You know what they say, “The more the merrier!” This is sometimes the case when going on vacation with another family. Other times, it makes for an absolute horror story of a trip. These people share why they immediately regretted going on vacation with another family. This content has been edited for clarity.
Crazy Woman
“These neighbors had invited my ex-husband and me along with our children to go with them on their vacation. My husband and I agreed because we needed one badly and it was in the mountains. Our children got along with their children so I didn’t see any warning signs. We took separate cars, thank goodness because we had to leave early.
Once we got there, my husband and I could tell there had been some tension in the car on the drive up but no clue as to what had happened. I helped unpack the car and set up the kitchen while the kids played and the men went off for supplies.
As soon as the men left, Tiff (the wife) started going into what was wrong. I felt uncomfortable because I had not asked and I feel uncomfortable anyway around emotional people because I am not a person who emotionally pets anyone. I am the wrong person to come to looking for comfort because I don’t do well in those areas. I knew instantly this was going to be a bad week.
Tiff went on and on about her husband Rob and that ‘this was wrong’ and ‘that was bad.’ I tried my best to appear like I was listening but she lost me 15 minutes into the conversation. When she started crying and went to hug me, I stiffened up because again, I really hate to be touched, especially by a stranger. She was bawling into my shoulder and all I could think was ‘please let the guys come home or let the kids run in’ and my prayers were answered. The children ran in asking about lunch so she let go and I quickly stumbled back.
I later told my husband who died laughing saying he would have paid money to see my face because he knows how I am. I told him this was a bad idea and he told me Rob didn’t say a word about anything to him. I just looked at him and rolled over. The next few days, I stayed close to my husband because I really did not want a repeat of the first day.
On the third night, we had tucked the kids in and all went outside to build a bonfire and chill. I was excited because I needed to chill out and enjoy a drink. 20 minutes in, the fire was nice and high, drinks were poured, and we were all enjoying the nature around us. All of a sudden, Tiff asked my husband if he cheated on me like Rob did her. That’s all it took!
Fighting between Tiff and Rob broke out. They were yelling and when Tiff threw her drink in his face, we thought it best to excuse ourselves.
But Tiff yelled, ‘No, don’t go! Tell the truth. You want my husband too!’
I just looked at her.
She screamed ‘Admit it! You want to sleep with my husband!’
My husband stepped in between her and me because he knows my temper and did not want to bail me out of jail in another state for battery.
Rob grabbed Tiff and was yelling at her to settle down and she crumbled into a crying mess. Rob apologized for her behavior. My husband shook his hand and lead me back to the house. We packed up to leave but did not want to alert the children so we waited until morning. That morning, we let the children say goodbye and cry and we left.
Upon their return home, Tiff tried to apologize to me for her actions and wished to make it right. I told her the only way to make that situation right was to never bother me again and only communicate if and when it involves the children because they were still friends.”
Cruise Ship Security
“In February of 2020, I paid for my nephew and his girlfriend to go on a cruise with me and my wife and her sister and mother. My nephew and his girlfriend had never done anything like that and both were recovering addicts who were living with minimal assets and working low-wage jobs, so I was eager to bring them.
The first bad omen was when they arrived at my house the night before from two hours away so we could all make the six-hour drive to the port together. We were making sure both of them had all their necessary items packed when my nephew stopped me and said he didn’t know he needed his birth certificate even though I had told him he needed to bring it. He thought we just needed to enter it into the pre-registration online. He didn’t even have a driver’s license, so I’m not sure how he thought he would get on the boat, let alone travel to Mexico and Central America.
He left at midnight to make the four-hour roundtrip to retrieve his birth certificate. He took my car since theirs was unreliable. The girlfriend went with him leaving my wife to complete their laundry. He arrived back at about five a.m. with my car’s transmission slipping severely.
Neither he nor his girlfriend brought money. I told them beforehand they didn’t need any, just take advantage of free food and entertainment. From day one they wanted to drink and gamble. I said no apart from a couple of drinks when I was having one. They didn’t go out to see shows or any activities with us and after the first night, he didn’t show up for dinner. They had gotten into a fight so his girlfriend came alone for the second and third nights.
We got to land on day three and she checked her bank account. Hallelujah, her income tax check had come in at about 6k. After that moment, I poop you not, they went crazy. They spent hundreds on souvenirs—a Panama hat for him, cornrowed hair with beads and shells embedded for her, and multiple pairs of Ray-Ban sunglasses (knock-offs). They paid full price for all, with no negotiating with locals so, of course, they paid way too much.
Then, drinking and gambling started. They drank and smoked all day. He badgered her constantly to let him have money to play slots. They fought again. She came to dinner maybe two nights out of the next four. They received two warnings about smoking in their room and almost got a huge fine. Finally, she came to our door two days before the end of the trip with her bags saying they broke up. She disappeared after that leaving her bags in our small room. Neither he nor she called or answered their door for about 24 hours. We were getting a little concerned.
