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My worst experience has to be being stopped from boarding the plane at the airport in Cyprus by a policeman who accused us of not paying our hotel bill (which we'd paid when checking-in a week previously). Eventually allowed to board the plane after showing the receipt, but made to feel like a criminal! We'll never return to Cyprus.

My youngest daughter won a holiday from work. A week in Cape Town in a five star hotel.Husband declined but dear daughter asked if I would go but we would be going with the six month old premature twins! We decided my daughter would lose her job if sprogs vomited on the Chairman. Opted for five days in Dubai instead. Twins were great on an overnight flight. Exhausted , arrived at hotel at 9am. No room available till 3pm!! Free lunch. Arrived in room, no double cots, no kettle and on unpacking no bag with all baby bottles, nappies etc! Daughter on 'phone for two hours before jumping in a taxi to airport to collect! Went to pool to discover two flights up . No lift and a double buggy. I couldn't carry babes as hip op. Due. Hotel had three men carrying them up every time we went up and down. This is lengthly but ther's more. ! Twin two caught some virus and ended up in hospital for four days. Nanna cared for the heaviest with three hourly night feeds! and taxiied to hospital every day. Discharged. Five days till repatriated home. He needed nebuliser so bought electric one. Not accepted so two days funding portable one for plane! Twins howled all the way home. The only bit of Dubai we saw was the hotel, five pharmacies and the hospital! But I had ten precious days with my twin grandchildren . Came back shattered but what a tale to tell!!!

Loving all your stories!
We`ve never had a real disaster on holiday, but a few mishaps when we went to Florida. One evening, hubby went out onto the balcony and left the sliding mesh door open. I followed him out, closed it, and said "you're not supposed to leave that open, you`ll let all the insects in." Next thing, he turned to go back inside, and walked straight into the mesh door, which collapsed in front of him! Then he was sitting in a chair, stood up and stretched, and almost got his fingers chopped off by the ceiling fan. I leaned over in my chair to pick something off the floor, and being one of those on a central leg with 3 little legs off it, it fell over and took me with it, in a most undignified fashion.
Another day, we went to a crazy golf place which was built to look like an old Mexican village, with a river running through it. I was taking a photo of daughter and SIL, stepped back to get a better picture, and stepped right into the "river"! It was a bumpy landing, the river bed was covered in golf balls. No injury, but I was carrying hubby`s new camera, the first really good one he`d ever had, and it was ruined, along with half our holiday photos.

In 1997 my DH and myself went on holiday to the USA. We started by having 4 days in New York, to be followed by 4 days in Washington and 4 days in Boston. On our final morning in New York I left DH in the hotel lobby in charge of luggage while I went to buy drinks and donuts for our breakfasts. For some reason which I have never been able to comprehend, I left my handbag containing passports, cash etc. Sitting on top of the suitcases. When I returned to the lobby, DH was in a real 'flap'. He had stepped momentarily away from the cases to check on something which had caught his eye. In that split second someone had whipped my handbag and made a speedy exit. The hotel security couldn't wait to get rid of us and even suggested that we report the theft when we arrived in Washington! We insisted that the police were called and we were taken in a New York cop car (shades of Starsky and Hutch) to a local police station. We gave info and were dropped back at the hotel. By this time we had missed our flight to Washington - not that we had tickets or money for a taxi to the airport. I wanted to go home, but since it was the weekend immediately before Princess Diana was buried, all flights were fully booked by Americans travelling to London. Fortunately, the office of the airline we had booked with was within walking distance of the hotel and we threw ourselves on the mercy of a fantastic employee, who took charge of cancelling credit cards, travellers cheques etc and booked us onto a later flight to Washington. We spent most of our time there walking back and forth to the British Embassy in order to get a temporary passport to enable us to travel home. This was marked with an instruction that it could not be renewed without referring to the British Embassy. We felt like a pair of criminals!
This was certainly a never-to-be-forgotten holiday-obviously for all the wrong reasons.

