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‘That’s when the shark fins appeared’: your horrifying holidays

With Two Weeks in August and the return of The Four Seasons, TV dramas about nightmare getaways are having a moment. Here are Guardian readers’ tales of their own

‘That’s when the shark fins appeared’: your horrifying holidays

TL;DR

  • A family stayed in a seemingly empty hotel in Belfast in 1969, only to learn it was later destroyed by a bomb and was an IRA meeting headquarters.
  • A honeymoon was plagued by a breakdown, a lack of transport to their accommodation, and an awful frozen pizza meal.
  • A non-swimmer in Fiji had a terrifying experience while kayaking, involving a large wave, hitting coral, cutting their foot, and seeing shark fins.
  • A couple on vacation in Hawaii received a false ballistic missile threat alert, causing panic and a stolen sense of peace.
  • Despite the terrifying events, many of these readers are still alive to tell their tales, with one couple celebrating 18 years of marriage.