To think that all holidays are essentially false curated experiences and that antipathy to people who go to Benidorm etc is just snobbery?

[Fuma]

The UK middle classes have long shown disdain for British people who go to mass tourism resorts like Benidorm and Magaluf, waxing lyrical about their own more "authentic" travel experience. But these travel experiences are still relatively brief, selective and involve at best fleeting glimpses of meaningful cultural exchange.

Indeed in many cases the experience that the middle class Northern hemisphere traveller has comes at great expense to the comfort, security and well being of the citizens whose country they visit - beaches protected by armed guards, luxury hotel staff living hundreds of miles away from their families with no running water and so on. Unlike the tourist in Spain who will generally be catered to by people on EU mandated wage scales and living with much the same amenities and protections as the people who visit their country.

So given that we all go on holiday to have a break from real life and experience existence in a temporary state of stasis, is it really so much worse for someone to choose to spend this time in a mock English pub if that's what they want to do?

What matters is whether you personally enjoy where you go on holiday, not what anyone else thinks. Some kinds of holidays aren't "better," they're just different. Each to their own - some people's holidays would be my idea of hell and vice versa

I like to backpack around "Third World hellholes" as they have been described by more than one relation. I don't care if someone else wants to spend two weeks by a pool.

What I don't like is people expecting the world to change to suit them. British food everywhere, English spoken, customs and norms changed to suit British temperaments. Everyone expecting every British person they see to be drunk, rude and promiscuous; talking English loudly and asking for ketchup. Mind you the Americans, Russians, Israelis and others are just as bad.

If you don't like other countries, stay at home. If you don't like their food and language, you don't deserve their sun.

No one wants to see a Barry topless drinking cans around the place.

Oi - you leave Barry out of this! "He's" an MN hero.

Anyway OP I disagree. The PP who went to Istanbul doesn't (presumably) want to be Turkish but it's good to dip into other cultures and experience a snapshot of how other people live and see other countries' different and amazing architecture etc.

If you didn't want to see anything else you'd never leave your home town would you?

If what you want is home with sun then by all means go to Benidorm but don't try and dress your comments up as anything other than reverse snobbery, which is no better than actual snobbery. YABU.

I completely agree op.

What I don't like is people expecting the world to change to suit them. British food everywhere, English spoken, customs and norms changed to suit British temperaments. Everyone expecting every British person they see to be drunk, rude and promiscuous; talking English loudly and asking for ketchup
That's how I feel.
I couldn't care less about how or where people wish to holiday (except exploitative holidays, voluntourism crap), but I do look down on people who visit foreign places, expect it to be Britain but with sun, expect everywhere to tolerate the British attitude to excessive drink and antisocial behaviour, think that walking into places and talking at people English loudly etc is acceptable.

@Fuma

How long were you in Istanbul, Kelsoooo? How much Turkish do you speak? How much cultural understanding do you think that you get from sitting on a balcony and drinking coffee for two weeks?

Only someone who holidays in places like Benidorm would think that's what someone does when they travel to Istanbul. Op, you do realise people go on holiday to explore these places rather than drink themselves stupid or confine themselves to their balcony?

I think there's a lot to be said for both personally. I spent my childhood going on camping holidays in France with my french-speaking parents, it was very worthy and cultural but some of the time I was bored out my skull with battlefields and churches.
As an adult I've only done city breaks or 'proper' travelling to other hemispheres. It's been great but I'm planning a villa/pool/beach holiday next year and I cannot wait.

It's a holiday. Holidays are supposed to be about doing something you enjoy.

This.

A holiday is time out of your day to day life. It's time to enjoy yourself with family and/or friends, or even alone and to do something which makes you happy.

Why judge anyone else for their choices? If you are happy and content with your own choice of holiday, why does it bother you what others do? Why would you be invested enough to have to judge someone about it? Ph, and that works BOTH ways - snobbery and inverse snobbery are as bad as each other.