When DH and I were just married, we had to take a flight to Glasgow, then wait overnight for a flight to Germany. We dreaded sitting in the airport all night, but thought we'd find somewhere quiet to sleep. While settling, down a group of religious youths approached us to give us their "message". We were too polite to send them on their way and they talked to us for the entire night. We were exhausted. They must have been too, but it seemed they hung around the airport every night looking for people to convert. They weren't happy to see us leave for our flight. They wanted us to leave with them! Even now it makes me furious to think how they demanded our time and attention. If it happened now I'd give them a flea in their ear!

Having had to travel all the way to Austria by train in a ghastly "couchette" triple bunker with other people - because my new hubby wouldn't fly - we eventually got to our hotel in Seefeld in Tirol In June to discover the top floor of the hotel was still under construction.
Every morning a bucket would noisily clatter up and down out side our bedroom window starting at 6.30am, this went on for the whole holiday. No lie-ins for us.
We complained but basically it was a lost cause...our room was fine, the food was fine if you like roasted wild hog...the building work had to be finished for the winter season, they said.
We did a mountain trip by cable car - the other half was terrified as it was similar to flying. We put off coming back to the last possible minute as he was very reluctant but uunfortunatEly by this time it was late and everyone else had gone. We travelled down with the cable car operator, clutching his flask and sandwich bag, in a horrendous thunder storm with lightening flashing all around d us - a freak storm which often happens In the mountains! Even I was glad to be back on the ground and I have never been In a cable car since. Having said that - it was a beautiful area and we enjoyed most of our time there.

My holiday disaster was averted by my refusal to go. My OH (Shed Man) spent a long while converting a single decker coach to a Cliff Richard type bus with two sets of bunk beds for children, a kitchen, a portable toilet (yuk) and space to take our two dogs. It was the days of Hippies and Travellers and I had nightmares thinking of being stopped on the motorways ( which was quite usual then) and stepping out with four snotty children and two dogs on lengths of rope and being turned around or even worse arrested. We sold the bus to some Happy People who intended touring the continent converting people (I don't know what to)
And we bought a caravan, filled the car with kids , put bikes on the roof, dogs in the back and still scared everyone when we turned up on sites. (smile) (flowers)

We’d had a lovely holiday in the Republic of Ireland, driven all over the place in our nice hire car, drunk the required pints of Guinness, etc.

As we had a couple of hours before our flight, we decided to have a little walk on Malahide beach. When we got back to the car, drove to the car depot, my husband shouted at me for ‘playing silly b…rs’ wit the luggage. What had I done with it? Totally innocent, I replied that I hadn’t put it in the boot in the first place, so what on earth was he talking about?

Turned out that some little herbert [or is that yahoo] in Malahide had spotted the obvious hire car, stuck a screwdriver in the boot lock and gone off with our cases full of dirty laundry! I hope he was seriously annoyed…

The usual talk with the Garda and so on, completely marred the end of what was a really nice holiday.

Three bad things: -
1.the car hire people charged us for the damage to the car!
2.Princess Diana died that night and we were unable to get any sympathy for our woes;
3.My husband didn’t ‘believe in’ travel insurance, so we had no compensation for our loss!

Funny now, but a disaster for my sister and me as two teens on holiday with Mum and Dad in the 1970s. Driving back from Spain in our trusty Hillman Imp with Dad's homemade wooden roof rack on top, we arrived quite late at the French campsite so were told to just find anywhere to pitch our tent. All night I complained about tree roots that were agony to sleep on. Next morning Dad had to break the news to us - there were swings, a roundabout and a lot of laughing people outside - we had spent the night in the children's playground!

We went to Portugal, to the most wonderful place high in the hills overlooking the river Douro, the hotels in this particular chain are called Pousadas are government owned throughout the country - castles, monasteries, palaces, convents etc. of Portugal to encourage use of ... Manor Houses of Portugal,

WELL, first day there, I chose my multicoloured pure silk kaftan! it covered everything....and blew gently in the soft breeze which came up the hill on which the 'Pousada' was perched, but it didn't matter that occasionally my enormous arse was exposed........due to the soft breezes, I had on my size 20 black swimsuit with hidden support (from M & S) it gets worse....

