Sometimes sharing stories regarding negative vacations in one's past is worthwhile. For instance, my worst vacation day was touring the Montreal Exposition as a ten year old boy. It was an excruciatingly dull day for a young boy. So I'd like to ask other posters what their worst vacation was. Please be frank.

My parents aren't adventurous travellers (Europe and across the United States are considered adventurous). As a result, just about every vacation I took when I was young (other than Disney) was an absolute bore. They didn't believe in asking what my interests were or if I had a desire to see anything in particular and picked destinations aligned with their interests. Well, my parents love country music. Needless to say, I was tortured with Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry several times. I will never, ever forgive them for that. I despise the twanging of country music, had little desire to drive past Johnny Cash's house or visit Opryland (thank g-d it has closed down). I also remembered being dragged through one of the tackiest places I have ever been, Gatlinburg, TN. I have learned a lesson and will never subject my poor daughter to such horrors.

For Opie. I think the worst one was
going to Mount Pilot with Goober.
I agree with Ilisa on Gatlinburg.
Perhaps Cherokee is as bad; there just is not quite as much of it.
I recall seeing a store in Cherokee where one could purchase a hollow pink plastic pig!! (It was larger than a bread box.) For what I don't know. Your worst enemy's front yard?

Gatlinburg at one time was fun, before it went totally commercial. But that was over 30 years ago!! Anybody been to Dollywood??

Took a day trip to Tijuana, Mexico. Yikes!

Took a cruise on the SS Scuzbucket
aka Carnival Cruise Line - pre mega ship days. Parents took us in 1988, at the time I was 16 and my younger sister 14.
Of course this is the time when spoiled rotten children, appreciate nothing and don't want to be caught dead with their parents. We were stuck in a room smaller than our bathroom at home.
The walls on the rooms were paper thin.
I remember on one side of our room someone was singing the Gilligan song
in the shower and my sister and I finished singing it with them. (We got strange looks from them the next few days) and on the other side of us was
a honeymoon couple - Use your imagination! Went to Bahamas which in those years was worse than it is now.
Got seasick! Dad sang in front of people on stage! Need I go on?

We drove down to St. Simon's Island for my father in-law's 70th birthday. Our room was next to theirs, and I think we shared a balcony. After too little food and too much drink at dinner my mother-in-law came over to tell us how horny she was (this was pre-viagra). How do you gently get out of this balcony discussion (and who knows who else heard her) without pushing her over! Also got to meet my brother-in-law's (who owed us big money) newly wedded fourth wife. Didn't know whether to try to remember her name for future or not. Plus my other brother-in-law and his wife spent an awful lot of time arguing about EVERYTHING. We did have a good time the last night, when we younger folk all got drunk and danced to a great bar band.

Mazatlan!! Of course we did pick the wrong time too - we traded a time share week kinda at last minute to get away in August, absolutely the worst month to vacation in Mexico. All the locals vacation then with all their kids; little kids in the pool all day, NEVER getting out to go to the bathrooms, so we never used the pool! We'd been to PV several times and loved that so Mazatlan was a big let down. Much bigger, dirtier, not scenic at all.....but this is just my opinion! Other people LOVE it.

I agree with xxx -- Tijuana, Mexico, has to be the worst. We went for around 6 hours. The female friends we were travelling with and I were afraid to drink anything, not because we were worried about drink contamination but because we didn't want to venture into any public washrooms!

I don't have any horror stories as bad as these, but in 1999 I had two major disappointments, both on weekend trips. Gettysburg, PA and Salem, MA have both turned into overcrowded Disney-esque shams of what they should be. Gettysburg had young children shouting, running, climbing all over what should be a memorial site. Salem takes a shameful episode in our nation's history and builds a mini-theme park out of it. Both trips left a bad taste in my mouth and made me wonder what people think about when they decide where to go with their toddlers.

