To be bloody fed up and ready to go home!

[annie987]

As is the case for many, we have missed out on a few holidays this year.
Our final holiday - a week in our caravan in Wales - was not cancelled and the thought of it has kept me going. I actually extended the 7 nights to 12!
Well we are here. The weather is shocking and is for the foreseeable. Thoughts of lazy days on the beach have not come to fruition. Instead, I am working incredibly hard to make it fun for everyone (Including two teens!) by planning outings in torrential rain (and all indoor activities are closed!) We are on the campsite next to the noisiest group of people who think playing music, swearing and shouting until 1am is acceptable!
I know I should be grateful that we have a holiday at all but it would be much easier to just go home and relax!! Obviously, I won’t but I want to!!

Surely you can complain about your noisy camping neighbours?

Sorry your holiday is rubbish. 2020 will be a haze of shit memories soon

Charades - anyone?

Exactly why holidaying in the U.K. will never be the ‘new normal’. Some beautiful places, but you’re never going to get the wall to wall sunshine you are more or less guaranteed when abroad. I’ve been to Cornwall once in my life. The year of the floods. And it’s tarnished my view of Cornwall in that I would never return because of the rubbish memories of torrential rain, with two pre schoolers. Going away in this country is fine if short breaks, and without children. If you’re just with your DP at least you can pop into a nice pub to escape the showers and have a glass, or bottle, of wine.

@Hellokitty82

If there is a heaven, you have surely secured a spot.
I can only imagine her disbelief and abject joy at coming home to such generosity.

I hope you are similarly in receipt of such acts of kindness in your life.

Noone goes on a "lovely walk" in torrential rain/lashing wind. I live right near an area of outstanding natural beauty and when its pissing it down, you do NOT see people strolling around joyously having a "lovely walk".

So true! I live in the Alps. None of the locals would go for a "lovely walk" in the pissing rain. Anyway, it's irresponsible. The risk of slipping on rocks or losing the path is much higher in the pissing rain. Then you have the act that it's easy to end up with hypothermia if you get soaked through.
If you are then camping or in a caravan (admittedly the caravan is easier) it's then difficult to get your body temperature back up, never mind drying out all the wet clothes.

Where I live the Tourist Office was positively encouraging the tourists to do walks in the pissing rain - saying there's beauty in the ountains when it's raining. Yeah...... until the number of accidents in the area started to increase with the numbers of people prancing around - most of whom were in inadequate clothing/footwear because if you're not a regular hiker you might not have the quality of waterproofs that would at least keep you reasonably dry.

As for the OP - sorry, that sounds really shit. I'm on holiday (arrived today) and it's absolutely pissing down but I'm just going to curl up on the couch with a good book and a pot of tea because I don't have any kids to entertain.
Would the kids be interested in any kind of games - Monopoly, Yahtzee, something like that? You could go and pick something up cheaply. You never know... or poker with sugar cubes. You might not want to encourage gambling but I knew a family who kept three teenagers entertained for an entire week of pissing weather in Norway, with a pack of cards and sugar cubes

These sorts of holidays only work when there are indoor things you can do as a back up.

Yes, just go home if everyone's miserable. It's not supposed to be an endurance test. But the rain has been forecast, it shouldn't have come as a massive surprise. We're in a tiny campervan in Devon and managing to enjoy ourselves in between rain showers. We planned 5 nights originally but I already told the kids that this would be weather dependent and we might go home early.

I'd stay. Had many a bad weather nothing apparently to do holidays. Board games, cards, bat and ball etc. Teens always say they hate everything

Put your teens to work creating entertainment for you all/younger kids
Walk on the beach , paddle in the sea, stock up on hot chocolate for when you get in

Build sand castles etc. And yes if you can, a good book and drink of something lovely will help
My kids, despite being loving the outdoors would not have thanked me for telling them to entertain the younger ones and go for a walk in the pissing rain when they were teens.
It would have been my holiday from hell asa teenager and I swear I would not have looked back on it with fondnes.

Just go home and be happy.

Where in Wales are you that has been so wet over the past week?