Finally, a call came in the next afternoon. But it wasn’t either of them, it was ship security. We were informed a complaint had been called in because they had gotten into a huge fight with her biting and scratching, slamming into walls, and screaming. Security had moved her to an undisclosed room and he spent the rest of the trip sulking in his room. There were drink stains on the walls and bed and their souvenirs were broken.
We got back to port and started the drive home, six of us in the car. At first, it was very quiet and uncomfortable for all. After the first hour or so, he started going off, cursing and yelling uncontrollably. My wife pulled him out of the car and went off on him for embarrassing and disrespecting her in front of her family. He again sulked. We decided to make a four-hour detour to deliver her back to their hometown to stay with a friend, turning a six-hour trip into over ten hours. He drove their car back home late that night.
They survived and are still together somehow, though they fight when they drink and are trying to stop. He apologized at a later date and made a comment he didn’t like cruising and didn’t want to go on another one.
The funny thing is they both still get flyers from the cruise line telling them to come sail again with free room and comped drinks while gambling. Apparently, they had spent enough to stand out as big-time gamblers.”
Disneyland
“I took my three children to Disneyland several times a year. I had a friend with no kids who complained she had never been, even during her younger days as her family had moved to San Diego after her high school graduation. I gave in against my better judgment once and took her with us. At that time, she worked for Travelodge Corporate office so we chose to get a room at Travelogue near Disneyland. I had to pay since she got the discount. It wasn’t where I usually stayed, but oh well.
On the day we went to Disneyland, my kids wanted to ride rides while my friend wanted to shop as the rides were ‘too fast and too high.’ When we got to a new ride with a long line it really set her off. My son had had more than enough of her and took off alone. I finally allowed my 14 and 15-year-old daughters to go together agreeing to meet at a designated spot in a couple of hours.
My friend still wanted to shop but I was more interested in finding my 11-year-old son. We shopped as I looked for my son. I’d leave her in a store while I checked rides nearby. Then she said she had to eat lunch but didn’t like anything in the park. I put my foot down at that point. I wasn’t leaving the park to eat, l hadn’t found my 11-year-old.
My entire day was spent alternating between escorting my friend shopping, trying to find my son, and meeting with my daughters every now and then. The park closed at midnight and I waited at the gate until they threw me out, but still no sign of my son. We arrived at the car to find my son laying across the hood half asleep.
He’d had a GREAT time. He had broken through lines telling people that his parents were up ahead and blended in once he got to the front, no questions asked. My daughters admitted to having an okay time, though all of my children told me that they would NEVER go to any vacation spot with this woman again!”
Nightmare At Disney World
“My oldest daughter planned a trip to Disney with her seven-year-old daughter and daughter’s nine-year-old friend. She invited me and her younger brother and sister to come. My granddaughter’s friend’s mother decided to come and bring her 87-year-old grandmother. My daughter paid for everything including lodging and Disney tickets and we both bought food to cook meals at our rental home.
The mother of the girl made life impossible. She was rude the moment they showed up at the rental, refused to speak to any of us and did nothing to help with anything. We went to Disney the day after we got there. She left before us to get the grandmother a scooter so our first two hours in Disney we spent waiting for them because they ‘couldn’t find us.’ She was on the phone constantly screaming at my daughter making her miserable. Meanwhile, they were going on rides instead of actually looking for us.
We finally found the 87-year-old near a ride where she was waiting for them in the heat for hours. We took her with us to get something to eat and to get her out of the sun. My daughter got screamed at again for that. We ended up leaving Disney before dark because my daughter was so upset the entire day. The other people stayed at Disney and had a great time. They showed up that night with Chinese food which they didn’t share. Meanwhile, the kid was happy to eat what we were making.
The next day, the mother took her daughter back to Disney for the day, didn’t bother to invite my granddaughter, and left the grandma with us! She never asked, just left before we got up. We were stuck at the rental because we couldn’t take the grandma anywhere because we didn’t have a scooter for her. My daughter refuses to talk to the woman anymore. But, she does see the grandma on occasion when a different daughter arranges it.”
Destination Wedding
“My ex-boyfriend’s sister had a destination wedding and had us stay down there for eight days for a ‘wedding week,’ which also occurred during the fourth of July.
The sister had a house for her friends and my boyfriend’s mom had a house for the family. When we got done cleaning our newly opened house, we went back to the sister’s house for ‘fourth of July dinner.’ I have dietary restrictions (as does she) and she didn’t plan for my allergies (despite having been dating her brother for three years and being aware of them). That meant I could have no bun and she didn’t have condiments for the burgers.
