holidays

We just love holidays. Never have expensive holidays- but we love contrasts and experiencing different things, flowers, architecture, scenery, culture, food, wine, Museums, vistas, and simple walks. J52 love airports too, and people watching- which is why we do not subscribe to VIP lounges- because people watching is not half as interesting there ;).

I am the tour operator in our family- and OH is happy to come along and to trust my judgement- and knows I shall ensure he has great opportunities to indulge his hobby, photography. he is even happy to tag along to all the botanical gardens I drag him into- not his cup of tea- but great places to take photos. I look at the plants and the birds, butterflies, etc- and he takes the photos. It works, somehow.

Some of the best holidays we've shared with family, including grandchildren and friends or sils and bils. But we also love the 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours' - exchanging hosting and guiding with people who live in nice but very different places. I just love to host here, simply, and show all my favourite sights- and then go back to theirs. With locals, you see things so much better, behind the scenes, secret places and meet other friendly locals in a way you wouldn't otherwise.

2 weeks for us usually- we have a few days to read, lie by the pool or the beach and read, and explore the rest of the time.

And then one of the best bit- is coming home ;) as we love it here.

I enjoy holidays when I actually get there, but must admit the ironing and packing, all the lugging of luggage and bags, waiting around, the queues to check cases in, checking documents, going through customs and delays/killing time....is a complete pain in the bum. I loathe all the preparation, like getting the house clean for return, food shopping for cat-sitter, making cat-sitting arrangements, worrying about things going wrong when I am away etc. The build-up to a holiday is stressful!

I am not one for crowds either....and it may just be me, but being thrown together with people I hardly know for meals/travelling and making forced and jolly small-talk is also something I dread. This is a new thing. I used to be very gregarious but I think ageing has me looking at it through a different lens. Oh I still do it. I like people but find I have little need for forced interaction these days.

There is lots about holidays I really don't like! However, being in the sunshine and exploring new places makes it all worthwhile. We've recently spent time in the south of France and I have lots of happy memories and photos of a lovely week away.

On the last evening the chore of travelling back hits me too. This is when I need a time machine to transport me instantaneously back to my living room!

Oh, this post makes me sound like a miserable so-and-so, but I am not! I am grateful I can afford holidays every now and then. I've just become a realist as I've aged.

It's so much easier to stay at home!

This year I don't have a choice of holidays due to health reasons but I can sit in my back garden (jungle) and have a coffee and just relax, maybe read or knit. Costs nothing.

If you like bird watching you should bring your caravan up to Spurn. There are some lovely campsites and Spurn is amazing.

My DS pointed out not long ago that, since we're retired, we don't have holidays - we just go away. Quite a lot really. Love it.

We have a touring caravan which we use in the UK. Norfolk is a bit time consuming to get out of so the caravan is our home from home, great for short breaks. There's a good camp site at Greenwich for occasional London jaunts and we're birders so it's good for those early morning starts at Minsmere. Being already there gives me an extra hour or so lay in!

Then there's the long distance stuff. Yes, the hastle of getting to the airport is a pain, and I hate sitting for hours crammed into a sardine can, but seeing a tiger in the wild or, as we recently did, actually stroking a grey whale calf is mind blowingly wonderful!

I love where we live and part of the joy of going away is coming home and that moment of walking in the door after a spell and savouring my home.

As has been said it's horses for courses. For me it's the difference between listening to good music on a CD player or actually being at the performance. As long as we can afford it there's no contest.

I'm lucky in that DH is a born tour leader who spends weeks researching any place we go to. The downside is his energetic enthusiasm to see anything and everything he has read about! I have to fight to get to sit down with a book. When we used to have all the children with us I threatened to buy him a flag so we didn't lose him as he forged a path to the next sight!

As children we went to Northern Ireland every year to my mother's family home at the seaside. Dad worked on the railway so got a free family pass which meant the holiday cost virtually nothing. I loved it and never wanted to come home. Since then I have not been able to afford many holidays. One camping trip to Northern Italy travelling by coach across Europe. I never saved enough spending money to reach the £50 pound limit at the time. Can you remember that folks? In August we had violent thunderstorms and only two sunny days in ten!

