Do you have a travel "home from home" or do you go somewhere different every time?

[EstoyRobandoSuCasa]

This is partly wishful thinking, as we don't travel nearly as much as we did pre-kids. But I feel wistful about the idea of visiting another place repeatedly so that it feels like a second home.

I once knew a British bloke who spent about four months per year in the same town in India (I think this was for work), and the rest in the UK, so he really got to know the town and the locals. I've also heard of people who visit the same village in Italy every year, or the same village in Cornwall. If you do that, how does it work for you? Do you feel as though you almost get to live two lives, or do you just feel like a tourist who has the convenience of knowing where everything is in your holiday area?

I also knew of a family who made a rule to never to repeat a holiday and to go somewhere different every time, and that's pretty much how our holidays have been. But I'm wondering if we're missing out by not making any deeper connections with another place and its people.

I visit my university city and my birth town annually - two different places. We stay at the same cottages but only for a week at a time. Definitely not enough to feel a part of the community but I like the familiarity.

Generally somewhere different for annual holidays. We've got the ferry to France the last two years as we can take the dog, going again early October but to Normandy this time, done Brittany the last two years. I have visited a couple of places twice for city breaks, I usually don't enjoy it as much the second time. We also visit my home place about 4 times a year.

I definitely do. Several in fact; but all for different reasons.

We used to visit the same place in Cornwall every year as we love it and did eventually buy a second home there. Now we spend about 3 months each year there.

We still like to go on holiday to other places though and we usually have a week or two somewhere new every year as well as a couple of weekends when we can fit them in.

We moved from remote rural Scotland to Glasgow, but kept our house (Dh and I will go back eventually). We lived there for 10 years, all our dc were born there and both of us had quite prominent jobs so know loads of the community. We go back several times a year for 1-2 weeks at a time. We go a week on Thursday and I’m getting excited!

We do also have a holiday of 1-2 weeks somewhere else, usually somewhere a bit warmer and with less midges!

Ah, the midges love me! By the water at Glen Etive, they bit me over 100 times.

We go somewhere different for the vast majority of our holidays but we tend to stay in the same accomodation when we go to visit our adult DD so we have developed a bit of a relationship with the owners. (This thread has reminded me that I need to book for Christmas in fact.) We plan to retire to the area eventually and in an ideal world I'd like to buy a house in the village where our holiday accomodation is as it's somewhere we're familiar with and know would meet our needs.
My parents in law bought a holiday home abroad 30 odd years ago and they and DH's siblings and their families have been every year since. When my PILs retired they spent pretty much the whole Summer there every year until MIL died and they had lots of friends in the area. I would say they definitely saw it as another home.
I can see the appeal of familiarity and being able to travel light as you have everything there, and it is a lovely spot. But the way I see it is that the world is a massive place and there's so much of it I haven't seen that I rarely go back to the same place. If I had enough time and money to do both then that would be ideal, but sadly I don't, so new places are always going to win for me.

We go away to the same place every winter, a different same place every Easter, and a third same place every summer. So the same hotels, then the same holiday cottage.

I’d never say we were part of those communities but we do know some of the locals - so eg we know local taxi drivers we’ll always use, go to the same restaurants and do recognise people.

It cuts down on the effort/organisation of holidays with young kids as we know where we can shop, eat, have fun days out etc.

We go to different places each holiday and I prefer that. There are so many different countries out there that I'd like to see with the dcs and with school holiday restrictions you wouldn't be able fit them in their childhood if you went back to the same place every year.

We do visit PILs in their country every year, but we usually try out a different holiday house each time, and mix up visiting a few favourite places and new places to visit. Tbh I find it a bit boring to keep going back there even though it's a big holiday destination, it eats into our family holiday time and there's an opportunity cost in stopping us from visiting other places in that country.

I prefer to go to different places. Finding out where everything is and how the place works is part of the fun imo. But each to their own.

I have two places I return to, neither in this country and neither I have work or people connection to - this year was my 5th to one and will be my 12th to another. Apart from that, I go to different places as often as I can afford. I want to see new and unfamiliar but the older I get, there's a real sense of peace (for me) in the familiar.

A lovely village in the Alps where DFIL had a chalet for years. Many happy memories of visiting him there. After he died, we sold the chalet and bought an apartment where we go for skiiing and for a week in summer. It’s a true hone from home and we have several good friends there. Spent a couple of whole summers there when our DC were small. We will spend more time out there once DC are more independent and they can come and go as they please.

We also tend to have a ‘big’ family holiday somewhere new for a couple of weeks either at Christmas or on the summer, or both on a good year, and various combinations of us head off for shorter breaks in the UK. And Europe. I love having a home from home but definitely would not want to give up exploring new places.

We do, but not to the extent we know anyone there, it’s just the easy familiarity of knowing where everything is, always enjoying it, seeing how its changed since last time etc. We don’t go every single year, probably 15 out of the last 25. We have at least one holiday somewhere else a year too.

My DPs bought a holiday house in the place they had spent over 20 years going there on holidays and renting - over 20 years on, they spend a lot of time there annually and there are various family gatherings there and the rest of the family use it for their own breaks fairly often (including me and my family a good few times).

We’ve also gone back to the exact same place in a few places more than once. But we have also been to a lot of places just the once and love exploring as well.

