# Your Holiday Disasters (or near disaster) Thread.



## Dave7 (5 Aug 2020)

Just reminiscing over holiday experiences.
These two go back years.
We booked a caravan near Cricieth via an ad in our local paper (no internet in those days). Sounded lovely and promised sea views.
It was adjacent to the owners property.
Got there late after work. Went in and thought 'no way'.....it was the pits.
We all slept on top of the beds.....didn't dare get in.
Next morning we checked for the sea view. If you stood on the roof with binoculars, maybe.
We threw our stuff in the car, left some money on the table for the one night and legged it.
2. North Wales. Day one. Sunny. Down to the beach. Stupidly overdid it all and got serious burns amd sunstroke.
Next day the rain started....... 7 days solid. The site flooded. The river burst. The road blocked with a land slide. We ran out of dry clothes. We packed up and escaped via the mountain road in our rusty old mini......me driving in my underpants as my clothes were soaked. 
Got home just as the sun came out.


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## twentysix by twentyfive (5 Aug 2020)

Are you employed by the Welsh Tourist Board? Great job if you are


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## figbat (5 Aug 2020)

Had a near miss last year. We booked a villa in Lanzarote in October 2018, to be taken in July 2019. We separately booked flights and car hire at the same time.

Two days before departure we get an email from the villa provider - "sorry, you can't use the villa - here's an alternative, let us know if you want it". When we called them it turned out that the neighbouring villa was having building work done which was very disruptive - the previous week's occupants had moved out mid-holiday. We rejected the alternative villa as it was in the wrong resort and was nowhere near what we wanted in terms of specification; that was the only alternative option the supplier's had. So there we were, 2 days from departure with nowhere to stay - time for lastminute.com - literally. Within hours we had a new villa lined up, in the right place, slightly cheaper plus a full refund AND compensation from the original supplier. When we finally arrived in the new villa it was awesome - arguably much better than the original and the new provider was very responsive.

It turned out to be a great holiday but we could have done without the 24 hours of stress just before leaving.


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## gbb (5 Aug 2020)

1st major holiday abroad, we went with old friends and shared an apartment. A good time was being had but they had a family emergency and had to head home a week early, arranged kindly by the reps. 
Ah well, the apartments ours now and we continued till the end. Coach pickup times were displayed, 8pm.
8pm came, no coach. 8.30, 9pm, still no coach. Rang the reps number, yes it's on it's way she stated, probably without double checking.
10pm, we were pacing outside the hotel...still no coach. Rang the rep, no answer....jeez.
The apartment owners arranged a taxi (the ubiquitous Mercedes taxis out there) and we hurtled across the Cretan countryside at 160kph, (100 mph) to Heraklion airport.
It dawned on us on the way, they'd have cancelled Terry and Doreens pickup and flights....and then double dawned on me....what if theyve cancelled our flights ?
It was a nervy arrival at the flight desk....and heres you boarding pass..said the staff member. Phew....

Otherwise, we're very self sufficient, do the homework on holidays, dont really struggle, if something goes wrong, theres a way to fix it. Keep calm and carry on would be a good motto.


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## DCLane (5 Aug 2020)

Not much, although we booked a budget 2* apartment holiday with a major tour operator to Ibiza in a quiet resort. Arrived and it was a bare room above a shop, no facilities and just a bed.

Complained, complained again and we were moved to another proper 2* with pool and nicely furnished.


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## raleighnut (5 Aug 2020)

Generally my holidays have been good cos I camp but there is one phenomena that gets right up my nose, why when you put a tent in a reasonably empty field and go for a walk (OK to the pub but hey ho) then on your return find someone has put their tent up *right next to yours* when there's a whole bloody field to use.


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## gbb (5 Aug 2020)

We did get stuck out in Cyprus when the Icelandic volcano went up. I was working not holidaying so any expense wasnt an issue for me...but my wife had followed me out there a few days earlier (which we often arranged,, the only cost were flights for her)
I just carried on working and we shifted accommodation a bit but no biggie, until it came to going home I think £7 to 10 days late...flights suddenly had a premium and the only ones we could get were business class to Prague then a swap to Heathrow. My costs were covered but that cost me dear (£1000 for both of her flights) although it was nice to give her a taste of something better than cattle class.
I wonder how holidaymakers fared ?


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## gbb (5 Aug 2020)

raleighnut said:


> Generally my holidays have been good cos I camp but there is one phenomena that gets right up my nose, why when you put a tent in a reasonably empty field and go for a walk (OK to the pub but hey ho) then on your return find someone has put their tent up *right next to yours* when there's a whole bloody field to use.


Sheep mentality, you often see it. It's happened to me in empty carpark...you go back and now theres 2 cars, the latest inches from yours.


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## Dave7 (5 Aug 2020)

gbb said:


> Sheep mentality, you often see it. It's happened to me in empty carpark...you go back and now theres 2 cars, the latest inches from yours.


