to not understand holidays where you just sit by the pool every single day?

[MeetMeinBaaBar]

Now I get that a holiday is about doing exactly what you want to do and to basically relax.

But I just don't get people who go to a different country and sit by a pool all day every day. My friend just came back from 2 weeks away, I asked her if left the hotel at all and she just looked at me blankly and said no.

I love relaxing by the pool, but I also love going to a different country and actually seeing that country - if I'm by a pool in a hotel I might as well be anywhere.

I guess it's like going to Egypt and only living within the walls of the hotel and never seeing the Pyramids.

She didn't even go to a beach ... meh, I know it's her holiday but yeah I just don't get it.

Bacon, but OP didn't say what sort of hotel it was. I can quite imagine someone not wanting to leave the hotel where we went last year, 26 pools, and on site fabulous waterpark, a freshwater pool, a full Spa, hairdressers and beauty salon, a games room, a nightclub and so on. Like I said in a previous post some of the hotels I've been to have things like climbing walls, TR&A, ice rinks etc. Plus the bigger the complex the more our of town it is likely to be - maybe there was nowhere to walk to

If all the hotel has is one pool, one restaurant and one bar then yes, I'd say that was boring. But then boring can be a good thing of you've got a busy life.

There is so much to do though. Sometimes you sit by the pool and read a book. Sometimes you stare into space. Other times you ring the changes by drinking a beer.

Well... the hotel in the OP probably wasn't that swanky

I suppose it's horses for courses then. That's not something I'd enjoy, because I would wonder what the point of going to another country was to not see it. But I can see how that looks fun

Sometimes I like sitting by a pool! When DD was four we went to Morocco for a week in the Easter holidays and, although it wasn't initially our intention, the hotel garden was so lovely, the pool so inviting and the food so nice that we barely left the hotel.

I like a pool bar myself.
Especially the ones in the pool where you can swim along and drink your cocktail with your feet dangling in the water.
I'm going to Crete next week with my lovely sistercos she's paying for me and her daughter.
I've been to Crete before, I travelled round when I was a young backpacker, and picked up work too.
This time we'll be self catering, I'll leave the pool/beach to wander to the village in the evening and sit and have a lovely meal while watching the world go by while drinking wine.
I'm old now.
I can't wait.
Bored? Pah, no chance .

I bloody love a swim up bar .

Yanbu - I don't get them either. But lots of people enjoy them. It's very much an each to their own thing I suppose,how one chooses to relax on holiday.

I like exploring new places rather than sitting around but I know some people would be a bit to hear to talk about how much I enjoyed wandering around for a week or so

I like to mix it up.

To be honest, holidays with no vegetating by the pool can be hard going. We've come back from some trips needing a vacation.

We're going to China this Summer and I sense we will come home shattered.

Ooh w where you off to in Crete, Beagle?! I love Crete, so historic...

Before kids it was city breaks, backpacking, island hopping and wild camping. After kids it is much of the same but with one holiday a year by a pool, where they go off and play. Me, DH, iPod, kindle. Bliss.

A lot of hotels abroad are much, much cheaper than British ones - and of course in the Med especially the hot weather is great.

I'm not really a relaxing holiday type of person generally but I just got back from a week of beach-going in Portugal and it was brilliant. On the beach everyday with hot weather (albeit with the cold Atlantic sea). We did only one day trip / long walk (7 miles) and that was enough. We've both been so stressed out recently it was heaven to do nothing but eat, swim and soak up some sun.

I wish I could say "I love a swim up bar" but don't know.

One time we were booked into a place with a swim up bar, but then ash volcano bastardyness happened and we had to rebook later in the year (when it was more expensive, so at a cheaper place).

Omg I love a swim up bar. It makes you feel like you're in a glamorous poo video from the 80s.

I don't get it either, but 18 months into the hurricane of having a boisterous child, I could almost see the appeal of a cruise

So I might end up changing my mind

Poo video from the 80s.

New Romantic Scat.

a glamorous poo video from the 80s

What sort of videos do you watch marmalade?

That would put me right off my pina colada

I love a swim up bar but i do worry about the state of the water when you find a group of 5 russian man drinking vodka with beer chasers at the bar from 10 in the morning until 6 at night without ever leaving the water.

Club Tropoocana by Wham

Poo by Spandau Ballet

It Ain't What You Poo by Bananarama and Bum Boy Three

Last Christmas I gave you my shart?

Cantspel - remember the 10 hours that DD spent in the pool? Not one loo break, none of them

New Order - Poo Monday

Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic Shitty

I'll stop now