To wonder why people go on the same holiday every year?

[malificent7]

Like my dad...bless him. Same holiday, hotel, tours, same experiences. I am fully prepared to get flamed as i know that people find what works for them but it is a vast world out there and isn't is nice to explore?. Hard hat on.
For eg...dad always goes to Rome....amazing...lucky him... but when i suggest Paris he sounds very uncertain. He goes to Rome for the art...but there is tons in Paris. I just feel like he's missing out on experiences before he gets too old to do them.

I had a very full on career and I now have a very busy retirement. My idea of the perfect holiday is ten days on a sun lounger catching up with reading. I'm not interested in seeing the sights, so having found a destination I love, I'm sticking to it. Each to their own.

OP, I like to explore new places, but don't have the finances to do so. I would love to go to various holiday isles, but can only afford caravan holidays or budget hotels.

I am a single parent and DC likes to go to the same place every year, so every summer we go to South Devon for a few days and the past 2 years have been to Somerset for a couple of nights in the same place.

Since being a single parent I find it easier to go to places that I am familiar with so that I know how to get there and what to expect when I am there.

This year will be the first time in 8 years that I haven't been to Cornwall. I used to go 2-3 times a year and always in October. DC loved it, we had a park, swimming pool, entertainment, everything to keep a small child happy and give a frazzled parent a break.

This year I went abroad for the first time in 15 years. I am saving to go somewhere again in a couple of years.

So your dad probably likes the familiarity of it. Have you offered to go to Paris with him?

I don't do it, but I can understand why people do. It depends what you want out of a holiday, and - surprise surprise - different people want different things!

I get it, both sides of it. I try to have a week each year somewhere familiar (Wales) where its more of a rest/recharge kind of holiday, and then another week somewhere new and far away for exploring.

I'm not a sit by the pool/beach kind of tourist and I hate resorts, but I get why some people like them.

And bear in mind that there are two ways to see the world. You can learn by watching the same place change over time. Or you can learn by travelling wide and seeing snapshots of different places. One gives you depth and the other breadth. Neither is better than the other.

I can see why people do. I don’t because I have such a list of the things that I want to see, that I start off thinking I’ll go back to so and so because it was so lovely, and then randomly book something else instead!

I understand the fear of not knowing where to go or how to get there, or how you’ll get along, but for me that’s all part of the discovery!

My parents are a bit like this. Growing up, we had the same UK holiday for 18 years. Always the same. After I left home they started going abroad a bit more. Sometimes a big massive "expedition" holiday to South Africa or New Zealand, but for the regular weeks in the sun they ALWAYS go to the same village in Portugal. It's lovely, but it's the same old same old.

We have had our October holiday plans turned upside down by the Thomas Cook collapse so have booked a cottage last minute in a part of the UK we have visited before. But we've purposely chosen another village 20 miles away and are not planning on just revisiting all the places we've been before.

There's a massive world out there and I don't get the logic of just going to the same place and doing the same things.

Familiarity and routine can be a comfort to some.

Plus, I took the children back to the place that we went to every year as kids. It was not as magical as I remembered and that hurt me a little, so now I try to make new memories.

I find it strange too. Especially when people return annually to places like Dubai if you’re willing to go that far and spend that much, why not try an actual tropical destination instead of man made beaches etc. just to check you wouldn’t prefer somewhere else.

It’s the familiarity of it all. Same as the sun bed brigade who spend their holiday lying on a bed by the pool. I’ve never been back to the same place twice, because there’s still too many places to see before I die. I want excitement & new adventures, I want the unknown, I don’t want to sit with couples from the UK who go to Beni thrice a year to make friends, I can do that at home, I want to meet local people. Come & get me halo

Come and get you?

No thank you. With your tunnel view of things Id rather avoid you like the plague.

If your dad is happy with his holidays, he hasn’t ‘missed out’ on anything.
Just enjoy your own adventures & pursuit of novelty.

We go to New York nearly every year at Christmas time (not this year with small baby).

The experience is different every time because there's so much to do there and we would never see it all.