Was just saying exactly that.
New car, supermarket carpark so I parked at the furthest point.
Came back and someone had parked inches away. Half the car park was empty so WHY


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## cougie uk (5 Aug 2020)

We did have a camping holiday in Devon where it rained so much the car couldn't get up the grassy field for almost a week. Was quite good really. Cups of tea and reading books. 

Happened upon a caravan park in the bottom of a gorge today. I'd not fancy driving down the road - single track and steeeep. Their website ad has a photo of Talacre lighthouse on. It's a 15 mile drive ! Nowhere near the beach !


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## ColinJ (5 Aug 2020)

raleighnut said:


> on your return find someone has put their tent up *right next to yours* when there's a whole bloody field to use.





gbb said:


> Sheep mentality, you often see it. It's happened to me in empty carpark...you go back and now theres 2 cars, the latest inches from yours.


The one that _really _bugs me is when there are 9 free urinals in a row next to the one that I am using and then some random stranger walks in and decides to stand right next to me! Bonus bugging points for not following urinal protocol (stare straight ahead in silence, do NOT turn towards me, do NOT try to engage me in conversation, and DEFINITELY DO NOT LOOK DOWN)!


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## Grant Fondo (5 Aug 2020)

I once had a disaster at the Mandarin in Hong Kong. Ordered a Hine XO cognac and recieved a VSOP! For gods sake. Didn't totally ruin the holiday but at least the sommellier was apologetic


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## screenman (5 Aug 2020)

Dave7 said:


> Was just saying exactly that.
> New car, supermarket carpark so I parked at the furthest point.
> Came back and someone had parked inches away. Half the car park was empty so WHY



Simple, types like her keep me busy.


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## fossyant (5 Aug 2020)

Got stuck with the Icelandic volcano. Was on a package holiday so OK, except Mr Accident prone was here. As we knew we were going to be stuck, we decided to get water squirters as all the kids were having a big battle in the pool. What idiot ran after my kids at the side of the pool. Yep, slipped and broke my ribs. Spent the rest of the holiday sleeping in a chair at night. Didn't want checking out because of a previous holiday.

A few years earlier, holiday in Spain, near Benalamedina, at Christmas with the outlaws. Hotel was full of oldies. Anyway, son gets Chicken Pox on the last couple of days so couldn't fly. Outlaws and Mum, daughter go home on time. Me, stuck for another week in an empty hotel with a two year old. Lets say we did loads of walking with him in the trolly. Bored to death.

Hence not going to a medic when I broke my ribs.


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## screenman (5 Aug 2020)

Got rushed into hospital in Turkey blue flashing lights etc, this was two years ago with herniated disc in my back, spent the rest of the holiday in bed not knowing if i was going home or not.


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## raleighnut (5 Aug 2020)

screenman said:


> Simple, types like her keep me busy.


Why assume it was a woman ?

Mind you a pet peeve of mine is people parking with 2 wheels on the pavement but there is a very considerate European woman lives a few doors down who generally parks 18" to 2' away from the kerb. This forms a most effective 'pinch point' that prevents the numpties who think that 30mph is a target not a limit and would happily do 40+ along a residential street from treating our road like Mallory Park.


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## screenman (5 Aug 2020)

raleighnut said:


> Why assume it was a woman ?
> 
> Mind you a pet peeve of mine is people parking with 2 wheels on the pavement but there is a very considerate European woman lives a few doors down who generally parks 18" to 2' away from the kerb. This forms a most effective 'pinch point' that prevents the numpties who think that 30mph is a target not a limit and would happily do 40+ along a residential street from treating our road like Mallory Park.



Just testing to see if it was spotted, I am famous in the motor trade for not being able to park a car. That does not mean I do not park it safely just if I take it off the line up to work on then put it back when finished it is easy to spot.


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## NorthernDave (5 Aug 2020)

Two spring to mind.

Decided years ago to give camping a try and booked into a very well rated campsite in North Yorkshire on the fringes of a small market town.

It was a really nice site, so we set up without issue had a walk into the town for a look round and got back at about 5pm and got the BBQ going for some tea. Although the campsite had lots of tents up there were very few people around.
Bloke a couple of tents down started chatting with us, and gave the great news that there was a party of about thirty people celebrating a 40th birthday and they'd kept him awake until 3am that morning. Apparently they'd all gone to the pub which was why it was so quiet.

We turned in at about half ten, they arrived back from the pub at around 11:30 and proceeded to sit round drunkenly talking loudly for the next three hours. Which was annoying.

The other was a bit more serious - we booked a holiday of a lifetime to Mexico. The first week was excellent, we did a couple of tours (Chichen Itza was amazing) and really enjoyed it. Then Hurricane Wilma arrived - at the time the most destructive hurricane ever to hit the Carribbean.
We were confined to our rooms for three days and basically anything outside was wrecked, the rain was so intense that we woke up to find two inches of water covering the floor of our 1st floor room! We got away quite lightly compared to Cancun, which suffered major damage including trashing the airport.
The irony is that we'd specifically chosen those two weeks as they were almost at the end of the hurricane season and there had never been a hurricane in that area in that fortnight.
I have to say that Thomson (TUI) were bloody useless throughout, including eventually flying us back to Gatwick after telling everyone on the evacuation flight it was flying to Manchester first...