I love holidays, full stop. I'm in a very fortunate position at the moment to be able to enjoy more than1 or 2 holidays each year. I like a range of holidays - from the odd winter sun lazing on a balcony catching up with reading, to a week of theme park rides and fantastic, to time exploring new cities and new countries not seeing another English person for days on end. I like the odd all inclusive (normally somewhere long haul and for winter sun) and I like making our own way for food and trying out local restaurants. I particularly look for warm weather.

I'm not bothered about being in a place entirely surrounded by people from my own country particularly, Im not bothered about needing to eat British food, I am not bothered about sitting on a beach and sunbathing for much longer than an hour, I'm not interested particularly in art galleries, not bothered about an activity holiday. Also, though there are some places I do fancy I am unlikely to visit them due to them being too cold, esp at certain times, simply as I don't deal with cold that well.

But thats me. I know some people would hate some of the holidays I have, just like I might not enjoy their choice of holidays. Neither of us are right and wrong in how we choose to spend our holiday time.

The UK middle classes have long shown disdain for British people who go to mass tourism resorts like Benidorm and Magaluf, waxing lyrical about their own more "authentic" travel experience
Who? What? Why? Where? When?

Why am I expected to side with either of those? Magaluf doesn't appeal to me, but then again neither does "immersion" travel and I'm tired of "authentic" travel snobs too. Believe it or not there are plenty of places to go which involve neither clubbing and sitting on beaches, nor travelling thousands of miles just to show off how cultural you are. I go to places because they seem beautiful or interesting but that doesn't mean I have to visit endless museums or "immerse" myself.

YABU

I look down on such holidays because of the damage many if those resorts do... Google the latest ones in Mexico if you want to know details

That and I don't like the idea of the all inclusive type of holiday. They just don't sound pleasant. But I doubt my preferred holidays would suit people who do like toasting themselves on a Spanish beach moaning about the lack of real food

Oh, and immersion holidays sound right ridiculous too. Why can't people just go somewhere for a test and a change or a specific 'thing', ?

How long were you in Istanbul, Kelsoooo? How much Turkish do you speak? How much cultural understanding do you think that you get from sitting on a balcony and drinking coffee for two weeks?

Pot and kettle spring to.mind.

Most of us can't go on holiday for more than 2 weeks so don't be so bloody patronising.
You seem to be the only person on the thread that is condemming others for their choice of hols. I would rather go somewhere I could learn just a little of the culture and meet people of that area than spend 2 weeks by a pool or a beach. But that's my choice. What someone else likes us entirely up to them as long as they are respectful of the people who actually live there.
We can do hols in uk and still enjoy learning about history and culture in that area just the same as going abroad. We can also do hols where we just have a great time enjoying theme parks/activities. They are not mutually exclusive.
Stop pretending you are being all intellectual you.just sound like you are jealous of people who go to places just to soak up culture and enjoy themselves in a simple way even if it's only for a couple of weeks.

P.s. I am definately working class and 2 weeks in Benidorm is my idea of hell but if someone else likes it who.cares? Who.are you or I to judge what another person likes?

I think it's fine to go to whatever type of holiday suits you, for some it's backpacking, for others it's an "authentic" experience in a far flung place, others like the ai Spanish resorts, some prefer a cottage in rural Wales. If it makes you happy then we should not judge. I was on a packaged cruise this year and it made life so easy when the flight were late, coach was there waiting.

I don't think you can immerse yourself in any culture in the space of a holiday, I think you can get a taste of it certainly.

I think that as long as you enjoy the holidays you choose, Then all is well.

My family (especially my Dad) is a reverse snob and gives me a ribbing for the places I choose to go (Mainly European city breaks), Saying ''That's NOT a holiday'' and ''Why would you want to go there'' things like that.

So I think the snobbery goes both ways and I think either way makes you a twat, Other peoples holidays are none of your business.

As it happens I had my first ever all-inclusive resort type holiday in mainland Spain earlier this year and it was bloody fantastic.

@Katex888
"Let’s face it everywhere the Brits go they turn it into a horrible place."

I'm sick of that stereotype. Whenever I've been in Egypt/Morocco it gets commented on that you can tell a Brit because we smile at people and are friendly. There's a level of manners that you don't see in other cultures. If you want to bring up shitholes, lets talk Paris and parts of France. I've seen disgusting behaviour by Russians and Germans, including open thieving.

