Back in the late 1980s we took our sons, then 10 and 11, on an all-in Christmas adventure holiday on the 'desert island' of Fuerteventura. Great things were promised by the aparthotel: beach activities for the kids, archery, canoeing, evening entertainment and lush, peacock-inhabited, tropical gardens.

The reality was somewhat different. The gardens were watered with semi-treated sewage. The peacocks crapped all over the terraces, and the staff systematically ripped off punters. The restaurant followed a cycle of freshly cooked food one day, the same served cold the next, and the same again, recycled as a fricassee or paella, the next.

On Christmas Day the complex was empty of staff - they'd taken the day off. After an avalanche of complaints, a poolside bar was grudgingly opened. The booze was cheap, but boy, did we need it! The evening entertainment consisted of one British rep who, when not bumming drinks, 'organised' our offspring into prancing in a circle singing 'Klingons on the starboard bow ...'. The outdoor activities consisted of a darts match (the rep had mislaid the bows and arrows).

On New Year's Eve there was a knife fight in the disco. Next day, two security guards fired guns at each other in reception. The police were called and arrests were made. Down at the the beach, the currents were lethal, the warnings scant and, tragically, a fellow English guest drowned. The flight home was sombre.

We had complained loud and long, but the reps had run out of complaint forms. Once home, after a flurry of derisory offers and lawyers' letters, we got back just over half of the £3,000 cost.

Ever since, Fuerteventura is referred to in the family as 'Fuerta del Hell'.

Graham Leckie, Colchester

Have you had a crap holiday? If so, tell us about it. The writers of stories we publish will receive a Lifesystems First Aid Kit from Cotswold Outdoor (0844 557 7755; cotswoldoutdoor.com) for taking the sting out of minor holiday mishaps. Email crap.holidays@observer.co.uk