[Misc] Worst holiday you’ve ever been on

[jackalbion]

Went on holiday to Rome recently and didn’t have the best experience!

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Our honeymoon, 40+ years ago. We were skint as in pennyless. Booked a last minute holiday to Malta in November. It was cold, wet and the hotel breakfast, our only meal included, was a foul coffee and hard roll. Love won the day and we had each other, sharing pizza or chips (budget didn't allow both in one day). On leaving the hotel gave us our bar bill that finished off all our duty free money.
PS Last holiday we sat on a coach for over an hour as one person was missing. They airport was closed and yet still we waited.

Was the last holiday in Goa?

 

[Weststander]

Going Skiing without actually Skiing. After the initial amazement at how stunning the scenery was, it soon became the longest week in history for those of us that weren't skiing. Criminally overpriced food and drink, a magnet for coked up nobheads wanting to fight once the sun goes down and the most pretentious 'desperate to be cool' morons trying so hard to have the best time of their lives. Never again.

Which resort?

I’ve been 50+ times, never seen trouble at night. Only hearing of a couple of scuffles at night in Sauze and Schladming.

You’re right it’s not cheap. Watch the pennies savers would hate being on ski/snowboarding trip.

 

[Barham's tash]

We stayed in Sousse which I think was quite near there.

Certainly is. I think pre the terrorist incident they were starting to get their act properly together. I went to Port El Kantoui with family and then back to Sousse for a random week with a mate just to chill out and in the resort it was excellent but agreed regarding the hassle factor.

 

[Gwylan]

Love France. I've been there pretty much every year for 50 years. I've had holidays, weekend aways, day trips (even a day trip to Paris) and work trips. I can count instances of rudeness on the fingers of one hand - a few grumpy sods in Paris - but generally found nothing but friendliness.

I've only had one bad holiday: I booked a week in Barcelona and after a couple of days I realised what a mistake I'd made. Lived on supermarket food as it was impossible to eat out and the final straw was when I stepped out of my hotel and found staff attending what appeared to be a dead body. I abandoned the hotel I'd booked, caught a train over the border and spent most of the rest of the week in the south of France, enjoying lovely food and drink and walking in the mountains.

My flight was from Barcelona so I came back to Spain and spent a night in Girona, which was lovely. I managed to rescue something of the holiday but Barcelona is on the list with Dubai and Las Vegas of places to avoid for ever.

 

[Eric the meek]

Years ago I remember hearing these complaints on the radio, by Brits on holiday.

1. 'There were too many Spaniards.' Yes, they were in Spain at the time.
2. 'Nobody told us there were fish in the sea. They frightened the children!'.
3. 'It took us 9 hours to fly to Jamaica, but we were talking to these Americans and their flight was only 3 hours'.

 

[The Clamp]

Gran Canaria 1996

Girlfriend lost her purse at the airport with half our spend in it.

We argued and broke up two days in.

I met some blokes after that and got pissed up.

Stole and drove a golf buggy off a jetty into the sea.

Got arrested.

Let out the next morning.

Went straight to a bar.

Got pissed again.

Bought a postcard. Wrote how my girlfriend was a dick on it .

Everyone in the bar signed it.

Posted it to her parents.

Made up with the girlfriend.

Had an okay rest of the week.

Went home.

Postcard arrived at her parents house.

Broke up again. Her family hating me.

 

[Easy 10]

Marmaris.

I left the doris to book something as I couldn't really be arsed. No1 on her list of priorities was "a hotel right on the beach". We got that alright, you literally walked out the front door, crossed a footpath, and there you were. However....

The hotel was a decrepit hovel. It had one of those shonky old lifts where you have to pull the cage across, and there wasn't even room for 2 suitcases to go up in one go. And even with just 2 people in, it wobbled like f*ck and sounded like C-3PO giving birth to a chainsaw. After the suitcases were up, we opted for the stairs,

The "pool" - HAH - consisted of an 8m x 4m plunge-bath out front, with water so green you could barely decipher the deep end from the shallow. Nobody ever went in it. They'd pull a makeshift piece of chipboard over it in the evening to accommodate the cheap white plastic patio furniture on top, in prep for the tragic "entertainment". Which was just the same old shite Michael Jackson impersonators and crap Tom Jones tribute acts that sloped their way along the strip ever night. EVERY night.

