Childhood holidays

We had a very basic touring caravan which was made good use of. Twice a year , at Easter & the end of the summer holidays, we went to Devon & parked close to uncles, aunts & grandfathers. May half term was always the Cotswolds & the first week of the summer holidays was the Lake District where amazingly I don't remember it ever raining! We also went for the odd weekend to the relatively close Welsh coast, leaving home on a Friday evening when dad got home from work. We were very lucky to get away so often & had great fun in the little caravan.

We used to go away to W T A holidays. I remember going to the Isle of Wight and thinking we were going abroad. They used to have a Sunday ramble , competitions through the week and an old fashioned dance one evening with the Valetta, Dashing White Sergeant etc. Later they changed the name from Workers Travel Association to Galleon Holidays.

Blackpool for one week every year during the Lancashire wakes weeks. My dad had 2 weeks off work and one was always spent in Blackpool. I think that is why I always like the sea and now live right by it on the south coast.

We went to the Isle of Man every year. Loved it. One year we decided to go to Ayr in Scotland. It rained for two weeks. My first time abroad was when we were married. We went to Germany for 3 years. Great experience.

We always had a weeks holiday - parents usually seemed to know someone that owned a static caravan , so it was at various places on the East Coast - West Runton, Felixstowe, Pakefield near Lowestoft, Cromer. Somehow, I can remember that there often seemed to be members of the extended family staying either on the same site or nearby.
Real old fashioned beach and sandcastle holidays, can't ever remember going to any of the attractions, apart from the little zoo at West Runton.
We always had a bucket and spade each and a kite - none of which made it to the holiday the following year - in fact the buckets and spades were often left under that caravan "for some other child to play with"
Can anyone else remember the hiss of the gas mantle lights? Listening to the radio each evening as no tv and sleeping usually on a hard mattress often on something that had been a bench seat 5 minutes before?

I only had two holidays as a child, when I was 7 we stayed in. Friends chalet at Chapel St Leonards and when I was 14 went to Golden Sands, Mablethorpe. Lack of money ensured we never went far.

We never had a holiday, despite my mum asking my dad if we could go away just for a week somewhere. He always maintained that as aRAF family we moved every two and half years, going to a new posting was like a long holiday. So mum use to go every year for 2 weeks to stay with her mum in Cardiff taking just the youngest two children. Us older children were left behind to look after dad.

Never had family holidays as my parents were farmers and couldn’t leave the farm so holidays were taken with grandparents or aunts. I remember, Cliftonville, Mevagissey a few times, Paignton and staying with my aunt and uncle at RAF Locking near Weston Super Mare.

We tent camped all over England, Wales and Scotland and then started tent camping in France and Italy in the late 1960's and always went abroad every year after that, always with the tent.

Every third or fourth year (when my parents could afford it, in other words) we went to Denmark to visit my mother's family.

The other years we had days out or a fortnight in a caravan near Largs. Days out, could be a visit to Daddy's parents in Fife, a day in Edinburgh, a visit to Edinburgh Zoo, or a trip to Ayr - now sure why we went there, as I only remember the war memorial, It had the name of a relation who fell in the first world war on it.

Occasional guest houses, but usually rented caravans in Skegness or Fleetby on the east coast, Conway or Rhyl in north Wales, or Beer in Devon. Once we flew to the Isle of Man, and stayed in a hotel - that was like being abroard!

Always to my Nans friend who was like another Nan to us! She lived in Southchurch & we would walk down to the beach in Thorpe Bay every day downhill. Going back was tiring as it was a steep hill. We spent all school holidays, every weekend my parents could afford train fare there & loved it. Many happy memories of Thorpe Bay & Southend when it was quiet & not so commercial as now!

No car when I was little, so somewhere that could be reached by train and had enough to entertain us. Basically, Skegness, Great Yarmouth, Weston-super-Mare, Blackpool (till we had a terrible vomiting bug and never went there again.) Guest houses or caravans. Mum felt that caravans meant more freedom - no need for us to be on our best behaviour - but also meant that she had to shop and cook. Nothing elaborate but she still felt that it detracted from being on holiday.

When I was 13, Dad learned to drive, bought a car, and we discovered the joys of North Wales, Cornwall and the South Coast. Snowdonia was a vast improvement on Skegness.

Didn't go abroad till I was in my late twenties, when my first child was about 5 years old.

