Sunburn, flight delays, forgetting an adaptor. No holiday is complete without a few minor grievances.
And years later a few oddities can even add a little colour to a trip as you try to forget exactly how much you spent on two weeks in the sun.
But when things do go wrong – really wrong – there are few feelings worse than being trapped abroad with nothing to do but wait out the rest of your ‘break’ while sitting on hold to your travel agent.
From rat-infested resorts and accommodation that does not exist to flooded hotels and toilets smeared with excrement, holidaymakers have described the times their trips went past the line of ‘quirky’ into the downright disgusting.
MailOnline revisits some of the worst holidays from hell.
Fake views!
Sonja Dennig, 28, was drawn in by the views of a room looking out across what appeared to be a beautiful beach on Germany‘s North Sea island Sylt.
But the influencer was not the first to discover that the views promised from her bedroom window were, in fact, fake.
Video shared by Sonja shows her in the room, walking towards what looks like a perfect shoreline, complete with sand dunes and basking in warm sunshine.
But as the camera pivots up it shows a grim metal grill and an industrial light positioned to give the illusion of natural light.
‘We were screwed so hard,’ the fashion influencer said of her weekend getaway with her partner and their dog as she realised the view was only a poster pasted onto the windows.
‘We thought, ‘Wow, what a great view we have,’ but look, it’s just a photo. We’re just in the basement,’ she told nearly one million followers on Instagram.
As advertised, the view out of the bedroom window appeared to be an idyllic beach scene
Sonja thought the room in Westerland would be perfect for her weekend getaway… but the view turned out to be a poster covering up views, bizarrely, of more sand dunes
Sonja was not alone. Argentine influencer Clarisa Murgia shared photos of her view from – again – what appeared to be a balcony overlooking views of a yacht sailing on the open sea as she travelled through Europe.
On closer inspection, the view was, of course, a poster covering up a dingy alleyway on the other side.
‘Someone rented a B&B with a sea view,’ she wrote alongside a TikTok video seen 2.5m times.
‘I feel scammed, guys. No one has ever deceived me like this before, hahaha.’
At first glance, Clarisa Murgia’s balcony seemed to offer stunning sea views
Clarisa’s views of a beautiful seascape were covering up a dingy alley on the other side
The hotel that doesn’t exist
One British tourist shared his holiday horror after being left £7,000 in debt after landing in Thailand to find his apartment did not actually exist.
Glen Parke had found what sounded like a fantastic deal: just £282 on a 59-night stay at a ‘one bedroom house’.
The 30-year-old had saved the Lek Lek Residence a year in advance to get the deal as he cautiously planned his stay well in advance, LadBible reports.
But upon arriving in Thailand, he discovered his accommodation was just a small single-storey shop – with no sign of the lodgings as described online.
Glen had to fork out £3,044 on a last-minute back-up, but was there told the hotel was fully booked. Finally, he found a third costing £3,579 for the period.
Glen arrived to find the room he’d booked was his not there. In its place was just a small shop
‘For the whole trip I expected to spend two or three grand but within the first two nights I’m spending £7,000,’ he said.
‘I was trying and trying to get my money back for months. The first couple of days I wanted to go home. I’d had enough.’
The booking company refunded the third hotel on April 18, and paid for the first and second – months after he arrived on New Year’s Day.
Glen was not alone. In 2019, a devastated family shared how they arrived in Hurghada, Egypt for a luxury holiday to discover the hotel had never been built.
Mark Mould, 33, booked the £3,465 two week break to the five star ‘Crystal Beach Aqua Park and Hotel’ with family and friends.
But when the group of five arrived in August 2019, they found the all inclusive paradise they had been promised didn’t exist.
After the detour, they got back on the transfer bus and were taken to the Paradise Golden 5, which was in the process of being demolished.
The Crystal Beach Aqua Park and Hotel as advertised in the brochure
How it appeared, having never been completed, when they arrived
The couple were shocked by the state of the place they were put up, which was far from clean
The photos they took of the second hotel they were taken to looked like a warzone
‘It seemed they didn’t know we were supposed to be there either,’ Mark said.
‘The deputy manager repeatedly looked over at us, shook his head and made phone calls.’
Walls and ceilings were half pulled down and there were green and dirty swimming pools.
Mark said: ‘We were shown to our rooms which had ripped sheets and poo stained floors and bathrooms that flooded if you tried to shower.’
Trying to make the most of it, he said: ‘We went for a warm beer in a non air conditioned bar to pass the time until we could examine the beautiful outside that we had been promised!
‘The bar was abysmal with ceiling tiles falling down, the sofas ripped and tattered curtains torn and falling from the walls.
‘The food was sub-standard, they constantly ran out of alcohol or just didn’t have it, and the lifeguards couldn’t swim or had left because they hadn’t been paid and were replaced by gardeners.’
