Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Not wanting to socialise on holiday..

250 replies

Ditsyprint40 · 22/08/2016 13:47

Being on holiday and wanting to rest and recharge, not make friends with every other holiday maker staying at our resort/hotel etc!

OP posts:
RunnyRattata · 22/08/2016 16:26

We are unsociable bastards and I have the perfect bitchy resting fuck off face. So no. No holiday friends hereGrin

exLtEveDallas · 22/08/2016 16:27

Oh God. This is me - all I want to do is relax, read, swim and have fun with DD. I don't even enjoy talking to my husband!

However. DH is the complete opposite. This years holiday he made friends with (and spent hours talking to):

3 waiters
The housekeeper
A lifeguard.
A family of 6 from London
A family of 3 from NI
A family of about bloody 10 from Holland (fantastic English speakers)
An Egyptian bloke with a 2 yr old
A family of 4 from Birmingham.

We didn't have a single evening in our own company. I could throttle him.

user1467153197 · 22/08/2016 16:27

My husband does this to a certain extent .He gets all chatty with people in the bar but when he sees them the next day he just brushes past them .Where I just find it easier not to bother in the first place! Takes all sorts xx

HostaFireandIce · 22/08/2016 16:29

Even as a child, I was always horrified when my sister would make friends with other children on campsites. Now I just book holidays in remote cottages. Bliss.

Squirr3ls · 22/08/2016 16:32

Those tripadviser reviews where the reviewer is on first name terms with the Barman, the receptionist, the manager of every restaurant they visited and Bob and Carol from Norwich.
I've seen him on holiday. Not spoken to him obv.

TwinkleTwinkleLittleBat · 22/08/2016 16:35

I have an enduring memory of bobbing about in a hotel pool listening to the lengthy and detailed life and times of some bloke who runs his own business in glorious detail. I DONT CARE.

He was a nice enough chap but he would keep getting involved with all the kids games to the nth degree (mine included) whereas I just wanted to slip into a coma by the pool and let them all get on with it.

Dh can be friendly but shake people off. The merest nod of acknowledgement from me and they're my friend for life.

iseenodust · 22/08/2016 16:37

Never made a holiday friend. I prefer a book or three thank you.

milliemolliemou · 22/08/2016 16:40

Agree with OP and pps! DH would chat to anyone and everyone and is vvvsocial. To the extent most people in our area and on holiday would be surprised if I turned up by his side ("Who is that woman you came in with?") However years ago got my own back. I love to speak French and made lots of friends ... (probably the blight of their lives tbh) but we had suppers and lunches with them where he was tongue-tied. Such bliss .... until they started using their English and he was off again.

CafeCremeMerci · 22/08/2016 16:43

I'm right there with you. I tend to book 'entire house'/villa type things and the occasional night in a hotel I sit away from the crowd. I'll chat while ordering a drink at a bar etc but that's where it ends.

I was thinking about going away next week to get a bit more sunshine. I've already been away for a couple of weeks so really can't justify spending loads so I considered an 'all inclusive-cheap-package' but honestly, it's my idea of hell. I just can't do it. I know lots of others love it and all power to them - I'd love to enjoy it, but it's just not me. I'd rather camp in the middle of nowhere with a self dug toilet hole. (I just can't be bothered to lug all the gear or organise it for next week...sigh).

Oysterbabe · 22/08/2016 16:44

Yanbu. On honeymoon there were loads of people on the transfer bus back to the airport swapping numbers and arranging to meet once back in the UK. DH and I barely spoke to anyone else for our entire stay Grin

phoenix1973 · 22/08/2016 16:47

Yanbu.
The worst one was the ski holiday in a hotel where we had to share our dining table with another couple for all meals. Urgh. Awful. Not at all relaxing.
Plus we were put into different tuition groups so had to spend 4 hours a day with strangers. Not so grim, as we were all learning to ski so not much chit chat required, which was a bonus.
My DD met a new mate using her DS when she was 5, he was older and she managed to link to nearby users. Dunno how she did that.😄
Anyway, his parents felt the need to come sit near us and make chit chat. No no no😵 Just cos our kids are sociable, doesn't mean we are. 😂

iklboo · 22/08/2016 16:47

DH & I hate 'getting in' with people on holiday. Probably because it's all our folks did. Get in with people on holiday, swap addresses, awkward visit a couple of times, a few Christmas cards that eventually fizzle out .