I can remember going to Scotland to see my Grandparents with mom and dad plus siblings.and i loved it.
As a family we went to Butlins Minehead and alot of school holidays me and my sister went to stay with my Great Aunt and Uncle for weeks.
They lived in Gosport so every day we were on the beach and went to have dinner in the cafe where Aunt worked ,it was called the cats whiskers,which i always found amusing.

In the 50’s. We camped in Scotland, I remember loch doon fondly.
We caravanned in Wales-llangrannog was lovely.
We also stayed in a hotel(!) in Cornwall near trearnon bay.
Because we had a car we could tour around.
One memorable summer we saw the tempest at the Minak theatre portcurno. - wonderful!

Never went on holidays, Dad had a small holding and the stock couldn’t be left.

Sunday School outing once a year to coast 20 miles away.

First proper holiday I had was when I was 17, a friend and I went to Butlins for a week, when I was at work.

When DH and I married, when I was 19, we went to Cornwall for a week, had never been so far afield before.

libra it was the old King Orry that was famous for rocking and rolling in the Irish sea---even the captain was green

Nowhere really. My DM was the second youngest in a family of 6. Her older sister lived in a nearby city and all her family were grown and had children my age so I often had a week with her and went to play with my cousins children in the city. Lived it, all the hustle and bustle, so many places to go, tearooms,museums,parks with boating lakes, department stores with lifts and escalators. Loved it.

We always went to The Isle of Man, sailing on the old Mona's Queen, Mona's Isle, or newer Lady of Mann. We set off from Fleetwood, and mum loved it if the water was choppy.

Landing at Douglas, we would carry our suitcases, trying to find somewhere to stay. They never booked before going, but we always found somewhere.

We loved going, and felt like we were going abroad.

My half brother, much older, was an engineer on P&O Cruise ships. We used to go for around 10% of the usual fare. By my early teens I had seen Rome, Athens, Pompeii, Beirut, Alexandria, Lisbon, Crete, Casablanca and all the other ports of the Mediterranean. We never sat on the beach, but went to all the historic places. I didn't realise how unusual this was until much later, but it developed my love for ancient history that continues to this day.

We went to Sandbanks with the sunday school every year. It was wonderful and always a beautiful day. We were allowed to swim in the sea. So much freedom. We had a lovely coach trip
Bliss.

Dartmouth for several years from the ages of 12 to 17. We had a dinghy and used to go sailing with loads of other teenagers. Real Swallows and Amazons type stuff. Thankfully sis and I were good swimmers because we got into a lot of scrapes, many of which were downright dangerous. I'm not sure my parents had the inkling of an idea of just how close they came to arranging funerals for one or both of us.

The odd summer day trip on a coach, to the seaside (being in Gtr Manchester, it was Southport or Blackpool.) Otherwise it was just bus rides to parks or a countryside walk. (We had no car.) Never stayed overnight away from home or went on a proper holiday. My parents were of the opinion "There's no place like home".

“I remember Spain and also Tunisia. Tunisia would have been 49 years ago. I remember my grandparents being horrified about it.“
GagaJo me too! We usually went to Spain but went to Tunisia when I was about 10 - so 1970. I loved it and have been back many times since. Think it awakened my love of all things North African/Middle Eastern ?

When I was very young we went for days out and picnics, mainly within a 20 mile radius of Birmingham which was where we lived at the time. Our home was a 2 up 2 down back to back end of terrace in a courtyard of about 5 other properties, surrounded by factories and bombsites so a day out in Worcestershire was a delight.
Every 3 or 4 years we went to Italy to visit my grandparents on their farm in Tuscany. Sheer magic! It was in the Chianti hills, surrounded by oak and chestnut forest. They kept goats, pigs and cattle as well as poultry and produced their own wine and olive oil.
We had a big extended family in the local area as well as in Florence and Siena so made trips to see them too.
Dad usually drove there in his little van with us crammed in the back!
When I was 11 we went via train, passing through France and Switzerland, which I thought was wonderful, watching the sunrise on the mountains.
We were there for 6 weeks, during term time. I didn't have any school work to do but I was asked to give a talk when I returned to school so I suppose that was my first attempt at public speaking.
During that trip I visited the Uffizzi and the cathedral in Florence for the first time as well as other tourist sites.
It started a life long interest in art and architecture. Not bad for a street kid from Birmingham!