The shine has come off going abroad for me, has it for you?

[cornplant]

I've read a few posts on here and I've been feeling the same way, that going abroad really isn't all that enjoyable.

People complain of being too hot, mosquito bites, spots from sun cream, fizzy hair etc.

Since I've had my son I've been abroad twice and have mostly hated it.

Maybe I should just go to Cornwall every year instead!

[Oliversmumsarmy]

The flights

Love the flight. Holiday starts when we leave for the airport

The heat love the heat.

Hotels in general, sharing a room with the kids etc
Always rent a 4 bed house with a private pool. Certainly works out cheaper than a hotel in a sea side resort in the UK where you have to go out and every beer, coffee, juice and bottle of water and lunch costs

We hit the supermarket and buy a range of brunch/salad type items and then eat out at night.

DP likes to sit by the pool for the first few days and unwind with several little bottles of beer which cost around 10p each and I like to get a coffee every now and then.

The bug bites DP gets them sometimes but myself and DC seem to be immune.

The worry the kids will get sick and have no access to healthcare easily, or crap healthcare
Usually it is Dp who gets ill. The healthcare in places we have been to has been fabulous. Far better than the NHS.
Just need to get travel insurance.
DP has been in intensive care in some great places.

I only pack plasters and paracetamol. Same of I was holidaying in the UK

[MaxNormal]

Oh god no bugger staying on this muddy little island to freeze!
I love our campervanning trips through France and Spain. The heat, the intense colours, the smells, the food... absolute bliss.

[kjhkj]

This mass air travel thing can’t go on though can it?

No it can't. We have to change our travel habits.

We are as guilty as anyone - some years we had three overseas holidays in the past. Now its one max. Other holidays are now UK based.

[ExecutiveFiat]

I have no intention of changing my holiday habits. I intend to travel more in the future not less!

[Waxonwaxoff0]

God no, I love it. I don't like it too hot so I never go right in the middle of summer. Never suffered with mosquito bites either, they obviously don't like the taste of me!

I'm a single mum and I love travelling around with DS. We go all over the world, we are planning a trip to Singapore soon.

I love holidaying in the UK though too.

[MsTSwift]

I think eventually we will be forced to change these habits whether we like it or not. Kjh we are exactly the same our travel habits had escalated to about 3 trips a year - not any more. Not by plane anyway

[Pitterpatterpettysteps]

I’ve traveled a lot over the past 35 years (since childhood) and it isn’t as enjoyable as it used to be.

Three main factors for me:

1)Guilt about flying in the context of the climate crisis
2)The vast numbers of people now travelling- flights, airports and destinations are all heaving with humanity. Crowds and queues everywhere, many of them merely fixated on capturing images for Instagram.
3) The encroaching homogenisation of the world, which seems to be steadily transforming into a bland shopping mall. Most countries are becoming much the same as each other, the things that made them unique are steadily disappearing

[ItIsWhatItIsInnit]

3) The encroaching homogenisation of the world, which seems to be steadily transforming into a bland shopping mall. Most countries are becoming much the same as each other, the things that made them unique are steadily disappearing

This is so true. I went to a Buddhist monastery in Taiwan and there was a bloody Starbucks there!

In every country that I go "shopping" in, the clothes/shoes/accessories look exactly the same as the stuff I could buy here in Primark. It's all made in the same factories and sold all over the world. I don't bother any more.

[Aragog]

Not for me, I love holidaying abroad. I love the warm dry weather, seeing new places, etc. My DD is now much older at 17y so far far easier, but even when smaller we have all loved it. Helps that even as a toddler she preferred warm weather and seeing the sights, she's never been a beach girl.

[Aragog]

This mass air travel thing can’t go on though can it?

The biggest way to reduce this would be for businesses to stop doing so much travel. Most meetings could really be done via video conferencing, rather than face to face. Business travel is a large part of air miles.

[Aragog]

There’s a certain xenophobic quality to the term ‘abroad’.

Is there? Doesn't 'going abroad' just mean going somewhere that is not the UK?