This was the desolate site which confronted them when they first arrived for the holiday
After two days in run-down lodgings, they complained and were transferred to another hotel – which took an £8,000 ‘holding deposit’.
And then, finally, when it was time to leave, the transfer bus didn’t turn up, forcing them to pay for a cab in a mad rush to the airport.
Indoor pool!
A British family saw their £5,500 trip to a five-star Mexican resort become a washout after the hotel they were staying in was flooded with rainwater due to a leaky roof.
Mike Jackson, 48, was left ‘very disappointed’ after spending his three-week holiday in the Yucatan Peninsula trying to avoid vast floods inside the building.
Shocking scenes inside the Bahia Principe Grand Coba hotel show a deluge of water pooling on the tiles as guests dine at the tables, with one even holding up a parasol.
The rainwater was also claimed to have leaked through the roof in other areas across the luxury resort.
Besides the leak, Mike was also unhappy that his family members were told they couldn’t cancel their previously booked excursions, ruined by the floods.
He described taking a 14 hour round trip to swim with whale sharks, only to spend just six minutes in the water.
‘We tried to cancel the rest of the excursions but were told by the rep that we couldn’t, so we just refused to go on them.
‘It’s £5,500 spent on a supposed holiday of a lifetime and it was more like a holiday from hell. It was something you’d expect from Butlins.’
Video shows rain pattering down onto the dining room floor in the Bahia Principe Grand Coba
The lights can be seen reflecting off the floor tiles as guests walk around the dining room as though nothing has happened, over the top of some questionable karaoke
Nobody home
A British family’s dream trip to Turkey last year became a nightmare after they arrived to find the resort in a shocking state of disrepair… and everything eerily empty.
Laura Forrest booked a £3,000 getaway for ten days with her partner Gary Juggins and her children Toby and Finn at the Aria Claros resort in İzmir in April 2023.
The first red flags emerged when they arrived to find they had been given one double bed between the four of them.
Ms Forrest said they had paid extra for an apartment with a double room and two single beds. But upon arrival, the hotel said there was no booking under that description.
The hotel offered a separate room for her sons to sleep alone in.
But the holiday swiftly went downhill when they went to explore the amenities… only to find nothing was open.
The family said areas of the resort were ‘in a state of disrepair’ and there were no other holidaymakers around
Their plight came to attention after the frustrated family filmed a video to raise awareness of what they say was an ‘unfair’ and ‘misleading’ experience at the hands of the firm
‘When we booked the holiday it stated six restaurants, water park, playground, mini golf, daytime and evening entertainment but we had one restaurant and no entertainment,’ Ms Forrest said.
‘There was no mini golf, the playground didn’t exist and there was no water park so we had nothing to do.’
The story went viral when Ms Forrest shared a video of a drained pool full of leaves, slimy toilets, tile floors pooling dirty brown liquid and areas of the resort taped off under grey skies.
Upon further investigation the family from Sudbury, Suffolk claim that the all-inclusive resort they had been promised was a shadow of itself
The family said the waterpark advertised was closed when they arrived
Faeces on the floor
Gemma and Baz Gray were looking forward to a relaxing ten day holiday in Egypt, having forked out £1,700 for them to stay with their two children at the Parrotel Aqua Park Resort in Sharm El-Sheikh.
But even before they had arrived, the hotel was downgraded by local authorities and they were told they would be moved elsewhere.
The family from Bourne, Lincolnshire were compensated with a stay at the five-star Parrotel Lagoon, and were excited when they saw the glossy pictures of the resort.
But the family were devastated when they arrived and found the reality was not as advertised, they believed.
She captured the appalling scenes in the hotel during the ten-day trip away
These dirty steps made the holiday to Egypt into a disaster for the family
Gemma documented the state of the room, showing exposed wires on plugs and hairdryers, and yellowish water coming out of the taps.
A small cubicle had dirty toilet paper strewn across the floor and piled on top of a bin in the corner.
Other images show faeces laying on the floor in one of the public bathrooms and a pin which Gemma said pierced through her daughter’s foot while she was in the pool.
Her children were so unhappy that they asked their mother if they could go home after just five days of the ten day trip, she said.
But Gemma and Baz said they were left with severe stomach pains, sickness and diarrhoea for three days after eating food at the resort and were unable to go anywhere.
‘We have been on a lot of holidays and stayed in some nice hotels and some bad hotels but this was by far the worst,’ Gemma said.
‘The hotel was dangerous, the rooms had exposed wires on the plugs and hair dryers, the rooms were filthy.’
‘The toilets by the pool were a health hazard, covered with faeces and urine all over the toilets and floor,’ she continued.