Crinkle77 · 22/08/2016 16:49

Well I am going to go against the grain and say that I really like meeting people on holiday and having holiday friends.

ilovesooty · 22/08/2016 16:50

Don't go to a murder mystery dinner. You have to talk to other people at those.

blitheringbuzzards1234 · 22/08/2016 16:50

I'm quite a quiet person and not very sociable, but on past holidays myself and DH have met other people who were either staying in the neighbouring tent, gite, or at a nearby restaurant table. I haven't minded as they tend to be 'one-offs' and we never expected to see them again after the holiday. On the whole I prefer it to be just the two of us, but I can be polite and with age I've (sort of) learnt the art of small talk.

GoldQuintessenceAndMyrrh · 22/08/2016 16:51

That is not such a bad business idea. All inclusive holidays including friends for you, and friends for your children. And for the SINGLE Traveller, a boyfriend/girlfriend. Wink

Aoibhe · 22/08/2016 16:56

Dh loves to make friends on holiday. This year we stayed in a mobile home in Spain and the family beside us happened to be from the same area as us, same occupation as DH, kids of similar age, it was as if his Christmas' came at once. DH and that man really hit it of and were best friends after 5 minutes.

It wasn't long before that family were sitting on our decking and eating and drinking with us every evening Sad I tried to be polite(ish) but I would go as far as saying it ruined the holiday for me. The wife and I had nothing in common, in fact she was probably one of stupidest people I ever met. She kept speaking about a holiday they'd been on the previous year, and saying it was in X country, but it's not.. It would be like going to an Austrian town but saying you were in Germany. The kids were bloody annoying too.

The strange thing is is that (thankfully) we didn't mention keeping in touch at home or exchanging numbers etc. I'm not even sure that we got their surname.

DH finally gets it, because he had more than enough of them by the end as well!

KitKats28 · 22/08/2016 16:57

We're on an all inclusive right now. I haven't been forced to talk to anyone or join in with anything.

I've been on quite a few cruises and never had to share a table or talk to anyone either.

It's the typical classist MN comments that the only way one can possibly enjoy ones holiday is to book a private villa in the south of France or a cottage in Cornwall. You can go on holiday to the same place as the "plebes" without having to mix with them and breathe their air you know!

zeezeek · 22/08/2016 16:59

God. It's bad enough having to talk to the people I'm actually in holiday with!

Once, when we were first married, DH started chatting to a couple in a bar and mentioned what he did for a living. The bloke then spent ages telling me how lucky I was to be married to such a clever man. I'm in the same field but no, DH didn't bother to tell him that and when I mentioned it o got the whole, how lovely that your husband is supporting you crap from.

Spent the rest of the holiday avoiding them and with DH apologising!

magicstar1 · 22/08/2016 17:02

My motto is "never make eye contact". My mother chats to everyone and can't understand why I'm not like her.
One of my best holidays was a few days in Cong, where the only person I spoke to was taking my dinner order. It was perfect.

Irontheshirts · 22/08/2016 17:05

As a family we are so anti social that the DC still laugh at a 'friend' DH made who served him petrol in the middle of nowhere in Norway. We must have been one of his only customers and in perfect English kept DH talking a good 15 minutes while we went to the toilet and bought copious snacks.

MusicMania · 22/08/2016 17:11

YANBU this is what self catering apartments are for. I have an intense dislike of hotels, plus I like trying local restaurants. I'm currently agonising over next year, ds (an only) is at an age where he needs to be doing stuff, his ideal would be an all singing hotel with clubs/slides etc. The thought brings me out in a cold sweat, I'm just not sure I could do it.

IrenetheQuaint · 22/08/2016 17:13

God yes, I am really sociable at home but it tires me out and on holiday I just can't face doing it. Particularly when I know I will never see the people in question again, so there is no point at all in engaging in polite chitchat.

NavyandWhite · 22/08/2016 17:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

RuskBaby · 22/08/2016 17:21

We are quite frankly the most unsociable people on holiday. It's our holiday to do as we wish, we went on a cruise and avoided talking to people there too!

Swipe left for the next trending thread