Holiday Nightmares?

[bennocelt]

Think this might be an interesting thread to start - since the Foot.ie guys are well travelled

Just last night coming home from London - over 2000 people in Dublin airport and 4 guys working on passport control - well over an hour waiting!
A def good "Welcome to ireland".

[anto1208]

Went to turkey once arrived monday place was nice and quite hotel was nice weather was great had a drink went to bed on monday night woke up about 7 am and a load of people from dublin had arrived over night aaAHHHHHHH

[endabob1]

Been quite lucky, no real nightmares as such but the 3 worst incidents....
We had a really crap experience with a hotel in Gran Canaria a couple of years ago called Veril Playa, first time I've ever been moved to write a review on Trip Advisor. They told us there was no room (despite us being booked and paid up front) all eventually got resolved after a proper tantrum in the lobby, but zero customer service level.
We went to Venice for a romantic weekend (the wifes birthday) flew Ryan Air who left our bags in London, we flew on Thursday night, got our bags on friday night, spent most of Friday looking for clean underwear and toiletries, not good.
Our only other bad experience was in the Cost del Sol, we booked a cheapie for one night as we were driving from Malaga down to just outside Gibraltar, the idea was just a place to sleep as we arrived late into Malaga. It was awful, no air-con about 30 degrees outside but 40+ inside, on a busy road so if you opened windows you got noise and car fumes, after a slepless night we skipped breakfast and made a very hasty exit! The lesson here was you get what you pay for.

[Newryrep]

Travel as opposed to holiday

Had a busines trip to Basel, was meeting up with some people who traveled earlier. Stayed in the Ramada ? 13 floors gorgeous hotel , coctail bar on top floor. We could only stay 1 night because of a jewellery exhibition so we all were booked basel to luton, over night in Luton then flight to Belfast next day. Client had made all arrangements.

Got to 'Hotel' 10.00pm absolute sh1tehole, room was dirty , hasnt had any decor in 20 years, bar was depressing and also had a family of travellers so every second word was fcuk and a domestic was on the verge of breaking out every 5 mins.

Never had a shower in the room, due to the state of the bathroom and the breakfast was the cheapest possible affair

Went from best hotel to worst hotel in 24hrs

[soccerc]

Going in family holiday to Lanzarote for Mrs SoccerC's 40th and spending an extra five weeks on Tenerife after she had a brain haemorrhage.

Delaing with the kids, family at home, both employers and pox ridden insurance companies, hospitals, interpreters, doctors, surgeons, more pox ridden insurance reps, hotels, banks, Vodafone and the bills that are still arriving.

[MariborKev]

Where do I start?

- Breaking a nose in a Disney waterpark(freaking out all the American kids who thought there was a shark in the water)

- Being detained for well over 24hours by Zimbabwean police for an "incident" over money changing in Harare.

- The Faroe Islands. Full Stop.

- Getting a load of teeth knocked out in Aus and having to pay over £1k for reconstructive dental surgery(I'm with you on the insurance reps soccerc)

- Our "hotel" in Bratislava.Water coming down the inside of the walls and a hole in the bath

- Being taken for a full medical on the Shezen/Hong Kong border after an uncontrollable coughing/sneezing fit led them to believe I had SARS.

- Having dynamite thrown at me(and exploding) in Bolivia.

- Losing all our World Cup within an hour of landing in Japan

That's do for starters.....

[sligoman]

- Breaking a nose in a Disney waterpark(freaking out all the American kids who thought there was a shark in the water)

- Getting a load of teeth knocked out in Aus

- Having dynamite thrown at me(and exploding) in Bolivia.

Care to elaborate on how these came about?

[soccerc]

(I'm with you on the insurance reps soccerc)

and I thought bringing home a paralysed wife with severe aphaysia was a bad experience


A million euro later in medical bills and we're still haggling over certain expenses, for example, who pays for the helicopter air ambulance that was called but never used?

Who is responsible for my meal on the aircraft from Tenerife to London? (I didn't have one btw).

Who pays the original hotel for the extra 12 hours the kids had in the room?

Who is going to pay for the ambulance from Dublin airport to Tallaght hospital? (The insurance company say they are absolved once the aircraft landed in Dublin).

and this is five years on....................................

[drummerboy]

Geez. Hope she ok now Soccerc.

Went to Fuerentura with Ryanair last year. Man took a bit of a turn on plane so we landed in Nantes to get him to a hospital. He was removed from plane eventually but the plane was left on the runway for almost 4 hours. Passengers were not allowed off the plane. Aircrew wouldn't even distribute water to mothers whose kids were parched.

The holiday itself was great.

However on the way home it was extremely windy. When we approached Dublin airport it was extremely rocky. We were just about to touchdown when the plane took off suddenly up into the air, scaring the passenters ****less. People were saying the rosary around me. We ended up landing in Shannon where we were told to sit back down as we were heading back to Dublin. Some of the passengers were terrified and demanded to get off plane. After a lot of arguing about 40 people got off. We were waiting for another hour and some old guy who had got stuck into his duty free starting shouting the odds about getting the plane moving. One of the aircrew took exception. The guards were called and another melee took place before he was eventually removed. We eventually arrived back in Dublin to a very rocky but safe landing.

