Do you think people ‘look down’ on UK holidays?

[Helmlover]

Just a thought I was having today.

My partner and I have booked a UK cottage holiday in August for us and his kids which has not worked out much cheaper than a holiday abroad. However when his kids discussed it with their mum her reaction was ‘oh can’t they (my partner and I) afford to take you away anywhere nice this year?’.

To be honest, we could afford to go abroad if we wanted to but just fancied a UK holiday this year.

Do people really look down on UK holidays and assume that people who holiday in this country must be too poor to travel overseas? Sorry if this sounds silly but her reaction has made me feel slightly paranoid.

I do struggle to understand people who have zero interest in exploring the world and visiting new places. In my experience these people can be quite narrow minded

Plenty of it to explore via the TV, YouTube, online, without using vast quantities of fuel and resources to get there. I'm not one to lay on a beach, that's boring.

Also plenty of the UK for me to explore - I still have got to walk/cycle from Great Yarmouth to Kings Lynn, and a short stretch of Cornwall, plus the entire west Welsh coast (although some I did as a child with my parents) and a little bit from Southport to Conwy as well as the east coast of Scotland, to have done the entire coastline. I've also visited all the National Parks, all the major cities and much more. Really plenty to see here without going further afield.

I travel abroad to explore and learn; and I think my children are greatly advantaged by having the same opportunity.

My brother's family income is 3x mine, but they still mostly holiday in the UK or remote villas abroad which they barely leave.

I think that these types of holidays are valuable - children are often given more attention etc. But I do think it is a shame that this is all they do when they are in the extremely privileged position of being able to show their children so much more of the world.

I love the feeling of being somewhere new, the atmosphere, the different sensation of the air on my skin, the smells, the sounds - the different melody of new dialects. My children never stop asking questions, weighing up connections, comparing new and old experiences, assimilating new knowledge. Talks about difference and culture are given stronger meaning when children are exposed to more of it.

Don't you want to eat the most delicious lasagna in italy, drink hot chocolate at the top of Zugspitz, marvel at the dancing lights inside the Sagrada Familia, answer your child's questions about why the Mona Lisa is so special when it's so small? There are so many wonderful things to see and feel!

I want to go on holiday now!

Well this thread has certainly made me think about the places I want to take my children in the uk (we do usually go abroad).

I love my UK holidays. Enjoy picking the cottage in the area we have decided to go to. The holiday starts as soon as we set off in the car. Love exploring the countryside and visiting new towns.
Travelling abroad is hard work (to me). You have to get to the airport 2 hours at least before your flight, then hang around waiting. Then there is the risk of delays. You think you’ve picked a good resort where you can walk and explore the area, then find out that there’s no footpaths and it s too dangerous to do that easy looking walk into the next resort. I usually struggle to find something I like to eat unless I go to a very touristy area (or Italy) so that is always a problem too.
No, I definitely prefer my UK holidays and don’t care if other people look down on me or feel sorry for me.

I think we need to move away from the idea that holidays abroad are ‘resorts’. They have a time and place but have never set foot in one in my life (although fully expect to as children get older). iwantmychairback basically everything you say about uk travel applies to foreign travel except broader range of things to explore and generally better weather - granted added hassle of flights (if you fly).

I don’t have an axe to grind - horses for courses - but a lot of these comparisons are just stawmen.

Planning to go abroad might be a risk April onwards, there are very sensible reasons for staying in the UK this summer.

Do other people really care though, isn’t asking about your friend’s/neighbou’s holiday just something you do to be polite ? No one is really interested in your cottage in your cottage in Cornwall or the price of cocktails in Benidorm.

The only time I’ve had anyone comment was when an agency I worked for wanted my passport and thought I was being difficult saying I didn’t have one.

The staff member was working here from abroad & triumphantly asked me “well, how do you go abroad then?.” Much spluttering when I said I’d never been abroad & a “well there’s many beautiful parts of England to visit”. Yes, I know. I’ve lived here all my life and my eyes work 🙄

Yes and I don't care! If everyone in family is happy that's the main thing. #can'twaituntileaster Skegness it is!

wotsit I feel exactly the same as you and we have been lucky enough to bring dd to many many places and she has seen such a lot in her life. We are not in UK but we also do local / national trips in the country where we live and she has seen a lot it it too. We trend to do long weekends for those trips.

