| Holiday horror stories
What happens when good getaways go bad? iVillagers recall their worst-ever holidays. Beware before you book...
My drink was spiked! First, the flight was severely delayed, and then we ended up having to stay in a weird tenty thing that was unbearably hot during the day. However, worst of all, when we went out on the first night, my drink was spiked with Meths so I spent the rest of the holiday frying in a tent and feeling really sick. Eugh. Hotel 'hell on earth' To be fair, the hotel was lovely during the day as all the drunken yobs were sound asleep, but between midnight and six in the morning it was hell on earth. Strangers knocking on your door, lads peeing anywhere and everywhere, and as for the rest, well, I'll leave that to your imagination. When it finally came to an end, I've never been so glad to be coming home - then disaster really struck. The plane that we were meant to get on wasn't big enough! Unfortunately we had to wait behind with 43 other irate passengers. To top it all, the only way home was to fly from Majorca to Ibiza then Ibiza to Edinburgh. It took me, my husband and two children aged seven and four a total of 23 hours to arrive back home, exhausted and somewhat angry. But did I go to my bed? No I didn't! I went straight down to the travel agents to make sure no-one else was due to go to the same place. Our local travel agent was horrified. After lots of letters to Thomson Holidays, we did eventually get about £800 in compensation, but once you've had a nightmare you don't forget it in a hurry! Mosquito miseries That night, someone set the fire alarm off, so I had to hobble down the metal fire escape with one shoe on and one off. A day or so later I got bitten and my leg went all red, with a big heavy lump inside it. I had two smaller bites on my wrist which didn't seem too bad. Two days before I came home, I woke up with an excruciating shooting pain going up my arm, and various small spots all over my body. I found out when I got home that this was an allergic reaction to the other bites, but I couldn't do anything about it at the time, because I had no way of calling a doctor. Although there was a phone book in reception at the apartment, the phone was locked in the bar! Little apartment of horrors The apartment itself was dirty, balcony doors did not lock and the doors to adjoining apartments had a good one inch gap top and bottom - it was like having the neighbours in the same room as you. Noise kicked off that first night, not just from the numerous bars right underneath our apartment but also from the British Bulldog karaoke bar at the end of the block, which stayed open all night! To add insult to injury, an Outward Bound group basically had full run of the accommodation (a fact we did not find out until the next day) all got very drunk and started throwing missiles off the balconies into the pool area - the whole experience was terrifying. Four days later we were moved to a new apartment but by then, the holiday was ruined. No fouling please, we're British We had strangers break into - and foul - in our apartment. However, when the manager inspected the lock, the entry had not been forced and the lock wasn't tampered with, making it likely that the intruders had a key. Also, the door was locked on our return just as we had left it, meaning that the intruders locked the door behind them! Luckily nothing was taken. It could have been much worse if we had have been in the apartment, but this charming incident occurred during the evening while we were out and about. The attitude of the rep stationed in Tenerife was disgusting - she did little to investigate the break-in, and was nonchalant about getting our return tickets sorted out so we could go home sooner (we were too scared to stay any longer). The behaviour of this rep gave the impression that we had asked her to go out of her way, when customer care was clearly her job. On returning to the UK, I consulted a friend of mine who is a barrister. She helped me write a letter to both the travel company and the travel ombudsman. Our travel agent offered us £100 of compensation between us, which simply added insult to injury. I never use agents to book holidays anymore, I do it all myself. At least then if things go wrong, I know who I can blame! The wrong sort of romance The room itself looked a bit dishevelled but when we looked more closely (at the sheets to be precise) we discovered that someone was obviously still using the room as there was pubic hair on the bedding and condom wrappers on the floor! A quick look in the cupboard (full of clothes) confirmed that the room was not ours so we made our way out, the romantic mood somewhat diminished! When we were eventually shown to our room, it was barely any better, but at least the sheets were clean. Needless to say, we were very relieved to be going home a week later. |