I hate our holiday and want to go home

Yes but it's not about you but your mother.

Rent a car

Heavens book somewhere nice, and take MIL along. She'd get a nice break and so would you. This time of year isn't the best time to come

Yes your holiday does sound shit but it's entirely down to lack of planning and staying in one underwhelming location.

When overseas people come to us, they use us as a base, we spend about 2 days together. 1 day would be a big party where we would try to get as many people over as possible plus a quieter day. The rest of the time we may or may not see them, as they would be doing what they wanted to do - mainly London, Oxford, Cambridge and Windsor.

You need to do something like this, but you need to organise it and communicate this to your wider family.

The "cigarette smoke" OMG how true that is. The stench from people that are smoking or are smokers is so noticeable in the UK. That alone would keep me away from the UK

The area, not nice - just go back and put yourself first fro a change

get MiL to fly over I think BA dod 'fear of fliyig' sessions to relax fliers like MiL, but cost

Pay for her ticket or just let your OH come over

Alderhot, I sea what you mean - so put yourself first

Something tells me you aren’t much fun even when you’re in Maine.

Reminds me of that saying “wherever you go, there you are”.

Such a shame. I really love the UK. I moved here as an adult.

I don’t get this. Don’t you have any old friends you want to see? I have returned to the the UK (Surrey) every summer for the last 24 years, since my children were born and our time is action-packed. I book everything in advance, well before we leave the US. We rent a car, visit old friends for the day, go to Legoland, the Harry Potter Studios, local farms with loads of stuff for kids to do, go out for lunch or picnics, cinema. We catch a train to London or down to Brighton. In fact, we always run out of time and feel we could have filled another week.

oh lord you sound like a right miserable old sod! You’ve had loads of suggestions of things to do but presumably you prefer to sit there helpless whilst whining about a place you’ve been to for ten years running and are somehow shocked it’s the same as it was the last time 🤣

What were you expecting to see in Aldershot- the hanging gardens of babylon? As a PP said, you remind me of the obnoxious American couple from faulty towers 😂

I pity your poor SIL. Imagine having a house guest like you

Generalisations about anything are pretty a pretty narrow way to see the world

But it's the school holidays now..? And you can get the train? You're not far from London at all. Surely you can find something to do in London?! Samuel Johnson - tired of London, tired of life! I live near Farnham and it's a gorgous area with loads of countryside around... you're not far from Oxford either. Why on earth are you just sitting around in the house all day?

Please don’t visit again, we don’t need grumpy people here in the UK.

Jump on the train into London and do free museums.
Walk in the countryside bordering Aldershot.
Go here coz it looks really cool…..https://activenation.org.uk/venues/alpine-snowsports-aldershot/

Plenty of beautiful places to stay in the UK. Book one, and take MIL. If she doesn’t want to go, tough, you’ve done your bit!

What an opportunity. Leave the kids and husband with in laws and skip on a train to London for a few days. Or do you need to travel with unnecessary baggge all the time?

I want this thread renamed 'I'm an English person who booked a shitty holiday to Aldershot & I'm furious about its shitness'.

But there are beautiful places within easy reach. The New Forest is beautiful and if they had planned ahead, they could have got an air b&b and hired a car. Visited lots of lovely places around the south coast too. No matter where my MIL lived, I couldn’t stay around the house for 3 weeks or rely on the poor SIL to be a taxi driver. Even if she didn’t hire a car, get on a bus/train and get out exploring.

Back to the OP's OP, there's work to be done on the guilt tripping by the MIL. Just don't go every year, possibly help her pay for a flight if you're feeling generous.

I live in Australia and get a lot of when are you coming back, though possibly they're just being polite, but it's too expensive so I don't. And I'd also like to holiday more here- though it also costs an arm and a leg.

What does your DH feel about all this?

Haven't read the whole thread so please forgive if this has already been suggested - but for goodness sake - why don't you just pay for your MIL to come and visit you?????????????????????????????????

Surely that must be cheaper and less traumatising than you visiting her - although I hear that she's got a fear of flying, but surely - just put more pressure on her - i.e. "We're not going to do this trip ever again - we mean it! - and in future we'll pay for you to visit us!" ..............

Yep I agree. A fun family hobby ! 🙄

Bah ha ha ha ha. Exactly. It's like you've connived to have the worst holiday ever. ALDERSHOT isn't a holiday destination, it's a squaddie town that Londoners/rest of the UK don't visit (or speak of) with good reason.

This is exactly what we have done this Easter holidays. We have had a weeks holiday on our own or seeing friends and have driven to pick up the inlaws and taken them to Pickering for a week and we are staying in a cottage. Yes, it limits our activities a bit but it is better than having nothing to do.

You make choices about what you do - yes it is costly but better than sitting in a house for three weeks and moaning,

Just to add - do you drive? If so, first thing to do would have been hire a car. Drive to the south coast, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall - all stunning. Im sure your family would understand needing a few days to have a proper holiday and SIL would probably be glad not to host for abit.

I'm Hampshire too and, as several posters have said, there are lots of lovely places to visit, but you need to budget for a hire car. And, as another poster said upthread, there's lots of free places to go in London (less than an hour away by train).

Winchester, Portsmouth, Petersfield and Oxford take about an hour to an hour and a half to get to by train. There are lots of nice walks around Winchester.

I'm another one who doesn't get why the OP doesn't hire a car when accommodation is free. When I visit the UK I'm reliant on rels and friends putting me up but then I make sure I've got wheels so I'm not their face 24/7 and can actually see more the lovely UK.