What was your first holiday after leaving school?

I went to Austria skiing with a friend from work, we went by ferry to Ostend then minibus to the Tyrol I think we were on that bus for 12 hrs. Our hotel was up in the mountains and we had skiing lessons I was rubbish and terrified but the instructor was heavenly. We went tobogganing, had a sleigh ride to the village where we borrowed skates from locals and I surprised myself by staying upright. A sauna and massage then were beaten with pine branches and a dip in the outdoor plunge pool very exotic for a 17 yr old who’d been nowhere before. Plenty of watery soups and veal, but the apple strudel and thick cream was amazing ooh and hot chocolate with thick cream, I must of put on a stone during that 10 days. I was extremely sick on the ferry home I remember. Ten days cost about £80 if my memory is correct.

I had just had my 15th birthday and had left school. I travelled on my own to Germany by train and ferry to stay with family I didn’t know. There were quite a few train changes and despite not speaking German I made it much to my mums relief.
Had a wonderful time, learned some basic German, was taken out, saw a lot, ate lots of ice cream with so many different flavours to choose from ( in the uk we just had 3 choices, strawberry vanilla or chocolate).
They took me to the Ahr valley. where the bad floods were recently, and allowed me to drink wine which unknown to them was a first for me. Needless to say I got horribly drunk and was very sick on the way home out of the window of their once clean car, unforgettable.
Came back to start my first full time job in the civil service.

Caravan in the Lake District with four friends ( all at Teachers' Training College together ) Brilliant time. It was hot. We all got sunburned and two of us got heatstroke ! We met 4 lads who had two cars and they took us out every day and to pubs for evening meals. Had scampi in a basket. Height of sophistication !

I had to go on a family holiday to Scarborough. My younger sisters were 9 and 13. We met up with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. My cousin and I, both aged 16 tried to get into a nightclub, no matter how much we tried, we couldn't convince the bloke on the door that we were 18.
The weather was lovely, so that was a bonus, but at 16 my cousin and I were longing for freedom.
My first foreign holiday was to Austria in September. I had to wait until my sister was 16 before my mother would allow it. We went with 2 friends, 10 nights in Seefeld. We went to a nightclub there and met some guys who had spent the previous month working in our home town. It was a small world even then!

Not a holiday as such but I went to the 1970 Isle of Wight Frstival. The one with Hendrix, Joan Baez and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. My parents paid for me and the girl I went with to stay in a hotel each night. Of course we didn’t…

Do you mean first without parents? That was to the Canaries but I still went abroad with my folks until I was about 19.

First holiday without parents age 16 I did a solo trip to Ireland to my relations. Basically, the same family holiday we did every year but on my own. I felt very grown up, going out to dances etc with my 2 teenage cousins and continued to go a couple of times a year once I’d saved enough.

Holiday romances and romantic letters across the Irish Sea in between times. My most memorable was a very handsome farmer with a motorbike who called for me most evenings after he’d milked the cows. My parents would have been horrified if they knew I was zooming round the country roads on a motor bike. Happy days.

Never did one, not well off, no money and had to start college. Suppose my first holiday was moving away from my home county after I married. This was in the 60s. Still made up for it since., and travelled the world, nearly, ?.

Not jealous at all Ladyleftfeldlover…….much!
Mine was at 17, with Mum, Dad and two younger siblings, to Ibiza. I was quite fat and insisted on wearing a full length, black dress most of the time. My memories are of being very hot and having sangria poured into my mouth at a banquet thing. I still dislike sangria or punch.

A week in Ramsey, IOM, with my auntie, uncle, cousin and grandma and great aunt. Watched the TT races quite a lot, nothing else to do when the roads are closed for hours on end!

I and a friend went to Ireland. We went by overnight boat from Liverpool to Dublin. To our eyes everyone on that boat was drunk. We were very scared and locked ourselves in our cabin for the whole journey.

