Holidays into the unknown ;)

At one time some package deal companies offered large discounts to holidaymakers who didn't need to know which hotel they were going to stay in or even which resort. They would guarantee a minimum class of hotel either in a particular country or a specific resort and it you opted for one such offering, you only found out when you got off the plane at the destination when the courier would announce which coach you were to board. My mother had friends who always opted for this arrangement because it saved them a lot of money and they often got 4* accommodation when they'd paid for 3*.

Personally I like to plan my holidays but I don't think it's rude to go somewhere 'blind'. In fact I think it shows a certain resilience.

Well all ye who love a good map, crack on! And all do not, crack on too. We are all individuals. We all enjoy different experiences. I do not see the problem.

@GoldenAge my friend and I did that every year . We had some great bargain holidays and some not so good . The worst was when in our 50s we were taken to an 18-30 hotel . It was dirty and in need of repair and the pool was filthy . We felt sorry for the young people who had paid a fortune to stay there . It was actually featured on one of those hotels from hell type programmes .

For Gramaretto - you're quite right, there's a subset of folk who haven't a clue where they're going, just expect it to be like Blackpool, but sunnier and warmer.

We went to Majorca a few years ago, the plane had all grades of tourists, some going to 'cheap & cheerful', others somewhere quieter. When the plane went over the Med, there were several loud comments asking why -- they hadn't realised Majorca is an island, thought it was a resort on the Spanish mainland. .

Sadly, geography seems very difficult for quite a few people. Watch almost any quiz on TV, and it's a topic that baffles lots of contestants (& not just questions about 'abroad'). There was a 'Tenable' a few years back, in the final round the team had to state the ten most southerly UK counties. This drew answers like "Lancashire" and "London". They didn't win.

2507C0

Well all ye who love a good map, crack on! And all do not, crack on too. We are all individuals. We all enjoy different experiences. I do not see the problem.

We are supposed to sneer at those less smug than ourselves.

I think those of us who are "researchers" and planners aren't all the same. Some of us like to plan each day - morning/ afternoon/ evening but I like to have a few places I'll make a big effort to go to - (sometimes it's a return visit) but plenty of days with nothing organised or just loose ideas.

I'm a researcher in the sense that I really examine the actual property and environment where we will stay but once away we make decisions about what we will do each day on a much more ad-hoc basis.

So, for example, when we met an archaeologist on holiday once we took a day to travel to a funny hidden gem of an ancient villa that was fantastic. On another trip we spent an afternoon looking for truffles with a couple we had just bumped into and on another I spent an afternoon attempting to learn a new weaving technique with a retired weaver having found her through a museum.

We don't rush about ticking things off.

Thanks to Gransnet, I was able to plan the perfect holiday a couple of years ago. I had every day of our tour of the NE of Eng!and organised,but I did leave us some leeway for recommendations from locals, weather conditions, interesting places indicated when passing signposts. But it was nice to know where we were staying each night. On holidays where we haven't booked in advance, so much of the day is lost looking for accommodation.

agnurse

I'm reminded of a story my father likes to tell about a colleague of his. She is Spanish (from Spain) and her English is very good, but she does retain her Spanish accent. Someone once told her she had an interesting accent and asked about her origins. She replied that she is from Spain. The man then replied that he thought she was from Europe.

She said she was completely nonplussed and had no idea how to respond.

There are ignorant people everywhere... My DIL is from a family with Indian origins - she, like her brothers and sisters, was born here (she's 53). All the family have 'English' names, and all have been to university here and have good jobs. She told me years ago that if she had a pound for every time someone had said to her, "You speak very good English!" she'd be a millionaire... 🙄

Many years ago we were on a flight from the US to the U.K. For some reason we weren’t all sitting together - dd1, then 8, was sitting next to an American man in probably his 50s.

He asked where she lived - which was Oman at the time -but she said she knew he probably wouldn’t have heard of Oman or Muscat, so she said ‘In the Middle East’.

He said, ‘Is that near the Mid West?’ 🤨

My beloved DH booked a luxurious holiday to a remote island in the Maldives. ( we’d visited the Maldives many times before in the last 40 years) Beautiful island with a water villa at the far end of the island but a mile to the Resturants. Transport was a bicycle or trike .big problem I’m 80 with a knee replacement and had never ridden a bike. For me it was exhausting and spoilt the holiday. So yes research is essential wherever you go

A colleague came back from her holiday in Tenerife absolutely furious because she had no idea it was a volcanic island, and the "sand was black!"

Bambino

A colleague came back from her holiday in Tenerife absolutely furious because she had no idea it was a volcanic island, and the "sand was black!"

