holiday and the fact we stayed together after arguing about EVERYTHING is a miracle!

I "lost" my passport on a flight home from California. I got to passport control and couldn't find it anywhere, I couldn't go back to the plane so I was ushered into the departures lounge (I was having flashes of the film the terminal with tom hanks. I waited for 2 hours.... they finally found it. It had fallen out of my bag on the plane. I've never been so scared in my life!!

Worst: Driving to the south of France with 3 young (bickering) children, no air con and inadvertently choosing the weekend that all French people are en vacance and on the road!

Oh my God! My journey from hell came via a trip to my mothers with two children under 4 who both started to vomit on route! To make matter worse my daughter then put a hot chilli pepper in her mouth!!! (Don't judge, I was distracted by the high vomit levels). Did I mention that I was on a bus? Public transport! Two vomiting children and now a screaming daughter! I was overwhelmed and under prepared. I had yet to read this reality in any of my glossy parenting magazines. I was offered help from a lovely lady who spoke no english so I still couldn't access her full advice. Should I stay on the bus or jump off early???? (Only three more stops to go) I asked myself a thousand times in less than this five minutes of hell. God knows what my mother's neighbors thought as we rocked up looking like a bunch of mess. Two vomiting, one screaming and me fighting tears. As I thought back to the article I had read on the internet last night "You CAN Travel The World With Kids" I realized that I can't even make it across London!!! How would I conquer world travel? Answers on a postcard please... Unless you too, like me are staying put.

Best would be travelling to Mexico, premium economy (which is a luxury for me). Had a cocktail then slept the whole way.

Worst- 24 hour train in India with d&v. The toilet was a hole in the floor.

I think the worst was when we travelled to Portugal on a last minute "deal". When we got to our apartment there was no bed . We complained and they offered us a mattress on the floor. Superb 😂.

The best are always when flights are on time. Luggage all in one piece at the other side, nice location etc etc.

Worst journey was when all three vomitted, setting each other off.

My most mortifying journey was on a weirdly quiet intercity train. Presumably the entire carriage was mesmerised by the long discussion my 7yo and 4yo sons were having about the differences between men and women. In case anyone else wants to know, men have penises, while women have 'hairy holes'.

Last summer when returning from camping we had a child throw up the final evening in the tent taking our pretty much every bit of bedding and clothing we had. The following more we had to travel back from Wales to Lincoln, traffic wasn't great, the car smelt and the child looked terrible and we had to keep stopping to check he was alright!

My favourite was travelling in our camper van. Little toddler loves sitting in her seat in the front playing eye spy. She’s so excited to drive in “our bus” it’s lovely!

Best trip was a sixth form trip to Paris, so much to see and I didn’t stop smiling for two days! Plus on the way there our flight was upgraded at random so we got free drinks and cake!

was there a winner @JustineBMumsnet

Falling asleep on a plane before it took off and waking up as it landed. Only happened once (pre-DC of course!).

This year we did our First ever trip abroad with DD who was 6 months at the time. We’d stayed at a lovely hotel with all the amenities you need for babies. Flight home was on the hottest day of the year in the UK and was super hot in Austria too. Ours was the last flight and was delayed, and delayed, and delayed due to thunder... until they had to cancel due to the airport needing to close. Screaming, crying over tired baby, we were running out of baby milk, no crib for an hour when we finally got our bags and to the hotel so she didn’t go to sleep until almost midnight, had to wash her bottles in the sink... then had to get her more milk the next day before the flight home (she has special milk too so hard to find!). What should have been a 6 hour door to door trip became 24 hours! I’ve learned to always pack enough for at least 3x the amount of time you plan to be out! That holiday was a steep learning curve for travelling with a baby!!

We had stayed in a hotel in Southampton the night before we were going in a cruise (about 10 years ago). In the taxi on the way from the hotel to the ship I asked my husband to just make sure all 4 passports were in the wallet in his bag...to which he replied ‘No, you were bringing the passports....’. Oops. Luckily, my parents had a key to my house and were able to speed down from Wales to Southampton with the passports just in time for us to board the cruise. I haven’t lived it down...

My dd got a sickness bug on holiday, so we had to clean up the holiday cottage, wash all the bedding etc, then had to travel home with dd with a bowl on her lap.

Worst travel story

Booked a holiday to Ibiza - company went bust - got money back for hotel, but lost out on flights. Around £700.

Decided to go to South of France instead - took flights from Bristol to Bezier - all good. But then turned up at airport 24 hours late for journey home (?? why - we thought each other had checked and double checked tickets) - 5 of us stranded - managed to get a flight out that day - albeit 10 hours later, and £650 later.... Gosh what an expensive holiday that was

Worst journey was driving to my parents six years ago with a 2 year old and a 6 week old baby on Christmas Eve for the festive season. The weather was atrocious, really bad rain and visibility was literally zero - there was obviously a lot of traffic which we were expecting.

Our daughter was cluster feeding and within 90 minutes of leaving home starting showing signs she was getting hungry so we pulled in at a services. I breastfed her and then smelt that awful smell of a poonami coming from her 2 year old brother. My husband had to go to the car to get a complete change of clothes, getting drenched in the process. I changed our son and we were just getting ready to leave when our daughter projectile vomitted all over herself, me and a vast amount of the service station cafe. My husband then had to go back to the car to get a change of clothes for me and our daughter. By this point he was absolutely saturated and had to change his clothes too.

We eventually got on the road only to find that the Dartford Crossing was closed and we ended up on some diversion which seemed to take forever. Just as we thought we were making time up our daughter starts screaming for more milk just as we reach the A21 - a single carriageway road with very few places where you can stop. We had to carry on until we found a lay-by by this point our daughter was screaming, our son was screaming, I was almost crying as the noise was unbearable and I thought my husband was going to spontaneously combust.

We found a safe place to pull in, I got our daughter out of her car seat and took her to the front seat to whack her on my boob asap while my husband settled our son. Next thing my dad is ringing asking why we haven't arrived yet.

We finally arrived 5.5 hours after we set off (the journey should take around 2 hrs 45 mins on a good day) and I can honestly say I've never been so glad to get out of a car in my whole life.

It's one of those journeys that we remember for all the wrong reasons!

A 10 hour flight to visit my brother while I was on mat leave. DD was 10 months old and cruising . She would not still still without screaming so we walked up and down that aisle for the whole duration of the flight. It was exhausting and I'm sure, quite annoying for crew and other passengers.

I don’t know whether it’s a good or a bad story!

First time we took the DC long haul. They were 7 months and 2. We had upgraded to Premium Economy as the baby was on my lap. Woman opposite tutted and rolled her eyes when she saw us, demanded that they move her, or us. Flight attendant said flight was fully booked, so no. She shot us filthy looks the entire flight. 2yo DD did not make a peep, she watched a screen (with earphones) the entire flight. Baby fed to sleep on take off, and slept most of the flight.

When we landed, the people behind us expressed their surprise at us having young children, they were so well behaved she didn’t even realise. Flight attendant came over to LOUDLY tell us how sweet and well behaved our DC were. My face looked like Mrs Smuggy from Smuggersville as I side eyed the woman opposite.

My worst travel story has to be the time I went to Disneyland Paris with my sister and my two kids and left ALL the passports in the Disneyland Hotel... we were at the Eurotunnel when I realised, had to drive the 3 hours back to the hotel then drive 3 hours back to Eurotunnel to THEN be sat waiting to board a broken down train.

Thank GOD the kids were well behaved that day, 9 hours in the car is no fun for anyone, let alone a 2 and 4 year old!