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Original poster

Do you stay in touch with people you meet on holiday?

72 replies

girlfriend44 · 07/03/2023 23:21

Do you stay in touch with people you meet on holiday?
Do you find it always fizzles out as you get home and get on with you own lives?
Do you not even bother to exchange contact details/Facebook etc?

OP posts:
noimaginationforausername · 08/03/2023 11:06

Fizzadora · 08/03/2023 00:05

But, but that would mean having to interact with other people on holiday!
Noooooooooooh

This! 😂

Hartlebury · 08/03/2023 11:06

I actively avoid talking to people on holiday. The horror.

2chocolateoranges · 08/03/2023 11:09

No but then I don’t tend to befriend people on holiday. Will say hello and exchange pleasantries but that’s about it,

I have a friend who meets people on holiday and then either meets them on holiday next year or visit each other throughout the year, I find it all a bit bizarre and needy.

spidereggs · 08/03/2023 11:09

I met a guy on holiday when I was 16 and he was 17. Both with our families. Our parents are still friends. I spent a summer in London with them, him, and he spent a summer on the farm with me.

He's still a good friend, as is his wife and my husband.

Very funny guy, totally different worlds. Always lovely to catch up.

angstridden2 · 08/03/2023 11:11

Still spend occasional weekends with people we met 40 years ago; all went to our children’s’ weddings. Would like to meet up more often but it’s a long trip for all of us.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 08/03/2023 11:11

Not usually, no, but I do have a very good friend I met on holiday ages 13!

As this was in the early 90s we stayed in touch by writing letters for a long time, but obviously have the benefit of modern technology now - plus it happens this friend lives a lot nearer to me now than we did at the time

KimberleyClark · 08/03/2023 11:13

2chocolateoranges · 08/03/2023 11:09

No but then I don’t tend to befriend people on holiday. Will say hello and exchange pleasantries but that’s about it,

I have a friend who meets people on holiday and then either meets them on holiday next year or visit each other throughout the year, I find it all a bit bizarre and needy.

TBH I find even the idea of holidaying with friends a bit much these days. I’d rather go alone. Family I could manage but DH is the only person I really want to holiday with.

TheChosenTwo · 08/03/2023 11:18

We aren’t really sociable people when we’re on holiday when we are away as a family as we stay in a villa and not in a hotel so aren’t subjected to other people unless we want to be!
dh and I have done a couple of holidays in hotels together without the children but even then, beyond saying hello and maybe having drinks by the pool etc we aren’t really interested in anything beyond that, we don’t make ‘holiday friends’. I’ve barely got time to nurture pre-existing friendships!
My mum does though, she’s the kind of woman who makes lifelong friends at tescos 😂 she’s still in touch with various friends from holidays 20 years ago, some of them they still meet and a couple of times they’ve arranged to be on holiday at the same place with a bit of a crossover so they can meet up for a few days.

Caviarandgelatine · 08/03/2023 11:19

No, but we don't talk to other people. If we've waited all year for a family holiday we're not going to waste it speaking to randoms who we are unlikely to click with anyway.

And we do self catering holidays where we're off doing our thing, eating in different places - there's no opportunity to get to know people like that.

Hungrycaterpillarsmummy · 08/03/2023 11:19

My parents and my parents in law both have one or two couples each as good friends that they met on holiday.

I always want to but haven't really had holidays that offer that opportunity yet. Maybe one day. I think it's a good thing.

KimberleyClark · 08/03/2023 11:21

We do cottage holidays but we also do cruises occasionally. Contrary to popular belief there is no pressure to be sociable!

KilljoysMakeSomeNoise · 08/03/2023 11:22

As a child we used to go to the same hotel every year at the same time. Along with several other families. So my mum ended up making lots of friends and keeping in touch with them. I also became pen friends with a girl who was also on holiday. We lost touch as we got older though, but I have lots of fond memories of our holidays and letters.

Now I'd rather go to different places when I can afford to go away (not yearly) and also usually stay in caravan parks, so don't meet people like staying in a hotel.