Like others, I also have arthritis and cold damp weather really makes it worse. I love some summer sun to ease my joints for a week or so, to help me put up with the pain the rest of winter (and much of the time Autumn and Spring) too!

[ItIsWhatItIsInnit]

Most meetings could really be done via video conferencing, rather than face to face.

So true. I used to work at a company who had a Danish company as a client. They flew out all staff contracted to work for them just for a "meet and greet" - totally pointless as most left within 6 months. The funniest bit was when they flew my partner out for 1 day for a meeting, but most of the Danish staff dialled in as they were working from home that day! Absolutely ridiculous.

In my industry people flew out to the USA or Japan just for a 2 hour meeting. People who couldn't fly out would just dial in. Why couldn't everyone do that??

[violetswordfish]

Not for me, I love holidaying abroad. I love the warm dry weather

There's a problem with using the word abroad to mean hot places. It's such a British thing. Not everywhere outside the UK is warm and dry! "Abroad" isn't limited to the Mediterranean, it's the whole world! But I doubt you'd hear someone say they'd "holidayed abroad" and mean Antarctica or Peru or Laos.

[Aragog]

There's a problem with using the word abroad to mean hot places

But I am talking about MY holidays on that post. And when I go abroad I mainly choose to go to places where the weather is warm and dry, especially in the winter months. My arthritis benefits from this. I do sometimes go to climates where is is hot, but also damp through humidity. The heat seems to compensate for the humidity for me.

I have also been abroad to cooler places, though I avoid going to places which will be much colder and wetter. It would result in me being in pain.

But I doubt you'd hear someone say they'd "holidayed abroad" and mean Antarctica or Peru or Laos.

But of course they would!! Certainly in my world. I don't know anyone who wouldn't class a cold weather holiday as not being abroad!

[Aragog]

As I said in a later post Doesn't 'going abroad' just mean going somewhere that is not the UK?

I, and everyone I know, would say they'd gone abroad, if they left the UK. Nothing to do with the weather they encounter when they are there!

And what word shall we say instead of abroad??

[dowehaveastalker]

Nah, Mexico, Parts of Asia, Parts of Italy, Denmark, Antarctica, Spain - so lovely.

[violetswordfish]

And what word shall we say instead of abroad??

The name of the country they went to?
"I went on holiday abroad" is fairly meaningless given how big the world is and it has an air of superiority/xenophobia about it, lumping the rest of the world into a homogenous mass of "different".

[Aragog]

But when you're talking more general that wouldn't work. I have had several holidays abroad makes way more sense to say than I have been on holiday to a, b,c,d .... x, y and z.

I'm sorry - I've never ever, Bar here, heard that saying the word abroad is in any way offensive.

Abroad has a really clear meaning in my experience. And nothing in that meaning is offensive at all!!

[CardiFree]

Have had some lovely holidays with DC that didn't involve beaches.

Normandy/Paris in the Spring/il de re
Ireland anytime ;)
New York at Christmas
Boston in the Spring
Berlin
Switzerland
Rome in Spring
Finland
And a very rainy New Zealand for a particularly obsessed LOTR fan.

[Livelovebehappy]

Currently in Budapest. Not too hot, no mosquitos and just nice and relaxed. At this time of year I really can’t see that the UK would be a better option.

[Tellmetruth4]

What? Has climate change already happened?! The whole of ‘abroad’ is now hot with biting insects?! Poor polar bears

[Sweetpea55]

I enjoy going abroad very much but hate the Airport argy bargy.
It's cruising for us. Unpack once and see loads of different ports and countries

[CardiFree]

Ooh very envious LiveLove have wanted to visit Budapest for ages.

[stucknoue]

Depends on what you do. I don't like beaches, sunbathing etc so I tend to go to places where I can visit places, my favourite holiday was probably to Germany, but I love northern Spain (Atlantic coast) too

[stucknoue]

Ps when my kids were tiny we backpacked because they were still portable, well sort of, did take a double buggy! The world is your oyster, don't limit your imagination to the Costas. My attitude has always been that we go where we want to go, we have found kid activities everywhere but they fit in with us never been to a "kid friendly" resort ever