Was this woman right to ditch friends on chaotic girls’ trip to Spain?

Ghosted: the would-be traveller had pangs of regret after backing out of the girls' weekend in Spain. Photo / Aleksandra Sapoznikova, Unsplash

It’s only true friendship that could convince you to sign up for a chaotic weekend, sleeping on air mattresses and living out of a carry-on case. But one woman took to the internet to say that not even her BFFs could drag her on a disorganised holiday - instead pulling a ‘no show’ on her flight from Frankfurt.

The anonymous 23-year-old traveller confessed to ‘ghosting’ the group on a girls’ trip to Spain.

Writing to the Reddit forum “Am I the A**hole”, this weekend, the would-be traveller admitted being conflicted about her decision to dodge the drama.

It all began when the friends from Germany elected to carpool across the continent to save money.

The other two girls, 24 and 28, offered her a lift, which she declined.

“They decided that they wanted to drive through the night (about 10 hour) and arrive in the morning,” she wrote. Instead as she lived so close to Frankfurt airport, decided this was madness and booked a plane ticket instead.

That was the first red flag.

Kicking back with friends to share tapas and a cocktail is all part of the Barcelona experience. Photo / Getty Images

The next one cropped up almost immediately after, while booking activities for the trip.

The day before setting off, the girls casually mentioned they had booked tickets to a museum, sharing the details in messenger app.

“She told me to book for 2pm, which is when they booked for. When I clicked the link, the only time slot available was 8:35am. I pretty much was like ‘whatever, I will do something else while they are doing that.’”

But when it came to booking accommodation something made her feel as if she had been written out of the plans.

It wasn’t until the night before the flight that she discovered that nobody had booked her a place in the hotel.

Texting the group how much she owed for the trip and details of where they were staying, the rest of the group were strangely silent.

It wasn’t until the morning of her flight - while the others were well on their way - she received a response. Three hours before departure time she got a message that she would have to book another room.

“She tells me that I had to book my own hotel room because they’re having a guy friend come with them that they invited last minute.”

The trouble is, the hostel is fully booked and the nearby hotels were either full or way above budget.

If before she had a bad feeling about the trip, now it was clear that it would be a disaster.

“I really wanted to go so I just kind of let it go and prepared myself to spend some extra money for a hotel room for myself in a different hotel, but on the way to the airport I had a gut feeling that I wasn’t going to enjoy myself. So I turned around and went home and sent her a text saying I was going to sit this one out because I was expecting a girls trip.”

She cut her losses at a €100 Ryanair flight and went home.

However, having lost her airfare and potentially burned bridges with the friendship group, the traveller couldn’t tell if she was the one being unreasonable.

She did the only sensible thing and put the situation up for trial by internet.

Reddit had plenty to say.

Most saw she had dodged a vacation from hell.

“So they book tickets for the museum... but don’t bother to book a third for you. …

I totally agree - that’s not a weekend you want to be a part of, they’ve made it abundantly clear they don’t care about you. Good call in sitting it out.”

Others couldn’t understand why she was being so measured in her response.

“Why aren’t you more angry?! This would be friendship ending for me unless my friend was seriously trying to make amends.”

Others went as far as to suggest her “‘friend’ did all of this deliberately” and they were trying to shake her from the start.

Not a single comment sided with the friendship group.

The only bone of contention was that the traveller didn’t use her air ticket.

If she was prepared to book her own hotel, she could have had a solo trip to Spain and the friends needn’t have been any the wiser.

Eventually the poster replied, saying she was now sure she made the right decision.

“Reading this while sulking with a glass of wine in the bathtub lol! Thank you for saying that, I teared up a little. I’ve felt like a coward all day for not just sucking it up and going. I even considered just grabbing a hotel for myself in Spain and not even hanging out with them at all but instead having a little solo trip.”

“I’ve never known her to be that kind of person so it never occurred to me that she was trying to blow me off or anything like that. I do feel good though that most comments are saying I made the right decision in not going,” she wrote.

She had gone expecting a trip to Spain but had received nothing but pain. Now she was certain that she dodged what would have been a miserable trip.