Holidays into the unknown ;)

I enjoy booking holidays and appear to have a comparatively good knowledge of geography so I always know where in the world it is. However, I don't research bus timetables and tiny details. It's nice to explore and discover rather than research the guts out of a place.

There was a thread on Mumsnet by an OP who did not realise Dubai was close to Iran. Duh!

Grannybags

I know people who are happy not to leave the resort at all during their stay. They just sit by the pool all day and tuck into all inclusive food (as long as it’s not ‘foreign’!)and drink. They couldn’t find the country on a map

Not my idea of fun.

Mind you when the children were younger, we usually tried to have at least one fly and flop holiday each year, where they could play in the pool and/or beach, grab an ice cream or drink when they wanted.

The trade off was that we would go out of the hotel/resort every other evening for a meal of our choosing and a wander round the local town etc.

If there was a place of historical significance nearby we would go and visit, and 9 times out of ten the children enjoyed the experience.

CanadaGran
I often use if it’s Tuesday it must be Belgium
I changed Belgium to China when visiting the Terracotta Army.
The car park was was rammed with coaches.
I don’t know why but that film title came into my head and I said out loud if it’s Tuesday it must be the Terracotta Army 😂

I very much doubt I will ever be able to afford a holiday.

We have come up with various ingenious schemes to at least be looking at a different 4 walls.

Back in the early 1970s we backpacked around Israel, using public transport. We got talking to a couple who were there on a package tour. They had seen some sights as part of the package, but they asked us "How do you know where to go?" I really didn't know what to say!

These days, it's so much easier to look things up on the internet there really is no excuse.

Also back in the day, there were many American servicemen and their dependants (probably other nationalities too) who were flown to places all over the world, stayed in their barracks and on their bases and never had any contact with the outside world. I met many others, though, who were really interested and took their families to fun places every weekend. I live near several big American bases* and had some really good times with some of them.

YouTube is full of clips about (usually) American tourists who are"shocked" by even the slightest differences to what they are used to. They dont seem to get that the whole point of travelling is to see how others live, what they eat, and how they do things. And to learn from thjs. This is apparently a mindset that is not exclusively American.

* Gone now of course.

I think it depends on how we like to holiday.

My son's in-laws like a "hot place with a pool" holiday. They want good on-site facilities and don't want to be responsible for their meals. They do occasionally go away from the hotel/complex but not often.

I like a rural villa in a warm place with a pool and interesting architecture, a splash of ancient civilisation(s). I like it best if there's not many tourists or tourist facilities as I like to meet and (try to) chat with locals and find out about the people and customs there.

Both essentially are a holiday.
I wouldn't like theirs and they wouldn't like mine. I think it's odd to be so insulated from a culture in a complex - they can't see how mine is at all relaxing!

Exactly NotSpaghetti we all choose the holiday which suits us at the time we are away.

I like different types of holiday depending on how I feel at the time, what country we are visiting and who we are going with.

The only times I didn’t know exactly where I was happened on skiing trips. I seemed to lose all sense of direction then although I did of course know what country we were in. I had the same problem with piste maps! For every other holiday I like to know exactly where I am going, what’s there and will have studied street maps beforehand. Always using a book. Once a librarian…😏

Cressy

The only times I didn’t know exactly where I was happened on skiing trips. I seemed to lose all sense of direction then although I did of course know what country we were in. I had the same problem with piste maps! For every other holiday I like to know exactly where I am going, what’s there and will have studied street maps beforehand. Always using a book. Once a librarian…😏

I am with you on the piste map having skied for over 40 years, for some unknown reason I cannot read one.

It’s a standing joke with friends and family, the children as soon as they could read and ski took over the map from mum 😹😹😹⛷️⛷️⛷️

I know it happens, because I have met people like that. But, personally, I like to choose my destination with care,and then research it. Except, it is usuallky the other way round we want to see something in particular so we go there.

We went to Uzbekistan about 30 years ago because we wanted to go to Samarkand and Bukhara. We went to Jordan because we wanted to visit Petra and Norway because we wanted to know what a luxury cruise was like and Norway and back was the shortest cruise available.

I'd just like to add a holiday tip if you park in a labyrinthine town and need to find your hire car later.