The staff slept on a scabby outdoor sofa out the back (as we peered down on them from our 5th floor balcony).

We went half board, but the breakfast was so pitiful we never once dared with dinner there let alone the offerings served up in the morning. Dried out days-old cheese, manky looking ham, stale rolls. Fruit that looked about as fresh as Dot Cotton after a 4 day bender.

The saving grace was that other hotels along the strip, with decent pools, didn't mind you using them as long as you were buying drinks. It was an Ashes summer, and I found one that had a nice outside pool bar with a big TV and Sky. So I spent many a happy day perched on a barstool or floating about in their pool watching the cricket with a few barflies.

But honestly, Marmaris is basically West Street with sand at the end. Thankfully we're in a position these days to go more upmarket. But I'd rather have a fortnight at the Rafah crossing than go back there again.

 

[ROSM]

Love France. I've been there pretty much every year for 50 years. I've had holidays, weekend aways, day trips (even a day trip to Paris) and work trips. I can count instances of rudeness on the fingers of one hand - a few grumpy sods in Paris - but generally found nothing but friendliness.

I've only had one bad holiday: I booked a week in Barcelona and after a couple of days I realised what a mistake I'd made. Lived on supermarket food as it was impossible to eat out and the final straw was when I stepped out of my hotel and found staff attending what appeared to be a dead body. I abandoned the hotel I'd booked, caught a train over the border and spent most of the rest of the week in the south of France, enjoying lovely food and drink and walking in the mountains.

My flight was from Barcelona so I came back to Spain and spent a night in Girona, which was lovely. I managed to rescue something of the holiday but Barcelona is on the list with Dubai and Las Vegas of places to avoid for ever.

Apart from corsica all my other French trips have been great.

As for dubai and vegas. I'm lucky to have had 2 trips to vegas and both were much better than expected if the can see through the mask of the place.

Dubai however was everything wrong. Again went on a work trip and lots of horrible things happened to work colleagues there so not on my own holiday list

 

[Robinjakarta]

I’ve just seen an advert claiming “Istanbul is the new cool” reminding me of a weekend break we took about 1997. It was cold wet and ‘orrible (it was January mind) it was quite dirty and full of Russians. Crossed the bridge over to the Asian side and it was a lot cleaner and friendlier and even the sun came out!

Istanbul. Despite the cheating taxi drivers, one of the world's great cities.

 

[Robinjakarta]

Marmaris.

But honestly, Marmaris is basically West Street with sand at the end. Thankfully we're in a position these days to go more upmarket. But I'd rather have a fortnight at the Rafah crossing than go back there again.

There are some great places to go in Turkey. Marmaris is not one of them.

 

[jcdenton08]

There are some great places to go in Turkey. Marmaris is not one of them.

Out of interest, where? We visited three towns and had the same bad experiences in all of them.

 

[Robinjakarta]

Out of interest, where? We visited three towns and had the same bad experiences in all of them.

Hmm. Off the top of my head: Istanbul, Bursa, Cesme, Izmir, Pammukale, Cappadocia, much of the Black Sea coast, Fethiye, Bodrum, Selcuk, Ephesus.

 

[Bakero]

All sound the kind of holiday I'd least like to go on with the people I'd least like to meet

Who the f*** goes abroad and moans about no fry up or English channels? Christ

My partner once worked in ski resorts and would often get complaints about the TV being in French. Guests would also moan about the pitiful size of cups, a gripe so common that the company started advising travellers to bring their own mug.

 

[Gwylan]

As for dubai and vegas. I'm lucky to have had 2 trips to vegas and both were much better than expected if the can see through the mask of the place.

Dubai however was everything wrong. Again went on a work trip and lots of horrible things happened to work colleagues there so not on my own holiday list

I had a week in Las Vegas and a week in Dubai for work and they were two of my worst business experiences - I can't begin to imagine what would possess anyone to holiday in either places,

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I've not had much luck with Kos. Twice I booked last-minute via those rolling teletext-type adverts on the telly and twice I suffered The Curse of Kos...