And to cap it all off a few weeks later when I checked my credit card statement I noticed that Ryanair had charged us a landing charge for Shannon.

[Newryrep]

Going in family holiday to Lanzarote for Mrs SoccerC's 40th and spending an extra five weeks on Tenerife after she had a brain haemorrhage.

Delaing with the kids, family at home, both employers and pox ridden insurance companies, hospitals, interpreters, doctors, surgeons, more pox ridden insurance reps, hotels, banks, Vodafone and the bills that are still arriving.

Kinda puts things into perpective, needless to say hope she is alright

[stojkovic]

And to cap it all off a few weeks later when I checked my credit card statement I noticed that Ryanair had charged us a landing charge for Shannon.

You're joking !

How much ?

[DaveyCakes]

Geez. Hope she ok now Soccerc.

And to cap it all off a few weeks later when I checked my credit card statement I noticed that Ryanair had charged us a landing charge for Shannon.

I was on a flight the other week that was diverted from Dublin to Shannon (snow)...I'll keep an eye out for that!

[tiktok]

It pales into insignificance compared to soccerc, however...

I was robbed in Amsterdam [thief didn't get away with much]
Cabin depressurised on a flight to Switzerland, we got down fine, but it was scary at the time.
Was on a train on the austrian - hungarian border when the bloke across the aisle pulled a knife out on the border guards, cue a brief stand-off, cops hand on gun a foot from me and lots of shouting, then an arrest.
Got accidentally caught up in fisticuffs between about 40-50 Inter and Atalanta supporters while outside the San Siro, got away scot free luckily, the same game was the one where inter fans chucked a moped off an upper tier onto the seats below, think they had to play the rest fo the season behind closed doors.

[kingdom hoop]

Haven't had anything too bad health-wise except for terrible stomach-cramps after foolishly eating a raw-rare sheep heart! Though a few uncomfortable moments sprung to mind when I saw the thread title.


- Going for a day excursion trip in Guatemala without any footwear as someone told me the previous day that shoes were provided. They were but they'd none left for me. Day comprised of walking barefoot through jagged-floored caves, then the day's 'highlight' was a trek up a path characterised by small stones who all seemed determined to put their sharpest pointiest sides up to touch my tender Western soles. So climbed that to the top and savoured a spectacular view. Relaxed for a while and took off t-shirt. Time came to go down so off I "ow-ow-ow-ow" gingerly went.
Got halfway down with everyone gone well ahead only to realise I'd left my t-shirt (a vintage USA '94 one) at the top. So given the t-shirt's sentimental value I had to trek back up again, got the t-shirt and eventually after many excruciating steps reached the car-park where I imagined everyone would be.
No sign of the bus or anyone though! I thought they'd already gone back on the bus and for a moment contemplated trekking ten miles across Guatemalan mountain 'roads' to get home. Instead I decided to go back the way and after a while I heard excited playful noises, went towards those and the gang were lolling about in a beautiful calm river. A quick defrocking and in I went for the most refreshing swim of my life! Needless to say, the beer that night was also the nicest I've ever had!



- Sitting around in hostel joking that a friend had "got lucky" as the reason he didn't come home one night, then being told by hostel owner that he'd had a phone call and that our friend was in prison. Surreal moment. Thankfully he was released that day. Just a case of dodgy Mexican policemen rather than any misdemeanour by friend.



- Another brush with the law came in Rio one night during the last World Cup after Brazil had beaten Australia. Frenzied carnival atmosphere on the crowded streets as drums banged, people danced and one and all engaged in some excited revelry. I befriended two locals who had excellent English and chatted about the match and so forth. We then may or may not have smoked a little something and I may or may not have purchased a little something. What definitely did happen though was that two policemen approached the three of us, told us not to move and asked the surrounding crowd to disperse away from us.
Then, the night's real excitement happened as one of the cops produced a glistening silver handgun not but three feet from my now-bulging eyes. He began to angrily remonstrate with one of the local lads, gesticulating that he had smelled something in the air. During which time the message instinctively transferred from my fixated eyes to my brain and onto my hands that the gun signified danger and that I should probably try to surreptitiously dispense with my recent purchase. Thankfully my survival instincts had withstood, or were enhanced by, the poison I had consumed, such that by the time the 'attention' was pointed my way I was nothing but a bemused tourist innocently embroiled in this unfortunate affair.
The nightmare of course was that when I went looking for the bag - it was gone!

[corkboy360]

Nightmare = Portugal : Prai Da Rocha

[MysticMon]

Salou = appartment flooded out!!!!! Rage!!!!!

[corkboy360]

Haven't had anything too bad health-wise except for terrible stomach-cramps after foolishly eating a raw-rare sheep heart! Though a few uncomfortable moments sprung to mind when I saw the thread title..............................

I actually really enjoyed reading this

[corkboy360]

Salou = appartment flooded out!!!!! Rage!!!!!

My first 3 foreign holidays were in Salou

1.Sunclub something apartment
2.Cye holiday Centre
3.Cye Holiday Centre

Love the place
have moved on since though

Was in Austria with the school and we went swimming in an outdoor heated pool got back and there was 3-4 angry germans telling me and my 3 room mates that it was there room and they weren't gonna leave us in.