Your holidays as a child.

Lelant, near St Ives in Cornwall. We used to stay with a lady who did BandB and a packed lunch. We went for so many years she became a family friend. I can still see the house where we used to stay.The beach there was always almost deserted and the weather, in memory, was always perfect. She used to do fantastic food, no half larks for her, and we used to,book up for the next year before we left. We got to know Cornwall so well, a lovely place. I have some very happy memories of holidays there.

Like KatyK - I never did have a holiday as a child. 'Never missed it though - didn't know what the concept of a holiday was, so have never been that bothered, not even now. I do live in a lovely part of the country though - 'often feel I am on holiday when I walk into town.

When we were children we regularly went to the Isle of Man.

Setting sail from either Fleetwood or Liverpool, we crossed the ocean on the Isle of Man steam packet ships, Mona's Queen, Mona's Isle, Lady of Mann etc. My mum used to love the crossing, especially if a little choppy, but I wasn't too sure.

When we arrived at Douglas, we walked along the prom to the small hotel we were booked into, and spent most of our time on the beach.

We always bought a weekly ticket for tram rides, and circled the island, visiting different places, and always went up Snaefell.

I remember those holidays with great affection, happy days!

We stayed with our grandad ..who hated kids!!! Remember my mum crying she was so depressed..having to keep four youngsters quiet !

In the 50s we had holidays in Cliftonville, next to Margate. We took 'rooms' and had a chalet on the beach. We had three meals a day on the beach and the same families rented the same chalets every year. All my parents friends knew we were there and at the weekend the adults would sit in a large circle on the beach while poor mum boiled water for tea in a large kettle bought for the purpose. We had enough people for two full cricket teams. At night we would go to hear the organist playing and I would get a peach (6d) . We had lovely holidays but poor mum came back exhausted.

We used to travel by coach from Tyneside down to either Great Yarmouth or Margate almost every year. It was one hell of a long journey and you could almost guarantee that either me or my sister would be travel sick. We always had a fantastic time when we got there though and stayed in the same guest houses, Bed,breakfast and evening meal. I remember thinking that Arctic Roll for pudding was the most luxurious thing in the world (late 60's early 70's) . My sister and I would have several new outfits and we loved dressing up to see a show. Usually people like Morcambe and Wise, Freddie Star, Tommy Cooper etc. who ever happened to be doing the circuit at the time.
Happy times.

Oh yes tegan I remember those stops with time to buy a paper or cup of tea!

I'll never forget my dad getting off the train when it stopped at a station to buy [I would assume, knowing my dad] some cigarettes, and me being worried sick that he'd not get back in time.

Mum used to call Weston, Weston Super Sludge. We used to go on the Yatton Special [sp] to Clevedon. I think it was Clevedon that gave me a life long love of Victorian/Edwardian seaside towns [preferably with piers].

We only had one holiday in the UK when I was a child because we were always abroad with Dad being in the RAF. I have fond memories of two weeks at Hemsby. The sun shone every day and my younger brother and I had great fun on the beach. My older brother was on holiday from boarding school and I think he spent most of the time checking out the 'talent'

Until I was 11 our holidays were a weekly rover ticket for the railway. This meant we could travel as much as mum and dad wanted throughout the week. We would visit a different seaside town in our area each day. Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs.
My first holiday away was a week in a caravan in a village near Weston Supermare. There were no facilities on site it was just about twenty caravans in a field. It was near the beach though. The bus stop was at the end of the lane in the village which had a pub and a shop. I remember getting the bus into Bristol to visit mum's excentric aunts.

We had a couple of trips to the Scottish Borders to visit Dad's family. In those days you could travel all the way from our village in Gloucestershire to Berwick upon Tweed by train. Other than that, my sister and I were packed off to our Aunty and Uncle's in Bristol for a few weeks each summer. Mostly we entertained ourselves because they had a greengrocers shop but on their day off they used to like visiting places where something awful , like a murder, had happened, just for a look.
The other highlight of our summer was the Sunday School Outing to Weston Super Mare where the tide was always out, or Barry Island.

My first holiday was to the Isle of Wight when I was 2. There is a photo of me on the beach with my Mum and a glass fishing float which we had found - underneath is written "5.30am" so it was obviously no holiday for my parents with an early rising 2yr old. We always had a seaside holiday each year, usually in Devon or Cornwall as Mum loved to surf and as I got older I spent the summer with my cousins who lived in Exeter and had a cottage on Dartmoor where we used to run wild. One year we had a visit from a policeman who told us to stay locked in the cottage as a prisoner had escaped from the Prison; we could see the prison officers searching the moor with dogs - creepy and almost Dickensian with the mist swirling. My first trip abroad was a coach trip to Belgium and France when I was 11 where I had my first encounter with a bidet . So many happy memories.

