To hate going on holiday.

[TheMasterNotMargarita]

First you have to decide where to go. Research flights/accommodation/vicinity to places of interest bar/beach etc. Tedious.

Then you have to pack. DH does the actual packing but I always have to organise most of it. Which is actually the best part for me, I quite like packing .

Then you have to travel. If you stay in the UK you have several hours trapped in a car with your nearest and dearest. Before you spend the duration of the holiday with them every waking moment.

If you travel abroad you are in enforced close proximity to other people. And I don't really like flying.

Then you spend all your time trying to amuse your children without their toys, trying to get them to sleep in a strange place. They are hot, the food is weird, the bed smells different.....

I like warm weather. I enjoy being on holiday. I just CBA with all the effort. I'd like a Narnia style wardrobe that I could walk into and appear out the other side somewhere warm.and sunny already in my shorts and t-shirt.

DH loves a holiday. I told him to go without me. (But he can take the kids 🤣).

IANBU am I?

I love holidays and travel. The DCs are 12 and 7 so need minimal 'tat' to entertain them on long haul flights, don't soil themselves liberally in hot places any more and are also fans of travelling which makes life easier. DH is the one who mithers and frets constantly; the DC have my relaxed (DH thinks lazy, blasé) attitude to travel that whatever we forget we can buy or do without. We've lost suitcases and laughed, we've had flights divert to unexpected destinations and laughed, we've driven cars in cities populated solely by mad, drunk drivers and laughed. DH is the only one unable to laugh at any point of a holiday until we arrive back at our front door.

Long-haul (or even any-haul) with them when they were younger was just fraught. We took them to Egypt when the youngest was very small. Most ridiculous thing we could have done; they were dicks in the airport, dicks at the resort, dicks while we travelled, dicks about sleeping, dicks about everything. The relief of coming home after that holiday has never been matched by anything since.

Hurrah! YANBU

I have just come back from a short break in the UK. I have decided that I hate sleeping in any bed except mine. Even if the accommodation is nice (and I'm too old to slum it) I am always so conscious that god knows how many other people have slept in the bed, sat on the loo, been in the bath. Maybe I am OCD but I can't really relax.

I also hate flying and think the whole effort of getting to the airport, waiting for the plane, travelling at the other end - for what? Another view? A coffee in a different place?

I think the whole point of a holiday is that you appreciate home!

YANBU most holidays are hell.

"I've seen so many landmarks on TV/Google maps that I feel I'd be disappointed in real life

Well that's bloody depressing. Do people actually think like that? I don't need to go to India or whatever, I've seen it on the telly. Tragic.

I don't understand the holiday hate on here. People going on about how hellish they are with their children....I think you're doing it wrong.

It would be amazing to spend time as a family and make memories

You can spend time as a family close to home. As for "making memories" kids will remember that they want to remember. There is no such thing as making memories for them.

I do like holidays but I find them stressful and often spend the first few days wanting to come home. and then by the end I don't want to come home anymore. There are some destinations that we go back to again and again because we know we'll enjoy it (as long as the weather behaves) but last year we had a fairly expensive holiday overseas and it really wasn't that great (partly because of indifferent weather, but just generally). I think it's difficult with small kids because they are awkward baggage and difficult with teens because they just want to play computer games. I suppose the best time to go away is while kids are aged between about 9 and 12!

There are a few places I would like to go (eg Slovenia that a PP mentioned) but find it very stressful when I can't speak the local language or know that the locals speak English or a language I can speak. For example, I've used German in Hungary when someone couldn't speak English very well or at all. And I could probably get by with Italian in border areas of Slovenia or Croatia.

Yesterday I watched Michael Portillo's Great Continental journeys and he was in Georgia. That looked really interesting and he found quite a few people who spoke very good English. But I don't know if that's widespread.

I love everything about holidays, the planning, the excitement before you go, going to the airport, the plane journey, sitting on the beach reading....

As a PP said, just don't go if you don't enjoy it.

As for "making memories" kids will remember that they want to remember. There is no such thing as making memories for them

I've seen this a few times on here, but its bollocks really isn't it? Kids do remember the out of the ordinary stuff more than the day to day. We all do. You remember holidays more than a weekend at home pottering around the garden. Yes, they form their own memories but you control the situations that are more memorable than others.

Don't know how people can enjoy the airport. Although I suppose the absolute most stressful bit is getting to the airport - once you're there and checked in you can relax.

Not into beach holidays. People get really jealous about going to places like the Maldives and I'm just like "that's so boring". I'd rather go to Glasgow and go shopping and visit Loch Lomond. I do think there's a level of status symbolism about expensive holidays and people go just so that they can show off on Facebook but actually they'd probably prefer Camber Sands or the Isle of Wight but there's not enough show-off value going there. Not everyone, obviously - there are clearly a lot of people who genuinely love hot weather beach holidays. And then there are destinations where you are more or less guaranteed to get ill. I don't get that either.

Anyway if Mr Ryanair is right everyone will have to spend their 2019 holidays in the UK.

“kids will remember that they want to remember. There is no such thing as making memories for them.”

