To never ever in my whole life want to go on a package holiday AGAIN !!!!!

[medmadness]

Before i start i'm fully prepared to admit my own stupidity in having even gone on this holiday.
we have just got back from a week in majorca in one of the more family orientated resorts,we had our main holiday earlier in the year and this was just a cheap and cheerful week to break up the school holidays a little.
Before we even took off we had to put up with youths swearing on the plane,badly behaved children climbing over seats and shouting and screaming whilst their parents remained seemingly oblivious.
Upon landing i realised benidorm is not a fictional tv comedy! I knew i wasnt going to get culture and the 'real' spain but did not expect to be in england still,surrounded by vicky polland and family.
I cant believe that people come to these places happily year after year as there were some 'normal' families there amongst the 'get here' brigade(if i had a pound for everytime i heard a parent shout this).
Before this holiday i hadnt been on a package holiday since 1996 and i can honestly say if i went again in the next 15 years it would be too bloody soon!

TheOriginalNutcracker I was wondering if I was the only one who had spotted the mention of an earlier 'main' holiday in the OP!

twenty / teaching

damn iPhone !

yawn predictable or what...why does the Bullingdon argument always crop up? How often do they holiday in Tenerife proudly showing off their British Bulldog tattoos? No idea why im getting slated so much here, ive stated something thats a proven fact, not looked down on anyone and stated im happy to holiday wherever and never said I wouldnt holiday amonst any particular type of person.

you are right nutcracker,its just a shame anyone has to put up with these types second holiday or not and yes bimbo these people were not good enough to holiday with,i would have crossed the road to avoid some of them.
One 'mother' let her 6yr old daughter supervise her little sister who looked about 2 in water up to her neck with no arm bands etc and when the little sister went under,which was more or less straight away as myself and others were already standing ready to intervene,the mother shouted at the older girl for not looking after her sister and called her a "little prick",so yes i do feel that i do not want to mix with people like that.

YANBU - in that you couldn't pay me enough to go on that kind of holiday.

You do get wealthier people behaving in an unpleasant/anti-social way as well though, so it's not strictly correlated with class/income!

I think I may hav emade my point rather badly.

I don't go on package holidays as they are not my kind of thing. I like to "get away from it all" on ohliday and for me, that means getting away from people as much as possible, expecially other English people.

I like holidays where I don't have to mix with people. I don't give a monkeys if they are rich, poor, working class, middle class or landed gentry. I want to be left alone. The idea of a crowded beach / pool therefore doesn't work for me so I don't go on package holidays. It's not an income thing as some of these package holidays seem very expensive. It's just not my bag.

Yes you DO but its more prevalent in lower income families/areas so as I said, find evidence to disprove this if you feel I am speaking out of turn.

'People like that' who can afford to go on holiday are just as entitled to go on holiday as you OP, just as they are entitled to have houses, send their kids to school etc...

I can honestly say I would never even consider this type of holiday. I am a total snob but I don't care. I was traumatised sharing a departure lounge with a charter flight to turkey, what a bunch of scary people and unruly children.

People who work full time but have very little money to spend though want a holiday that is 'easy' if you get me, all they have to do it book it (bboked it, packed it, fucked off!) and go. I can see the appeal as some people have no concept of researching holidays themselves, reading reviews etc

you get what you pay for really

you pay peanuts, you get put in with the monkeys :)

we always always always rent somewhere private, or go more upmarket - otherwise you are just wasting your money

Do you still get "summoned" to a meeting with the rep "to check your ticket back" on the first morning where the real purpose is to sell you organised trips to the bars where the reps will get a kick-back?

Do they still advise you against car or bike-hire - obviously because they want you to spend money with them and not with anybody else?

DW and I used to leave a photocopy of our tickets at the desk with a note saying "No thanks" - I always felt a bit guilty because it's how the reps make ends meet - but it was our holiday, not theirs - and I remember renting a light motor-bike in Rhodes and having a day away from the coast where the packagers don't go.

oh no it must be awful going on holiday where the poor people go

Yes, it is bloody awful. I don't want to spend my holiday watching a portly man in a football shirt, sweating, going red and getting drunk from 9am in the morning, while his wife bawls at their ten children, and smokes her way through the maximum allowance from the duty free. Stereotype, yes, true, in many cases!

I hear centre parcs is nice for the boden wearers

Oh god centreparcs is VILE. Went there once - it was horrible. Never again.

Yes, or parts of France, Italy,Madeira, city breaks etc, all of which you can probably get a package deal too, and not an all inclusive or school leaver in sight!

I am utterly speechless at some of the comments on this thread about "class" and "poor people".

Someone remind me, are we in 2011?

Gawd! I'm (proudly) working "class" and (currently) relatively poor. Should I go hang myself now, m'dam? I promise, I won't ever get ideas above my station and go on holiday ever again!

Actually, come to think of it, I'm educated (and house trained) and I've never even been on a package holiday. Lawks-a-mercy! I'm not behaving according to stereotype! Somebody slap me!

I also would disagree that some of these chavtastic places are cheap. A girl I work with spent 3.5k for two weeks all inclusive in Turkey in July for 2 adults, 2 children. Hardly a bargain.

You are only allowed to go to Skeggy ,Skippy

usualsuspect I've never been to Skeggy either. I'm now confused and am having a class identity crisis

Well are you common ?

oooh white trash nice

BimboNo5 - you've asked others for evidence that middle / upper classes are worse behaved than working class. Where is your proof to the contrary?

Personally I avoid package holidays. I don't care who goes on them, I find them boring. I'm not entertained by sitting on a beach or by the pool all day, and I don't want to spend my hard earned holiday surrounded by a swathe of england shirts and union jacks. I also don't want to dine anywhere where the offerings include fish and chips, any sort of pie or a roast dinner. But each to their own.

FWIW catgirl, I love camping!