Ruth, I know what you mean about the toddlers (and ill-mannered adults) at Gettysburg. But I love Gettysburg. I took a private tour with a Park-service sponsored guide ($25.00?). The guides must pass a grueling test and know tons about the Civil War. My guide (Mike Phipps, I think) has written a book on the war and was outstanding. He took us through the battle, driving us around in our car and describing the highlights. He was so good that other tourists would gather around to eavesdrop. It was one of the most enjoyable travel days I have ever spent. I think that going without a tour would have been a hot, dull day looking at a bunch of odd statues and such. Next time, try to find Mike!

Gettysburg is NOT a place for kids in the first place. Being a PA native I can tell you that everyone takes that field trip at least once while in school and most would tell you the same. The heat and humidity can be too much for anyone in the summer. The "museums" other than the official park ones are a real waste of money and time. Don't give up on the history side though.

We came down in a drizzling rain from Crater Lake, OR, into a dump called Chemult. Since it was late afternoon, we found a motel for the night. My wife went into the place to register, pointed me to drive to a unit, and we opened the door. Our 100-lb. Black Labrador bounded into the room...and disappeared. We could not find him anywhere! Soon I heard a noise coming from under the bed and bent low to see if "Shadow" had hidden there. Sure enough, there he was. Guarding the leftovers of a barbecue dinner. So I lifted one end of the bed while my wife grabbed for his collar and dragged him out. She then went to the motel's desk and demanded another room. Unfortunately, this was our first experience in dealing with a motel run by Pakistanis. Cleanliness is a sometime thing at what we came to call "Patels" -- you get what you get. And the rest of that night in that motel was a catalog of horros too long to mention. I was delighted to see dawn arrive, needless to say.

Is this worst in the USA (cause of the location of these posts) or anywhere in th e world? If in USA only......well Amarillo Texas is awful. So is Los Angeles unless you love mini strip malls and pollution. Newark New Jersey also a bad spot to vacation at.

Well I never thought I'd post in defense of Gatlinburg, TN. It is *tacky* -- perhgaps more so than my one and only visit in 1969, but it had a GREAT laundromat with dryers named after the seven dwarfs in "Snow White and..." There was also a good crafts store. I think I found it interesting because of the total contrast with the beauty of the Smokies.
The range of posts on this topic also indicate that many factors contribute to a "worst vacation." My "worst" part of a vacation was in the lovely Baltic resort of Travemunde in Germany. We were under the aegis of my brother and his German spouse. I finally managed to escape their idea of "family living" to an adorable little hotel called the Strand Pearl. But that was only after 3 nights in what could be called cozy and well regimented conditions!

Just out of curiousity, why would anyone vacation in Amarillo in the first place??? I don't know if it's a nice town or not, but I've never heard one compelling reason to go there on a pleasure trip! Ditto for Newark.

My personal worst is Jamaica. To its credit, it's very authentic. To its detriment, it's quite dirty and way too full of beggars. I was panhandled the entire week, and way more than I've experienced in Egypt, Africa, or Asia!

None of you have been in hell . . . you haven't mentioned the "House on the Rock" someplace in Wisconsin. Oh my gawd . . . has anyone else suffered through this clostrophobic (sp?) nightmare??

I have been to the House on the Rock. Tacky to be sure, but it wasn't so bad for a few hours. I can't say I took anything away from that experience, however.

My worst: on a trip to Europe as part of a business school class, my wife and I spent a few hours at a waste treatment plant outside of Freiburg, Germany. It happened to be our anniversary. We had gone to Asia with the same group the year before and got to spend our anniversary at the Great Wall and Summer Palace. Which would you prefer?

The Mount Summit Inn near Pittsburgh was the worst time ever. My wife and I went one Memorial Day. Rained for three days, horrid food (afraid to eat it), nothing open nearby.
Plus, the jukebox in the lounge downstairs would only play "I Can't Stop Loving You" by Ray Charles. The highlight of the trip was driving over the hill to see the remains of a plane crash Sunday morning. Everbody I have ever talked to that has stayed there left early, just like we did.

Wisconsin Dells. Ugh.

Gatlinburg, hands down. Tacky town full of tackier shops patronized the most tacky tourists ever. The worst.