My ex and two sons had a week in Torquay which was great except I later found he had spent redundancy money on it and was then out of work for nearly 2 years!

The next was a week at Butlins with 3 sons and MIL which we enjoyed a lot. My little Morris Minor was packed with bedding, clothes, food and children and we broke down on the way back!

Last year I had two weeks in Rhodes with one DS, his partner and 2GDs. True to form it was cold and wet for most of the first week but I loved it nevertheless. I never knew about all inclusive before that - absolutely brilliant. I never felt so well and rested in my life and definitely did not want it to end!

Having then got into holiday mode I had a special offer bank holiday weekend at Pontins with youngest DS and 3 DGCs. Again we took everything with us including food! It was close enough for other son and GDs to spend a day with us and it was fabulous though basic.

I would love more holidays now, having had some experience of them, even though coming home is depressing but will need to win the lottery. Keeping fingers crossed!!

By the way Vampirequeen, your description of your holiday at Loch Lomond maks me wonder if you were at the Luss site?

I love my holidays, never want to come home. But now we`ve had to sell the touring caravan, due to ill health, we can`t believe how much a holiday is going to cost us now. As Vampire says, there`s a great joy in finding a cheap, but scenic, campsite to stay on, and just doing your own thing, as and whenever you want to. We haven`t had a holiday for 3 years, but are having difficulty findng something that we can afford now that we can holiday again.

Vampirequeen we too delight in how little a holiday can cost if you put your mind to it, a 5 day all inclusive in Majorca is not everyone's ideal, but we tried it last year, in late June, terrific weather, lovely hotel, good food and it cost very little, including the flights. This left us with plenty of time to wander around the lovely town, finding a different place every day to have morning coffee/lunch/an evening drink. Love your attitude to the British weather; it is always different and there is always something to do even if it is tucking up with a good book or a game of cards, things that I would feel guilty about doing at home. I love early morning on a campsite, that first cup of coffee sitting outside, nodding good morning to strangers as they walk past, then the first person starts cooking bacon......ooh that smell in the open air.....It is just being away from the everyday demands of life, those days when the biggest decision you have to make is whether to have red wine or white, no laundry, no shopping, no ironing pile looming in the corner of the room, just a good book and a good view.

I've had very few holidays, too many children when I was younger, too many pets now. My choice, of course, to have them every day of the year rather than have a holiday.
In my next life I shall be filthy rich and able to have it all.

I don't mind the airport, I like people watching. For the last couple of years we pay an annual fee for a worldwide airport lounge pass. They are quieter, nice loos and complimentary food and drink, very relaxing. x

I'm very happy with basic so long as it's clean. I see the airport bit as part of the holiday, I guess I've not been enough for it to be tedious

I'm easily pleased, I had a wonderful day wandering around a local NT house near here recently and sat for over two hours under a tree just watching a deer herd ruminating in the sun, an opportunistic chance to switch off.

Equally I love beach walks and mountain treks, the right clothing is the answer.

We have been lucky enough to have visited some wonderful places both home and abroad. I don't like going for more than a week and I absolutely hate airports these days with all the queueing and security stuff. I know it has to be done but it really puts me off. I've never been fond of flying but do it because I want to see the world. I love holidaying in this beautiful country too.

Why does a holiday have to be boring surely there are so many other things you can do that you can't at home. Love city holidays cos I am a museum/gallery/site seeing bore. Can spend most of the day wandering around any archaelogical site. But there is also dolphin or whale watching, boat trips to places unreachable any other way. Walking in the countryside or by the sea- don't mind which country. As for expensive I do like somewhere to wash and a decent loo but I can put up with basic. Only tried one cruise I found it didn't suit me at all I don't like to be herded here and there much happier going off on my own and coming back when I want to. Oh and if I do have a lazy day I always have a book I want to read with me (sometimes thanks to Gransnet!!!) Need to book another holiday!

I love a holiday of one week. Leave while wanting more.
Just one flight if possible.
No dressing up at night, often don't change.
Love to see new places and always do our homework of what to see.
Just a medium case.