We always have a second holiday in a new place though.

i forgot to say that our 2 night break is supposed to be somewhere different each year, so one year Bath, another Bristol, another Weston, another Torquay, but as DD liked one of the so much we ended up going there again. We have had some real bargains too, in Premier Inns and Travelodge's. Cheap nights in seafront hotels!

When I first met Xh, we went to Cornwall every year, but to a different area each time until we covered the county. After that we went to Scotland for a few years and again went to a different area each time.

When he was around we would go to different parks of the UK and travel 5-6 hours, but it was hard after he left for me, to travel for hours with a young child on my own.

People have different ideas of what a holiday is. I travelled all over when I was younger, exploring the world. Now, 3 children later, nothing in my mind beats returning to the same holiday destination where there is something to keep everyone happy.

Convenience, mostly - however we have got a bit bored of it now 5 years on and are looking forward to somewhere new next year

Because the word 'holiday' means different things to different people. For some, it's a chance to explore the world, for others it's simply a chance to relax and recharge their batteries. That's why people buy a place abroad, because they've found somewhere that ticks all their boxes. Same as the people who go back to the same resort, even the same hotel/room each time, because they know it will deliver exactly what they want.

Does it matter? If people are comfortable with one place it is pleasant and convenient to return there, they don't have the hassle of getting used to somewhere new.

I know lots of people who go to the same place year after year. My neighbours have a house in Spain and go two to three times a year.

I understand both sides of this.
A couple of times DP and I have stayed in the same place and the same property two years on the trot. We're both busy and quite pressurised with work and general life stuff, and there is something indescribably relaxing about knowing what to expect from a holiday.
I also think that most places have so much to offer that you could keep going back over and over and find new things to enjoy each time.

On the other side, though, I am very aware that there's a lot of the world (heck, a lot of the UK alone!) that I haven't seen and would like to see.

It's a dilemma. Short of giving up work and living in a camper van or something, I don't really see a way to square it.

We travel quite a bit but we've been to New York six times in the last seven years. We both bloody love it. We were there for a week in November 2018 and I'm dying to go back again - I miss it like it's my home! Hopefully we'll go back next autumn.

New York has lots of different "vibes" depending on what you fancy doing that day and there is just so much to see, you can have a different holiday every time. We've also done day trips to Washington DC, Philadelphia, etc.

I'm actually in the other boat of that I feel compelled to visit new places and explore and wonder if I'm missing out not returning to places I previously loved - I imagine I'll probably start doing that as I get older. Some families I know have holiday homes as well and I love seeing their familiarity with the area - knowing all the best places to go, knowing people in the town etc., it's lovely in its own way. If you have responsibilities that mean your family holiday is a very rare very expensive undertaking, I get not wanting to gamble on that.

each to their own. I prefer to see new places aswell but some people enjoy the familiarity of a place they really like, the people etc If he likes it, why does it bother you?

We also go to the same holiday cottage for our main holiday every summer. We love the area and the cottage is just right for us and our disabled son, plus we know we can park near a great beach which son can access. Theres plenty to do in the area, and still new stuff to discover so each holiday is different...

I understand it if you have small children or specific requirements (eg you need to know you're going somewhere with good wheelchair access). It takes a lot of stress out of it if you know where you're going.

I guess I also kind of understand people who just want to lie on a beach - if you're going to do that, you might as well go to the same one every time (sounds like a nightmare to me, but my in-laws do this every year and love it).

But I don't really understand it when people are going to do touristy things - surely no matter how nice somewhere is, you'd get to the point where you'd think that somewhere else might be nice too.

So so boring. They might as well stay at home

We have a house in France and we bought it because of its fabulous location. We love it there. It is a very pretty port town only 20 mins from lovely beach, mini golf course our child likes, 200 metres from the National Forrest and a green route, and 2km from nice town with many cafes and restaurants. We do and go to different things each time we go. We use it as a base to explore from. We like to walk the dogs around the port and the green route, son likes to bike ride along green route. We also like nothing more than to lie around on beach, swimming and body boarding. Our holiday must be relaxing and refresh us. This year we spent 6 weeks there but we also have a week somewhere different each year and several long weekend breaks.