If you genuinely would be happy to go home, I’d sit down with the kids and talk about it, saying you know it’s not working out how you’d hoped and what do they want to do about it. They might be desperate to get back or they might be able to come up with some workable solutions - I love @fwwaftp’s idea of poker. If they are readers, you could go to a charity shop and buy a load of books and read all day. Or make a deal, they can sit on their bums on their phones/watching tv all day as long as they cook dinner, meanwhile you can relax with a book/your phone.

But mostly, just sorry your holiday is turning out so rubbish!

I am of the school of "just get wellies and coats on and get out there" BUT as you are camping then I would just go home. I hate camping at the best of times but if you cant get dry its really awful so just leave OP

On my last rainy holiday to wales we taught the teens to play poker (get a packet of tri coloured pasta as chips!) they still remember the holiday fondly

Holiday in Wales in Summer?!😂😂😂

I live here.

I always go on holiday this week to next abroad. Midweek to midweek and us usually it's over BH but that's later this year.

It's always cheaper, quieter as some U.K. schools back and U.K. weather historically changes these weeks.

Every single year without fail whilst I'm away my parents are sending the usual jealous of the weather pictures of them on windy wet walks and good humoured.
Whilst my closest friend who lives 2 miles from them always feels me how wonderful the weather is in the U.K. and how she's also down the beach (we are coastal)

It's like she doesn't think I could even google that info for myself if I cared

I do feel for you. I’d just go home. Have done in the past, with a young child who’d also had more than enough. Constant rain... not fun. We managed a few days in a “make the most of it” fashion but then, enough was enough.

We’re in Anglesey - arrived Saturday afternoon just as the clouds started to roll in and everyone on the campsite was talking about all the lovely weather they’d had.
Torrential rain all night and woke up this morning to a flooded awning - we are at the bottom of a hill! All the shoes that were carefully packed in bags are now bobbing merrily about!
Had planned a ‘nice walk’ today despite the rain. I’m not getting out of bed!

Oh and I’ve woken up with conjunctivitis! Eye all stuck together!

Camping is only good if the weather is good. I'd have no qualms at all about heading home, if I were you OP. Ask yourselves - is this better than being at home? If the answer is 'No!', then go home.

Check the weather forecast. I would not blame you for going home though.

I am off to Barmouth today.
I am praying for good weather, we aren't camping, luckily, staying in an apartment.

Camping is never that relaxing and always weather-dependent.

Wales is lovely but always a risk weather-wise. South coast and Isle of Wight are far more consistent. Pembrokeshire seems to get the sunniest weather in Wales. We had beautiful weather there last October half term.

I have just come back from a short break in a cheap place with the grandchildren. I am high risk for covid and would not have gone at all except that we had committed to child care a long time ago and we had no room in our own house. My grandchildren are great and understand why we wanted them to keep away from other people but on the first day I had to ask them not to play frisbee with a lad from the place next door, who seemed like a nice boy. Afterwards I saw him outside and I went to say sorry to him and to explain why, his nan then stuck her head out of the door and asked what I was saying. I tried to explain why I didn't want my grandchildren to play with him and that it was because I was at high risk for covid but she seemed to take it as a personal insult - telling me that I shouldn't be staying there then and actually being quite unpleasant. I certainly wouldn't have been staying there if I had had any choice! Added to that it was very VERY hot and an extended family a few doors away decided to spend every evening/night on the grass outside our bedroom windows, dragging out duvets to sit on, playing music, talking and laughing loudly until after midnight and kicking a football around. I would have gone home after the first night if I could have done. I would rather waste the money already spent than have to endure any more of that. It really isn't a holiday if you are having every minute of it. Better to stay at home and to find nice things to do with your family, making memories at home.

I'm going up that way on Friday ... weather better by Sunday apparently!

I'm in a cottage which will be better.

If I were you I'd prob come home if i was towarss the end of the holiday but I'd stay if I'd just got there.

There have been a few threads where posters have said they are booking holidays for the UK and even if the weather is not good they will enjoy going for lovely walks

Yeah, they are fooling themselves. Noone goes on a "lovely walk" in torrential rain/lashing wind. I live right near an area of outstanding natural beauty and when its pissing it down, you do NOT see people strolling around joyously having a "lovely walk". Thats because its simply not enjoyable - also not talking light rain here, I mean lashing rain where you look like youve stepped into your shower fully clothed

And let’s face it, after the year we’ve all had who the fuck wants to go for a walk?