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## Brains (5 Aug 2020)

First holiday without my parents.
A friend who had been grape picking the previous year had met some Moroccan lads, who had invited him to Morocco
So off we went.
Two young lads, a load of money and free time, with no experience of travelling without adult supervision, what could possibly go wrong ?

Train to Dover
Ferry to Calais
Train to Paris
Get on the overnight sleeper to Madrid
We have a Dutch Professor and a young just married Moroccan couple in the compartment with us. We do not have a single common language between us, but no matter it's only for the night.
A very disturbed night being bumped all over the place and we seemed to be going backwards as much as forwards, By the next morning we are still in France and only a few hours south of Paris.
Overnight there had been a 3 way train accident ahead of us. Lots of people injured and killed.
It was all over the press globally.
Our one night on the train turned into 3 nights and 4 days
We finally arrived in Madrid early in the evening .

Across from the station we spotted a bar, as we were underage we wondered if they would serve us!
We walked in and ordered beer. We Got Served !!
Two young lads, a load of money and free time, with no experience of travelling without adult supervision, what could possibly go wrong ?

A tall American walked over, and said "You boys need to get outta town NOW"
"Why?, it's great, they serve us beer" we replied
"You boys need to get outta town NOW" he repeated.
At that point the bar went quiet ...
All eyes turned to the TV over the bar.
There was a shoot up going on in the Parliament in Madrid. A military Coup was under way
(Quite how the American warned us before it had happened has never been explained)
We left the bar, went back to the station and got on the first train heading south
It took us to Toledo

Toledo has the biggest barracks in Spain, it was the center of the Coup.
It was all over the press globally.
Unsurprisingly we had no problem finding a nice B&B for a very good price.

The next day we continued south to Gibraltar.
When we got there the border was closed.
So onto Algeciras where we got a ferry to Tangier.
Tangier was the worst place I've ever been to, but that is another story.
We ended up in Casablanca and met up with the Moroccan friends for a week.

Then headed down to Marrakesh by coach.
During the journey we passed multiple convoys of tanks, troops and other military hardware.
We know what going on here, it's another military coup! The last one was OK, so this one should not be a problem.
We arrived in Marrakesh, strangely were were the only tourists, so we go to the most expensive hotel in town, 67p per person per night.
We get the penthouse suite. We order beer on room service, it cost more than the room !

We sit back on the roof with our beer and watch the artillery barrage in the Atlas mountains some 60 miles south.
The Polisario Front were in the process of invading Morocco.
It was all over the press globally.

Needless to say when we got home both of our parents where practically apoplectic, assuming that we had been killed in either the French train crash, or the Spanish military coup or the Moroccan invasion.


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## raleighnut (5 Aug 2020)

Brains said:


> First holiday without my parents.
> A friend who had been grape picking the previous year had met some Moroccans, who had invited him to Morocco
> So off we went.
> Two young lads, a load of money and free time, with no experience of travelling without adult supervision, what could possibly go wrong ?
> ...


Now that's a holiday


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## ColinJ (5 Aug 2020)

I used to go to the Costa Blanca every March for a cycling training camp holiday in the sun, usually accompanied by a pal who was fitter than me. 

Group rides from the hotel were split into 4 groups ranging from group 1 (long, fast rides) down to group 4 (shorter, slower rides with more stops). My friend used to go out with G1 or G2 and I would go with G2 or G3. 

The near disaster didn't happen to me, but to my friend. One day, as usual, he set off in the group before mine and by the time I set off the other group were out of sight. We headed out NE on the N-332 coast road and eventually turned right to descend to Calpe. There is a roundabout with a fountain in the centre of it on the descent into town. As I was going round it I spotted my pal sat on the pavement on the far side of the fountain, head in his hands. I stopped to find out what was going on and discovered that he had cuts and bruises to his body and an injury to his head! I asked what had happened and he replied that the road surface was incredibly slippery*** and his bike went from under him at the back of his group. Nobody in that group had even noticed that he'd gone down.

I checked him over. Fortunately, it looked like his injuries were fairly minor but I was concerned about him having taken a knock to the head. I asked if he wanted to be escorted back to our hotel but he was having none of it. He decided to do his day's ride with me and my group instead of his original group. We got back on our bikes and spent 10 minutes chasing my group down.

*** The roads in that area don't get much rain so an oily residue slowly builds up. When it _does _rain, the road surface can become extremely slippery until the residue is washed away. We worked out that wind had probably caught the spray from the fountain and blown it across the road. Here is a picture of said roundabout, with small fountains round it. (I'm sure that they used to be a lot higher whenever I rode past - perhaps they had complaints from other people crashing there?) PS The ambulance was not for my friend - ha ha!