Our brains essentially all work the same way in how and what they remember so “making memories” can and does happen. That’s why we can recall our holidays from last year but not the forthright before them or after. Of course you will remember going somewhere new with different smells, sounds, etc. It’s how our brains work

Each to their own........love travel and want to see as much of the word as possible! Disagree strongly that everywhere is the same and that seeing sights on tv is the same as actually seeing them - seriously, wtf? So seeing Niagra Falls, for example, on tv is the same as being there, hearing the sound, feeling the spray.......seeing the Northern Lights, travelling through a cave filled with glow worms in NZ, actually getting into the Blue Lagoon, feeling the intense humidity of the rainforest.....yeah, just the same as on TV. Experiencing different cultures, seeing beautiful and unusual things, eating different cuisines.........amazing.

Yes, they form their own memories but you control the situations that are more memorable than others

I disagree. We went to Australia when ds was 6 and he doesn't remember it. Honestly, the kids are just as likely to remember a day trip to a local beach if it was particularly fun as they are a 2 week trip to Ibiza.

I do remember bits of holidays when I was quite young (we didn't go on many) but they don't stick out any more than other things that happened and there is usually some reason I remember something eg we got on the wrong plane! Can you imagine that happening now? (we didn't carry on to the wrong destination, they realised before we took off)

Sometimes I think I am doing something wrong when I read about other people's holiday loves.
I can only think of the negative, sleeping in the same room as the rest of my family, having a bathroom in my bedroom, being surrounded by other people, being too hot, buffets, being entertained at, kids clubs.

Oh thank goodness it's not just me! I've had some of my most blazing rows with my family on holidays, I find it all so stressful. It brings out the worst of my anxieties, the thing that is in my head the most is that the lack of control over my environment makes me feel like I'm in freefall in terms of my mental health and wherever we are I see nothing but danger. Really odd. Wish I could like them but my head just isn't wired up right I think!

It’s not all about making memories, it’s about experiencing it and enjoying it at the time as well. My dc do remember a lot about the trips we’ve been on, but I’m far more interesting in their enjoyment of it at the time itself.

I can only think of the negative, sleeping in the same room as the rest of my family, having a bathroom in my bedroom, being surrounded by other people, being too hot, buffets, being entertained at, kids clubs

Then do a holiday with none of those things! We have holidays with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, no buffets, no kids clubs etc....

If you don't like one type of holidays, do another.Or don't do one. Don't complain about how all holidays are awful though!

I love hot weather, poolside and swimming, not cooking and just seeing the beach horizon on a hot sandy beach

Agree travel is a pita and often clouds the whole thing as it’s the last thing you do, would love to just be transported

Yabu. I wish I could get dp to go on holiday.

Last holiday I had was 6 years ago and before that it was 12 years before.

He keeps promising to go. Even said we could go over Christmas. I was about to book and he got cold feet.
Now Christmas is a much bigger waste of money, stress and time. Months of preparation for 1 day.

I really don't understand people who have no desire to explore the world around them. You may be stuck in front of your tele for years when you're older. Get out and explore! The idea that everywhere is the same is just ridiculous. Also, all these people talking about 'buffets'. You can go on holiday to places without a buffet! I think lots of people think holiday=crappy all inclusive.

As for ‘You remember holidays more than a weekend at home pottering around the garden.’

Exactly you remember them more hence making memories...

Agree with blue25 holidays are what you make them.

Holiday's aren't that much fun with very young children - being out of a routine without usual props and space etc.

Having said that I live in Greece, so my idea of a holiday now is going back to the UK alone. Rain and solitude!!

I do find it odd that some people are content to just stay where they live, and not step out of their comfort zone.. However I do know there are many variables that can make a 'holiday' unpleasant. YANBU op.

I don't know. I love new places, seeing new landscapes, food, shops, cafes, seeing art and culture in other places. I love all the varieties of weather in the world, from snow to sun and monsoon to heat.

I am a weirdo who likes airports and airline food although I almost always fly easyJet so you pay anyway and I don't really even mind delays. I get very relaxed and philosophical about delayed flights etc, which drives my DP mad because he wants someone to fume with

I do find planning and logistics boring and stressful, though, and packing the right stuff and enough/not too much is a big challenge. I'd like to be able to just go on holiday without having had to think about it so much.

I love holidays and love 'crappy all inclusives' even more but the peasant gene is strong in me.

Travel can be a bit grim but a good book and my soon to be purchased noise blocking earphones go a long way to mitigating it along with spending a bit extra for airport valet parking and private transfers.

Surprised by the number who don't enjoy them but go anyway. Holidays aren't obligatory.

I love holidays. Best bit about my life. Seeing new things is really good for you - keeps new synapses firing in your brain - see lifehacker.com/novelty-and-the-brain-why-new-things-make-us-feel-so-g-508983802

Apart from that, I love researching new places, deciding what we'd like to see and do. The world is so big and beautiful and bloody amazing, there are so many places I want to see!!

But you stay at home - keeps everywhere else quieter for me

Holiday's aren't that much fun with very young children

you mean your holidays with your young children aren't much fun. Mine are a lot of fun!