Hearing The Last Post played at The Menin Gate in Ypres and visiting the war graves was so impressive.
Visiting a concentration camp near Prague.
Visiting Niagara Falls in February when it is frozen and deserted.
Dining on ribs eating with fingers in a restaurant in Memphis.
Sitting people watching and having a cold drink in The Silent City in Malta.

I do one downmanship....how little money can we spend on a holiday. My favourite campsite charges £9 a night including electricity so a long weekend is only £27. Admittedly we have to fetch the water from the tap and empty the toilet cassette but that's all part of the rich tapestry of caravanning .

I don't have a problem with the weather. Sunny is nice but dull, windy, rainy etc doesn't bother me. British scenery is amazing in bright sunshine but then the same view in low cloud is also amazing as the light catches landscape in a different way. Blue sky is nice but cloud formations can be fascinating. We had all sorts of weather at Loch Lomond from brilliant sunshine to clouds chasing across the mountains to torrential rain. Sometimes the mountains glowed. Other times they took on ethereal shapes in the mist.

The British coast has moods that depend on the weather too. Calm sunny days are lovely for sitting on the beach or building sandcastles but wild, stormy days with waves smashing over the seawall are exhilarating.

I admit you have to have the right clothes to enjoy Britain in all it's weather glory but it only means investing in a waterproof, windproof, breathable coat, fleece, trousers and walking shoes for the less sunny days. I admit they're not a cheap investment but they last for years so you really get your money's worth out of them.

Ethel must be feeling better. She sounds more like her old self. I have a hair shirt here, if you would like it.

Yes kittylester there are people all too eager to boast/bore about their holidays no doubt about that, treating it all as a tick list of where they have been, but I generally avoid those kind of people, cant be bothered with them. We too are now enjoying getting away out of school holidays after years of it, and love to get away in June and September and then spend the summer at home in between. I love people watching so being away somewhere and just sittting in the sun with a glass of wine in my hand, waiting for my dinner to be brought to my table after someone else has cooked it, and watching the world go by is my ideal evening. This can be in Europe or on a campsite in the UK ( fish and chips and glass of prosecco).

I reckon the key to enjoying a holiday is in the preparation. Choose the type of holiday and destination according to your own tastes. No need for lots of luggage if you aren't going on a dress up holiday, something I wouldn't like either, a rucksack spreads the weight and leaves your hands free. Boredom can be down to lack of planning, why would you choose a holiday which promises nothing of interest to you?

Worrying about every last little thing which may or may not happen must be very life limiting.

I enjoy the idea of a holiday but don't ever feel really comfortable while on holiday and I miss having my own things around me. Once I arrive the first few days are ok but then I start to get homesick and count the days to getting back.

I do try very hard to enjoy things as my DH loves holidays and I don't want to ruin it for him. Perhaps I'm just not a holiday sort of person.

I do enjoy days out though.

After years of being limited to the high prices charged during school holidays, I am enjoying the bargains to be had throughout the year. The week after Easter is particularly good. x

I think, to be fair to ethel, Gill there is often a fair bit of holiday oneupmanship going on, especially if the people I know are the norm. I opt out of it because it doesn't interest me but I do know quite a few people who are not happy unless they are recounting the places that they have 'done'.

You really dont need to take loads of luggage anywhere ethel and I am confused why someone who claims to be comfortable slobbing around in comfy clothes ( and who doesnt?) then complains about lugging huge suitcases? We travel very light, a week in Spain is easily done on an EasyJet carry on piece of luggage, and we will do the same when we got to Italy in August. Cruises are as formal as you want to make them, all they ask is that people dont come into the main restaurants in the evening in shorts and flip flops, and I for one applaud that! There are many options for types of cruise, size of ship, destination and they are a really good way of visiting several cities or even countries without packing and re-packing. Each to their own, and I think it is a little unfair to state that anyone talking about their holiday, or their cruise is showing off, maybe they are just sharing it with friends.

Atta girl Galen! I'd do it solo too if I could!

Our holidays are all on the cheap, I love exploring new places whether at home or abroad; just wish I could do it more often

Getting away from it all is the whole point ethel, as is making the most of it regardless of the weather- there's always something to visit or walks to do, even in the worst weather!

I love empty beaches on a blustery, damp day - wear the right clothing and it's not a problem, we've even picnicked in the snow !