This is the time of year when people are ploughing through the holiday brochures, geared up to book their place in the sun. For most of us, holidays are the highlight of the year. We work hard to save up for them and we look forward to them for months. And for the most part, they live up to our dreams. But, sadly, not all holidays work out as planned. For some, they turn out to be a total disaster. Helen Mead and Isobel Fox talked to the holidaymakers who wish they'd stayed at home.

GERALD AND June Swinbank were more than ready for their annual holiday.

Running the busy George and Dragon pub in Great Horton Road, Bradford, had taken its toll on the couple, and they were itching to sit in the sun and put their feet up.

They had had a fantastic time on a cruise to celebrate their silver wedding and wanted to go on anther one. Says June: "We had been to Mexico and New Orleans and wanted to go to the same area but to different destinations."

Flicking through Teletext, they found what looked like the ideal vacation. Says June: "It was a cruise, it was in the right area, and it was not too bad a price, so we booked."

They joined the ship in Florida, unpacked and settled down to enjoy themselves. Recalls June, a 48-year-old grandmother: "We were in the holiday mood and were starting to relax on board, it was lovely."

The couple had heard about hurricane Georges, but did not think much about it. Says June: "We knew before we set off that it was in the area, but nothing was said and we assumed it wouldn't affect us."

Three days into the cruise - which cost the couple more than £1,000 and was to include visits to the Bahamas and Mexico - they were having a great time. Says June: "We were having fun, relaxing, and enjoying all the things the ship had to offer - the discos and entertainment, the lovely food."

The couple spent the Tuesday night living it up, and retired to bed in a good mood. They certainly didn't expect what was to come the following morning.

Recalls June: "At 7am a letter was slipped under our door saying we had to pack our bags and leave the ship. It was a not very nice way to wake up, to say the least."

Tour bosses had decided to pull the plug on their cruise, in September last year, as its return journey was in the path of the hurricane.

Adds June: "Cabin stewards were waiting outside in the corridor to make sure people packed. There was so much confusion." They disembarked in Mexico, but passengers who were booked for a longer stay were allowed to stay on board. Says June: "The ship was re-routed away from the hurricane, but it would have meant us being back a day late - yet we weren't even given that option. We were all put on buses - it took ages."

After a day in a hotel they were flown back to Florida where they waited in a hotel reception area for five hours before being taken to motels and hotels in the district. Says June: "It was throwing it down and we queued for two hours to get on buses."

So, instead of feeling rejuvenated, the couple felt exhausted. "We felt completely washed out. We were pushed from pillar to post. We can laugh about what happened now, but at the time it was dreadful."

At the weekend they flew home as planned. "We felt shattered, like we needed another holiday to get over it. It was very stressful."

A group of the dissatisfied holidaymakers have banded together and are still battling for compensation from Thomson Holidays, who they feel should have been aware of the possible problems. But the company insists it does not pay out for natural disasters which are beyond its control.

The experience has not put June and Gerald, 47, off. They are planning to go abroad again this year, although whether or not they will opt for a cruise has yet to be seen.

And the mice and cockroaches came, too...

When Shirley Durkin and partner Andrew McGregor booked a dream holiday for their family, little did they know they wouldn't be the only ones staying in their apartment.

The couple and their young son Anthony, then nine, had spent weeks preparing for what they hoped would be two weeks of paradise on the Greek island of Crete and were looking forward to a holiday full of sunbathing, swimming and general relaxation.

But the reality was something altogether different.

Within moments of arriving at their holiday apartments they soon found they had been sent to an Aegean hell rather than an idyllic island.

Says Shirley: "I've never seen anything quite like it in my life.

"There were bags of rubbish in the hallway and the inside of the apartment was beyond belief.

"We found mouse droppings on the floor and a dead mouse under the fridge. And that's not to mention the cockroaches walking across the floor.

"We didn't use to go to bed until 3 or 4am because we were frightened - all we could hear was mice scratching in the wardrobe and the cockroaches scurrying across the floor.

"In the end we had to put our beds together and sleep in a row for comfort."

Shirley says that Anthony still suffers from nightmares about their experience, which she says "is definitely the holiday from hell".

And yet more was to come. Later in the holiday, Anthony contracted a rash, which Shirley says came from the apartment's swimming pool - used as a toilet by local cats.

And, she claims, there was green algae and mildew on the toilet and wash basin and the drain on the shower didn't work so the water overflowed into the bathroom.

"We just wanted to come home," adds Shirley.

"We couldn't eat in the apartment it was so disgusting, we had to throw all the food away in the fridge and we used to buy cockroach spray to try to kill some of them.

"We complained to the holiday reps so many times, but no notice was ever taken."

When the couple eventually got home, they demanded a refund - £700 - for their disastrous holiday in the resort of Gouves from travel company SunTours.

But even two years after the event, Shirley says they haven't heard anything back from the company.

Since then, the family have enjoyed several other successful holidays abroad, but says Shirley, nothing will wipe out the memory of their cockroach and rodent nightmare in Crete.

And asked if she'll ever go back there, Shirley's answer is a resounding "no".

A SunTours spokesman said: "Obviously we are very perturbed about the situation and we need them to write to us with all the details so we can investigate their complaints."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.