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

[JustineBMumsnet]

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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

My Worst travel experience was my second trip to Egypt. The first one for our honeymoon was lovely so we decided to take our children to Egypt to enjoy what we had the first time. We went for 11 days and 9 days i spent in bed ill. My two daughters were ill for the majority of the holiday too . My husband and son was ill on the flight home. It was horrendous !!! it completely spoiled our holiday and has put me off ever going back to Egypt , which is a shame because the first time we went was perfect

Worst journey was travelling to the Dordogne by car, was meant to take 8 hours but ended up being 11! and to make it worse I got locked in a toilet on a toilet stop and took ages to get me out!!

When we went on a coach journey to the Isle of Wight, with DS 1 age 6 and DS2 age 3, It was an eight hour journey before we were due to get on the ferry, I was really dreading keeping them occupied, how wrong was I - looking out of the window seeing trains, trams, other coaches as the experience on the ferry they loved every second- went so quickly we could not believe how well it went. Its all about distractions and talking to them and seeing lots of vehicles.

worst, struck by a small earthquake during the night in greece, for the rest of the holiday the children wouldnt sleep at night, it was draining. needed a holiday after that holiday.

Best, being upgraded to business class when travelling to asia

Flight was delayed by 5 hours to Mexico, once aboard and over half way there a message come over the speaker system, hydraulics failure affecting the brakes... After a very rough landing, luggage everywhere, masks down and fire engines then chasing the plane we managed to stop on the run off grass with just a little spare room left, huge round of applause for the pilots broke out! ;)

Best trip was a November trip to the west coast of Ireland. We went at the time cause it was cheap and just hoped we'd have a couple of nice days in between the bleak rain we expected. It turned out to be the hottest November on record and we just had beautiful sunny days, and the beaches to ourselves! So unexpected!

Our best journey was a flight to Spain with our 18mth old. I was so nervous and seated next to a lady who pointedly said 'I hope its not going to cry the whole time' which really didn't help. Anyway it was 3 hours of bliss because the 6 year old behind took a shine to "thecutebaby" and spent the whole flight playing peepo over the seat. Grumpy lady apologised as we got off saying "it was quite well behaved" too. I did wonder why she was flying Thompson on a family destination if she so clearly cant abide kids but never mind.

Was coming back from Brean sands and we had to be out of our apartments early, slept over and it was a mad ruch to pack everything up and load the car, so with that rush the two boys got in our estate boot area (not a locked covered boot, a open one that's just behind the back seat) and snuggled up in their sleeping bags. Travelling on the motorway half way into the journey our oldest son said he was going to be sick, but before i could find a place to pull over on the hard shoulder he threw up all over the boot and back seat cover his brother too, then the smell & mess caused our youngest son to be sick.. Jeeze there was a lot of upset tummys all the way home and a lot of cleaning up to do!

My worst travel story was when we were delayed from our much awaited holiday from Leeds/Bradford airport - SEVEN hours later, we found out our plane was not going to arrive, we had to check out, then check in again on our rescheduled flight later that night from Manchester airport - 14 hours later than schedule - we arrived at our destination - one positive was we are able to book a week away in the UK from the travel compensation we received - the caravan in 'SkegVegas' was just the thing we all needed.

so far been quite lucky and only had 1 bad long journey with my 16 month old who had sever diarroeah so we had to stop several times and made it through 4 outfit changes in 3 hours...
i'm driving 6 hours with her on my own in a few weeks.....praying it goes well....

Worst was being stuck in a traffic jam on motorway for three hours.

worst was travelling back from USA on the red eye. My parents were due to pick me up from Gatwick but when we landed they weren't there. I rang my Sister who told me they had gone to their friends for a BBQ! They thought I was returning the following day! I had to get a tube from Gatwick with 3 large suitcases, then a train to my hometown. We got held up on the way back with a problem with the train, therefore I missed my connecting train. So I had to get a coach. Trying to find the right coach I asked a driver is this the coach to Lowestoft, he said yes, so I got on. He started off and I was the only one on the coach. It turned out he wasn't the replacement transport but was going to Lowestoft. I asked him to drop me off at the train station which thank fully he did. (He could of been anyone) I then rang my Sister again and she collected me from the train station and took me home. It was an absolute nightmare. What should have been a 3 hour drive home from the airport turned into an 8 hour Journey of nightmarish proportions. Not forgetting I had been travelling overnight as well. Needless to say I was not in the best of moods. My Sister popped back to mine after dropping me off with a pint of milk and a bottle of beer! I opted for a cup of tea.

The roofrack coming loose on the motorway wasn't fun. Luckily I managed to turn off and fix it before any damage could happen.

Worst travel story was an epic car journey through France to get to our holiday destination when my middle daughter was about 3. She went tantrum crazy in the back of the car and because of her rage managed to get herself out of her car seat! We were in a traffic jam at the time and I remember all the people in the surrounding cars looking horrified!

We went on a day out to Lyme Park with our relatives. My son got his welly stuck in a very big bog at the start of the day and then put his foot right up to his knee in thick black mud. He was really upset, filthy and wet but really didn't want to borrow his cousin's nice pair of Peppa Pig socks. He limped around the rest of the day whimpering quietly and it pretty much ruined our nice day out!

Worst was our honeymoon to America. We flew to Atlanta but a big storm meant circling for an hour until we ran out of fuel and having to land somewhere else (a 3 hour drive away from Atlanta!). They didn’t know if we could fly back so we were waiting on the plane for hours until a space became available. Very stressful!

Stuck in the airport in Lanzarote for 10 hours waiting for the delayed flight home.

Worse travel story was a return boat trip as a teenager from Germany. It was really choppy and over half of our group were sick! Awful!

My sisters and I are singers and when I was 6 months pregnant with my first child we had to go up to London to record a song. We had to travel in the back of a small van and a journey which should have taken 2 1/2 hrs took 7 due to traffic problems and hold ups in central London. I must say I did worry that the uncomfortableness may have brought on labour 😁😁😁 I was so happy when we eventually arrived and stretched my legs

Our worst would be turning up to the airport for our flight at the right time, at the right airport, but on the wrong day! Our flight had flown the previous day.
This led to a long, hectic cross country journey to catch the flight from another airport the next day.

I don't think there is a holiday in my memory that doesn't involve vomit somewhere. Me as a child, always car sick. My children, always car sick. I've even made myself car sick once even when I was the bloody driver. Need to get some holidays that don't involve cars I think.

Having to make an emergency landing on our flight to our honeymoon. I hate flying anyway so that wasn't fun. Then we had landed miles from our destination so had to take a coach for three hours to actually get there.

I did a yard in France as part of my degree years ago - missed the last train and had to get a two hour taxi . My bags were lost and I spent two days clothes less in a strange new country !!!

Making our way to my sisters wedding on December 20th with 2 toddlers under 3, a 5 hour journey. On the way the snow fell and roads got treacherous. We were nearly there when both toddlers were sick everywhere in the car - including all over the wedding cards and presents! An uncle attended the wedding with a bad flu infection - yes you guessed, we all went down with it and we had the worst Christmas ever!

Worst was definitely arriving at Orlando International Airport after a 3 week holiday to find that our flight was overbooked and we had to forfeit our seats. Delayed 12 hours and stuck in the airport feeling more exhausted than I've ever felt. It was the holiday of a lifetime but after the delay and the journey home I couldn't wait to get home to my bed.