UK holidays

[TreaslakeandBack]

We are going on two this year but normally go abroad except weekend breaks. What makes your UK holidays into more of a treat/ special/ feel like a holiday?
2 adults and a 9 year old. Dorset coast. Norfolk. Legoland.
Budget not too much of an issue, we just want to feel properly relaxed and have fun!

Eating out. Some people have this weird notion that self catering means cooking in your accommodation. Best to research in advance and book.

What do you normally enjoy on holidays or days out? Monkeyworld in Dorset is lovely. Fossil hunting on the beach can be enjoyed whatever the weather, there are lots of typical sea-sidey towns to visit with arcade games if your child would enjoy that, coastal walks, castles and NT type places. Research is definitely your friend!

No cooking! Or maybe really simple stuff like pizza. Special breakfasts e.g. eggs Benedict. Plenty of wine.

I prefer to stay in hotels and eat out! When my kids were small we generally stayed in holiday inns or premier inn, the former gave kids a toy on check in. We tried to find one with a pool. I recommend York for primary aged kids, they loved the Viking place, we booked to take part in a dig etc. Up near Hexham they did a day at an archeological dig as older kids. National trust places are generally good, they have kids packs too. Highly recommend Newtons birthplace science centre too

Lots of meals out booked but it means DH driving a lot of the time.
Happy to eat in a few times with lots of wine for DH and easy food- pizza/ pasta/ takeaway.
We’ve booked theme parks and will be doing loads of NT places too. Hoping for sunshine as that’s a holiday to me.
We’ll get a taxi on my birthday I think!

We always stay in hotels with a pool so we can a swim/spa session. I like to book boat trips, cave tours and things like that so it feels really different from being at home. Also when my DC were younger we’d always let them pick something from any gift shops we went to.

I used to pack a few new arts and crafts bits as well as buckets and spades. That always went down well.

Norfolk; crabbing, see the seals, boat on the broads, swim in sea , fish and chips sitting on a beach after a busy outdoorsy day

DC hates arts and crafts with considerable passion! Maybe a new Lego set.
It all sounds such hard work!
I want to lie back while he plays in the pool. Any lidos etc where we can pay to have a nice day by a pool while he plays?
Buggering horrible Covid! I hate you for ruining my holidays

I mainly went abroad but also did one UK break
a year and never found it hard work.

I hate typical hotels with small rooms, nowhere to store gear and/or dry wet clothes. No problem in a country with guaranteed sunshine. but not in the UK.

We get cottages which are a bit larger than we would normally need but it means we. have space to stretch out. DD can watch TV while I read one bedroom or the other way round. I also insist on a dishwasher and I research for cafes nearby serving nice breakfast like pancakes.

We do a mix of cooking and. eating out. When we are out for the full. day we often do a picnic and then dinner. is a restaurant or maybe. some pasta or a curry. Nice drinks, big boxes of lovely chocolates for the evening.

We always buy at least one new game to take with us. One year with exceptional bad weather I gave DD £15 and she went charity shop shopping, 2 games and 5 books and we were all happy for the next couple of days.

Don't do a normal UK beach holiday.

Get up at 5am and be on Golden Cap by 6am. A backpack with bacon rolls or crispy halloumi and a flask of tea. The rolls will still be warm. You know what the sunrise is like there? Over your left shoulder by the hilltop with the trees that are a landmark in those parts.

And the sunset. Be back on the beach lower down at Charmouth at 7pm with a bucket and an imagination. Watch the sun fall over your right shoulder and listen to the waves - always much calmer here - at nightfall. It's different in those times. More reverent, calmer and together. Even seagulls seem more connected.

What a difference is Norfolk. Cromer is sand and so much deeper. Dinosaur bones long covered by shifting sands. A graduation to candyfloss, sticky rock and those machines with limp-wristed hooks that can grasp nowt.

But Brancaster and Holkham are a different country, almost a different world. Interstellar-like as you wade and wade and wade with water continuously up to your thighs and no more. Sea Bass skimming the surface. Wells-next-the-Sea with its millionaire beach huts. And coniferous forests to smell the pines and the sand. The sand there goes on and on forever.

I don't know why a holiday needs to feel more like a treat or special than it already is. Surely the being away from home, by the beach, or whatever you are IS the treat/special thing? That, and maybe the relaxing of rules, and the ice creams 😀

We like cottages with shared pool type set ups. Space is more important than weather and food being laid on. Nice cafes for cake a must, or ice cream parlours for sundaes. We like cheese and wine so will buy a good amount of cheese local to where we are staying, posh crackers and crisps and other deli bits to last a few evenings. Walk somewhere nice for a pub lunch with a pint. Love going abroad but our style of holiday is pretty much the same with self catering and finding lovely local food and booze.

Finances dictate that we only holiday in the UK and stay in caravans. It's special anyway because we're away from home but we make it more so by eating food we don't normally eat, visit places nearby and explore the local area, stay up late and go for evening walks, relax the rules for the dc (e.g. they can play out later and meal times are less timetabled).

We’re in a cottages- one with a shared pool, the other with a private hot tub. Both spacious.
What a poetic post @TeardropsFallingOnHotSand

Organised intinery and up and out for the day at 8.30_9am. Especially if we have to drive any distance or are going for a walk.

Eating dinner out each night of the holiday or getting a takeaway.

Easy picnic food for lunch from m and s or waitrose.

Healthy_ish, but nice snacks and drinks for the children..

Each child has their own holiday rucksack packed before we go holiday with a spare outfit, sweater, crocs, an empty water bottle, colouring book, crayons, book to read and waterproof jacket. That way they can just grab and go in the morning.

I have a rucksack filled with junk and first aid kit. DH has his own with picnic lunch in it etc. Rucksacks just make it easier

My younger children go to the charity shop before they go and each choose a new (to them) board game.

Nice wine, soft drinks and snacks to eat in the evening for DH and I.

I insist on good WiFi, a dishwasher and a bath tub as well as a shower.

Waterproofs, comfy shoes and wellies for all, as weather is often rubbish.

A service wash at the laundrette when I get home.

I did write post in paragraphs. No idea why it has not posted with paragraphs.

What makes it for us is:
Good weather(!)
Plenty to see and do - lots of outdoor activities for the DC, walks, castles to explore, nice towns to wander round
Eating out, or eating in with nice food and drink with extra calories we wouldn’t eat at home - either is fine
Other people behaving themselves - my neighbours are lovely, decent people and I don’t want to pay lots of money to hear people who inflict their noise on others.
Time to relax with the family - just reconnecting is so important
Beaches - dog free ones if possible
Nice shops with tat I don’t need but have to buy
A pool on site or close by
Our own space - not keen on hotels at all

What makes any holiday special is spending time with my son.

We are off to the Isle of Wight on Friday. We will have a few breakfasts out, a few dinners out. Rest of meals are easy like pizza.

A few walks, mini golf, bowling, boat trip, he will swim in the sea, I’ll paddle, maybe we will get a pedalo. Chill out in the evenings, time for me to read, he can play on his phone, watch the football, maybe we will play a board game,
just time to chill out together. He is 17

I booked a cabin last year just anywhere that wasn’t home and had a really nice week. After being stuck in lockdown and the local area for so long I was happy to sit on the deck with a glass of wine and watch the world go by most evenings and just went walking or running during the day. Had lunch out a couple of times and minimal effort dinners and chippy tea one night. Planning to do the same again this year.