I would hate to not have the option to travel, it is hugely important to me and is one of our main luxuries.

I love the feeling of being somewhere new, the atmosphere, the different sensation of the air on my skin, the smells, the sounds - the different melody of new dialects. My children never stop asking questions, weighing up connections, comparing new and old experiences, assimilating new knowledge. Talks about difference and culture are given stronger meaning when children are exposed to more of it.

Only got to walk down Southall High Street to experience that!

Those that travel abroad, do you not consider the waste of the worlds resources, the very fact you're travelling there by airplane guzzling all that fuel is spoiling that place for future generations?

No I do not consider that. Do you consider your fuel consumption when you go by rail or car?

Or have children or occupy a house bigger than you technically need (and no, DC do not need their own bedroom) or eat meat, or waste food, or use copious amounts of toiletres and cleaning products or buy new clothes when you already have some, etc etc etc.

The places in the UK that I want to visit are far too expensive in the summer holidays. A cottage/holiday let in Bournemouth was £1900 per week, a Haven caravan £1000. We do winter sun over christmas for 10 days in Spain/Portugal for about £2k including car hire and we travel all over.

We don't like the sun but don't want gale force winds either. One summer we toured the Wild Atlantic Way (Western Ireland) which was great; empty white sandy beaches, but the weather was absolutely freezing.

My DH works in the airline industry and we get multiple free airline tickets. We rarely go abroad ! He is sick of flights/ airports and I don’t care either way. I know a lot of families in the industry that feel the same. I’m sure lots of people think it’s a bit odd we don’t take advantage of the perks. I wouldn’t ever look down on anyone who decided to go on holidays in the country they lived in though. Each to their own I say

We do both and love both sides; holidays in the UK are often spent at MIL's house in Gower or in Cornwall. The DC love both areas, and have so many happy memories of holidays in the UK. But there's something equally lovely about introducing them to new cities, new countries and new continents.

We have friends who look down their noses at holidays in the UK, but they're missing out. A fortnight by a pool in Cyprus is hardly showing their DC the big wide world, but whatever floats your boat.

No Ariela and unless you are walking to your holiday destination, you are also contributing to the waste of the worlds resources

We're staying the UK this year. Partly due to the cost of home improvements and also just because we want to. The kids are happy as long as we go somewhere they can make friends. They don't need hot weather and we can go to the beach anytime as we live near the coast. I love going abroad but we couldn't survive a week in the same room as each other and can't afford apartments in the med anywhere we would want to go. We usually camp or self cater in NW Europe. Or UK holiday in a hot tub lodge will be luxury for us.

I haven't managed to find an apartment abroad for less than a cottage in the UK. We live in the SW so have to factor in a trek to a London airport to avoid a premium on our regional airports. This adds more cost and hassle.

I was having a nosy at a website last night, and it looks like rich people holiday at places like soho farmhouse (perhaps some mumsnetters). Maybe I'm just jealous, I think it costs about 500 a night (and more)

I'm loving the irony of the exact mirror opposite discussion happening right now on another thread!

But no, anyone who looks down on anyone else's choices, be it holidays, cars, houses whatever is probably a bit of a knob.

I did do a face at the suggestion my once a year flight to the Med is so much damaging to the environment than driving to Cornwall, sitting in traffic on teeny roads for ages and then driving out to various sights each day!

Happy holidays fellow MNers wherever you go this year.

I prefer UK holidays but get a lot of funny looks from people who have never visited anywhere but their home towns.

I'm not a fan of a cheap beach holiday to Spain and probably give the same look to people who do that though

Don't you want to eat the most delicious lasagna in italy, drink hot chocolate at the top of Zugspitz, marvel at the dancing lights inside the Sagrada Familia, answer your child's questions about why the Mona Lisa is so special when it's so small? There are so many wonderful things to see and feel!

What about eating samphire in Norfolk or seeing the puffins on the Farne Islands? Climbing Snowdon, finding fossils in Dorset or taking a boat trip under Tower Bridge? There's plenty of culture in this country too.