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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask you all what defines a "proper holiday"?

66 replies

FestiveFrumper · 01/01/2016 19:31

FIL has been visiting today . As lovely as he is , he is very much up his own backside .

His way and his things are always best .

Anyway , he asked if we were going on holiday this year .

We said yes and told him we were going to Holland for a week in August .

He was very cats bum face about this and asked when we're going to take the DC on a proper foreign holiday Confused

We've been to France , Germany and holidayed in the U.K. . Apparently these are not "proper foreign holidays".

Now I'm stupidly wondering if my DC are missing out on "proper holidays".

What do you define as a "proper foreign / abroad holiday ?" Confused

OP posts:
kennyp · 01/01/2016 20:09

proper holiday to me is when i come back with a sun tan and there's a washing machine when i'm away so that i come home with clean washing (utter bliss to me)

eatyouwithaspoon · 01/01/2016 20:13

We are thinking of going to Holland too, not at home, not working=holiday to me!

Lusitano · 01/01/2016 20:33

well i hope it's a proper holiday as we've holidayed in the Netherlands for the last three years...

Is it Duinrell? Bloody brilliant there.

aprilanne · 01/01/2016 20:36

festive we went to duinrell great water park and free kids theme park its fantastic .we also went to beekse bergen .it has an out side play park you access across a lake in a fancy zebra boat you can also just walk to it but kids love the boat .park hardly describes it its got beaches boats water slides fantastic stuff for children .and beekse bergen has a safari park which you access by a small road train or 20 minute walk it is great .and best of all this is all free when you have paid your holiday .the duinrell water park is maybe better for older kids/ teenagers because some water rides not for the faint hearted .they both have kids pools for younger kids if you going to any of these i can assure you they are a proper holiday .

ForalltheSaints · 01/01/2016 20:39

A week abroad is a proper foreign holiday to me. A week in the Netherlands sounds great, especially with young children (I am a bit biased though as the DP comes from there!)

CerseiHeartsJaime4ever · 01/01/2016 20:46

Well I'm interested in the Dunriell place so I must like having improper holidays too! To Google!

CerseiHeartsJaime4ever · 01/01/2016 20:47

Can I go with a 6 month old or would that be too young? The prices look great!

toffeeboffin · 01/01/2016 20:48

To me a proper holiday is one simply when you don't self cater.

Self catering holiday? Contradiction in terms! Grin

toffeeboffin · 01/01/2016 20:50

Magimedi's hol sounds about right.

MrsJayy · 01/01/2016 20:59

Anywhere thats not home really for a week or more whats a proper holiday anyway

QueryQuery · 01/01/2016 21:11

Magimedi's holiday sounds perfect, but also impossible with small children.

Your fil is talking out of his backside. Not at work and away from home counts as a holiday.

I hate anything involving sand, although I don't mind a resort. I don't even mind self catering, although I don't think I've ever done any catering other than throw croissants at the hungry hoards at breakfast. I like the additional space sc offers. Plus the larger fridge for wine storage.

I've actually been looking at Northern European campsite types places (although I don't do camping, fuck that, I want a proper roof and bed) and very almost booked foreign centre parks type thing earlier. Off to look at the ones mentioned up thread.

MiddleAgeMiddleEngland · 01/01/2016 22:02

Everyone has a different idea. Lying on a beach or by a pool for a week would be my idea of hell. Even an hour would be more than enough. A place has to have lots of wildlife and history for me to be interested. It also needs to be suitable for long energetic walks, I can't bear to be inactive on holiday.

I'm also of the opinion that a holiday doesn't have to be abroad. There are masses of lovely and interesting places in the uk to visit, too.

Self catering isn't a problem for me, we just eat very simple food - bread, salad, fruit.

I do realise that others will have different priorities and interests.

Finola1step · 01/01/2016 22:08

Horses for courses.

I think your FIL means a two week stay in a resort on the Med.

For me, a holiday must include me and dh not catering.

Camping is fine, self catering cottages can be lovely. But for me, these are a break away. They are not a holiday as such as dh and I are still doing the shopping, cooking, washing up etc.

But that's just me.

magimedi · 01/01/2016 22:10

Query - I am 60 & have no small children anymore.

Much as I love PFGC (born this year) I wouldn't want them on that hols with me.

MoMoTy · 01/01/2016 22:12

Not self catering places. Anything that you feel a bit pampered is a holiday.

TimeToMuskUp · 01/01/2016 22:13

A holiday includes eating out lots, time to sit and read peacefully, being away from emails/phones/internet and (hopefully) a little sunshine. Our holidays are always at the seaside because we're all water babies, but we've been camping, caravanning, booked a little wooden lodge in scotland, done all-inclusive long-haul and various city breaks and the happiest I've ever seen my DCs are on a campsite for a week in Cornwall. They ran about in wellies and shorts, they poked each other with sticks, they spent hours on boogie boards in wetsuits, they were filthy and grotty by the end of every day. That's their idea of a holiday.

Shodan · 01/01/2016 22:26

I think LynetteScavo hit the nail on the head.

Holidays mean different things to different people.

We were surprised to see that Austria (where we're going this summer) is not, according to the advert for some holiday company or other, a 'proper' holiday destination because it doesn't have boring beaches.

Go figure.

IonaNE · 01/01/2016 22:46

For me a "proper" holiday is when I don't have to work for at least a week. Being away is not a requirement: I actually quite like "holidaying" in my own home. (My theory is that you rest best in a place where no extra brain cells need to be used for things like "where is the hair-dryer/remote/clean socks" and "is there enough xyz in the fridge" and "did I bring that top", etc.)

MidniteScribbler · 01/01/2016 23:22

A proper holiday is anytime when I can do what I want, when I want and I'm not dictated to by requirements of lesson planning or housework.

BackforGood · 01/01/2016 23:29

As far as I'm concerned, a 'proper holiday' is time away from work / schol / other commitments. A time when I don't have to know what day it is or where I don't have to look at my watch. A time when I get up when I want and eat when I'm hungry........ very much like this last week, tbh - I don't even have to leave home Grin

BackforGood · 01/01/2016 23:30

Oh (rather belatedly reads other recent comments Blush )
I see I;m the same as several others Grin

OfficeGirl1969 · 01/01/2016 23:38

As far as I'm concerned a holiday is just not doing the daily stuff....work/school etc, wherever it is. I've just had one, not worked since 23rd December and go back on Monday. In my mind it doesn't even entail "going anywhere", just not being in work.

Krampus · 01/01/2016 23:48

Ahhh yes, some of my inlaws were of the opinion that a holiday is getting in a plane and going to an all inclusive. Nothing else was a proper holiday. They used to look at us with pity because we would spend 3 weeks driving across Europe staying in a mixture of campsites, self catering and hotels. I did get the odd remark about how lucky they felt as that they could afford all inclusive in Greece, followed my more looks of pity in our direction.

Nah, for our main holiday we prefer a mixture of self catering and eating out, several days in a row of eating at restaurants does me in. We prefer a mini roadtrip and seeing lots of cities and sights between stops at places with pools and beaches.

I can see the attraction of flying to an all inclusive, they can like what they like. What we do is proper holiday for us.

pandarific · 01/01/2016 23:49

I stayed in a lovely villa with OH's family this year... and a small, brattish part of me did not consider it to be a 'proper' holiday. Wait, COOKING? CLEANING?? On MY holiday??
We always went self catering as a kid - as a grownup I'm happiest doing as little domestic chores as possible. Grin

pandarific · 01/01/2016 23:53

That said, me and OH are doing just what Krampus does next year in a campervan, and I can't wait!