Booking #1 - Went with couple of mates for a lively week in Kos, accomodation to be allocated on arrival. Flight went fine. Coach transfer in the dark went fine. Coach took us to the harbour where we boarded a ferry. Bit odd I thought. Probably a shortcut round the island. It took me three days before I plucked up the courage to ask the barman 'Er, excuse me, I know this is going to sound a bit odd but.. this is Kos isn't it?'. 'No! replied barman fiercely 'This is Kalymnos!' It. Was. Dead. I wasn't popular

Booking #2 - Went with a different mate a few years later for a quiet week in Kos, accomodation to be allocated on arrival. Flight went fine. Airport rep looked at us a bit funny but directed us to coach transfer. At which point we couldn't help but notice the '18-30' logo plastered down the side of coach. At the time, me and mate had a combined age of about 105. I wasn't popular

 

[anygivensunday]

Interesting threads like this, had great experiences in both Vegas and Corsica!

My vote is for Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt. Unbearably hot, horrendously rude locals, aesthetically horrible, noisy, dirty, terrible traffic and pollution and your mrs will be getting eye f****d/harassed by all and sundry. Pyramids were decent mind.

 

[Insel affe]

Interesting threads like this, had great experiences in both Vegas and Corsica!

My vote is for Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt. Unbearably hot, horrendously rude locals, aesthetically horrible, noisy, dirty, terrible traffic and pollution and your mrs will be getting eye f****d/harassed by all and sundry. Pyramids were decent mind.

My brother went about 12 yeas ago and his assessment put me off from ever contemplating going, he said the “best thing about Egypt was Macdonalds do delivery to your hotel”
Right’O

 

[heathgate]

Marmaris.

I left the doris to book something as I couldn't really be arsed. No1 on her list of priorities was "a hotel right on the beach". We got that alright, you literally walked out the front door, crossed a footpath, and there you were. However....

The hotel was a decrepit hovel. It had one of those shonky old lifts where you have to pull the cage across, and there wasn't even room for 2 suitcases to go up in one go. And even with just 2 people in, it wobbled like f*ck and sounded like C-3PO giving birth to a chainsaw. After the suitcases were up, we opted for the stairs,

The "pool" - HAH - consisted of an 8m x 4m plunge-bath out front, with water so green you could barely decipher the deep end from the shallow. Nobody ever went in it. They'd pull a makeshift piece of chipboard over it in the evening to accommodate the cheap white plastic patio furniture on top, in prep for the tragic "entertainment". Which was just the same old shite Michael Jackson impersonators and crap Tom Jones tribute acts that sloped their way along the strip ever night. EVERY night.

The staff slept on a scabby outdoor sofa out the back (as we peered down on them from our 5th floor balcony).

We went half board, but the breakfast was so pitiful we never once dared with dinner there let alone the offerings served up in the morning. Dried out days-old cheese, manky looking ham, stale rolls. Fruit that looked about as fresh as Dot Cotton after a 4 day bender.

The saving grace was that other hotels along the strip, with decent pools, didn't mind you using them as long as you were buying drinks. It was an Ashes summer, and I found one that had a nice outside pool bar with a big TV and Sky. So I spent many a happy day perched on a barstool or floating about in their pool watching the cricket with a few barflies.

But honestly, Marmaris is basically West Street with sand at the end. Thankfully we're in a position these days to go more upmarket. But I'd rather have a fortnight at the Rafah crossing than go back there again.

I blame any Turkish incidents experienced,on those who foolishly book holidays to Turkey, the vast majority of folk you come across are solely intent on fleecing you of all your money, legally or illegally.... The same applies to Egypt and Tunisia.

Read the reviews, there are hundreds of platforms to get your info from,..the familiar harassment/scam stories are always in the majority.... don't think it won't happen to you..... choose, like I do, a place where you know you will get a safe and relaxing holiday.

 

[POSKETT AT THE VALLEY]

Swansea in the 80’s. Me and a couple of mates decided to spend a few days down there either side of an evening game. Game was a boring 0-0. One of my mates got a slap outside the ground and I saved myself from a good hiding by putting on a ridiculous Welsh accident. Also, very lucky I was quick on my feet. Pissed it down most of the time and Bonnie Tyler’s night club was crap.