There was this divine outdoor infinity pool overlooking the river winding below us................ no one had appeared yet.....it was quite early, and the sun was warm with shadows falling over part of the seating area.

So naturally I I needed to re-arrang to whole of the seating area around the pool, dragging sunbeds, pulling tables and umbrellas from perfectly positioned places, barking orders at Bill .....puffing and blowing sweating like a pig, dragging and pulling. Bill actually disappeared to the bar on the pretext of buying drinks.....

Finally, I flopped myself on a sunbed dragged my huge beach bag next to me, and breathed out.....I thought I'd rest awhile then probably go for a dip, then perhaps stroll to the terrace for a light lunch........

..........that was until a party of ladies arrived, probably all in their mid to late forties all French, chatting and giggling with their gorgeous sleek black hair or some with the soft streaked blonde bobs, no men, just a party of friends on holiday from their jobs probably as sales managers with Prada in Paris.

Slim, tanned, very very stylish. touches of gold here and there, earings, a slim bracelet watch...not for them 16 friggin plastic bangles jangling up their freckled Fake Baked arms.

One in particular (I fell in love with her)she had on a crisp white shirt, (crisp white shirt - why didn't I think of that? oh no multi-coloured massive kaftan for me! I'm on me holidays) black knee length tailored shorts, a red cardie slung nonchalantly over her shoulders, very very brown legs, black leather sandals, a white towel rolled up under one arm and a small leather satchel (the same colour as her long slim legs), over her shoulder, amazing...all of them.

They looked around the pool area......... there was just this party from Asda!!! sorry England! in the far corner where the sun was shining. They smiled over to me, then turned and spoke to each other...in French....I could only guess.

I watched them from under my sunglasses and I slowly slid under my enormous multicoloured flapping big chuffin kaftan cover-all and didn't move till it had gone dark!

I pretended I was disabled, and to be honest, compared to them I was.

How depressing, I used to look good in a bikini, now I don't look good in a Kaftan!

sheila

Flew to Cairo with the intention of going to Dahab, got on the bus (9 hour journey)rather a rickety old thing but showing a film in English thank goodness, but it was Speed where the bomb on the bus blows up if the bus slows down! Arrived at Dahab, mobbed by 'taxi' drivers, picked one who took us to his friend's hotel (2 o'clock in the morning by this time) receptionist asked us if we wanted shared or private facilities, we picked private. He took us to our room, unlocked the padlock (!!!) on the door, bedding consisted of an orange nylon sheet and a bit of cloth covering a pillow which appeared to be made of a log. It was cold at night (February in Egypt always is) so I asked for a blanket which he took off another bed which appeared to have been recently vacated by who knows who.

Slept for a few hours fully clothed, got up to find the toilet didn't flush and the shower was a bit of hosepipe attached to a tap, not even a watering can hose on the end!

Decided to check out and find somewhere else, strangely the receptionist asked us why, I was about to catalogue the disasters when he put the bill in front of us, totalled £2 for the night so just put it down to experience and a future funny holiday anecdote.

Got another 'taxi' to find us a better hotel, whilst driving around the driver offered us a large paper bag of marijuana for £1, but we said no thanks just a hotel please. He took us to a lovely hotel called the Ganet Sinai where we had a fabulous week before braving the return coach journey to Cairo. (no Speed this time though)

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we have had so many camping disaters - putting up the tent in the pouring rain, another time the trailer tent legs collapsing in the middle of the night and we could not climb out because we were laughing so much and waking up one morning at flamingo land to be stranded with a lake of water surrounding the tent. Once my daughter sprayed washing up liquid everyone after we had a argument which destroyed the water proffing and made the tent drip water onto my head, so being sleepy just turned upside down and woke to a soggy sleeping bag - oh the joys and yes even as grandparents now we still go camping as a family

It was the trip to Burma. It took weeks of planning and so expensive. I got as far as Bangkok where we were due to change planes and came down with really bad food poisoning and had to spend the three weeks in a hotel room in Bangkok! Just as I was recovering I caught flu. I could have cried!

