Wow, I’d have never thought that eating on holiday could be stressful, it’s one of the best bits!

Fear of menu-envy, perhaps?

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Food is difficult with young children. I know for the first few days in Orlando, my daughter would not even eat cheese she had eaten at home, lol, but I would not call that stressful. The stress for me started when I got home and saw the mass of work waiting for me first day back.

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I would say queueing! Recent trip to the Canaries, I felt like I spent most of my journey queuing, check in at gatwick was ridiculous, in the queue for an hour! Then through security, then to get on the plane (and I generally wait til the end), just one endless queue! Plus got to Gatwick and through security – it was 8pm, wanted something to eat as journey had been a good few hours, Garfunkels said 45 minute wait for food (too long due to check in queue), EAT had no sandwiches, Chez Garrad had stopped serving food, finally managed to get a dry old sandwich from the other coffee shop – my choice total was 3 options! And this at 8pm – GATWICK is shocking, I now know why I choose not to fly from there often, its a disgrace!

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I totally agree – my number one hate when travelling is all the bit leading up to getting on the plane.
Two weeks ago I was travelling with my husband and 2 year old son. We got to Gatwick and because I had the buggy, I went up in a lift whilst my husband went up the escalator to get in the queue quicker. Once I arrived on the check in floor I was hussled into a queue that looked like it would take the rest of my holiday to get to the front of. baby started screaming because we weren’t moving and I’d lost my husband!
Gatwick was really disappointing – confusing, overly busy, disorganised and very stressful!

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Wow, people need to learn the art of “going with the flow”. I lost my luggage for 5 days in Marrakech (I was only there 7 total). I decided to laugh about it and buy traditional Moroccan clothing instead. I’d rather be on holiday without luggage than sitting behind a desk!

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None of the above, actually. For me, all the stresses are the last few days before the trip. There are a gazillion more things to do in those days than I’ve got time for, and the clock is ticking down, and I’m getting further behind, and people need stuff done before I leave town, and the pressure builds…

Then as soon as my bags are packed & I leave for the airport, 50% of the stress disappears. (I always give myself LOTS of extra time, in case of traffic, parking issues, long security lines, etc. so those don’t bother me.) Then once I’m on the plane, the other 50% of the stress disappears, and I’m on vacation! Life is good. (-:

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For me, it is from the moment I arrive in a place until I am checked into the hotel. I’m in an unfamiliar place and I just want to get to where I’m going like I would upon coming home, and I want to look around at everything, but instead I’m reading foreign bus schedules and remembering how to say this or that in the language and JUST GET ME TO THE HOTEL PLEASE.

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Deanna – you sound as if you have it absolutely right – I wish I could do that too but no matter how hard I try, leaving the house is always last minute!

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Hi Darren,

This is a really interesting survey as I work for Cheapflights.co.uk and we did a similar poll about most hated airport departures that yielded one or two similar results. The most hated airport experience turned out to be long delays without updates with a few quirky ones about having to fit liquids in plastic bags to get through security as well as being refused from premium lounges.

If you’d be interested, I could send you both the press release that included some of the results as well as a link to the results themselves?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Very Best,
Nadine

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I would be afraid that everything will go not according to the plan and I will not have fun. Sure, losing baggage is important thing and airport security check is important as well… But I guess a lot of people get stress from flying to and from the point of destination.
There is always one more point: hotel or private accommodation. You can choose nice hotel and have shitty service and at the same time, you can choose villa or cottage to spend time with family or friends and get old house with no hot water. everything happens, so it is necessary to plan everything in advance and to listen to advices of people who travel more than you…

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