Other Cost Blanca road slipperiness... We went out one day and the lightest of light drizzle started. Our group leader immediately declared the ride unsafe and took us to a nearby cafe to shelter and drink coffee while we waited for the drizzle to stop. I thought that it was ludicrous, but bit my lip... After about an hour we finally got going again. I had let a gap of about 10 metres develop between me and the rider in front and went to stand to accelerate after him. Without warning my back wheel slid from under me and I fishtailed across the road. Ah, so that is what our esteemed group leader meant by "_slippery when wet_"!


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## cougie uk (5 Aug 2020)

Brains said:


> First holiday without my parents.
> A friend who had been grape picking the previous year had met some Moroccans, who had invited him to Morocco
> So off we went.
> Two young lads, a load of money and free time, with no experience of travelling without adult supervision, what could possibly go wrong ?
> ...


Sweet baby cheeses !!

Er any plans for this summer ?


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## slowmotion (6 Aug 2020)

I think you have to set out on holiday with a bit of a sense of adventure. I like looking back on the memories of cancelled flights, cockroach-infested bedrooms, sinking ferries and predatory villains who very nearly fleeced me.....and worse. Surviving dodgy experiences is a whole lot more satisfying than drifting through perfect ones.


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## BrumJim (6 Aug 2020)

This is a hotel I stayed in on the north side of Mount Etna about a week after we left:





and when the lava had cooled down:


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## gbb (6 Aug 2020)

Closer to home, when the kids were kids we had a camper trailer we used quite regularly and one year set off for Torbay, somewhere we'd never been. We set off and it was raining, ah well. We arrived, it was raining, it never stopped raining all week. We couldn't dry anything, we ran out of things to do, everything had a red tinge from the sand it just turned miserable and at least we were off the floor in our wheeled platform...people had saturated tents and were packing up.
We called it a day a week early and with some gladness set off home up the M5.
It was like a scene from the Vietnamese countryside, mile after mile after mile of waterlogged fields either side of the motorway, right through Somerset, there must have been hundReds of square miles of flooded fields.
Next day we heard they were closing many of the campsites and I suspect the south of Britain had had record rainfall.


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## oldwheels (6 Aug 2020)

raleighnut said:


> Generally my holidays have been good cos I camp but there is one phenomena that gets right up my nose, why when you put a tent in a reasonably empty field and go for a walk (OK to the pub but hey ho) then on your return find someone has put their tent up *right next to yours* when there's a whole bloody field to use.


I arrived at Shinness near Lairg to an empty field with my Transit camper. While I was away a tent arrived and pitched with their guy lines almost under my wheels. Large field and nobody else there at that time. I was leaving at 0500 heading for home and fell over their guy lines several times and left my old diesel running with the exhaust facing their tent door until the engine warmed up.Made me feel much better.


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## oldwheels (6 Aug 2020)

At Rosemarkie on the Black Isle I could see some activity on the other side of the bay. About 2100 a rave started with mind blowing volume and continued until about 5 the next morning. I got no sleep. The village must have been shielded from the noise or the police would have been down but the sound carried perfectly over the water to the camp site.


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## Salad Dodger (6 Aug 2020)

My wife and I are lifelong campers and caravanners, so we have had our share of less than ideal weather holidays, but only once ever have we packed up and come home....

We were due to have two weeks in Wales. First week in the south, on a site overlooking the Bristol Channel. Second week in Anglesey.

After the first three days of much rain, two nights of badly broken sleep due to gales threatening to uproot the tent with us in it, we and the dog were all cold, wet and thoroughly miserable. For the first time in 30+ years, we packed up and ran for home.....

Sorry, Wales, to scapegoat you. By way of balance, we also had a couple of glorious annual holidays in St David's. Wales at its best!


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## TheDoctor (8 Dec 2020)

Flew to Athens, got a ferry to Crete and had a lovely time.
Got onto the overnight ferry to go back to Athens and went to sleep. Woke up still in Crete - sailing cancelled due to a storm.
Booked flights to Athens and went to the airport. ATC then went on strike - domestic flights all cancelled for the day.
Looks like we're not getting our BA flight from Athens back to LHR.
We finally got flights to Luxembourg at about midnight, got four hours sleep, then a flight back to City.
Would not recommend...


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## nickyboy (9 Dec 2020)

When I was about 12 we went camping near Tenby in Wales. Ok for the first couple of days on our big frame tent (one of those you can stand up in) on the campsite

Weather took a turn for the worse. Rained every day, wind got stronger. This was at the time of the Fastnet yacht race and this was the year of the Fastnet disaster with a huge summer storm destroying the yachts

Needless to say our frame tent wasn't designed to withstand gale force winds. Woken up at 3am by Mum. Dad was holding onto the frame of the tent and the poles were buckling. 

