Do you ever go home from holiday a day or two early?

I’m not sure if this counts as ending a holiday early but we’ve done something similar. We had a trip to Australia in 2019, part of which involved a week in a camper van. I must have been mad when I booked it - I hate camping etc!

Anyway, on the penultimate day, we realised we were only a few miles away from the drop-off point so we drove there in the van and asked if it was ok to leave it there. It was! We grabbed a Uber and hot-footed it to the hotel we’d booked anyway and asked of they could accommodate us that day. Yes, they could! It had a massive bathroom and I wallowed in a big, deep bath for half the afternoon before going out for dinner.

I have never done this and could only imagine doing it for a serious reason. We research all our trips very carefully and try to make the best of any shortcomings. We don’t usually holiday in the UK and never in the winter months. Of course we love our home but I’m never that desperate to return to the chores and love travelling. We’ve only ever had one trip where we felt like coming home because of the awful accommodation and food but we just made the best of it in the end.

Jaxjacky
No I imagine there isn’t much to entertain in Shepton Mallet, maybe visit the prison?

We went home 3 days early from Tenby many years ago, because hubby not only got caught parking where he shouldn`t, but also nabbed for a bad tyre, so that took care of our remaining spending money.

We left Greece a couple of days early once, because it was raining and forecast to continue, in early/mid September. They needed the rain though and we’d had 10 days or so, so no problem really.,

I did this last year. I was staying in a caravan in Cornwall and my back found the furniture, including the bed, very uncomfortable. Which was a pity because everything was lovely otherwise, the weather, the location. So I packed up and went home two days early. It went against the grain because I love holidays, but could not stand the pain any longer.

Yes, earlier this year from a few days in Shepton Mallet. Our hotel was odd and there was nothing special we wanted to do.

10 pm , I was only a 30 minute drive from home but it was december , couldn't face the dark home so booked a room in a hotel. Besr thing I ever did it was lovely

I have actually done it the other way.
My flight came in at

Come to think of it, and seeing Wales up thread, I remember a holiday with parents in Wales when we had to come home early as my father said "his big end had gone!" which sounded painful I was later to learn that pain only related to his pocket, mechanical and car related!

No. I don't think I have ever done this.
When younger we would have sat out any weather as always had plenty to do. Now we only go to places we really want to be. No reason to cut it short. Holidays are always too short as far as I'm concerned!

Every year we take our
Grandchildren in a Monday to Monday break in a caravan, the children love it and have a great time.

But we always return home the day before (quite often in the evening).
Reasons

1, It's the during half term Spring Bank Holiday, so back to school on the Monday (although this year they had Monday inset day)

2, We can leave when we are ready, no mad dash to get up and gone by the alloted 10am.
Leaving a clean caravan with bed linen removed and bagged.

3 Traffic much quieter Sunday evening.
No rush hour and heavy lorries to deal with.

I once lied to friends we were staying with in Spain.
We always knew that he was let’s say a difficult man. But this time the difficulties had ramped up big time.
I told them I had got the date of the return flight wrong so we had to leave 2 days earlier than we had said.

I have actually this morning suggested we think about leaving later today. I had planned to avoid travelling on a Saturday, but it is not yet high season, and we would not leave till after lunch today. Our accommodation is lovely, but we have no idea how to spend the day.
DH is always glad to get home.

We have come home early quite a few times. One for the weather when we were on Skye, a good move there was a landslide on the road the day we should have travelled.
Last year in Wales we had to be out by 8.30 because of cleaning for Covid, we decided on Friday to pack up and go that day.
Another time we cut the overnight stay was when DH decided he would rather keep going and get home, which he was safe to do.
We also left Wales one friday evening near the end of the holidays, there was a heat wave and our air con had broken, we drove home with the top down one of the best journeys of my life.
Make the end fit what you want and not a chore it is not an endurance test.

In the 1950s holiday camps became very popular, my parents booked for a fortnight. I can’t remember exactly how long we stayed, possibly 3 days. Not sure what my parents were expecting, but they were prepared to sacrifice the cost of the remainder of the holiday to get home as quickly as possible. I often wondered why they booked it in the first place it was so unlike their usual choice of comfortable hotels with good food in picturesque places.

Georgesgran I remember snow on Oct 1st in Dingwall!

I did cut a cycling holiday short one time. DS and I were in Somerset, on our way from Land's End to Scotland, when the heavens opened. It was the year of the Boscombe floods. We cheated completely and got the train from Bristol to York!

We did many years ago and full of regret given we were staying at the most beautiful town on the Tuscan coast, I think we left a week early. I had a lung infection and could barely eat anything and given we were in Italy that was a tragedy I lost nearly a stone in weight, so always a silver lining! except I was pretty thin in those days anyway. It would almost be worth it now!

We had driven down, it took two overnight stops, we had one toddler and a five year old who interminably shouted out "are we nearly there?" and that was all before we even got to Dover. We dropped one of the overnight stops on the way back my husband got us all the way from Lyon to home in one go, he often looks back on that with a "couldn't even contemplate doing that journey now!"

Went to Scotland (Dingwall area) one year with friends - the little ones were 3ish. We had all four seasons in the week but after all four in one day, we packed up and came home.

Cabbie21

Good point, and high on my considerations, but my husband jumped at the suggestion. He is more than happy to drive and the car has good air con.
We need to make a decision in order to cancel the hotel.

I rather think that you have answered your own question. Have a safe journey home.

I don’t think I’ve ever come home early, but I’ve moved from a place or locale to another earlier than anticipated for various reasons, including finding out about something interesting I want to see elsewhere, poor accommodation, or particularly bad weather.

We have done it several times, once we went away for a week over Christmas to a lovely hotel, but made the very long drive home on Christmas Eve because I didn’t feel right not being home at Christmas.
We returned home from a break in Wales early because of non stop rain, and sometimes we just knock a day off because we want to.

Good point, and high on my considerations, but my husband jumped at the suggestion. He is more than happy to drive and the car has good air con.
We need to make a decision in order to cancel the hotel.

We have quite often done the journey home in one day rather than do planned stop.

We like home.

Presumably your car has air con?

Ask yourselves; can you cope with the longer journey in the hot weather, would it be safe for the driver to do the longer distance?

Why not leave your options open and see how you feel as you approach the pre-planned stop?