That African holiday you go on, do you step into were the locals live? Pop to Nigeria/Congo/SA, etc.

You'll notice the lack of Women in the Turkish resorts, but ignore the cultural aspect of that, that feeds the domestic violence/rape/honour killings. As well as child abuse and abandonment.

I wouldn't go to Benidorm etc. But if people like it then it stops the places that i do want to go to from being overcrowded.

I don’t think anyone who is sniffy about Benidorm then goes to a beach with armed guards!!
People who are sniffy about Benidorm type holidays surely go hiking in the alps or on a city break to Barcelona or Rome or US road trips or camping in Scotland.
There’s no point being sniffy about Spanish “resorts” then going to similar resorts but long haul.

"Why judge anyone else for their choices? If you are happy and content with your own choice of holiday, why does it bother you what others do?*
Because I think loutish drunken behaviour is disgusting and that applies in the UK and overseas.
I don't judge people who holiday differently to me, but I do judge the larger lout Brits overseas behaviour. They turn up in foreign towns expecting Britain but with sun and sea and it's ridiculous.

Thank god some other posters saw my point.

I speak zero Turkish. I have zero desire to be Turkish.

What I do have a desire to do, is to rest and relax, and to meet new people and see things I wouldn't otherwise. Be that the Hague Sophia or a flamenco dancer in the street at a little festival in Spain. Or talking to the waitress at a restaurant in Paris. Or getting lost in Brooklyn and asking a local to direct me back to the subway.

My point to holidays is to see something that isn't my local town.

Be that a weekend break in a UK area or a few days/weeks abroad.

Holidays are whatever you want them to be, but I will judge those that want England in the sun. Not because they're thick/working class/I'm a snob, but because other people's culture is just as important as the English and we shouldn't attempt to ride roughshod over other cultures.

My family (especially my Dad) is a reverse snob and gives me a ribbing for the places I choose to go (Mainly European city breaks), Saying ''That's NOT a holiday'' and ''Why would you want to go there'' things like that.

I'm intrigued by the idea of people who go on holiday travel just to get a one-up on other people. What a waste of energy!

At the end of the day it is the same knobheads who make town centres no-go areas on weekend evenings that makes lot of people not want to go to magaluf. They are knobheads regardless of where they are.

Are we not allowed to go on holiday just for a break from the norm?

I have never been to Benidorm or Magaluf. I have no desire to go to either. I would rather spend a month in both than spend a day with some of the pretentious snobs on this thread. Each to their own, and relaxation is a very different thing for different people. That has nothing to do with class, and everything to do with personal choices. Nobody is inflicting those choices on you, so shut the hell up about what others want to do with THEIR time and THEIR money.

Oh, and some of the most racist and frankly cringeworthy people I have ever met abroad have been "middle class" twits who think the world is organised around them. Think the well off couple immersing themselves in the culture of the Valley of the Kings, sitting explaining why Muslims are awful, entitled and ruining the world. Yes, that would be to the Egyptian Muslim guide!!! Seen this sort of thing so many times. Being middle class hardly makes people decent human beings.

@Willow17 that's what I mean; the two week holiday exists in a vacuum. Obviously how you populate it is up to you but telling people that their vacuum is inferior to yours is silly, especially given as a pp pointed out that some holidays are actively damaging to the country they are in. On a related note I think it's worth pointing out that the Spanish economy was dying on its arse through a combination of fascism, repressive Catholicism and economic isolation prior to the advent of mass tourism which the UK working class embraced and which was a planned decision by municipal authorities to bring more money into the economy.

Our last 2 holidays were to one of the top ten birdwatching destinations in Europe, where we spent two weeks in salt flats and deltas looking at birds - sitting among much better birdwatchers, who typically had gone there twice a year for 25 years.

If you want to watch flamingoes, pelicans, herons, etc feeding, I don’t know how that is a falsely curated experience - walking 16 km in 39 degree C heat....?