SARAH VINE: My son phoned me from Croatia at 2.33am – and unleashed every mum’s holiday nightmare
After I finished my A-levels, I wanted to go camping with three friends in Portugal. My father, though, was dead set against the idea of his daughter heading off alone in the wilds of the Algarve. It gave him the heebie-jeebies.
Luckily my mother talked him around and it was one of the best holidays I’ve ever had, an experience I’ll never forget.
The Portuguese were kind and welcoming, the camp sites clean and cheap, the food amazing, the beaches magical.
The whole trip cost less than a few hundred pounds and I returned happy, tanned and ready (or as ready as we would ever be) for the next step in life’s big adventure, university.
Four decades on, that post-A-level summer holiday remains a rite of passage for many teenagers. Groups jet off to Greece, Spain or Portugal, and more recently places such as Croatia, to let off steam after months of study and hard work.
But for many, the experience is less a celebration of their new-found freedom as a rude awakening to the harsh realities of a corrupt and rapacious tourist industry that not only sees young Brits abroad as legitimate targets for scammers and fraudsters, but also seems to actively despise their presence. There are endless reports of holidaymakers being attacked, conned or treated appallingly by the authorities.
Sarah Vine with her son William and daughter Beatrice when they were children
Mail columnist Sarah Vine reveals how her son’s teenage holiday abroad unleashed her worst nightmare
In Barcelona, criminals spit at tourists as a distraction technique while pickpocketing them. There are fake bookings, bracelet scams (where hawkers charm you into letting them tie a bracelet on your wrist and then demand an absurd amount of money), porter scams, stories of people being charged for extra teaspoons and plates, or to have sandwiches cut in half.
But there is worse – much worse.
week, a Briton was allegedly beaten to death by bouncers in Cyprus, with one jumping on his head. Last month, a 21-year-old died after he tried to break up a fight in Ibiza. Reports of violence are increasingly common, with gangs picking off young, naive holiday-makers as easy prey.
Which brings me to last Wednesday, when I was woken by a persistent buzzing from my phone.
Bleary-eyed, I reached for my specs and saw the time: 2:33am. Who could be ringing at this ungodly hour?
After I’d finally unlocked the phone (my face ID never recognises my morning face, probably because I look more like a scrunched-up paper bag than a human), the full horror became apparent.
Four decades on, that post-A-level summer holiday remains a rite of passage for many teenagers
Four decades on, that post-A-level summer holiday remains a rite of passage for many teenagers. Groups jet off to Greece, Spain or Portugal, and more recently places such as Croatia, to let off steam after months of study and hard work
READ MORE: SARAH VINE REVEALS HER SON’S ROBBERS STILL PROWL THE STREETS OF LONDON
It was my son, on holiday in Croatia. He was in an Uber returning to the flat he was sharing with friends – but the driver was demanding an extra €60, which as a teenager on a budget he didn’t have. When my son refused, the driver yelled at him in Croatian, locked the doors and drove past my son’s flat to another part of town.
By now trapped in a car with an angry Croat demanding money with menaces, my terrified son called me for help.
Needless to say, I was beside myself. After several frantic conversations (the phone signal kept dropping, which didn’t help my blood pressure), I transferred some money to his account (thank God for internet banking) so he was able to withdraw it from a cashpoint and hand the money over in exchange for being taken home.
My son was shaken, but safe. Neither of us could wait for him to come home.
He later explained that the entire holiday had been marred by similar events. Everywhere, the threat of violence was never far away.
One night, a girl had got separated from their group and been cornered outside a club by three men who ordered that she hand over her money and phone, or else. If she tried to call for help, they said she’d be stabbed. Or worse.
Talking to children of friends, such incidents seem the norm. Drinks being spiked. Sexual assaults. All a far cry from the gentle summer in Portugal I experienced all those years ago.
As more cheap holidays open up, people need to be alive to the risks. Hot new destinations such as Albania may seem attractive, with great-value hotels, long sandy beaches and cheap restaurants (the average cost of a beer is just £1.69). But let’s not forget that Albania’s main export is organised crime.
It’s a shame, because travel and discovering other cultures are among the most enriching experiences anyone, especially a young person, can undertake. But sadly, times have changed.
Thinking back to my father’s attitude when I was young, I now have good reason to be worried at the prospect of my own child heading off on their first holiday alone.
And to any young person planning that post-exam trip or a gap year abroad, I say this: stay sober, stay together – and, above all, stay wise to the risks. Otherwise you might find yourself being taken – quite literally – for a very nasty ride.
Face facts Linda
Linda Evangelista, 58
Appearing flawless on the cover of Vogue, Linda Evangelista, right, says: ‘I don’t mind – and I never did mind – ageing.’ Er, might that be because, like other wealthy female stars – eg Madonna – she doesn’t seem to have done much ageing? Evangelista, 58, famously had catastrophic fat-reduction treatment and has admitted using Botox. I don’t mind people having anti-ageing treatment but Evangelista and her ilk should stop kidding themselves that looking like they do is in any way natural.
I’ll never understand why many trans women wish to claim periods as their own.
Mx Slaybia appeared to menstruate through white trousers before throwing tampons
If they were actual women, they would know menstruation is at best a bore, at worst something that causes suffering.
That’s why it was so infuriating to see a stunt such as the one at last month’s Norwich Pride when a non-binary performer with the delightful name of Mx Slaybia appeared to menstruate through white trousers before throwing tampons into the crowd and holding a placard reading ‘Moonblood has no gender’.
Menstruation is a bodily function, not an excuse for vulgar performance art.
Try the talking cure, doc
Dr Robert Laurenson, the junior doctors’ strike leader, asks why the Government won’t negotiate a settlement but in the same breath says he won’t agree a similar settlement struck by his Scottish colleagues because he won’t deal with an ‘ideological’ Conservative administration.
Does he want to negotiate or not? Or is this not about pay but about Dr Laurenson’s own political ambitions? Given that he’s comfortably off with a mortgage-free £500,000 flat, as well as being a director of his family firm (which holds £2million worth of investments), one can’t help feeling it’s the latter.
Vanessa Feltz
I love broadcaster Vanessa Feltz’s zest for life – but if she really hopes to find love after splitting with a partner after 17 years, the answer won’t be by appearing on Celebs Go Dating with a Love Islander and someone from Made In Chelsea. Vanessa should give them all a wide berth and get a dog. Far more reliable than most men, generally much better conversationalists and with, for the most part, better table manners.
We are in the grip of a bedbug epidemic, says Rentokil. The reason is people’s love of second-hand furniture, in which the blood-sucking critters hide. Surely Airbnbs are also to blame. A friend picked up an infestation after a weekend in Cornwall. Damn things were harder to get rid of than nits.
Just let a woman do it
Warrant Officer Class 2 Deborah Penny,
Imagine the criticism if the Army hosted an event to discuss the ‘lived experience’ of soldiers from ethnic-minority backgrounds on the front line and invited, as an expert witness, the testimony of a white Caucasian soldier.
So it’s not surprising that some wonder why Warrant Officer Class 2 Deborah Penny, right, the Army’s first serving trans soldier, was on a panel debating the experiences of women in the Army.
No doubt Officer Penny has an exemplary 40-year record, having joined as a man and serving in roles from which women were banned.
But, as her experience as a woman in the Army is limited, her role on the panel would have been better represented by a biological female.
How is it that seven police officers manhandle an autistic child into custody seemingly for giving one of them not much more than a bit of lip but hordes of feral teenagers can run amok in places such as London’s Oxford Street and barely get a rap on the knuckles?
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