What's your favourite/least favourite holiday destination?

Funnily enough our best and worst holidays were in the same place! Certerparcs. The first holiday was a raffle prize. The holiday was for 6 people and had to be taken between November and February but not in the school holidays which meant we were not able to take the children and grandchildren. We cycle a lot and were really looking forward to doing so at the parc , unfortunately it was very hilly and freezing cold . They would not let my husband sail in case he fell in and got hyperthermia. We decided not to take anyone else as it would end up with me cooking for 6. We were positioned right on the perimeter fence which had a large notice on it which we could only see the back of and I was convinced it said''do not feed the animals''. We were looking forward to some decent swimming not realising that actually the pool is just a playground. We vowed ''never again''. Roll forward a few years and we decided to take all the family . It was such fun, I wish we could afford to do it again. I even saw crossbills for the first time when we all went on the ''Early morning bird watch''- with breakfast!

I'm in my worst holiday destination right now. My husband can't travel abroad and we are on holiday in Kent. It's cold, wet and windy and I am sitting in the car park of a nature reserve reading my book and surfing the Internet. Don't get me wrong, there's lots to see and do but I hate doing it all wearing a fleece, raincoat and gloves.

Since I have seldom taken holidays I haven't contributed to this thread before, ,but I saw the post from ginny on page one, and she begged nnot to be sent back to Corfu. I just wanted to say that she must have been to the wrong part(s) - two of my meagre stock of holiday memories are of fortnights spent in Ayios Stefanos, which was idyllic - five tavernas, an enormous beach and one general store - peaceful and very relaxing. That was in the eighties, of course, and I have no doubt it will be more commercialised by now.

I had a very nice week in Aix-en-Provence, with Saga! Pavement restaurants on the Cours Mirabeau, trips by coach to the Camargue, to Cassis and Agues Mortes. And some interesting companions...

Greatnan don't be too snooty about Blackpool!

On Friday, my young Polish hairdresser was telling the whole salon about her and hubby's recent weekend there.

Great weather, very friendly people, lovely B&B with free parking "unlike Brighton", inexpensive restaurants and beer "compared to Brighton", and real sand "unlike Brighton".

Apparently there were loads of extremely noisy Hen Parties marauding around but everyone was good-natured and a good time had by all.

I know a wealthy family from Dubai who every year spend a week in Blackpool.

Horses for courses!

sunflowers; did you go to Port Quin [one of my favourite places in the world] and Trebetherick [where John Betjeman is buried]? And the Long Cross hotel which is a mini version [and I mean mini] of the Lost Gardens of Heligan. I must go back to Cornwall; it's been calling to me for a long time now.

I think Blackpool is not for everyone, Riverwalk if you love nature and beautiful scenery, you have to get away from Blackpool centre, which is concrete, noise and smells of hot dog stands. Nearby, though, are the most beautiful places on the Fylde.

We used to holiday twice a year in Blackpool when I was a child, staying in a traditional B and B near the beach, where we would have donkey rides, ice creams, paddle in the sea and play on the lovely golden sands. After tea, we'd go to the Pleasure Beach, then back to our digs tired and happy.

My mum and dad didn't get the same enjoyment as us, sharing a family room with four kids, being required to go out for the day after breafast and only return at tea-time, notices in the shared toilet about two sheets of Izal per person, please!

I don't like Blackpool as a holiday centre any more, not like I did as a child, but St Annes, Lytham and surrounding places are really nice.

When I used to go to Blackpool too, on the bus from Manchester with my Grandma for the day, and a couple of times we stayed in a B&B which was owned by a friend of Mum's. We always went to the North Shore which was considered more 'refined' by Mum and Grandma than the rest of Blackpool.
I was petrified of the trams for some reason, but I can still remember the fresh clean smell of the beach and I've never been anywhere quite like it

Oh, yes,*Jane*, the North Shore was much more refined! We would also go on a bus from Central Station, and then have to trudge from the terminal in Blackpool. We would always arrive in time for high tea, which was a wafer thin slice of boiled ham, a tomato, a lettuce, a raddish, a slice of hard-boied egg, cucumber sliced into malt vinegar, and salad cream, with thin slices of bread and butter, followed by tinned fruit and evaporated milk, and a piece of jam sponge cake. Our parents would keep plying us with bread and butter so we wouldn't complain we were hungry.

When salad cream, tinned fruit and evap!
I'm going in the garden before I get overcome with nostalgia!

Mussels in vinegar as well.

I am not in the least snooty, Riverwalk - I just hate noisy, crowded places. I make exceptions for some outstandingly lovely cities, like Paris or Barcelona.