With one exception we went to our granny's in Fife. She had a lovely house with a huge garden, full of every kind of soft fruit, ripe for picking. And a croquet lawn. We went over to St Andrews to bathe at the West Sands and had ice cream from the famous Janetta's. Of course, it never rained. The one exception was a camping trip (three daughters and a Boxer in a pre-war Morris 12) up the West Coast as far as Gruinard Bay where we camped by an idyllic beach. We kids and the dog had a wonderful time. I don't think it was so great for my Mum who had to cook on a Primus stove and all too often dry out damp bedding. We never went camping in tents again. In my teens, we had a caravan.

Forgot to say that we also went and stayed in a converted railway carriage. I think it was somewhere like Angmering, but not sure. Thanks Gagagran for reminding me, as no one else I know has been in one, I thought it was my imagination.

My first holiday was Mum and Dad on their tandem and me in the sidecar. We went to Runnymede, not far from Hounslow where we lived. Also remember a holiday with my parents friends. We had no car so went on the train to Deal, Kent. The excitement of being picked up from the station in a 'car' and arriving at the holiday camp. What a let down, broken door handle, multi large cobwebs, grubby windows. Mum and auntie spent the rest of the day sprucing up the chalet/shed. A trip to Belgium when I was about 10. Dad's place of work were playing football against the Belgian team. We flew from tiny Lydd airport, and Mum hanging onto her seat while we lumbered down the runway, watching the much too close sheep. Great big alsation dogs at a border, somewhere, and guards with guns. First encounter with the downy duvets, and the most delicious deep fried, breadcrumbed soft cheese. Height of sophistication. Oh, and seeing the Manekin Pis, oh my.

We went away for two weeks every July and usually to the Hebrides, via Oban. Tobermory, Mull, Iona, Tiree, Colonsay are the places which come to mind ... such small places I wonder now how we spent 2 whole weeks there without once being bored!

Much time was spent on the beaches and (shivering at the very thought!) in the water!
On Iona (2 years in a row) I fed the pet lambs who came running to my call over the machair ... absolutely magical to a child! On Tiree I had a flock of hens at my ankles constantly and yet I'm not in the least an animal person??

Also went to Arran a couple of times where we joyously went to the Scripture Union beach mission EVERY day!

We stayed at farm/guest houses on full board so even Mum got a holiday.

Ahh, those were the days!

The first holiday I remember was a week in Blackpool when I was 7, then we went again when I was 12. We stayed in a boarding house down Chapel Street, the same one each time, we bought our own food and they cooked it. I remember when I was there aged 7 I had one of those very stylish knitted swimsuits that stretched alarmingly when wet, showing off way too much of my anatomy, good job I was only 7!! I made friends with a little girl staying at the same place, called Jean Whittle, wonder if she`s on Gransnet?
The next holiday I remember was aged 13, my auntie taking me to Paignton to stay for a week with friends of hers, the husband was manager of a jewellers shop on the main street, called Goss Mabin, and they lived in the flat over the shop. It was a brilliant week, I loved Paignton harbour, there were always lots of lovely cats and kittens around there.

We had a holiday in Sutton on Sea in about 1956. I was only three and can remember nothing about it though photos prove I was there. After that my parents took over the running of a pub which meant no more holidays.

We usually went to Scotland to stay with Granny and Grandpa. Starting from London in the small hours. No motorway, so straight up the A1 to The Scotch Corner hotel, where we had breakfast in the dining room.
We would then arrive around mid afternoon
. Everyday was buckets and spades and a picnic on the beach, regardless of the weather! Funnily I can't remember it raining much!

All over the UK, but always involving a long drive with 3 kids in back seat with no seat belts. Lots of bouncing and climbing. No air conditioning or motorways, so windows down!
First time abroad was a train to Switzerland for a church group holiday and first encounter with a "continental quilt".

jalima do you remember the cafe? Tin trays with tea - even that involved a clamber. Lovely times.

Argh, no edit function! My third sentence should read 'I remember bits and pieces'.

My mother twice took my brother and me from Kent to Llandudno, where her aunt lived. She conveniently ran a guest house there! I R beer bits and ounces of the holidays, going to Puffin Island on the ferry, seeing massive Portugese Man o War jelly fish, so we couldn't go in the sea, walking to a show on the pier, visiting the ??Alice in Wonderland park and so on. I also remember being taken to see South Pacific in what was probably my first trip to the cinema.

The only holiday my dad came on was a touring holiday when I was about 15, round the south of England. We went to Salisbury and Chichester but I don't recall where else.

We used to go to stay with friends at Hever in Kent for weekends or a few days and I used to love that. We'd go off for hours at a time and no one seemed to mind.

Caravan for a week that needed serious saving to achieve. Then promoted to a chalet, bungalow or houseboat, my favourite. Just the one week, mostly fun though as all meals were home cooked may not have been for my parents.