Your Least-Favorite Vacation

[MIGrandma]

Hmmm, I really can't think of a vacation that was really bad.

There was one that PART of it was bad, the year we took a cruise out of New Orleans and spent 3 nights in N.O. before the cruise. I got extremely sick (I think it was the raw oysters, loved them but don't think they loved me back, then later I discovered diabetics shouldn't eat them) for about 36-hours so that really made those 3 nights a downer. We did enjoy a few things before/after, but being so sick really tainted that part of the trip. We would like to go back sometime so we could experience some of the things we had planned to do but missed.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

Riviera Maya

Had a crappy time and was dumb enough to go back and had an even worse time. Never again!!

 

[leebee]

Portions of several trips stand out in my mind:
Weekend trip to the Grand Canyon. On arrival night we stayed with friends in Wickenburg. I was 3 months pregnant, exhausted, nauseous from travel and all. We were sleeping on the sofa bed in the living room of a friend whose girlfriend got home from work at 1am... and they both smoked... and warned that there were tarantulas outside around the bikes. UGH for so many reasons! Great trip to the Canyon, though.
Last fall's trip to WDW. It was to celebrate DD's 21st birthday, highlight being going to the Food&Wine festival. I, unfortunately, was hit with a stomach bug at 1am of the day we were going to Epcot (last of the trip) so missed the entire reason we were there! It was a marvelous trip until then, though. I was well enough to make it to our nearby airport the next afternoon, but we never got home. DD had the bug by then and was running out of both ends! No way to drive home 2.5 hours; we would have had to burn the van! Ended up getting a hotel room near the airport.
One trip to WDW where I got food poisoning. It was just DD, who was about 10, and me. Missed the last day of our trip.. and it was MK day.
DD (younger than 5 at the time) and I were driving from an uncle's funeral in Fayetteville, NC home to Michigan. As I didn't know when we'd be leaving, I didn't make a hotel reservation for anywhere along the route home. BIG mistake. Apparently there was some convention going on or something and we were stuck in a disgusting hole in the wall motel in Beckley, WV. I brought our towels/blankies in from the car to put on the bedspreads for us to sleep on, covering up with sweaters. NO WAY were we using the tub or towels... bad enough we had to use the toilet. I got about 5 hours of sleep and we were OUT of there.
I agree- visiting relatives is NOT going on vacation. We have a great time, but sleeping in double beds (we don't fit well, so don't sleep well), staying in the homes of smokers, no a/c in Ohio in the summer, etc. is NOT my idea of vacation. I finally got to the point of insisting we stay in a hotel when we go. If we are spending our vacation time and money to visit DH's family, fine, but I want it to feel somewhat like a vacation!

 

[Dallas_Lady]

Riviera Maya

Had a crappy time and was dumb enough to go back and had an even worse time. Never again!!

What was so bad about it? We are looking to do this next...

 

[ronandannette]

We've never really had anything calamitous happen on any of our trips; I guess we've been lucky. There's been trips, for whatever reason, we liked less than others but in all our travels we've never so much as lost a piece of luggage or caught a cold.

 

[bcwife76]

Manzanillo MX. We liked that it was more authentic-Mexico than say, PV or Cancun -but the hotel our travel agent told us would be 4+star was about 2.5 star and the excursions sucked. Spent most of the week at the pool and the swim up bar. Although that part was pretty fab........!

 

[Carrie_Cat]

Dominican Republic is a place I wouldn't rush back to and Turkey would come a close second.

 

[luvsJack]

Not really a vacation, but least favorite trip was to WDW with a show choir when dd was in 8th grade. I don't know if it was the age or what but most of the kids acted like brats. One set of parents decided to stay with us the whole time because we knew how to get around, the best places to eat, etc. Would have been fine except they argued the whole time and she is a bit of a control freak and wouldn't really listen to suggestions like don't try to go eat at noon when its raining. Since they were "our group" we couldn't just leave them so felt very stuck.

Been on two choir trips since and had a great time, one back to WDW.

Least favorite vacation would have to be Destin. Beautiful resort. Loved the condo. Just didn't like the area. It wasn't the relaxing beach vacation we like to have.

