Part of the pleasure of travel is the thrill of anticipation, daydreaming at your desk about sipping a cocktail in that vast infinity pool, dining at “hidden gem” local restaurants, and relaxing in the comfort of a stylish hotel room. The trouble is, sometimes reality doesn’t quite match up to our expectations. Whether we are misled by skewed reviews, duped by extreme wide-angle-lens photography, or straight-up lied to, we can’t always trust what we find online.
“We’ve all had rubbish holidays because we planned our trip around an Instagram shot of an ‘idyllic’ island, or trusted a TripAdvisor review when we shouldn’t have,” says Jennifer Naylor, a concierge at Flight Centre. “That’s why it’s so important to speak to someone in person who’s actually been there.”
Don’t believe us? Ask these poor souls, who learned the hard way that booking blind can end disastrously …
“I booked a hotel that looked lovely in the pics online, all Scandinavian minimalism. When I arrived, my room had no windows, a single bed, and the only piece of furniture was a broken stool. I’ve been suspicious of the word ‘minimalist’ ever since.” Felicity
“I travelled alone to the German town of Sinsheim to visit the Auto & Technik Museum, and afterwards decided to explore the local area. I walked across a ‘flugplatz’ (which I imagine means delightful flat unlit concrete expanse in German, despite its leafy appearance on Google Maps), past lots of signs reading ‘Verboten’ with exclamation marks. All to get to a bar called Big Mama which, as it turns out, closed circa 1989, but was still getting good reviews on Google.” Ronan
“I went to a resort in Zanzibar based on the incredible photos. A beachfront hotel, they say! The reality was a cluster of bungalows atop a sort of cliff, overlooking utterly impenetrable seaweed and mud. On the first night we were woken up to the distressed cries of a poor chap who had decided to have a midnight dip at his ‘beachfront hotel’, only to whistle off the edge and land bruised and battered in the sludge below. And there was only one taxi, who tried to charge us $100 every day for the $20 trip out of this hellhole. Oh, and they ran out of an ingredient a day every day for the weeklong trip, so what started out as a big fry-up on day one had turned into tomato on bread by the end of the week. On our final day we simply got a cup of tea. True Fawlty Towers, Zanzibar style.” Ross
“We stayed in a ‘poshtel’ in Phuket last summer, and the photos – all hanging succulents, co-working stations and vintage gramophones – made it look like some sort of family-run Hoxton hotel. The reality was a bare mattress in a windowless, plywood cell where the walls didn’t meet the ceiling. There were no plug sockets, no internet, no pillows and the bare flickering lightbulb finally gave up and exploded at 9.30pm.” Corinne
“We booked a poolside apartment specifically because I was pregnant and wanted to swim in a warm pool in mild sunshine. The ‘heated pool’ turned out to be ‘solar heated’, so not heated at all in the winter months – precisely when you need it to be. Brilliant.” Katie
Next time, why not cut out the heartache and call in those pros? Planning your perfect trip with Flight Centre’s travel consultants is as easy as sitting back and chatting about your dream holiday.
“We have access to a wealth of information from our destination experts – people who’ve actually visited and know the destination or hotel or experience intimately,” says Naylor. “There’s no more watertight way to make the most of your holiday than by speaking to seasoned travel professionals who’ve been there and done that.”
For more help planning an exceptional (disaster-free) holiday with Flight Centre’s experienced travel consultants, visit flightcentre.co.uk
