Holiday Horrors – and How to Avoid Them

1. The accommodation is dreadful:
How many times has it happened? You arrive at your dream hotel to find the plumbing doesn’t work, the on-the-beach location the website promised is a half hour walk, the dreamy view you had been expecting is actually the towns rubbish dump…
Tips: How to avoid it: Research your hotel. Awful hotels will get mentioned in forum – search for the name of the hotel in Google . Look at pictures carefully – and if there is no picture of the view/room/grounds ask yourself why not?
2. Illness and accidents: One friend was called to help a girl in remote Lombok after a motorbike accident. He strolled down thinking it was a minor accident – only to find she had lost half her face.
Tip: Illnesses and accidents can’t be 100% avoided – but when you are on holiday think twice before taking risks you wouldn’t dream of taking at home. If you have to ride a motorbike, wear a decent helmet (that girl hadn’t.) And always take out insurance – treatment abroad can cost you thousands.

3. Family rows: 75% of families with children have rows when on holidays.
Tip: Be realistic when planning your holiday – the thought of 12 hours sightseeing might fill you with joy, but the chance are your children are not old enough to appreciate. Try to book a holiday where there are activities for everyone to enjoy – and where you can all have some space. Then set meeting times so that you do get to enjoy some quality time together – meal times are a good bet.
4. Airport nightmare.
When booking a holiday abroad our thoughts are of palm trees, cloudless skies and perfect beaches. One problem though – to get there we have to pass through an airport first: which means stress, increasingly tough immigration, crying children and – at peak times – long queues.
Tip: If you can, try to avoid peak times. This is not always possible, so consider flying through smaller airports – regional airports can be far less stressful than larger airports. If it really stresses you out, join the growing crowd who are holidaying in their own country – which means no expenditure on renting cars or paying for flights, no waiting at airports and no worries about lost passports.