 

[Praying Colonel]

A few years back we decided to spend 4 days at Ft. Walton Beach and then drive down to WDW and do 3 days there. Way too much driving, not enough time at either place. We had fun but felt rushed and tired the whole time.

 

[aprilchem]

Honestly? Our Disney Cruises. I just am not a fan - hate the feeling of being trapped on the ship, and there's not really a lot of activities that I enjoy. We've been on the three of them (the rest of my family LOVES them) and I am always thrilled on the day we get off the ship!

 

[SC Minnie]

Marblehead OH. Spent a week there with DH's family for a family reunion (just his siblings and their families). We rented out this whole B&B. I was bored out of my mind and so ready to go home. There was nothing to do within walking distance. We were right on Lake Erie but it was very rocky. SIL billed this as a beach vacation-- yeah, not really. At least not the beach like I was used to off SC and FL.

 

[LukenDC]

I took my Dad and his longtime girlfriend to WDW in 2008, and that was easily the worst vacation I've taken. The trip was a disaster from start to finish. The DGF was obese and so deconditioned that she could hardly move. Soon after arriving, she claimed that someone had hacked her bank account, so she spent most of the first morning at Hollywood Studios screaming at BofA and crying. I rented a scooter for her and she fell asleep while driving it (five times she fell asleep!) and almost hit a group of people. Then she had a meltdown at the resort, was screaming obscenities at my Dad, and started to crawl to her room on her hands and knees. She spent the rest of the vacation in her room ordering buckets of fried chicken from room service and bossing the staff around. Would call me on the phone with curt demands---"Get me a bratwurst," and hang up.

At least it made for an entertaining story!

 

[Wishing on a star]

Riviera Maya

Had a crappy time and was dumb enough to go back and had an even worse time. Never again!!

Hhhhhmmm??? We've loved our trips to Cancun and Riviera Maya.
Loved that windex water beach at Cancun.
Loved the amazing snorkeling at Puerto Morelos and Akumal.
Loved visiting Isla Mujeres.
Loved seeing The Mayan Ruins and beach at Tulum.
Loved the Adult Only resort on Riviera Maya that DH and I stayed at on one short getaway. Even though it rained, a LOT!!!

 

[Lilliputian]

We spent a long weekend in Houston once. We knew it was supposed to rain one day, so we scheduled the children's museum for that day, assuming it would be crowded since it was a weekend. It was more crowded than we could imagine though and not as much fun as it should have been. And then the streets flooded on our way back to the hotel. We were within about 2 miles and traffic was STOPPED. DH had a horrible headache, and we were all so starving. This is how bad it was: we turned into the Chuck E Cheese parking lot right beside us and were so hungry that the pizza tasted delicious and DH's headache went away because it was so much better inside the Chuck E Cheese than in the car! We had to spend about 2 hours there before the flooding went down enough to get to our hotel.

And then we spent a day at the space center. It was fine, but I didn't realize I was newly pregnant. I always get low pressure at the beginning of my pregnancies, and it feels awful. I was dizzy, nauseated, sweating, having tunnel vision, and basically feeling like I was dying. If I'd known I was pregnant, it would have been more bearable. I would have known I was healthy and that it wasn't a big deal. But I didn't know, and we ended up leaving early and just driving home.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

Hhhhhmmm??? We've loved our trips to Cancun and Riviera Maya.
Loved that windex water beach at Cancun.
Loved the amazing snorkeling at Puerto Morelos and Akumal.
Loved visiting Isla Mujeres.
Loved seeing The Mayan Ruins and beach at Tulum.
Loved the Adult Only resort on Riviera Maya that DH and I stayed at on one short getaway. Even though it rained, a LOT!!!

This always cracks me up when posters do this. I'm glad u love Riviera Maya and had a wonderful time but the title of the thread is what's your worse vacation , and RM is ours.
We obviously didn't have the experience you did x 2 and will never waste our money again.
We've been to other places over the years we love way more for the money and won't waste our money again in Mexico
I too know many people who love Mexico , my husband and I are not those people.

What was so bad about it? We are looking to do this next...