Take a photo of something nearby. A shop, a monument, a pile of unusual rubble on a street corner.... some local will be able to point you back to it sooner or later.

This saved us one holiday after losing a car in a back street the day before and wandering about aimlessly for 90 minutes longer than we wanted!

NotSpaghetti

I'd just like to add a holiday tip if you park in a labyrinthine town and need to find your hire car later.

Take a photo of something nearby. A shop, a monument, a pile of unusual rubble on a street corner.... some local will be able to point you back to it sooner or later.

This saved us one holiday after losing a car in a back street the day before and wandering about aimlessly for 90 minutes longer than we wanted!

I do that in large new to me car parks.

We also used to hang something small from the rear view mirror.

I saw a woman being interviewed once about this very thing, the interviewer asked her whether she knew where her destination was situated geographically and what she knew about the place. She said something along the lines of "I've no idea where it is, that's the pilot's job" Flying into the great unknown, a veritable magical, mystery tour. Hilarious!

I remember a neighbour of dd1 who was about to go on holiday to Rhodes.

She was telling dh how she was looking forward to it, and added, ‘Is it in Spain?’

TerriBull

I saw a woman being interviewed once about this very thing, the interviewer asked her whether she knew where her destination was situated geographically and what she knew about the place. She said something along the lines of "I've no idea where it is, that's the pilot's job" Flying into the great unknown, a veritable magical, mystery tour. Hilarious!

I've never done that even if we've gone at the last minute to a destination!
Anyway, my geography's not that shaky 🌏

"Anyway, my geography's not that shaky" Well I thought mine wasn't either, until apropos of the what's going on in the Middle East and maps cropping up all over the place, it did occur to me, good grief! I didn't realise Dubai's proximity to Iran was so close a bit too close to feel safe, even before it all kicked off

I had a very good teacher in my dad. We used to look at maps and the atlas a lot and he showed me where everything was before I got to secondary modern school . Oh how I miss him so much and loved those nights together looking through maps etc. I can’t understand anyone going to countries when they don’t know where the hell they are in the world.

Someone once asked me why Tenerife was so warm in the winter months when the rest of Spain wasn't.
Not the first person I've come across who thought Tenerife and other Canaries were part of mainland Spain. Seems unbelievable to me.

sixandahalf

I very much doubt I will ever be able to afford a holiday.

We have come up with various ingenious schemes to at least be looking at a different 4 walls.

What are the ingenious schemes. sixandahalf?.

I have never been on a package holiday or a cruise or an organised trip or stayed in hotels although I wouldn't rule it out especially now I'm older. 😉 We just never considered it. Partly the cost but more because we enjoyed exploring by map the places we wanted to visit.

When our 4 children were young we camped in tents either in this country - Scottish islands were a favourite - or in Europe.

We also did a few house exchanges. This was really cheap and fun especially with very young children who could swap toys.

Nowadays I go on interest holidays. Learning Gaelic on the Isle of Sky and pottery on the Isle of Cumbrae.

I would love to visit my DS in NZ once more and my cousin in Boston- I've never been to the USA. We can always dream.

We did once (pre children) go on a very last minute holiday - this was in the days when you could just walk into a travel agency and they'd sort something out for you there and then. We knew we were going to Majorca, but not which resort - but as it happens we were very lucky and had a lovely (and very cheap) week in the sun. I do prefer to research it all for myself beforehand now though.

So apropos for me today. We fly to Vietnam tomorrow for a two week boat/bike tour. Very excited. I find about half the fun of the trip is the planning and the anticipation before hand. Totally foreign idea to me that someone not know where they were going and what they might expect to find there. I like a good plan--all the the more fun to spontaneously deviate from it

I don’t know anyone who hasn’t known where they’re going. Everyone I know reads up on the countries they holiday in and sometimes go back for a few days to see things and places they’ve missed. Like OldFrill says others just want to relax and why not.

Grammaretto

Like those people who go to the likes of Sandals and other AI (all-inclusive) places and never step foot outside the resort.

They never learn anything about where they are or contribute to the local economy. Although, I have to admit that all those I've known/met who go on those kind of holidays have been, without exception, rather shallow and boring people!!!
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We are off to Menorca at the weekend. No idea what to expect out of season but looking forward to finding out! We normally visit in the summer months but just fancied seeing it empty(ish) of other tourists.