She also had macaroni salad, which I couldn’t have, and watermelon. I obviously got ticked off because I don’t even like watermelon so if I were to eat, it would’ve just been some watermelon pieces. My ex-boyfriend said I ‘threw a tantrum’ since I couldn’t eat anything and ’embarrassed him.’ The sister’s fiance ended up making me pork chops and corn, but there was no butter, and the sister made fun of me for it. She also kept making fun of my food allergies.
When we were at the beach, the sister yelled at me for spraying bug spray on myself because the wind picked it up and blew it in her face which I ‘purposely did.’ I also got bullied by the family for eight days straight. I was given no attention as my ex-boyfriend is an extreme mama’s boy. I mean they did everything together during the vacation and nothing with me. He also got extremely nasty and said ‘I was rude to his mom’ and needed to apologize, but to this day I have no idea what I did. I ended up crying to him because his family was being so rude to me and he told me to get over it and then left.”
Mountain Resort
“My husband and I went on vacations with our friends at least once a year in the early days of our marriage. Even after the children arrived, we tried to organize and spend a weekend together at local tourist destinations.
On this particular trip, we got a chalet at an incredible mountain resort and as hosts, we brought breakfast food and snacks. The plan was to eat out as a group for the main meals. There were about 15 of us altogether – both of us and our two children, another couple with two children, a couple with one child, and four single friends.
The other couple with two children was apparently having some issues with each other. They spent the holiday sniping at each other and their daughters were acting out as a result of this. The wife ignored her children when we went shopping for fresh fruits, vegetables, and flowers. We were harried enough running after our own two rambunctious kids but we ended up herding the two little girls, too. I would grab one daughter and send her off to her Mom while my husband ran after the other giggling little girl. And the Mom would not hold her hand! She would take off like a shot and give us a heart attack because there was traffic, crowds of tourists, and all kinds of danger, but the Mom was more interested in shopping.
The husband was no better. It was like they were playing ‘pass the parcel’ with their two girls and we, the friends, were caught in the middle. It made us wish they had stayed home actually. Anyway, by the time we drove home, the little girls had a great time, their parents barely spoke to each other, and we were not speaking to them. We never had them vacation with us again.”
“How Bad Could It Be?”
“We met a family at a resort many years ago. There were a lot of teens at the time and the teens hung out together as did the parents of the teens. Everyone had a ball. Many came year after year and everyone just picked up where we left off. There was another couple with a daughter around the same age as ours we saw once or twice during the year. Some years they were there, some not.
After a while, I started to find the wife entitled, egotistical, and really annoying but kept up the friendship as my husband and hers got along really well. If we lived in the same town, she is not who I would pick as a friend but to hang out with a couple of times a year, I could tolerate.
Fast forward some years and we vacationed together at a different resort. Things were a little weird. The daughter didn’t show up and there was a made-up story there but I didn’t much care as I was on vacation with my family. All was going well, or so we thought.
The day before we left, we were by the beach and they came down where we were and said, ‘We are all packed up and are going home now.’
Again, with a made-up story as to why. We didn’t much care at that point and figured that was the last of them. She emailed several times during that year, but we didn’t reply. The next year, we found ourselves at the original resort the same time they are, only our trip was two days longer. The wife was so excited she told the resort to change the dining arrangements so we could sit together.
We weren’t always there at the same time but were thinking, ‘Whatever, how bad could it be?’
Embarrassingly bad. Their behavior toward the staff was mortifying. I was beyond embarrassed and didn’t want to be in the same room as them, much less the same table. They constantly fought with each other. Their behavior was disgusting. I’m sure they considered themselves so much more important than the ‘hired staff’ and treated them accordingly and I called them out on it. Never again!”
Mood Swings
“When I was 19ish, I started dating this guy who was older than me by eight or nine years. He had a strained relationship with his biological father and when I met him, he absolutely didn’t approve of me. So when his mother and stepfather invited us on a ‘couples vacation’ to New Orleans, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get to know them better and solidify things.
I’m a very nervous person, so much to my surprise and delight, his mother, stepfather, and I got on royally. The first two days or so we had all of our meals and went sightseeing together, but his mother wanted to have a ‘girl’s day’ before we went wild later on.
I was caught off guard as she told me her son mentioned I might be ‘the one’ and was showing me pictures of his grandmother’s ring she was wanting to get sized. We had only been dating a few months so it was all very sudden and she wanted to know what was holding me back. I told her aside from the fact of only being 19, I was concerned about his sleep disorder.
He would get up in the middle of the night and seem awake, but really wasn’t, and would start random arguments or hide in the closet with his weapons or eat from dirty dishes and get sick when he finally woke up. Once he ate cereal from a bowl with leftover macaroni and dish liquid in it and instantly woke up vomiting. Despite all of the sleep craziness, the anger while sleepwalking was a big issue and with me being very sensitive, had me crying fairly regularly.