My first holiday without parents was spent at Butlins in Bognor with 3 girlfriends. We were all 16/17 years old. What fun we had!!
First holiday abroad was when I was 18 and I travelled through Europe for a month with my boyfriend ( now my husband) on Inter Rail. Tickets cost us £23 each for unlimited rail travel. We took £50 each for accommodation and spending money. We visited Italy, Greece, Switzerland, France and Germany. We spent a few days in Munich and managed to get tickets for some of the events at the Olympic Games. Happy days.

A cottage in St Ives with 5 other school friends in the summer we left school, 1967. Such a great time. The future all.ahead of us and no cares in the world.( We are still friends. We meet from time to time and zoomed weekly in lockdown.)

My first holiday on my own after I left school was in my second year at University. I went on a sailing holiday on The Broads with the University sailing club, of which I was a member.

I was by then already a seasoned solo or adult-free traveller, wih my younger sister. My father was in the army and from the age of 11 travelled to and from boarding school with my sister. By the time I was 15, we were flying to and from Malaya on our own and when I went up to university I was travelling solo between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and, Belgium and Germany

My school friend, Joan, and I went to Butlins at Clacton when we were 17. It was fantastic. We had a little wooden chalet with all mod cons. We soon met two boys, but we were very innocent 17-year-olds and nothing much happened. One became my pen friend and we wrote for years. Sadly Joan died in her 30's.

The summer of 1974. My friend and I finished our A levels and our parents paid for us to have a holiday in Lloret de Mar as a reward. Sunshine, sangria, San Miguel, clubbing every night and beach every day; it was great. Just as well as my exam results were not as hoped and my parents probably should have had a refund?.

Went to Butlins, Skegness with a school friend when I was 17. She was meant to be going with someone else who let her down at the last minute, and I stepped in as I had a week’s holiday from my bank job.

I came 3rd I think in the Holiday Princess contest? only entered it to make numbers up, the other contestants were all dolled up, unlike me!

My friend and I got off with two lads who worked there, and met them every night after their shifts. Went back to his caravan with him, nothing naughty happened, he did try, and I thought he would dump me, but he didn’t. Sad to say goodbye after the week ended, swapped addresses but never expected to hear from him. He actually wrote a lovely letter, beautiful handwriting, saying how it wasn’t the same after I had left .
But he lived a long way away, ashamed to say I never replied.

Can still remember his name and face after 50 odd years.

A package tour to the Soviet Union: Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad and Yalta. Loved it!!

I think it was going on a narrow boat for a week down some canals with some mates but the drinks were flowing and it is a bit hard to remember much. I do remember one of our party, who later became a headmaster, used to nick food en route because he had no money. I was pretty shocked at the time, having led a fairly sheltered sort of life.

First holiday without parents was to Newquay,Cornwall. Went with a friend. It was the hot summer of 1976.
The first night we were there we both met a couple boys and I remember standing by the sea wall kissing. Oh my - first holiday away and met a boy the first night I thought it was heaven ?
Silly me we never saw them again! Didn’t spoil the holiday though as we had a great time.

Not sure when I first went away without parents. Went to various camps with the Junior Red Cross and Colony holidays and PGL holidays. They are all about of a blur in my memory.

After my A levels went on one last family holiday to Sark. Then, at college, went to Florence with another girl from my course. We were very organised, except that we realised we had miscalculated and not organised accommodation for one of the nights. No backpacks and we spent an afternoon traipsing the streets shlepping our holdalls looking for the cheapest possible room for the night. This ate into our budget but we managed somehow.

I was 18 and sailed one of these to Oostende. No Satnav then; just good old fashioned reading a chart. You couldn’t go ashore before customs came onboard. Duty free was brought to your boat and sealed in a locker. But what they didn’t know was: the top of the locker could be lifted off ? It was the same when you returned to your home berth., you couldn’t come ashore before customs came onoard and cleared you. Happy happy days.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Channel_pilot_cutter#/media/File:Setting_sail_(2274516047).jpg

Going to Scotland with then BF, driving the TR6 up at great speed with top down- before starting my job in London.