Ok.. being of the STW massive we all expect a certain level of charm and sophistication when we travel… 5 stars and above (!!) if you please… but… what is the worst place you’ve ever found yourself having to spend a night ( or longer ? )

I’ve got two contenders… One was down the west country somewhere and I can’t remember why we wound up there but from the outside it looked like a lovely , little hotel complete with flower boxes and Ivy trailing up the walls. It turns out the ivy was probably holding the place together but it was late so mrs. G and I booked a room. Bringing our bags in we noticed a sign on the back door requesting truckers to remove their boots before coming in ( how quaint !! ). The room itself and lino. floors… ok now I’ve nothing against lino actually but this was sponge’y… gawd only knows what the lino was laid over… small dead things I could imagine.

The other memorable contender was in 1979… my brother had been driving across Newfoundland and camping rough most of the time but this night we decided to treat ourselves to a camp ground with showers ( ohh the extravagance ) So we pulled into what from the sign posts sounded a nice place ( first mistake ) and neither of us noticed the R.R. tracks at the entrance ( second mistake ). We set up our tents on the raised wooden platforms, had our dinner (moose meat? ) , our showers and settled in for a nice comfy nights sleeps.. that is until about 4.00am when a C&N freight train barreled thru seemingly about 10 feet away from us.

So….who can better that?

Very cheap Motel in Battle Mountain all good untill 4.30 when the planes started landing. Staggered outside onto the balcony and the things were about 20ft above my head. Runway was about 50 metres away.

ok.. two posts and we have planes and trains…what could be next?

Does sleeping in ditches count – without sleeping bag or anything like that? Done that a couple of times

chvck, I think for purposes of this post you have to have paid for the accomodation…

did you pay someone to sleep in their ditch?

( and ya, I've slept rough a few times.. but I can't recall any ditches )

On a cycling tour round the north of England. Staying in hotels and not booking. Arrived in Otley tired after a long day riding. Tried 4 hotels – all full. the fifth hotel took pity on us and found us a room – actually 2 singles. Mrs Hotel owner sid " we are small but clean and friendly"

well friendly they were – but my bed had springs sticking thru the mattress, the bathroom ( not en suite) was filthy, The room was filthy breakfast in the morning – I asked for bacon rolls rather than the full english – the rolls were mouldy.

Ok – so they took us in when they obviously normally did not have tourists staying ( workmen on a local big civil engineering thing was the main stock in trade)but what a pit it was. grim. Still better than the hedge or another 20 miles riding.

too many to mention, here are a few:

On a walking tour of Spain, was feeling sick as a dog and fetched up to some small town around Vigo. Saw a cheap pension, had a look around thought ok, dumped my pack and went off to see if food would stay down if I ate it. Coming back, I peeled back the sheets on the bed, unwashed with nasty bown sweat stains on them, the bed like a relief map of the Himalaya. I slept on the floor on my thermarest and sleeping bag, after sweeping the floor clean. Turned out that I'd checked in on the saints day of the local national guard, who celebrated by periodically letting off thunderflashes in the narrow alley outside the hotel.

The one-star hotel in Burma, believe me one star was an exaggeration. Cockroaches and the shower was a hosepipe sticking through the wall.

The Hotel in Windhoek where my GF tried to fix the heating and managed to fuse the whole bloody hotel, but that was our fault….

The old YHA place in teh devils punchbowl, chemical toilets and the worst job in the morning was to chuck the effluvia over the trees in the morning, but that was the 70s.

Not me, but a friend of mine, travelling in bolivia some years ago, the shortened story goes terrorists/some activist group emptied the hotel, he's a well-travelled chap and certainly quick thinking, so he managed to get out, gunfire and all … cue arrival at the airport, passport removed by terrorist men, phone calls to various including the embassy and he ended up on a 'plane getting shot it.

Whether this story has been 'polished' to make it sound a little more interesting, but jeez .. sounds scary!
jt 😉

San Antonio Travelodge. The kinda place where criminals would hide out for a while like in the movies, the motel in No Country For Old Men reminded me of this place. Mexicans dealing substances in the courtyard, probably with a 'piece' in their JNCOs. I'm pretty sure there were dead things in the pool, except the foot or so of water was literally full of trash.

Yep, sacked that off after one night (it was late and we needed sleep) and moved into the Holiday Inn Riverwalk (awesome) the next day.

While inter-railing I got to hostel in Prague which had two rooms; a dorm of about 8 bunks in a tiny room and a twin room. Liking a bit of comfort my friend and I booked the twin room, we got to the hostel to find that the owner didn't know if the room was still occupied or not but eventually unlocked the door to let us in (it was unoccupied but had music playing). The room was full of really grubby teddy bears with eyes and legs missing, the bedding hadn't been changed for ages. We looked at the shower room which hadn't been cleaned and was full of dead beasties and I was too scared to have a look at the toilets. We didn't stay very long before saying that we wouldn't stay which unleashed a number of questions asking why in a rather aggressive manner. Man we were scared and were glad to leave!
I also stayed in a hotel in Strasburg (on a different trip) and it had the squiggy lino!

I've been in some right holes in my time 😉

but putting that aside – the worst B&B I have ever seen was in Holyhead, missed the ferry, only bed I could find
Words cannot describe that place – I persevered for 10 mins & then went & got smashed & slept in the car

Stayed in a 'Hotel' in Pattaya in Thailand, the bed was a mattress supported by a pile of wooden slats/bricks, the TV had a 'love' channel that was a pink screen playing 'sensual' musak, and there was an ashtray full of condoms (which were chargeable) on top of the TV. I made no mention of the stains on the bedsheets to my girlfriend until after we left!

Walking alomh Hadrian's wa;;, I met a couple of english guys who told me about a brilliant B7B just as the Wall drops from the higher ground. Fantastic B&B, grat breakfast, cheap, yahoo. Found it the next day, but it was full, so was directed to the barn. Which was just that, a barn. With a couple of steel framed bunk beds, a split door, the top half of which didn't close and no heating. And next morning when i went rounmd for breakfast, I was told that barndwellers weren't allowed in the house, and no, the price didn't include breakfast, but she could do me a bacon roll and cup of tea that I had to take back to the hovel barn.

uplink, just saw your post – Holyhead, oh man what a truly appaling sh1thole of a place. I stayed in a B&B there that was not too bad, but the landlady had an awesonme se of mamaries that eased the pain of the place.

The night bus from London to Glasgow after I missed the flight home

Kings Arms (?) in the centre of Keswick. What an absolute sh*t hole staffed by people who can't understand a word of English.

We stayed at the 'Green Man' in Hawes once about 4 years ago.
The cellar had flooded so they had a pump going all night. The windows were broken so the wind howled through. The bathrooms were filthy.
The evening meal was moldy and off.
The owners overslept, having been piddled the night before, so no-one was there to feed the 10 hungry mtbers breakfast, who needed an early start, before riding around the beautiful Dales.
When I got home, my Brother had sent me a mail (I didn't get it in time), saying under no circumstances go there. He should know 'cos he used to be a local.

It might have improved now though.

a long time ago my car once got locked in an ncp carpark at eastbourne i think it was, so i found this £20 per night b&b, it was quite an experience, shared toilet, doors banging all night, drunks arguing, the place was filthy, pathetic door lock with ajoining door etc, didnt feel too safe tbh, could not bring myself to get in the bed so slept on top fully clothed.
next time i'll view the room

oh i also stayed in a spanish run hotel in amsterdamn once, was cheap friendly and just about clean enough, but the freaky thing was that in the draw with the bible was a **** huge wrench! kinda freaked me out why it was there tbh.