‘The food was cold in the middle, uncooked and blood on the chicken.
‘I ended up with severe stomach pains, sickness and diarrhoea for four days and my husband the same for three days, we were both in agony,’
‘The plane ran out of food and drinks so the kids couldn’t have anything on the way to Egypt either.’
The family were left in distress at some exposed wires in the hotel room connected to devices
The bath water did not look enticing in the hotel where the family stayed
This pin was left on the floor and was accidentally trodden on by one the family’s children
The swimming pool at the hotel where they were moved after the first fell through
Men Working
A British mother shared her disappointment after spending £4,100 on a holiday in Crete only to discover the hotel was unfinished, the room didn’t exist and the children’s pool was next to a ‘hazardous drop’.
Lisa Wood went to the Greek island with her parents David and Glynis, husband Westley, nephew Callum and daughter, Sienna in a long-planned trip for her mother’s 70th.
She booked the trip and was told the Elounda Breeze hotel was being refurbished but work would be finished by the time they arrived.
Lisa said she had been told the hotel would meet the ‘highest standards’ but claimed when they arrived workmen were still ‘sawing and drilling’.
Mrs Wood also complained about power tools being left out in the open at the hotel, pictured
They then discovered the room they had booked for her parents and nephew ‘did not exist’. They ended up in a small room, which meant Callum had to be moved to a room on his own.
Lisa, of Altrincham, Cheshire, told the Mirror she also had to hang towels in her windows because there were no blinds and they were right next to a public footpath.
‘They didn’t sort the blinds out all week and in mine and my husband’s room we had no hot water all week,’ she said.
And due to the hotel being ‘new’, she claimed, the hotel still had some significant staffing problems – with no lifeguards manning the four communal pools.
She added the steps on a private pool in her parents’ room ‘fell off’ while there was a huge ‘health hazard’ because there was a sheer drop at the side of the pool onto concrete, leaving her fearing for her daughter’s safety.
Mrs Wood was very concerned by a ledge at her parents’ private pool at the Elounda Breeze hotel that had a sheer drop onto concrete steps, pictured
Tiny Homes
This traveller was shocked to find just how small the bathroom was in the AirBnb he had rented.
From a distance, and without anybody in it, the room might have looked like any other – complete with a little bin and hand towel.
But a popular post on the r/pics sub-Reddit broke the illusion with a photo of a man in a compromising position trying to use the toilet.
To even get into the room he had to bend his neck and go down to his knees.
The original poster clarified that the rented space was in Tenerife, Spain, and the room was the second bathroom in the attic.
Surprisingly, all the furniture was of regular size, they said.
The user added that their husband was ‘very tall at 1.95 metres’.
But at 1.58m, they also had trouble walking in without ducking.
‘He only used it just once after a few drinks and I thought it was funny, hence why I took the picture. I’m sorry if anyone is offended by it,’ the user added.
Finally, another user joked: ”Will you take a picture of me while I pee?’ ‘I thought you’d never ask.’ You’re weird sometimes, Reddit’
This man had to get in a compromising position to be able to use the toilet in this tiny Airbnb
Quarantined in ‘filth’
The pandemic feels a lifetime ago now, but it was only three years ago we were at that uneasy intersection between the lockdowns and life as we know it.
In August 2021, Andy Stanton took his family on holiday to Zante as restrictions were lifted, hoping to overcome their lockdown blues with his partner and two children.
Andy Stanton was randomly tested for COVID at the airport after arriving on the Greek Island with Katrina and their children, Olly and Isla.
He received a message telling him he was negative. But just hours after checking into the four-star Caretta Beach and Water Park resort for their two-week break, he was called by Greek health officials and told that he had in fact tested positive.
After being confined to their room at the resort, the family was then moved to a special quarantine hotel, where they were made to remain in a room infested with ants and mice.
They described the food as so poor that their children go to bed crying each night on empty stomachs as temperatures soared to 35C with faulty air con.
He sobbed: ‘We are desperate, this is the worst thing that has ever happened to us.
‘My partner is crying each day and so are the kids and we shouldn’t even be in quarantine because I have tested negative six times since arriving in Greece.
The family reported mice and ants in their room. Pictured: a mouse in their hotel room
Andy said they were served cold and stale food during their stay meaning they often go hungry
The family have said their quarantine room is in a dire condition and is infested with ants
He added: ‘The room we’re in is so filthy that if you walk across the floor without any shoes and socks, your feet turn black. It’s hot and sticky, there’s no WIFI to keep the kids entertained and it’s worse than being in prison.’
Desperate to show that he did not have COVID, Mr Stanton paid for three tests at a private clinic, which cost him around £600 and were all negative. His lateral flow tests showed negative.
Both Mr Stanton and Katrina were double vaccinated at the time.