We didn't have any holidays when I was a child. I first saw the sea at Blackpool when I was about 7, on a Labour Party coach trip. I could hardly believe it. I got lost on the crowded beach when I went to get ice-creams (my mother was a bit laid back about child safety). I was taken to the police station, wrapped in a blanket and given hot cocoa and a biscuit. I thought it was great.
My only other trip was with the school to Southport - well, Freshfields where there is a red squirrel sanctuary.
I did spend five days in London on a school history trip when I was 13 and they took us to Whipsnade and Oxford - but not to St. Pauls or Westminster Abbey because they were not Catholic!
Finally, when I was 17 I saved up for a week at Butlins, Pwhelli, with my fiancé and his sister and her boyfriend. Of course, the girls shared one chalet and the boys another. It was Wakes Week so there were lots of young people from the Nevada skating rink and we were able to show off by doing all the dances.
My ex-husband wouldn't go abroad (boring fart as he was) so I was almost 40 when I stepped out of a plane in Nice to join my new employer. The heat hit me like a warm blanket and my first sight of the Mediterranean, sparkling in the sun, and the white houses with their terracotta roofs are forever imprinted on my mind.
Now, I spend about three months a year travelling, as well as making little forays into Switzerland and Italy from my home in the Alps.

By the end of this year, I will have been in England, Scotland, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Spain, Singapore, Phuket , Kuala Lumpur, Egypt and New Zealand. I am making up for those 40 years.

Riverwalk - Blackpool is so different off-season - the people are like zombies - wandering out into the road without looking - who was it said they don't bury their dead - they prop them up in bus shelters, smoking...

Have a lovely and relaxing holiday Greatnan.

Must say I only went to Blackpool once, and that was quite enough. If that makes me snooty - so be it

I love old fashioned seaside towns with piers and stalls that sell seafood, ice creams and candyfloss. I've got a feeling that Douglas on the Isle of Man is a bit like that, but I haven't been there for years.

I don't really do all this 'favourite and worst' kind of thing. Be it about flowers, animals, music - etc - I like all sorts of things, for different reasons and at different times. We just didn't travel much until our children had finished their studies, apart from going to my parents in Switzerland. Some of our best and worst holidays have often been so for circumstantial reasons, people we met, unusual events or sightings not expected, etc. One of our worst holidays was at Saunton Sands Hotel - because we had expected to pay the price shown per room, and it turned out to be per person (the advert said 'double room £ xx- so it was misleading) and we didn't have enough to pay + the hotel owner was downright rude. And yet the place was lovely. Yes some of our best holidays were in the UK - North Norfolk, Peak District, The Cotswolds, Devon, Cornwall, The Trossachs, to mention a few. Had fantastic time in Southern France near Grasse and Perpignan, and also in Tuscany were we've been going to the same place for the past 10 years. Maui and Kaui (Hawaii) were fabulous, and so was both our USA trips, Arizona (Sedona was wonderful) Utah and Colorado once, and from Boston and Cape Cod to Williamsburg (Viriginia). A good example of a holiday made so special by a special encounter - a mother black bear and 2 cubs who allowed us to watch them feeding up in an oak tree in the Skyline Drive National Park in blue mountain country - forever imprinted in our hearts.

And of course now we live back in Switzerland, we are re-discovering this beautiful country - by car, train, bus and boat - so much to do and see. And very reasonable in cost if you know where to look and are prepared to stay in slightly older hotels.

Forgot - some of our best holidays have been in Kingswear/Dartmouth, where sil and bil have a lovely house by the water- just love it there.
And right here - our old house in the Swiss Jura mountains - one of the least known/touristy part of Switzerland.

The best? The Blue Lagoon in Iceland, a vast volcanic pool of hot water. We went there in winter. It was snowing, temperatures were below freezing point. Our faces were cold and snow-washed, from the neck down we were swimming in bath-hot water. All the life guards were dressed head to toe in quilted winter clothes, jacket with hood up, thick trousers and boots. It was fantastic.

The worst, cannot think of anywhere in particular. It is usually the accommodation or travel that has taken the shine off a holiday.

Only just seen this. I'm booked to go there the week after next!
I'm a little worried about the access?
Was it telly good?

Really good?

Thought that said"was the telly good". Expected you were going to be really bored Galen

Galen if you mean the Blue Lagoon there is a regular bus service to and from Rekjavik and to and from the airport. When you get there you walk a long a wide concrete flat path to a building containing changing rooms, a café, shop, restaurant. Access to the pool is from the inside of the building down wide steps into a small swimming pool area and then you go out from there into the Blue lagoon itself.