We had to jump up in our pyjamas, gale force winds, pouring down. Tents were being uprooted and blowing across the campsite. We chucked everything in the trailer and the car, loads of wet stuff on our knees all the way home

Tent was a write off. We never went camping in the UK again


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## Edwardoka (10 Dec 2020)

No coups d'etat or rail disasters on my holiday. Indeed the vast majority of the trip wasn't disastrous at all. Cycling from Normandy down the entirety of western France to Pau, then across the Pyrenees into Aragon, east into Catalonia, up the French Riviera and all the way to Italy. Most enjoyable but not terribly eventful, barring a few interesting days where forward motion turned out to be quite the adventure in itself.

A month in, and on my first full day in Italy, my custom-built bike - and everything on it - ran off with someone in the 2 minutes I was in a shop buying water. Thousands of pounds invested into the trip of a lifetime, lost in an incautious moment.

The day afterwards, in Genoa, after dealing with the crushing embarrassment of walking around a city in cycling clothes and cleats _senza bici_ by raiding H&M, and on the way to the library to try to arrange a meeting in the consulate that turned out not to exist, my phone (one of the two items I had on me when the bike was lifted) slipped out of my hand and the screen was irreparably smashed. That was a proper howling at the sky "WHYYY!!!!?" moment.

I won't say what happened the night before I flew back, because that would consistute a massive thread derailment even by my standards.

It is safe to say that it was a very glum Ed who flew out of Milano (still wearing cleats) and an actively miserable Ed on the airport coach from Edinburgh Airport to Glasgow under a stereotypically lowering Scottish sky. I've never recovered from that bus journey.


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## gbb (15 Dec 2020)

Again, not holiday but work.
En route to Uruguay via Madrid I used to carry a lot of electronics, comms gear for my job, this always caused minor problems. Heathrow, went through the xray machines, got held up while the looked at the contents of my hand luggage, already a little tight on time, got the all clear, set off at pace to the departure gate....got half way there.....my bag, I've left my bag at xray !!!!!
Ran back, ran to departure, made it ok.
Changed at Madrid, on to Montevideo.
Arrived, went to baggage...waited...and waited, and waited for my main luggage, nothing. Logged the loss with Iberian, now late for my taxi. No clothes, lots of parts and components lost, stuff I need for the job.
All got sorted in the end, cobbled clothes together locally, borrowed tools, managed without the parts.

Egypt, we sent a container out there with a full packing line setup, computer, software and specific comms hardware ...and a hardware 'key' that looks like a memory stick.
Arrived, unloaded the container that had quite clearly been gone through by customs, looked like a bomb had gone off in it, set everything up....and the hardware key was missing ..I cant run without it. Probably taken and inspected (or stolen by someone) at customs. £600 for a new one and they flew it out next day.

Cyprus, comms pc went up the swanky, couldnt get a replacement locally that would work with our software / hardware...had to send our IT guy out from the UK to sort it. He didnt mind...


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## Bazzer (15 Dec 2020)

A holiday to Slovenia before it became an independent country. 
The flight out wasn't great. - Aircraft not clean. Vegetarian wife and daughter not catered for despite plenty of advance notice. Cabin staff whose make up seemed to have been applied by a blind decorator.
The suitcase containing my daughter's clothes went missing and didn't reappear for 4 days, despite promises of "tomorrow".
The holiday home we had booked wasn't available (!) and we were put into another property. This was a smaller property in the grounds of the owner's house, but each time we went out, furniture and/or fittings would be removed from property by the owner, never to return. 
We had prebooked a Golf as hire car. We were provided with crappy Yugo.
The holiday company rep refused to intervene with anything at first, only getting involved after repeated complaints.
The flight back was the same standard as the outgoing one.
Took the travel company to the small claims court and won. The company went bust before I could recover our money.


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## ColinJ (17 Dec 2020)

I was checking in at Alicante airport on my way back from one of my Costa Blanca cycling holidays. I knew from previous holidays that my large Scicon bike box would not fit through the X-ray machine but the security guys insisted on trying. I don't speak Spanish. They didn't speak English. I watched them faff about for 2 or 3 minutes before they gave up...

A big, very stern-looking security guy said something in Spanish. I shrugged. He tapped the lock on the box with his baton. Ah, the usual thing... Unpack the box, x-ray the contents, repack the box... The frame went through, the wheels went through, my clothes... Then we came to the large blue container with the screw-top lid. The one with about 1 kg of maltodextrin carbo-powder left in it. Maltodextrin, a white powder that might very well look like... Oh crap!  

Baton guy rapped the lid with his stick. I unscrewed the lid, revealing the coke-like powder within the container...

The guard leapt back, muttered something to his colleague, and tightened his grip on the baton. He pointed to the powder and barked out a question to me... I didn't need to speak Spanish - basically "_WTF is THIS!!!_" 

My legs started to shake. Then I had a moment of inspiration... I mimicked getting on my bike and riding along. I wiped imaginary sweat from my brow, my tongue dangling down. I pointed to one of my empty bottles and pretended to scoop powder into it, add water, and give it a good shake. Then I guzzled half of the imaginary contents down, remounted, and rode off...

