Holidays once the kids aren't coming anymore? Ideas for 2022 - hit me with yours

[MissAmbrosia]

Dd is 18 next year and has plans all of her own - interrailing/working abroad etc. and it hit me that whilst I normally plan well in advance, covid is one thing, and this is quite another . I am so used to having to take her in account for all these years I have quite forgotten what to do when she's not there. I have done plenty of child free weekends but not a full on holiday. God - would I have to talk to dh for 2 weeks? Gites and mobile homes are out. Where do you go on holiday without children? Hit me with marvelousness. Budget flexible.

Oh we had some fabulous holidays pre kids. We quite liked doing split stays and my favourite was 4 nights New York and 8 nights in cancun Mexico. The All inclusive hotels are on another level pure luxury with lots of a la carte restaurants feels like ur going out and not paying. The cocktails are amazing too.

Also done another one that included vegas which was lots of fun but quite expensive!

Ooh New York! I am not sure about cruising the Atlantic after watching Titanic too many times

Thailand, go crazy in expensive bars and restaurants, or cheap in crappy bars in the city then go chill on a beach. I guess you could do this in many places, but you'll get to experience a lot. Or do New Zealand, so many things to see, and given tourism is big there all the people are lovely.

Like Sandals? I've only ever done AI once in my life, in Cuba. It was lovely but I really like going out in the evening to different places and I found there we were just drinking rum squishies all day and were bored/pissed by 9pm. We did spend 3 days in Havana before that though - fabulous place.

Surely NZ is off the cards for tourism?

We are Cunard to ny and a few days there, DD's a bit miffed they weren't included

Mine are a bit younger but I always imagine I will go and see polar bears once they have left in Norway.

Not sure what will be an option in 2022.

We've just spent HT in Lanzarote with our primary aged DC. DH and I spent the first half of the week saying that, once the DC have left home, we'll never go anywhere other than adults only places. Then we signed the DC up for some tennis lessons and quickly realised that, if you know the kids are nothing to do with you, they're all remarkably easy to ignore.. the screams, shrieks and tumbles which you always have half an ear out for in case it's your DC just fade into the background when you know it can't possibly affect you.
We'd clearly try and avoid school holidays due to cost but it does mean I expect to be less bothered by the simple existence of children when on holiday.

@MissAmbrosia

Like Sandals? I've only ever done AI once in my life, in Cuba. It was lovely but I really like going out in the evening to different places and I found there we were just drinking rum squishies all day and were bored/pissed by 9pm. We did spend 3 days in Havana before that though - fabulous place.

No, you'll get bored in a resort for the whole duration. The beach resort should be the last part of the holiday to wind down and relax. The first part should be busy, sight seeing, fine dining, skybars and doing things that only couples can do without kids being around.

My DD is also 18 next year...already has tickets booked for Reading Festival and planning a few days in Paris when college breaks up.

I am taking myself off to Yorkshire for a fortnight on my own. 4 days at the Harrogate Crime Writers Festival then onto a beautiful cottage in Bronte Country where I've stayed previously.

I've had a fucker of a few years with divorce, change of job from p/t to f/t, two house moves, the long term illness and death of my lovely dad a few months ago and trying to set up my own business whilst keeping my extremely high maintenance mum on track.

I am going to mooch, eat, read, write and hopefully catch up with some family and friends but basically please myself for a fortnight and I can't bloody wait!

Our first holiday without our (adult) children was a week in New York. The following year we went to Prague. Last year we were due to go to Los Angeles but obviously that couldn’t happen but will be rebooked at some point.

Our first without DD was a weeks cruise up the Nile, 4 days in Luxor and then 4 days in Cario, we spent quite a lot on it, chose a smaller cruise ship (about 30 passengers) and then 4 star hotels, it was fantastic, so so much to see, everyday was something new, one of the best holidays we have ever had! (no driving, no gite cleaning, no cooking, no trips to the pharmacie for bloody mossie bites, no sighing and puffing at old buildings, no fucking badminton! )

We tend to do either activity holidays or city breaks so we either spend a decent chunk of time diving, hiking or mountain biking or wandering around museums and seeing historical sites.

But do build in plenty of time for relaxation and eating and drinking too.

Mostly around the Med or Canaries or European cities but also within the UK.

Tend to stay in apartments and do a mix of eating out, barbecues and easy food like cheese, bread, crisps, olives etc.

DH and I don't have children so all our holidays are child free. We love island hopping through the Greek islands, touring Croatia, driving through the vineyards of France and Italy. Next year's holidays include experiencing Greek Easter, a tour of sicily or sardinia and some time island hopping in Greece

A week in Sri Lanka followed by a week in the Maldives was one of my fave pre DC holidays!

River cruise on the river Douro - gorgeous scenery, interesting stops, wine tasting.

Switzerland. Gorgeous.

Lake Como.

For massive £££ a safari in Botswana. (Not done by me, I couldn't remotely afford it, but recommended by a friend, apparently it was incredible.) Maybe not until Covid is completely gone though...

Our first child free holiday was 2019 in the greek islands …. it was bliss but took some getting used to!!

Next year will be a mixture of hols on our own and one with the DDs.

I don’t have a destination recommendation but 100% an adults only hotel. We did it for the first time this summer and it was bliss. We only really appreciated how nice it was when we went out to eat and had the misfortune of sitting at tables next to over tired toddlers

These are some of the ones I’ve done with just DH
Mauritius hotel
Dubai hotel
Cape Town (went with DC snd then went back)
A week in Crete and a week in Turkey (pandemic holidays)
Few days in Tenerife
Barbados (sandals)
City breaks to Paris, Budapest, Stockholm and Prague.
Jersey
All the above involved lots of days out, some with a car hire, lots of boat trip. On the city breaks I buy concerts and often a Viator trip a bit further out of the city.
Some of favourite trips with just DH have been 5 star luxury spa hotel breaks in the UK , either costal or country. We plan lots of walks, boat trips, places to visit, go in spa for a couple of hours, yummy dinner, repeat.
We love to cruise and go on twin Centre holidays as family holidays but haven’t done any of those in our own yet.

Pre kids we had an adventure first, Angkor then beach holiday.
Saigon then beach
NYC then Carribean
Drive through France

We flew to the US, hired a car and just toured New England, only booked hotel on the day when we decided were to visit that day. Never had a problem finding a room to book, totally relaxed, and visited places not usually on the holiday list. Met lots of Americans who were not used to tourists. Felt we saw the "real America".