What lovely holidays do you have planned over the coming year?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

I am really looking forward to going home (I live abroad) for a few weeks in the summertime. We did this last year and it was brilliant. My mum has cancer, and it's really important that we get home if at all possible.

I'd like to get a beach weekend local to us here as well, if possible, to escape the baking heat but we will have to see!

Keeping fingers crossed the pandemic won't come back with another variant and gather speed over summer/ autumn this year, and that people can travel and holiday and spend time with loved ones - where are you planning to go?

Have you booked anything?

I have a week in Lake Garda in June and 2 weeks in Greece in September. I quite fancy a few days in Antwerp at some point.

Wow & I was feeling guilty about maybe doing one short haul flight this year!!! This thread really is like another world. Do people really not care at all?! I get that we haven’t been able to do much due to Covid but that applies to everyone. The planet is well & truly fucked.

A week in my mums static caravan only an hours drive from us but takes us to the south coast and new scenery and places to explore.

It’ll be me, DH, DS, DD and the dog. First holiday since 2018 and first one with the dog. Cannot wait for a change of scene. Working from home for nearly 2 years I’m sick of the sight of my house

If anyone is interested in improving their carbon footprint btw this is the CC&S company I use climeworks.com/
Carbon capture is preferable to offsets because it is certain whereas offsets are not. But it’s also more expensive for that reason.

I also recommend Cool Earth www.coolearth.org/ which is probably the most effective environmental charity out there at the moment.

Some great holidays here. Despite covid, we managed a couple of holidays/breaks last year. I'm so excited to have lots of stuff booked for this year!.Already planning 2023

A self employed high flyer friend goes away every 2 months! He has been so many places since last summer.

We have missed holidays abroad so much! Hoping to get one in in either October or December as well. We are going short haul this year though.
We’ve tried UK holidays in 2020 and 2021 and they don’t compare to hot sunshine and swimming pools for us in terms of relaxation but I appreciate everyone is different.
We are lucky to be financially comfortable and able to afford them. Probably should look at carbon offset! We only have one child though- most of my friends have 3 or 4.

We have a few concerts and festivals planned this year in various parts of the UK and we’re hoping to plan a city break to either Paris or Amsterdam later this year as well. We are saving for a ‘big’ holiday next year which will also be our belated honeymoon.

Urgh, none at the moment. Was supposed to be going to Spain in June with my friends (delayed since June 2020 because of covid) and Belfast with my fella (delayed since September 2020, ditto covid) and my sons 18th birthday trip to New York (again delayed because of covid) and now I can’t do any of them because I got diagnosed with bastard breast cancer in October 😩 so can’t go on the girls trip to Spain this June nor reschedule the other two because of my treatment. I’m grateful I’m getting the treatment and hopefully I’ll be fully cured…but I’m still feeling pissed off 😕

It can also be a matter of how you phrase it.
I will be taking my teen to a lakeside house right after GCSEs are done. We'll be going by car to an eastern european country for at least 2,5 months then H will fly in and we come back in 2 weeks through AU, DE, CH, BE and FR.

Reality: the country is our original country. The lakeside house is very socialist era remnant and is owned by my parents. I will be working FT through our full holiday and S will be mostly on his laptop during the day (at least on the terrace is my hope). The coming back part is soooo dependent on H's work schedule that it might/probably not even happen.

The only real luxury and proper holiday will be that I'll be taking 4-5 Mondays off and we have the Julija Alps (Bohinj, Bled, lower Austria) within a 4 hr drive. Triest or Croatia seaside is about 6-hr - quite close. Less luxurious part: because of my schedule uncertainty we most probably will be camping with gear borrowed from friends. Most haven't used them in a decade, that'll be fun :)

Originally I wanted to invite son's friends (3-4) to stay with us for a week or 2, but can't commit to that as I have no idea who will be able to enter the country, etc... Well, next summer...

Couple off UK camping breaks and a week long cottage booked near the sea.
Hoping to go abroad next year but won’t book until covid situation a little calmer.

Midweek shepherds hut with wood fired hot tub in February

Caravan in Northumberland week in may

Ten nights Antigua with both teens in July

Week in Cape Verde November

Hopefully several more weekends away alone with Dh . Really enjoying having older , independent teens who don't want to come away with us anymore for uk breaks

@PattyPan

That sounds amazing, grand canyon etc is my dream trip. Which credit card did you use please.

@JanuaryBluehoo We’re going to Antelope Canyon and Monument Valley as well, I’m so excited but trying to manage my expectations in case it gets cancelled! I have the British Airways American Express card, the one with the annual fee. It’s more than paid for itself as you earn Avios and if you spend enough in a year you get a free companion ticket, so DP has also flown for free on the other two major holidays we’ve done. It’s pretty much how we afford to do it!

I had a two week holiday in the canaries in Nov and I’ve just booked today to go to Tenerife for two weeks in Feb

Weekend away in London Aug bank holiday it’s booked but can be cancelled last min if weather is shit 😂

Might go somewhere in July- Aug and take my youngest niece like Ibiza or Turkey for 2 weeks

Normally we would do 3 weeks to Mexico or Cuba Jamaica in Jan Feb and then Balearics or Turkey in June - July and canaries again in oct but Covid has put me off travelling so far at the moment so it’s flight under 4hrs this year

Wow patty pan yes it's the flights there that are the killer that's amazing value though!!

I hope you get to go

@mjf981

I know I will get flamed for this, but some of your carbon footprints are going to be off the scale this year Please consider taking trains on your holidays if you can.

That's what I do. You can get all over Europe by train. In fact even North Africa is accessible by ferry across the Med, as is Iceland from Denmark. You can actually enjoy the journey, you get to see so much of a country while you pass through, instead of getting up at silly o'clock for a six AM flight, worrying about stingy baggage allowances and extortionate airport parking.

I'm not saying that I'll never take a flight again (I don't want to completely rule out long haul destinations) but they will be taken incredibly sparingly. Certainly none of the frequent flying exhibited here.

Indeed. Why would I want to get up slightly early and fly from the airport 20 minutes away and be having lunch and tapas in a beach bar followed by a swim in the Med in the afternoon when I could pay three times as much to take two days to go there by multiple trains instead?

Again, the carbon footprint of someone taking half a dozen short haul flights for Mediterranean holidays is such a tiny tiny drop in the ocean that even if it all stopped today, there would be such a tiny affect on the carbon footprint of the UK population as a whole that it's not worth worrying about.

So long as I get the hell out of Hong Kong at some point I don’t really mind where to- 650 days and counting. Hoping to get back to U.K. to see family in July.

We don't all live in the south east of England to jump on a Eurostar

Where I live in Scotland the journey times compare as follows

Paris: Train 13 hours, Flight 1hour 50 mins
Madrid: Train 23hours 20 mins, Flight 5hours 45 mins
Athens: 42 hours, Train Flight 5hours 40 mins

Sorry but I am not spending 42 hours on a train to go on my holidays.

You make it part of the holiday though @MajorCarolDanvers. So you stop in France, Austria or whatever to see an additional place and then the journey becomes part of the fun.
Plus it’s much easier to bring wine back by train

Plus it’s much easier to bring wine back by train

It’s even easier if you take the car.

@coogee

Plus it’s much easier to bring wine back by train

It’s even easier if you take the car.

But if you take the car you can’t drink any wine during the journey

I can. My husband can’t.

A weekend in Rome with DH in March
A week in Portugal in August with my Mum, Sister and her children
A family holiday to Dorset in September with DH, 2 DD's, their boyfriends and our 2 dogs