😂

I must admit, even though we've gone on last-minute holidays a couple of times and explored when we were there, I'm not that daft!

Bambino

A colleague came back from her holiday in Tenerife absolutely furious because she had no idea it was a volcanic island, and the "sand was black!"

PS there are golden sand beaches - sand imported from the Sahara.
We were told by a local that the sand was blown across from the Sahara but realised that was a tall tale reserved for tourists. 🏖

Don't know if it's true but apparently they have a desk at Vienna airpirt for those arriving in Austria but thought they were going to Australia!!

Janetashbolt

Don't know if it's true but apparently they have a desk at Vienna airpirt for those arriving in Austria but thought they were going to Australia!!

No, it's not true.

It's an Urban Myth.

Allira

Bambino

A colleague came back from her holiday in Tenerife absolutely furious because she had no idea it was a volcanic island, and the "sand was black!"

PS there are golden sand beaches - sand imported from the Sahara.
We were told by a local that the sand was blown across from the Sahara but realised that was a tall tale reserved for tourists. 🏖

Sand from the Sahara does blow a long way. We had Sahara sand in the rain that fell in the UK in the last week. It happens every year, some years worse than others. We have had a thin layer of red sand on our cars in the morning.

Sahara sand is red rather than golden, but it is uite possible, in fact, highly probable, that sand from the Sahara blows across and gets deposited in the Canary islands in the same way it does in the UK. This probably happens more in the Canaries because it is so much closer to this desert.

We were told it happened in Madeira too.

Some years ago we went on an archaeologist-led group tour of historic sites in Egypt including the Valley of the Kings. It was interesting and educatonal but there were a few people who clearly didn't know anything about Egypt. We visited two wonderful tombs in the Valley but a third was ruled out by a vociferous minority: 'Oh, not another bl**dy tomb'.

😂😂😂.

On a gorgeous holiday in Tunisia a few years ago we were in quite an upmarket hotel. A family arrived who had clearly not done the research required and found themselves barred from all restaurants in the evening because they'd not packed long trousers for men. They were very cross but they discovered that rules were rules and they had to go shopping if they wanted to eat.
The dress code had been clearly laid out in the booking info if only they had bothered to read it.

M0nica

Allira

Bambino

A colleague came back from her holiday in Tenerife absolutely furious because she had no idea it was a volcanic island, and the "sand was black!"

PS there are golden sand beaches - sand imported from the Sahara.
We were told by a local that the sand was blown across from the Sahara but realised that was a tall tale reserved for tourists. 🏖

Sand from the Sahara does blow a long way. We had Sahara sand in the rain that fell in the UK in the last week. It happens every year, some years worse than others. We have had a thin layer of red sand on our cars in the morning.

Sahara sand is red rather than golden, but it is uite possible, in fact, highly probable, that sand from the Sahara blows across and gets deposited in the Canary islands in the same way it does in the UK. This probably happens more in the Canaries because it is so much closer to this desert.

Probably. Yes, my car has some Saharan sand on it, must get it cleaned.

However, the golden beaches are made from imported white or golden sand from the Sahara, although they do get a regular dusting blown over naturally.

I remember visiting an island by ferry, La Gomera, which was invisible from nearby Tenerife. On the last morning of our holiday, we could see the island across the water we had visited quite clearly as the dust in the atmosphere had cleared.

Mum and Dad met some American tourists on the train. They asked where my parents lived. Mum told them, they live in Newhaven. "Gee, how amazing, you must know our friends. They live in Portsmouth". OK, Newhaven and Portsmouth are both on the south coast and we knew a lot of people, but definitely not people living 60 miles away!

Sarahr we lived in America in 1964.
Mum said everywhere we went people asked if we'd met the Beatles, and were surprised when we hadn't as "England is such a small country" 😁

V3ra

Sarahr we lived in America in 1964.
Mum said everywhere we went people asked if we'd met the Beatles, and were surprised when we hadn't as "England is such a small country" 😁

😂😂😂

Grammaretto

AIBU to expect that people going on holiday ought to know where they are going?

I have been shocked to find people I have spoken to recently knew the name of the resort and even the country they had booked to visit but not where it was.
I replied "Spain's a big country, is it North, South, East, West?" Not a clue and not interested in finding out.

It reminds me of the joke about American tourists in the 1960s who are supposed to have said "if it's Tuesday it's Belgium".

Another woman who goes on cruise ships but flies to join the ship. I asked her if her Carribbean cruise would have started in Florida . I don't know she replied. It was Miami.

Especially now when there's a war in the Middle East, ignorance could lead you into danger.

Personal intelligence and the number of people one wants to be with are in inverse proportion.