Plump82 · 08/03/2023 11:24

I can't think of anything worse than making "friends" on holiday. I'm far too antisocial for that!

mumofjackandamy · 08/03/2023 11:25

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

Rockingcloggs · 08/03/2023 11:31

I've never made any friends on holiday and nor would I ever want to! It's my idea of hell!

Reminds me of Friends though with Monica & Chandler!

ThreeGuineas · 08/03/2023 11:32

saltinesandcoffeecups · 08/03/2023 01:12

By self admission most mumsnetters won’t answer their front door if it’s their granny who hasn’t sent a formal request to call, received a formal invitation, and followed up with skywriting. (All without using a telephone because that’s intrusive)

So I’m not sure you’ll get a balanced answer here.

This, exactly.

OP, I have done, yes. I'm still in semi-regular touch with a bunch of people I met while Interrailing in 1993 (we met while we were all trying to find somewhere to sleep rough in Rome, back in the days when no one could Revolut you cash if you'd run out and busking hadn't been that lucrative!) and an American I met in Shakespeare and Co in Paris a few years later. DH is still in touch with a couple of Ukrainian Arsenal fans we met in a bar in Italy in about 2000, and also some people who ran a café near Lucca that we ended up taking refuge in with half the village when a sudden storm blew up and knocked trees and powerlines.

Parky04 · 08/03/2023 11:33

We are very good friends with a couple who we met in 1994. They live in Preston and we are in the SE. We meet up a couple of times a year, have been on holiday together a couple of times, and the two wives are off to America together in September.

ISpyCobraKai · 08/03/2023 11:34

I met a friend at PGL many years ago, I first visited her for her 18th birthday and I was at her 46th birthday earlier this year.

NewChange · 08/03/2023 11:34

One time we did - it was a cycling holiday so we spent a lot of time together, hit it off and stayed in touch. They even came to our wedding. It’s since fizzled out though for no particular reason.

AllWorkYoPlait · 08/03/2023 11:34

We don't really stay in large hotels so wouldn't generally bump into anyone repeatedly.

Occassionally when we've been on side trips we've made the mistake of befriending people who appear normal. Like the guy in Vietnam who turned out to be a massive conspiracy theorist and claimed silver cured cancer. We soon wished we'd stayed antisocial 😂

Have met a few oddballs and bullshitters at various remote lodges and whatnot over the years (as well as many perfectly pleasant folk), but no one we've remained friends with.

professionalnomad · 08/03/2023 11:39

I love chatting and meeting new people on holiday and have remained friends with some too.

I didn't realise there was such stigma on MN if you are social/extrovert

pizzaHeart · 08/03/2023 11:50

No, I never have this level of socializing on holidays but I know a couple of people who stay in touch mainly by coming back to the same place and having DC of similar age.

I resent assumptions PPs are making about people not answering doors, not going out for drinks and then obviously being antisocial on holidays. Yes, there are people who introverts naturally but it’s not so black and white. I’m very friendly and sociable but my DD has additional needs so every day life (and especially holidays) for us have a lot of challenges. People doesn’t like mix up with challenges even in their ordinary life and they especially want to relax and forget about negative issues on their holiday.

And of course holidays are short and packed with activities so often you meet the same people only once or twice which is not enough.

pontipinemum · 08/03/2023 11:54

I've keep in loose touch with people I met travelling on SM. Not so much from a weeks holiday in Portugal/ Spain.

I'm still good friends with a guy I met from another country when I went away with Cadets aged 15. I went and stayed in his country and he came to mine the next year. We mostly talk on snapchat strangely! I think it's a bit different for kids.

Rewis · 08/03/2023 11:57

I'm fb friends with some people I met while on holiday in my early 20's. We didn't bond enough for me to travel to see them or them to me. Maybe if we happened to be at the same place at the same time we'd be on contact but that would have to be a coincidence. I did meet with one "friend" again after we met on holiday but it was mainly cause the sex was good and worth the travel. Since my warly w0's I haven't really spoken more than basic pleasantries with other holidaymakers.

Rewis · 08/03/2023 12:02

Warly w0's is early 20's 😅