It was 1989 and the first holiday with new partner of just a few weeks. We planned to have a 'spontaneous' camping road trip around Ireland ie. nothing booked beyond the ferry crossing. Arrived in Dublin after a sleepless night in terminal buildings and on the ferry from Holyhead so decided to treat ourselves to a slap up Irish breakfast to give us some energy. Parked car in a side road only to return and find car windows had been smashed and all our belongings stolen! So, we had the clothes we stood up in and a car full of glass. The police were very hepful and did manage to track down some if our possessions quite quickly but not any clothes, so next few days were spent scouring charity shops trying to find some things that would fit. I don't think we were wildly successful and ended up with a mismatched assortment of items that were too short, too tight and definitely not what fashion conscious twenty-somethings wanted to be seen in! It was around the time of the famous Levi advert and I seem to recall wondering whether we would end up in a launderette in our undies.
What started out so badly though, did end up as the best holiday of my life. We laughed our way through adversity, saw some wonderful places and met some great people as we toured all around the coast of Ireland. My partner proposed during that holiday, we were married a few months later and have been together ever since.

When my kids were at Primary school, we went with my friend and her son to St.Anns to stay in her mum's caravan. (Hubby was at work) it was supposed to be for a week, not a chance, we stayed from the Wednesday(as my daughter as poorly,over the weekend) until the Saturday. She didn't want to go into Blackpool, didn't like to use the microwave, then moaned because I used it, for micro pizza,( not s allowed to use the cooker) all she did was sit in the caravan, watch tv, or do puzzles.. go to Asda for tea, lived on crisps and coke, which we didn't want to do. I had to ring for hubby to come and collect us, we had to stay instil the Saturday morning, and it threw it down..Never ever again .

To celebrate a special anniversary we went to the Bahamas.
The rep told us not to go walking outside the hotel as it was not safe. We saw drugs being openly sold on the beach .The hotel was full of American students who had just finished exams and acted like it was the first time on holiday without adult, they were very very loud,went swimming when drunk luckily none of them drowned.The beach was full of rubish.
The whole time I counted the days until we came home.

Husband and I went to Florida 'The Sunshine State' a few years ago. It rained every day, and on one day we had such strong winds, the locals said it was close to a Tornado going through. We went to Sea World Florida and all the rides were closed down while a storm passed through. The bonus was that it was warm and it didn't take long to dry off each time.

We were booked on a Carribean cruise really looking forward to it we'd been on a few cruises before and loved them. Flew from Manchester to Chicago no problems. Had to collect luggage for transfer to Fort Lauderdale again went smoothly or so we thought! Arrived at Fort Lauderdale my luggage arrived but DH didn't no sign at all. Poor hubby had no undies toiletries summer clothes nothing! Case didn't arrive at overnight stay in hotel so we bought some stuff at the hotel shop but all touristy stuff which he hated. I'm trying to stay positive but not easy with a hubby who wanted to get on the next plane home. Anyway got to cruise ship and they loaned him shoes shirts shorts and toiletries-luckily our first stop there was a men's shop open (everything else was closed) so the credit card got hammered! Can't begin to list the stuff that went 'missing'! So now there's no way DH will ever travel again to the States.
I was just thankful it wasn't mine that disappeared! ?

Money was very tight when DH and I married. I had 2 small children (from previous marriage) and out of the blue my mum offered to look after the children for a week so we could have a honeymoon. Now my mum offering to babysit at all was a minor miracle in itself so DH and I decided that we would have a week away somewhere sunny.

Excited at the prospect of a whole week alone together we put ourselves in the hands of our local travel agent. We explained that this week was to be our honeymoon and would probably be the only holiday we would have for a very long time. The agent said she had the ideal place in mind.

Disaster One
Unbeknown to us my mum and dad had arranged a half bottle of champagne for us on the plane, but our surname is weird a combination of 2 names and another passenger (with one half) claimed it (although we had no idea until we got home).

