Your holidays as a child.

Husband grew up in Pembroke and Freshwater East was a bike ride from home all during the summer holidays and warm weekends. As it's in a national park, it hasn't changed as much as other places over the decades. It's like Cornwall without the crowds or being built up. Love it, even in winter at a cozy self-catering. Heaven!

We queued through every town from Manchester to Torquay, with no motorways. It seems to take several days, but maybe it was only 2!

My mother was Irish and so we used to get a train to Fishguard to catch the ferry across to Cork. Our uncle used to pick us up in his old car and drive to us to his farm in Skibberean. We used to have an amazing time and used to show our Irish cousins how to have a good time. Jumping from haystacks, hurtling downhill on my auntie's old bike, leaping over streams and generally getting filthy. We used to eat boiled ham with steamed potatoes with skin on topped with cream skimmed from freshly milked cows from the morning. Delicious. We had no electricity or running water but it didn't matter. Had a candle to light us to bed.

Living in Bournemouth as a child, people always seemed to come to us for their holidays! My Mum took in paying guests (must have been the smallest guest house ever!) and I was made to be waitress when I was old enough which I hated as I was very shy. The only holidays en famille I remember were 2 visits to Butlins in Bognor Regis and Minehead which were fun. Also a long weekend in Blackpool to see the illuminations! Thinking back, I was a bit of a fussy eater, so it was probably a nightmare for my parents to take me anywhere.

We usually went to Wales, stayed in some field somewhere in an old basic caravan. My Father seemed to think it would be FUN to get up at the crack of dawn no matter what the weather, and try to cook sausages outside. WHY??? I was always glad to get back home.
I do love to travel still though, but have not and will not ever stay in a caravan or even worse a tent, never again in my life.
I also cannot understand why anyone would want a barbeque. I have a perfectly good oven and hob inside the house. It is clean, and it cooks the food properly. If anyone wants to eat outside then fine, take it out there when it's cooked. I am sitting at the table .

We used to rent a basic fisherman's cottage down in the bay at Kimmeridge in the days when it was unknown. We had to go back into the village to collect the milk. I was terrified of the crabs in the bay and I remember my parents floating me out far enough wearing my water wings so that I could swim without putting my feet down. I was always terrified to cross the bridge to the cottages as there was an adders nest below. Despite this I have idyllic memories of those happy Dorset days.

Earliest memories of a family holiday was in a caravan on the east cost somewhere - and as soon as the tide went out we took our buckets and spades and dug for cockles - watching for the air bubbles to come up in the wet sand, then digging like crazy to find the cockle before it disappeared. We founds lots - and took them back to my mum in the caravan - and then she would boil them and we all ate them all before we went to bed!

Then when we got a little older - we went to holiday camps each summer - Pontin's or Warners - either on the Kent coast or Devon. I clearly remember the early morning tea lady and her tea trolley rolling down the pathway alongside the rows of wooden chalets where we slept. My mum would be waiting for her to arrive at our row of chalets - and then the tea lady would stop, pour out our four cups of tea from an enormous tea pot, even add the sugar and stir it - then mum would bring our morning cuppa into us!

Funny the silly things you remember about summer holidays with your family! But they were such phappy times.

My dad had a milk round and worked 7 days a week so we only had a holiday if could persuade someone to do it for a few days. We once pushed the boat out and went to Sandsend and stayed in a hotel for a week. For two adults and 4 children staying on a full- board basis, it cost £32.

We went for what seems to me like 7 years in a row to a little bungalow in Scratby on the Norfolk coast. Because there were more bedrooms than we needed, other family and friends were usually invited to join us.

It was at the end of a cul-de-sac, perched on top of the cliff. I was an early riser and at the age of about 6 or 7 would scramble down the cliff before everyone was up and wander around on the beach until my cousin came looking for me - probably sent by my mother who must have been having kittens!

There were porpoises and seals, and on wet days we would go to the penny arcade in Yarmouth, and my Dad got in as much sailing as he could.

Then the caravan sites got too big and made it a less pleasant place to be. The rest of our holidays were mainly spent sailing.

People rarely went on holiday where I lived in the 50s and 60s but I was lucky because I had an auntie who lived by the sea.

My longest holiday with her was two weeks when I was eight. I was homesick but loved paddling, rock pools, my bucket and spade, sand shoes and picnics in the countryside with wonderful views of the sea.

Thanks auntie for some very happy memories which all seem to be in glorious technicolour.

My folks used to rent a seaside house somewhere in the SE - sometimes pretty basic, but I do remember a big one in Walton on the Naze when 2 grannies and an aunt joined us - it had a billiard table!
I also remember a very little one in Littlehampton, I think - it was called Winker's Cot and my father immediately christened it Widdler's Pot!

We used to go by train - had no car then - and I remember being so excited to get that first glimpse of the sea. That certain sea smell - seaweed is certainly part of it - can take me right back. I used to love those holidays. They weren't much of a holiday for my mother, having to cook etc., but tht didn't occur to me for many years.

My folks never wanted to go anywhere near the pier - far too noisy - but a granny used to take me - she loved all the noisy 'trashy' elements as much as I did!

My Mum was evacuated to a lady who she remained friends with until her death at 95 . She was a very wealthy unmarried lady who had a huge house in Hale (very posh village) and another huge holiday house at Penryn bay where we used to spend all our holidays, we lived in inner city Manchester so these holidays were just paradise . The house actually had steps down to the beach with a big Victorian gate with a mermaid in wrought iron which you needed all your strength to open . My little sister and I spent all day on the beach rockpooling , jumping off the huge boulders and of course paddling in the sea totally unsupervised of course. It always seemed to be sunny but can`t have been , just so many lovely memories come back when I think about it .

My parents farmed. I used to stay with my grandmother who lived five minutes for a beach. Fantastic times.

My best holiday experience as a child was in jaisalmer Rajasthan. That was the beautiful place for visiting like temples,traditional places etc.Pollution free environment and good heart people.

Hotels in jaisalmer

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KatyK I never had a holiday as a child, either, only school day trips. However, from the age of 10, I spent my school holidays ( lived in NYC at the time) roaming the city on my own or with friends, packed lunches in a brown paper bag.
We spent entire days exploring a shop now sadly closed called FAO Schwarz, bigger than Hamley's and magical, investigating all the toys. We dressed, spoke and behaved well, so nobody every told us off.

As we got older, we visited museums. Didn't miss what we never had.

Such adventures not advisable now!

When I was very young my Irish grandmother was alive and I remember the excitement of going to Ireland on the ferry. She had an Irish terrier that I loved to play with and she lived in the country so holidays were full of fields and cows and streams and nearby beaches.

My father died when I was 7 so there were no holidays then until I was at secondary school. As a young teenager I went with my mother to Devon. We had a series of holidays around Dawlish and I still remember South Devon with great fondness. Gorgeous beaches and beautiful countryside and wonderful clotted cream ice cream!

I sometimes think just how much life has changed. Not everyone holidayed then and if they did, it was one or two weeks out of the whole year somewhere modest in the UK. None of this endless jetting off at the drop of a hat!

What a lovely thread - I have just read all 5 pages. It's 10am and I'm not even dressed - Oh Gransnet, what are you doing to my life? Only joking - I am so happy that I found YOU!!