Security guy glared at me, then slowly broke into a smile. He turned to his mate and laughed... "_Ha ha, it's only maltodextrin carbo-powder for his rides, innit!_" Or the Spanish equivalent of that...

He tapped the side of the box and indicated that all was ok. Pack up, and finish the formalities.

Thank goodness that Spain is a country that understands cycling!


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## cyberknight (18 Dec 2020)

Brother in law went on holiday with his mate to see another mate who was on the navy on stopover down Devon,on the way back they were in an rta and died


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## nickyboy (18 Dec 2020)

gbb said:


> Again, not holiday but work.
> En route to Uruguay via Madrid I used to carry a lot of electronics, comms gear for my job, this always caused minor problems. Heathrow, went through the xray machines, got held up while the looked at the contents of my hand luggage, already a little tight on time, got the all clear, set off at pace to the departure gate....got half way there.....my bag, I've left my bag at xray !!!!!
> Ran back, ran to departure, made it ok.
> Changed at Madrid, on to Montevideo.
> ...


Strangely enough I did a business trip to Montevideo a couple of years ago with Iberia via Madrid and my luggage also failed to get on the Madrid-Uruguay flight.

I was only there four days and it turned up on the fourth day. Montevideo had a Gap so I spent the meetings relaxing in preppy university style gear I bought there. Then Iberia argued the toss over how much I spent 

I've flown to Asia more than a hundred times so I've got loads of biz trip horror stories


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## gbb (18 Dec 2020)

I hated flying Iberian, surly staff, unhelpful.
Long since defunct Cyprus Airways (or Airlines)...I loved flying with them, looked after you, happy people, good service and wine was always free.


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## gavgav (13 Feb 2021)

Lads holiday to Tenerife, back in 2007, first night there, plenty to drink, fell head first down a set of concrete night club steps....knocked myself out, broke my nose, broken tooth, 30 stitches inside my mouth and lips, blood everywhere, 2 black eyes, spent the rest of the week on painkillers and feeling very sorry for myself.......learnt my lesson the hard way about getting way too drunk.


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## Ian H (13 Feb 2021)

In the late 90s two of us booked a flight to Malaga for a short tour round Southern Spain. On arriving at the airport I realised I had mislaid my passport. Friend caught the flight & I made a hurried trip to the Passport Office in London to see if I could get a rapid replacement. 

A day later, clutching a brand-new passport, I was at Gatwick hoping for a cancellation seat. Got one pretty quickly & arrived at Malaga in the morning. There was no sign of my friend so I headed over the mountains to Ronda & found a hotel for the night. 

Next day I headed for Algeciras. It started raining and a very slippery road (see somewhere above) brought me down. Bike & I slid down the road, me wondering whether we, or the lorry just behind, would stop first. It was a bin truck. The two crew got out, one picked me off the ground, the other lifted the bike & expertly checked it over. One suggested that I should get the cut on my head seen to, said there was a hospital in the next town. 

I couldn't see the hospital, so continued to Algeciras & found a pharmacy. They directed me to a 'night clinic' where the cut was patched and road rash on my hip dealt with by application of iodine (ouch!). 

Finally, I had a call from friend Chris. He'd nipped over to Morocco for a quick tour, bought a rug (which he carried in a pannier for the rest of the trip) and been threatened with death by a tour guide whose services he'd declined.

The rest of the trip was comparatively uneventful. We eventually found our was to Ronda again. The Hotel owner looked askance at me when I asked where to put the bikes; then I realised it was the same hotel that I'd stayed in just a few days ago. 

I managed to retain my passport for the flight back to Cardiff.


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## bruce1530 (13 Feb 2021)

Not me, but Mum & Dad, plus aunt & uncle, granny, plus a handful of cousins, all going on holiday to Spain.

Day before they’re due to go, aunt phones my mum, “I’ve just been checking our tickets for tomorrow. Check-In closes in 20 minutes.” They’d all got the day wrong...

Travel agent was brilliant managed to get them all on an alternative flight later that day. However, the rearranged flight was from Leeds, the original was Glasgow -so they had 8 hours to get ready, pack, and drive about 250 miles... (and to organise drivers to bring the cars back, since they would not be returning to Leeds....)


