Many people prioritise/ live for holidays above all else

No, you're not the odd ones out at all. Just the occassional trip is fine if that suits you. And it all depends on what your priorities are and if travel/holidays are a passion or just a nice to have every now and then. It is perfectly fine to do what suits you.

I love to travel and often, but that is me and what is my priority. On the flip side I rarely spend money on clothes, don't care about cars and I'm fortunate enough to not have a mortgage.

You do you!

Fair enough - when I for example say I 'need' to exercise, I also mean that I 'want' to have a heathy body and sound mind. But yes that's also a want really, I indeed probably wouldn't die if I didn't travel.
But I don't think (and i don't think other posters who like to travel have claimed) that we superior to people who decide to spend their money on bigger house or new kitchen? Just different priorities.

The key point isn't travel. It's prioritising holidays above everything else.
Living like a pauper for most of the year when not on holiday. As PP said having nothing else to look forward too.
People claiming they'll be 'depressed' if they can't go away. It was especially jarring during COVID when many had more pressing concerns like not dying of the disease or keeping financially afloat. so many threads with people moaning about holidays.
Also ... You said you 'needed' a holiday because you 'want' to experience different cultures, cuisines etc. Well obviously the second part of the sentence indicates that travelling is a want, not a need.

People can choose how they want to live, of course. But travel beyond a certain point is a consumerist obsession. Just like, I don't know, new furniture, designer bags, eating out, whatever. Nothing superior about it compared to people who spend on the latter.

We do this, Canaries every winter. No sunbathing but that injection of warm sunshine in January is so nourishing.

Stating that people who love to travel must hate their home life is like saying that only people who can't cook go to restaurants. It's a different experience.

We book holidays based on what we have in the bank a few months ahead of time. I never get the people who live for holidays, and who are planning and waiting for the next one when they get home (I'm autistic and very aware that I have rigid thinking and can't understand why people may think differently). We love our work, love our home, have days out etc, I get the feeling people don't enjoy their home/work life so much if they're desperate to get away?

I lived for travelling when I was young. I saved all year and drove a crap car while all my friends were spending their cash on clothes, cars and going out (in those days you could buy a flat easily on an average income so our mortgages weren’t a big deal). I had holidays planned years ahead.

Nowadays I find long haul journeys too uncomfortable and tiring. I miss my animals, and worry about my plants. I’m sick of Airbnbs misleading me with sneaky photography, and I can’t cope with heat any more. When hotel/apartment rooms turn out to be less pleasant than my own home, I wonder why I’m spending good money to be there!

Holidays are no longer the be all and end all that they once were, to me. That and the environmental cost means that we are scaling back.

Not all of us who love a holiday are doing it to escape miserable lives! You can have both

I’d never been on holiday in winter in my life before I retired. Now we always book a sunny holiday in the New Year. Not for sunbathing, I just enjoy being in warm climes when it’s winter at home.

Iv’e never been that fussed until this April, when I absolutely had to get some sun after a long and miserable winter, and having lost our summer holiday last year because elderly parent because. unwell.

I would have sold a kidney, I think, but fortunately didn’t need to.

We have sacrificed holidays for 4 years so we could save and pay off mortgage at the end of this year. Been hard and miserable at times but totally worth the sacrifice and plan to start having really nice holidays from next year!

"I don't really understand that "build a life you don't need a holiday from" quote "
It's total shite. I don't want to leave the UK, so I'm stuck with the weather. Both me and my adult DD (two children) commented while food shopping/meal planning that we could do with a AI for a week. "A change is as good as a rest" and needing a change of scenery, makes more sense.

Planning holidays really helps me cut down on unnecessary spending. I saw two dresses yesterday that I liked, but don't need, so didn't buy because of holiday plans next year. I save about £10 a visit to lidl/aldi/b&m. So I'm lucky in the sense that they pay for themselves. Up North the weather isn't as good and the places that we can get to easily are the same. Not all children do well in wet/cold weather. If we had the guarantee of no/light rain then I'd be happy across Wales and our Northern coasts. I can fly cheaper and more quickly abroad than I can get to Cornwall etc. We do city breaks in the UK and across Europe as well. I keep my fitness up (at nearly 60) and subsequently my weight down because I want to get about for as long as possible.

My favourite thing is feeling the sun when it's warm and pleasant, rather than hot, and looking out on the sea with the sun sparkling on the waves. That's what I get from visiting southern Europe in the winter or 'shoulder season'. Alongside wandering around the picturesque villages. I try to recreate that with UK holidays in the summer - but more often than not I get grey clouds and sea. Maybe I should just move to the coast - but my family and friends are all in the midlands . So I have lots of holidays.

We prioritise holidays - but this tends to be quantity rather than quality - so going for several cheap and cheerful breaks throughout the year (short haul or uk in rental rather than long haul and luxury hotel). I really couldn't do the massive saving over years for one holiday - just imagining the pressure for it all to be perfect, and the comedown if (when) it isn't .

When I say we prioritise, I mean that we live in a small house and until very recently we always had fairly old second hand cars .

There's nothing wrong with a package deal at a resort though either if that's what people enjoy. We all like different things. I don't like wine, I think it tastes gross and for me it would be a waste of money to buy it but I do understand that other people are different than me and some people will spend a bit of money on a good bottle of wine.

You extended your mortgage for a holiday?! That’s insanity. And I say that as someone who loves to travel (4 holidays abroad this year and 2 in the UK)

fair do's to you. My point was, my experience of too many 'travellers' is that they do it for bragging rights, and yes the food and what each defines as culture- but its all very tickbox and shallow if you don't get involved in local life at all. The verb tends to go : ' I am a traveller,' you are a tourist', 'they go on package deals to resorts'

I prioritise holidays.

We limit flights but travel overland via trains. Think Race Across the World. The journey is part of the holiday.

For me, I work hard all year and earn a lot. It's about spending time with the kids, expanding their horizons. Getting them to smell the Parthenon not just see it in a book, feeling the chill in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, sunrise surf lessons and breakfast after. When I die, those are the memories I'll have.

I love a holiday, happy to get into debt for one but I usually pay monthly in the lead up to break down payments. I think holidays are essential.

@daleylama I often wonder that.
There is an area of America I would love to go to. Unless I win the lottery it's never going to happen.
But I have read books and articles about the area. Watched documentaries. I have looked on Google Earth at the actual towns and buildings etc.
As a place of interest (to me) I know so much about it - I just haven't actually been there.

What do I get from it? Different weather, food, culture, wildlife, meeting new people who have a different way of life, learning new things. Watching a documentary isn't exactly a patch on the real thing!

Interesting that no-one seems to be commenting as to what they get from holidays, especially multiples and foreign. See so many doing bucket list ticking, queuing to take the same photo as a dozen others, checking off views without experiencing anything of local life -or worse, treating local staff etc as beneath acknowledgement - and I do wonder- what is it that you are getting from this that a few documentaries and week in, say, Margate wouldn't accomplish? And nothing is worth remortgaging for. My most expensive holiday was with 'well travelled' friends who avoided any interaction with locals, treated servers with ignore, and insisted on a misery making private boat hire to travel between islands instead of mixing it with the hoi polloi on the ferry. Worst holiday I've ever had. Best: local buses, trains and ferries, and the world for company.

Growing up in the 80s/90s, my parents weren’t at well off - quite the opposite. But they saved all year for us to go abroad (sometimes every two years). We didn’t have a car and we werent bought much outside of what we needed, but we LOVED going on holiday. We were never in debt, or living hand to mouth, but holidays were definitely prioritized.

'Pearl clutching'? Uncalled for.