Keeping in touch with friends made on holiday

I met an Australian woman in Sydney 20 year ago and we are still in contact. It’s a tad intermittent, with flurries of emails every now and then, but I’m glad that we’ve maintained it. I doubt we will ever meet again, sadly.

We made some friends one year in France. They were an Italian family and we kep tin touch sending Christmas cards etc. Eventually they came to visit the UK and were staying in London. At the time we lived in Oxfordshire so suggested they visit Oxford by train We picked them up at the station and took them to our home for a meal before returning them to Oxford, showing them some of the sites and seeing them off on the train in the evening. We had a lovely time, despite the language barriers. The wife spoke quite good French so we mostly communicated in French. Sadly a year or two later she became ill and died very young. We lost touch after that.

A friend of mine regularly goes on hholiday alone, usually coach tours or cruises. She makes friends all over the country and often keeps in touch and meets up later. She loves dancing and if she meets a dancer may meet up for a dancing weekend somewhere.

In 1969, DH and I went on holiday in Austria, where we met a young couple from north Germany. We have been lifelong friends, no language barrier as she was an English teacher and I was a German teacher. The husbands had their sport/hobby in common and each had enough of the other language. It's been amazing.

I used to have to warn the Bodach not to make eye contact on holidays, as I had no wish to find ‘pals’! Now that I am travelling solo I still try to avoid it, though in Paris I ran into a lady who had been sitting near me at dinner the previous evening, then she was sitting beside me in a church. She was all set for us to ‘chummy up’, so I had to invent a prior engagement!
Having said that, long,long ago I went on to an internet holiday destination forum to ask a specific question, and began ‘chatting’ with a few others . It was then suggested we arrange to meet up, which we did, and we have continued to do so for the last fifteen years or so. It’s very informal, with maybe only a couple of meetings over the weeks, but lovely to see everyone.

Kate1949

We don't like to 'make friends' on holiday. We prefer to do our own thing.

Same here……..it’s nice to chat to people on holiday but that’s as far as it goes, can’t be doing with the exchanging addresses and sending Christmas cards malarkey.

Most of our best friends have been made on holidays, we caravan in the U.K. and abroad and I can honestly say that every main trip we go on we make friends that we arrange to see both at home or on a caravan site somewhere we all want to visit. We are in our 70s and it is a sheer delight to make new friends but still keep up with old ones. Of course we have our neighbours and friends from the village, but I suppose these caravan friends, some dating back to the 80s & 90s, all have something in common. Wherever we go around the U.K. we always have someone to meet up with for a meal together and a catch up. I love it, and can’t understand people who don’t want to make friends on holiday.

That's us exactly ViceVersa. We have lovely chats as I said but the minute someone says 'Would you like to meet up later?' we politely decline.

We are exactly the same, Kate1949 - my husband will chat to anyone and there's been many a time I've thought he's disappeared somewhere when we've been on holiday, only to find him blethering a way to someone, but we don't 'make friends' either.

We have a 2 that we exchange Xmas cards with going back 30 years , we usually write a few words about the family inside, but no other meet up in all those years. Another is a chap who worked in a bar we went to, we then didn't see him again for a few years but he turned up in a different resort working in a restaurant he was so friendly that we keep in contact via FB now and he is married and living in the UK.

Not to us on holiday escaped. We have some lovely chats with people on holiday but we don't want to 'make friends' with them. We are not 'friends' type of people.

Aldom

Kate1949

We don't like to 'make friends' on holiday. We prefer to do our own thing.

Making friends is like falling in love. It just happens sometimes.

👍

We made friends over 30 years ago. It fizzled out when the kids grew up and now it’s just the odd email and yearly Christmas card but we live in different parts of the country so not easy to maintain a real friendship.

Kate1949

We don't like to 'make friends' on holiday. We prefer to do our own thing.

Making friends is like falling in love. It just happens sometimes.

Ah skydancer. A perfect holiday romance.

Skydancer - how lovely!

We spent four months on a world cruise and sat on a table every evening with another couple who we got very friendly with.
We visited their home and they visited ours and we exchange Christmas cards, but distance between our houses and age makes it difficult to meet up again.

I met a man on holiday. We met up several times after that and after a fairly short period of time we got married. We have been together for 26 years.

Jakli ❓️

I totally get what you mean — I used to have the same issue with sweaty leggings and underwear that just wasn’t doing the job. I’ve found a few brands that made a huge difference

I'm still in touch with a chap I met on holiday in Scotland in 2018.

When we travel we like to chat to others but rarely keep in touch afterwards.
One couple though, we met in 2020 in Thailand ( just before Covid) and we still see reach other three or four times a year for link weekends or a visit if we are near each others homes. In between we keep in touch with WhatsApp. Sometimes you just ‘click’ with people.

Kate1949

We don't like to 'make friends' on holiday. We prefer to do our own thing.

Yes, we are exactly the same!

We made friends with a lovely couple from South Wales whilst camping about 3 years ago., ae live in the Midlands. We speak on the phone every couple of weeks and WhatsApp. We exchange presents and try to camp together for a few days each year.

We met a delightful family on a campsite abroad in 1992, we just clicked straightaway and decided to carry on with the same holiday for 12 years. We've now been to their children's weddings and vice versa. A great friendship.

I suppose my parent's friends were locals so they weren't on holiday.

This year I will be visiting the same area with my own adult family and will definitely visit the two people that were dear to them and are luckily still alive. One of them was quite a bit younger than my mum and she taught her to drive over a long summer when i was about 14. I remember this quite clearly as they lurched over the fields and then along the lanes.

This contact with my parents friends sort-of keeps my parents alive in a funny way.
I know tears will be shed.
I love these people for the joy and laughter they shared with my mum and dad.