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## MontyVeda (14 Feb 2021)

Going to Turkey for the 2006 total eclipse with a couple of friends... the flight was Manchester to Schiphol, Schiphol to Antalya, with five hours in between. It was the last Saturday in March so the clocks would be going back at 2am on Sunday morning (which was around the time of our flight out of Schiphol). One of my friends (the type who thinks he knows everything about everything) insisted that the clocks only go back in the UK. I knew that other countries do have daylight saving times, but wasn't entirely sure in the Netherlands was one of them, or if they adjusted the clocks on the same date as we do in the UK, and the other guy had no idea... but we eventually agreed to play it safe and set off back to the airport an hour earlier, just in case. Then we went to a coffee shop, got really stoned very quickly and completely lost track of time. We legged it through the streets, got on the train with seconds to spare, legged it to the airport (a bit like the hurried poor family from the Fast Show), legged it through the airport and got on the plane ten minutes before takeoff... phew! (don't do drugs)


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## Tripster (11 Mar 2021)

Flying home from Israel from work. After the checking of passport at door, I was happily chatting to the lady at the counter as she checked in my bags.
Now it so happened that one bag was a few kilos over max weight so she asked if I could remove some items and place them in the other bag to even out the weight. Yeah sure no problem. So I opened my Peli box and thought (stupidly) I will remove the heaviest item and put it in my other kit bag...........Now removing an ingersoll rand rivet gun in the middle of an Israel airport was not my smartest move ever as I sat on my arse in departures frantically blowing to simulate “AIR HAMMER AIR HAMMER” . 4 rather hard looking guys bearing down on me. My colleagues stepped away to another check in desk


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## steverob (16 Mar 2021)

gbb said:


> We did get stuck out in Cyprus when the Icelandic volcano went up. I was working not holidaying so any expense wasnt an issue for me...but my wife had followed me out there a few days earlier (which we often arranged,, the only cost were flights for her)
> I just carried on working and we shifted accommodation a bit but no biggie, until it came to going home I think £7 to 10 days late...flights suddenly had a premium and the only ones we could get were business class to Prague then a swap to Heathrow. My costs were covered but that cost me dear (£1000 for both of her flights) although it was nice to give her a taste of something better than cattle class.
> I wonder how holidaymakers fared ?


We very nearly got caught up in the Icelandic volcano chaos, but luckily it was over just as we were coming home.

We were travelling in Japan for just under two weeks and the eruption happened I think 2 or 3 days after we arrived. At first it was just an interesting talking point, but as the time got closer and closer to our departure date and flights were still grounded, it started to become a little more worrying. As these were the days before ubiquitous free WiFi, you either had to go down to the hotel's business centre and pay to use an internet connection or rely on the only English language channel on the TV in our room (usually BBC World Service) to try and get up to date information - getting through to the airlines was pretty much an impossibility as you would be on hold for hours and quite frankly I didn't want to spend my entire holiday stuck on the phone!

Our major problem though was that a few days after our scheduled departure, the Japanese celebrate what they call "Golden Week". They have something like three public holidays in the space of 7 days, so it ends up that most of the country takes the entire week off and goes on holiday, usually domestically though. This meant that if our holiday did have an enforced extension, everywhere would be either already be booked up, or prohibatively expensive - as if Tokyo isn't already that at the best of times!

Luckily they started opening up airspace the day before we were set to fly and as we'd upgraded our return flights (many months previously), we did get away on time - we'd heard that many passengers in economy had been bumped from our flight in order to get people home who'd been waiting for flights over a week, which I can understand why they did that, but still must have been a sickener if that had happened to you.


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## nickyboy (22 Mar 2021)

I did get caught up in the Icelandic volcano chaos but was really lucky

I was in China for a couple of weeks on business and had a booked flight back home Beijing-Paris-Manchester. I'd been watching the news and there was loads of talk of flights being cancelled by various airlines. Some were still running, some weren't. At the time, Air France, mine, was still running.

I checked my flight the morning of departure from Beijing and it showed as still operating. I turned up at the airport and it was chaos. Apparently loads of flights on Skyteam associated airlines (like KLM) had been cancelled and people were told just to turn up at the airport each day and see if they could get on another flight. Hundreds of tired and irate customers sitting around the departure desks hoping for no-shows. I feared the worst. I saw a member of staff and said I had a ticket for the flight (rather than being one of the hopefuls). No problem, come this way...front of the queue. Checked in, straight through. 

Turns out this was the last Air France flight out. The subsequent ones got cancelled. Landed in Paris and my flight to Manchester was cancelled. But an earlier Air France flight was allowed to leave and there were a couple of available seats. Got rescheduled onto that and I was on my way. I think my bag got stuck in Paris, unsurprisingly. But I got home, and that was all I was concerned about.


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## PK99 (22 Mar 2021)

We were due on White Island a week or two after it went Whoosh


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## Adam4868 (23 Mar 2021)

Had loads when I was younger,but I'd have called them adventures then 
Missed a flight to Australia after a late night in Bangkok..decided not to catch it for another six months.
Missed the ship I was working on out of New York...long story but it involved a girl and alcohol.Cost me a fortune to fly to catch it a couple of ports later,and all my shore leave lost for a month....was worth it though.
Did something similar on a boat trip down the Yangtze,horrible journey as was Chinese new year...managed to make it to Wuhan where I met my gorgeous partner....two kids later it doesn't quite seem the disaster of a trip it was 😁


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## TheDoctor (30 Mar 2021)

PK99 said:


> We were due on White Island a week or two after it went Whoosh


Been there a good few years ago - I'd be astounded if it's ever open to tourism again.
I actually know a senior nurse in the local hospital - I suspect it was a harrowing few days afterwards.