We thought the beaches and ocean were way nicer other places we have been.
We thought people were rude and we were always getting bugged to buy a timeshare.
The weather was horrible but I realize that isn't anyone's fault
DH and I just love other places we have visited better so we choose to spend our money elsewhere
Twice was more than enough for us

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I took my Dad and his longtime girlfriend to WDW in 2008, and that was easily the worst vacation I've taken. The trip was a disaster from start to finish. The DGF was obese and so deconditioned that she could hardly move. Soon after arriving, she claimed that someone had hacked her bank account, so she spent most of the first morning at Hollywood Studios screaming at BofA and crying. I rented a scooter for her and she fell asleep while driving it (five times she fell asleep!) and almost hit a group of people. Then she had a meltdown at the resort, was screaming obscenities at my Dad, and started to crawl to her room on her hands and knees. She spent the rest of the vacation in her room ordering buckets of fried chicken from room service and bossing the staff around. Would call me on the phone with curt demands---"Get me a bratwurst," and hang up.

At least it made for an entertaining story!

Sorry to get such pleasure from your misery, but this story cracked me up LOL

 

[bethy]

Palm Springs/Palm Desert. Just not our cup of tea. Disclaimer: we are not golfers so that probably didn't help . . .

 

[bethy]

My parents lake home.
My sisters families have been free loading off my,parents for 28 years. Their cottage home is a walkout ranch home built in the 60's. Everyone claims they all have such a great time there. My dad bought it, so our families could spend time with them.

It was never my families idea of a vacation, since we hardly ever went there, we were the family that had to sleep outside in the tents, since all the bedrooms were designated by certain families.

This summer my parents begged us to come up over the 4th. We had a good day, but I was glad to go home in the evening. I did a lot of grilling, cooking and cleaning. I probably got to sit down for 30 minutes to relax. That is not my idea of a vacation. I have a lot of neices and nephews that are now married with small children and it is really chaotic, but my dad loves it. I just felt like I catered to the troops while they were all playing, swimming and boating.

I have almost the exact same situation. The only thing that makes it worth it to me is the cousins getting to bond and make wonderful memories together growing up.

I cope by trying not to think of it as a vacation. The last two times we visited I secretly booked "real" vacations using my phone. One Disney cruise and then one trip to Disneyland. That made me feel a lot better lol.

 

[pryncess527]

Boston.

I keep thinking I need to give it another try, but I hated the city so much my first trip it's hard to get over the mental hurdle and try it again.

 

[Jeafl]

It's a toss-up between two vacations.

The first one was when we rented a huge, gorgeous cabin high in the Smoky Mountains with my parents and my sister and her family. If you've ever seen the movie The Great Outdoors, it was like a re-creation of that. My parents are awesome and we travel with them a lot with no problems, but my sister's family---ugh. They are total snobs. We bought burgers to grill one night, but they refused to eat them, so they bought themselves filet mignon. Another night we grilled bratwurst, and they grilled lobster tails for themselves. It was so funny to see the the two different ends of the grill. They just never conformed to what the majority wanted to do. My sister complained that her hair got wet during the white water rafting, they complained that the trip to Biltmore was boring and too much walking (hello! It's the largest home in America, what did you expect?), they complained that Gatlinburg was a "dry" town and they couldn't replenish their huge bottles of liquor without having to drive 20 minutes. They complained that they could see other cabins in the distance, and they complained about no maid service, even though I told them ahead of time that was often the case when you rent a cabin. No matter what we planned to do it was boring and they hated it.

I really thought my husband was going to lose it. He started calling my brother-in-law "Roman" after Dan Aykroyd's character in the movie. Needless to say it was a LONG week.

The other one was just this summer at WDW. We didn't hate it, but it was so unbelievably hot for early June, and the heat index was over 105 every day. Add that to the extreme crowds and ridiculous humidity, it felt like the death march to hell walking around the parks. People were crabby and rude, probably because of the heat, which took a lot of enjoyment out of it. I take the blame for planning a summer trip there, but I didn't have much choice. I teach, so summers are the only time we can go with my kids, since their spring break times don't coincide. Never again.