It depends on funds available, time available to plan, and our energy levels (need to just stop and rest or ready to take on the world) in the main for what we plan. Sometimes it has also involved planning around other events, including various sports events that DD has been part of, or going back to Paris to see some of the Olympics. Or to help DD settle to Uni overseas. Or to visit family (either in our own country or overseas).

We have a caravan in Wales. We spend most of the school holidays there and most weekends from March-October outwith the holidays.

It’s a lovely small park where everyone knows everyone. The village has a few small shops and we now know them well also. Its lovely.

Yes, currently in the same place we've been for 12 of the last 15 years. Will continue to come here annually hopefully for many years to come.

I do like to travel to see other places as well, but love to return to some favourites.

Another place I've been to 8 times in about 23 years. Will definitely visit that place again, but maybe not for a few years.

Not quite every year but there is a place in Greece that we have been going to every few years since DC were very small. In the last 25 years it has changed very little, the local shop expands every time we go back and we joke about it - it is practically a department store now but there have been surprisingly few new developments. I love the familiarity of the beach and local town and have many happy memories of family holidays over the years.

Friends go back to the same town in Spain for the winter, it’s a proper Spanish town that stays alive during winter. The first few years they made friends joined things all great, they’ve speak Spanish . Then Brexit then Covid kind of put the kibosh on it, they’ve been back a couple of times but it’s sounded quite miserable and lonely.

Taking aside the covid years, I’ve been going to Tokyo every 12-18 months since 2010. The first trip was meant to be a one off but I fell in love with it. Most of my visits are around a month but I once stayed for 6 months and took Japanese classes. I stayed in a shared house with a mix of Japanese and foreign people so made some friends in that time, who I keep in touch with. I meet up with them when I go back. I have visited other parts of Japan but as side trips rather than a main part of the holiday.

I do feel a sense of “home” now whenever I go. I know where everything is, how to get around. I have favourite shops and restaurants. Places I visit outside the city for nature. Although a lot has changed over the years.

I do go on other holidays but I do really miss Tokyo if I haven’t been for a while. I did toy with the idea of trying to live there but I’d be limited job wise and the work/life balance is brutal. I’m too old for it! But if I won the euro millions I’d be there like a shot.

We have two holiday apartments, one in the UK and one in Spain and we go to them both several times a year. We don't have friends as such in either place but we know enough people to catch up with and pass the time of day.

We like to see new places but love going back to the same town and visiting the bars/restaurants and doing the same fabulous walks we do when we're away. There's definitely something to be said for arriving on holiday and not having to find decent supermarkets/bars/restaurants as you know exactly where you are and what you'll find.

I was always an ‘oh god never’, same destination maybe but never the same resort or hotel. I get heavily discounted travel to specific places through work, so same destination is inevitable to a degree. Now we have DS though we’ve just got back from our second short stay at a lovely Airbnb in France and I hope to return there many times, mixed among new places.

My parents do 2 weeks each year in the same holiday apartment in Devon. Same pubs, same restaurants, same attractions, basically in the same order. I’d be bored to tears after 15 years of that but they seem to love it.

I’ve been back to the same place but not hotel a couple of times. I quite like knowing there’s 2 or 3 hotels that if I needed an easy break I’d go to like a shot. But there’s so much of the world to see….

There are places I visit again and again due to family and friends living in tourist beauty spots which I go to two or three times a year. So I suppose they are home-from-home. But I would personally not choose to go to these places were it not for people I love being there. The places are beautiful but I feel, been there, done that.

I lived in Paris for ages and know my way around quite well, so it feels a bit like going home, but it is changing.

I massively prefer to explore new places. It's a bit of a sticking point as Dh just wants to go to Italy and chill, and I have lived and worked in Italy, been there loads of times since and want to explore new countries.

We have a lodge on a holiday park which is definitely home from home. But we also have a few places we return to over and over again, especially for short breaks when you don’t want to waste time finding places to eat for example. We like returning to old favourites.

We’ve found it especially relaxing doing repeat trips when the kids were young. Helps to know what you’re getting. Now they are getting a bit older I expect we’ll do more exploring.

My parents had a chalet in the French Alps when I was late teens-mid 30s and I went there a lot- both in summer and winter. DH proposed to me there, we conceived DC1 there and then she took her first steps there… lots of wonderful memories and family times. It was in a small village and we made friend with other Brits who had homes there, as well as befriending many of the locals. But I had other holidays to different places during those years- travel was much cheaper then and for most of those years I didn’t have children so I could go to the chalet most years and still have other holidays. When my parents died, my Dbro and I reluctantly sold the house (it was a large property, and needed frequent visits for maintenance, gardening etc- we couldn’t afford that whereas my parents had been retired and able to manage it). I miss it so much and will return to the village one day to see how much has changed.

Nowadays we tend to pick different places each time we go away- mostly in Europe. We also like different styles of holiday- caravanning in UK or mainland Europe; city breaks staying in Airbnbs; All-inclusive beach hotel holidays; a couple of cruises (though for various reasons I don’t want to go cruising again). Having said all that, we are in our caravan in Brittany at the moment and last year’s summer holiday was also caravanning in Brittany, although different areas of the region.