Disaster Two
We arrived in Las Americas (Tenerfife) to find it raining and very cold. It was March and having never been abroad before I had been led to believe it would be lovely and warm and hadn't packed any jumpers or rain coat.

Disaster Three
Arrived at "hotel" in the early hours to find it locked up for the night. We later found out that a holiday rep had put a note on the door telling us where to go but it had gone all soggy in the heavy rain and had washed away. We spent 4 hours lugging a suitcase around waiting to get into the hotel.

Disaster Four
We finally got into the dump hotel and were given keys to a cave room with 2 moulded plaster beds (one at either side of the room). I had never seen a bed made from white plaster before (and haven't again) but we managed to laugh wondering how we would manage to "you know" in a moulded plaster of paris bed. We were in love after all.

Disaster Five

We spent the first night in the hotel from hell lying miles away from each other in a plaster of paris bed with no suitable clothes. My new husband announced that tomorrow we would trawl around looking for somewhere else to stay. In the middle of the night we heard some strange noises and DH announced that he had felt powder sprinkling down on his face. I told him that he was dreaming so he turned over and fell back asleep. About an hour later we heard a huge crack and the ceiling fell in right over his head. Apparently the heavy rain had been collecting on the roof above our cave room and the weight had caused it to give way.

Some honeymoon that turned out to be!

I went on holiday to Crete with a friend and she got a bad case of sunburn on the first day.She smothered herself in natural yogurt to ease the pain, but we both fell asleep and the yogurt curdled. No amount of showering and airing the room removed the awful, sickly smell that we had to put up with all week!

Picture the scene... We arrived into a beautiful, cool Majorcan hotel room, looking forward to a welcoming cocktail. It was a hot, cloudless day, and I could see the sea glinting from the balcony window. I couldn't wait to get out of my travelling clothes and into a cotton dress, or my shorts. I opened the case with a happy sigh, to find not my holiday clothes, but case full of stored winter jumpers that Mr H had taken down from the loft and then loaded into the taxi, leaving our beautifully packed holiday case on the landing. No toiletries, no sun cream, NO BOOKS, just thick, warm, woolly jumper after thick, warm, woolly jumper. Good job he had his credit card with him.
Lucky Mr H......

Not-long-married husband and I were going away for a week. I packed my bag, he packed his and I put mine next to his on the floor. Arrived at the holiday let, no sign of my bag - he assumed that the independent, strong woman that he'd married would load her own bag into the car ...

Our main holiday involves touring on the motorbike. There is always a chance of a disaster which is what makes it exciting. It usually involves being caught in torrential rain/storms/lightening etc. More than once we have had to abandon a holiday because of the weather.
However, a couple of years ago whilst in Croatia (yes we rode there from UK), My husband decided to wash the bike. He put it on the side stand on some soft ground and it crashed over, damaging one whole side of the bike along with the handlebars/contriols.. We had to ride back to Britain with only half a bike so to speak. Needless to say, we made it into a joke and still take our bike on holiday every year.

I remember when as a family getting ready to go on holiday we had family mum, dad, myself and my boyfriend (dad towing caravan) and my brother behind towing a small speed boat. Everything was fine and we were all excited - after driving for a few hours my brother flashed his lights and we slowed down and pulled into the layby only to find that the wheel on the trailer that the boat was on had come off. We were all shattered thinking holiday disaster, luckily my dad who at the time was a bit handy where cars were concerned - he managed to fix it (temporary measure) until we arrived at holiday destination and got a proper repair done. We all had a good time after that but hearts in mouths at the time that no-one was hurt. Happy Days Many moons ago.

We were in the middle of a lovely holiday in Florida. Walking into the hotel room I saw my three DC opposite me shaking sand out of their sandals over our balcony. Knowing we were directly over the hotel entrance door I rushed forward to stop them. Straight into the closed glass balcony door I'd forgotten about in my panic. I smashed into it at such speed I was propelled backwards across the room and onto the bed, where I lay blubbering with my hands over the nose I was sure I'd broken. The rest of the family stared at the Turin-shroud-like imprint of my sunscreen-greasy face on the glass and held back their tears of laughter for at least 30 seconds.