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## HarryTheDog (31 Mar 2021)

When I was in the Army we did a Adventure training trip to Morrocco to climb the biggest mountain there. 12 blokes mostly under the age of 30 a officer and a WO2 in charge.
Got off to a bad start some of the idiots tried to smuggle beer into the dry country in one of the Land rovers, a bribe of fags got us out of that.
Then got stopped by the police on a trumped up speeding stop , the WO2 went for the fag bribe again, the officer had had enough of bribery and tried to stop it where upon we were told we would be taken to jail. So fags passed hands again.
Went to a restaraunt, negotiated the price, at the end the price suddenly doubles, we refused to pay, 2 guys came out of the kitchen with meat cleavers, all 12 of us stood up and grabbed the closest possible weapons, chairs , steak knives etc. They backed off, original price paid.

Climbed the mountain on the way down, 2 incidents. I was by myself taking pictures and some random goat herder came up to me and tried to push me down the steep side of the mountain, now I am small but a dam site heavier and stronger than the guy so he ended up doing a flying somersault down the slope.

We had mule drivers who then refused to take us any further unless more money was stumped up. The guys were pissed off by now so they were sent on their way with a kick up the butt and we kept the mules and led them ourselves. When we got to the base village we told the mule owner who then hid in a olive grove and when the 3 guys appeared he whipped the living daylights out of them.

Went to Marakesh in the market 2 of our number got detatched and a guy with a monkey started to demmand money for photos, when they refused to hand over any dosh ( silly as we had been warned if you take a photo of anyone they would probably want money) he threw the monkey at one of them which scratched his head and face so he threw it back. The guy then claimed his monkey was injured and wanted a fortune. They refused to pay up and started walking. Soon they had a 30 odd strong band of angry morrocans following them. They rejoined us and we had a stand off, many of them with knives drawn but we we were mainly big and strong and fit so in the end a price was negotiated.

Then in Tangiers we were in a restaraunt and a local guide was trying to extort a load of money out of a young french couple with a baby so one of the guys who had had enough of the whole trip grabbed the guy and bodily threw him out of the place. Later as we left the guy turned up with some mates and a running battle ensued down the street where the locals lads found out it was better to beat a hasty retreat. ( Tangiers back in those days really was a horrible place to me)

Also in the second part of the trip 2 of the guys got the ramping trots. now they did not get a huge amount of sympathy as they were the 2 most annoying guys on the trip one being the officer. Most of us had followed advice and not eaten food from street vendors, these 2 had. The poor guys orignally were asking us to stop the landrovers by a tree or a wall, then it got much worse and they did not bother with such privacy. When we got back to base both got diagnosed with I think Salmonella , the 6ft 5 officer lost 7 stone in total.
Not unsurprisingly I have never gone back having never been threatened by so many people with so many knives before or since.


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## PK99 (31 Mar 2021)

HarryTheDog said:


> When I was in the Army we did a Adventure training trip to Morrocco to climb the biggest mountain there. 12 blokes mostly under the age of 30 a officer and a WO2 in charge.
> Got off to a bad start some of the idiots tried to smuggle beer into the dry country in one of the Land rovers, a bribe of fags got us out of that.
> Then got stopped by the police on a trumped up speeding stop , the WO2 went for the fag bribe again, the officer had had enough of bribery and tried to stop it where upon we were told we would be taken to jail. So fags passed hands again.
> Went to a restaraunt, negotiated the price, at the end the price suddenly doubles, we refused to pay, 2 guys came out of the kitchen with meat cleavers, all 12 of us stood up and grabbed the closest possible weapons, chairs , steak knives etc. They backed off, original price paid.
> ...



You win!

<Thread Closed>


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## HarryTheDog (31 Mar 2021)

Oh but I havent told you about my honeymoon yet. Jamaica.
Wife had "jamaican flu" and spent half of it ill in bed.
Got threatened by a guy with a knife on the beach who tried to rob us ( I could tell he wasnt deadly serious so told him to knob off and he did) .

A murder in the hotel next to us, local walked into the hotel and shot a guest through the head in the swimming pool.

Went down the lazy river raft ride on a coach trip, we were forced through the craft village at the end where the whole coach party were so pissed off with the sales pressure we all refused to buy anything. Some of the traders then tried to invade the coach fighting with the driver and guide demmanding we buy stuff.
Fianlly when I got home I found I had borrowing worms in my feet and all the skin fell off the bottom of one of my feet . I had to wait a week for the "special drugs" to arrive from the caribean to kill them off. apparently if they had got above my ankle they could have got into a artery and got to my heart and lungs and killed me. 
Edit my feet were diagnosed by the Military nurse not the doctor as the doctor did not have a clue but the nurse had served in tropical climbs and had seen it before, the tracks of the worms were so clear on one of my feet they took photos and ended up in a medical journal.


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