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Original poster

Do you prefer group holidays with friends or family or holidays with just your own immediate family?

29 replies

Didyousaynutella · 28/05/2026 14:34

We do a mix of both but increasingly it’s just us. Parents are too elderly now or have passed. We don’t get on with our own siblings. We have in the past few years gone away with friends with similar ages kids and loved it. But that isn’t happening this year due to things happening in our friends lives, exams, money etc.
Just had a lone holiday and loved it in one way as we got to do exactly what we wanted when we wanted. Eating out was easier with just us. And planning days out. But hotel days were harder. The youngest found a playmate. But the older ones find it hard to just make friends now and most of the kids in the hotel weee younger than them. The evenings are a bit more subdued without friends to have a drink with and we went to bed earlier than if we had been with friends.

OP posts:

ChampagneVendetta · 29/05/2026 10:12

IdentifyingAsAWoollyMammoth · 29/05/2026 09:57

First holiday abroad with current partner was staying at her cousin's holiday rental annexe in Greece. I'd only ever holidayed solo or with partner, never with friends or family and not would I want to. Said we'd only have to pay for flight and hire car and would take cousin and wife out for a meal one night as a thank you but would spend rest of the time on our own.

First day there we spent entirely with cousin and wife, going to the beach they wanted and eat where they wanted. Second day same.

I told partner that for our first holiday abroad together I expected a lot of time just for us as she'd said we would get. We did get more time together but every day there'd be a couple of hours with her family.

We took them for a meal on the fifth evening and in our annexe that night I said that I would like to go to X tomorrow. "But it's our last day, I want to spend time with my family".

Balloon went up. Our first - and actually last - ever row. I said "This hasn't been a holiday for us at all, this has been you seeing your family. If you'd been honest from the word go I'd have said I'm not coming, you go visit family, and we'll have a holiday just us later in the year".

After sleeping on it she accepted it hadn't been fair that our first foreign holiday (and only my second ever time outside the UK) had basically been a family visit and apologised.

We have only ever holidayed just us since and it's been bliss. Doing what we want, not fitting in with other people. Do enough of that at work. Would never ever holiday with family or friends. Holidays should be about getting away, not taking some of it with you!

Yes!!! This is EXACTLY what I mean

Goditsmemargaret · 29/05/2026 10:14

Funnily enough, after I wrote the above about not going in a group of families I remembered that we did do exactly that when DC was still a baby.

A load of us went and rented two houses with interconnected gardens. I had forgotten all about it and wouldn't be in a rush to do it again although nothing went wrong, everybody seemed to think they were paying more than other people and cleaning more too. I really got sick of it all.

Disturbia81 · 29/05/2026 10:14

Always found group holidays stressful and not enjoyable. Much prefer own family

TwoLeggedGrooveMachine · 29/05/2026 10:26

We enjoyed long weekends camping with other families when the DC were little. Great fun but we’d all be exhausted by the kids going nuts and the having to be social the whole time. As a family of four we love our holidays as just us. We camped in UK or Europe and my two kids always made friends but they are autistic (but with good social skills). Being able to go on day trips or just hide in the tent/chalet is easier with people you just met on holiday rather than your best mates from home. We love pleasing ourselves on holiday but we don’t do hotel resort holidays and like to get out and explore and don’t want to have to negotiate schedules and plans.

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