She said she knew about the sleep disorder and offered to have him get some assistance for it as she didn’t want that to ruin his chance for a happy future. We agreed to no more marital talk since he and his stepdad would be coming back soon.
When we went out later that evening, we stayed together the whole time and were all drinking ‘Hand Grenades’ (a very strong drink served in the French Quarter). I had to use the bathroom which had a nearly hour-long line. When I finally came back, he had drank both of our drinks and bought me another, which he’d already been sipping on. His mother decided it was time for us to go as he was feeling pretty good. He didn’t want to go and she made a comment about his biological dad’s drinking which apparently set him off.
We got on the highway to get back to our hotel when his mood turned explosive. He jumped out of the moving car, and both his mother and I had to chase him down and get him back in the car while his stepdad inched forward in traffic. It was extremely important he did not get in trouble as his intent was to join the police force and a public intoxication/disturbance would not have faired well with his trying to get in. I was left to take care of him in that state and the next day canceled any plans to stay and make sure he was okay.
Considering they had all been there many times, his mother called asking if I could go out for a bit as I’d never been and we were only going to be there one more day. He told me to go ahead and go with his mom. I asked if he was sure and he said yes. He was fine to go out later but I realized very quickly my going with his mom had struck a nerve and despite having a decent last day, it led to a very tense ride home and the tense week after we returned.
I’ll never regret going as I really enjoyed the city and haven’t been back yet, but what started out with good intentions ultimately made things more chaotic and was by far one of the nuttiest trips I’ve ever been on.”
International Disaster
“We were traveling internationally to England with two other families, all of us with young children. Five children in all. One of the little boys had found a way to get soaking wet in a fountain while we were at a formal family dinner back home so we all had our eye on him, praying for good behavior on the trip.
On this particular cold, clear morning, all the children were beautifully dressed for a day we planned to spend palace hopping. This fountain-swimming young man had on a smart woolen overcoat that looked like something Prince William would’ve worn as a kid. We were walking the grounds of a palace and there was a lovely lake with ducks.
The kids all ran along the edge calling the ducks and playing, THAT little one got closer and closer to the edge. The other kids watched wide-eyed as he ‘accidentally’ fell directly into the water and wound up soaked. The parents that ‘never could say no’ fumed and fussed, looked thoroughly embarrassed, and headed back to the hotel to change clothes. The rest of us kept right on with our fabulous day. Even the other kids weren’t surprised.
While we were at the airport in plenty of time to catch our flight home, one family (you guess which) had been rushing around the entire trip like there was a fire they needed to escape. They rushed into the airport, rushed to check their bags, and rushed to get to the head of the line to board the plane. Huffing and puffing, they were on a mission to be FIRST to board the plane, take seats in the back, and sit buckled in their seats even though we wouldn’t take off for another 40 minutes. The rest of us just rolled in line like we had time to kill.
As we sat in our seats, a line of very odd-looking people started to board. They weren’t dressed for the weather, they looked scared, and they were the STINKIEST people I have ever been around in my entire life. This was an odor that let you know these folks lived outdoors, rarely bathed, and had zero experience with deodorants. The smell would gag you. And there were about 50 to 75 of them and the whole malodorous group was heading into the back of the plane and would sit and concentrate their smelly haze around my ‘always in a hurry’ friends.
The situation was so terrible that flight attendants were walking around discretely spraying air fresheners and whispering apologies. Our ‘rushy rushy’ friends didn’t eat on this transatlantic flight— they couldn’t have kept it down. They tried to sleep but kept being awakened by one of the ‘stinky folks’ pounding on the bathroom door after they got themselves locked in.
Our friends looked nauseous, cranky, and exhausted as they disembarked.
We only laughed a little bit.”
Smelly Feet
“When I was in high school, I had to share a motel room and a tent with another boy my age. Our families had gone to see the Grand Canyon and Tombstone, Arizona one summer. The tent sharing wasn’t too bad, but the room was. I knew this kid a bit, but didn’t know that he was a slob and had stinky feet!
The first night when we all got into our rooms, he immediately kicked off his sneakers, pulled off his socks, and rested his tan bare feet on one of the twin beds. The smell came seconds later and I complained. He smiled and stripped and took a quick shower. It helped a little, but I put his shoes and socks outside. When I went to take a shower, the bathroom was a disaster including no clean towels. This happened multiple times until I complained to his parents.
I got back at him one night after he fell asleep. I took off my own shoes and socks and stuck my sweaty bare feet into his face, mouth, and nose. He didn’t flinch, just groaned a little and even licked my big toe! I never told him until years later.”
