To think people are too obsessed with taking a holiday?

[Tepoi]

I don’t get the attraction of saving for months to go somewhere for 10ish days. Fine if you have money but hearing how people are spending the equivalent of 1 - 2 months take home pay on a holiday strikes me as very odd. Maybe because I don’t have the money to spare.
if you do go on holiday, and it takes 4-6 weeks’ take home pay, can I ask why you go?

I totally get it. I get withdrawal symptoms if I don't go on holiday for too long. I'm like a drug addict.

SIL and BIL are "no holiday" people. I think the last time they were away was about 10 years ago to the Lakes, since I have known DH (about 30 years) they have been overseas once. With them it is just how they live their lives, they never go anywhere or do anything in the evening or weekends, their entire life is going to work, walking the dog and watching the telly. They are the most un-curious about the world and life people that I have ever met and it's really tedious spending time with them.

I don't really understand the people who say they don't do holidays because they don't like hot weather. Holidaying somewhere hot is not compulsary - a holiday is just time away from home, not working, we do beach holidays, city breaks, sports holidays, walking holidays, breaks to go to music festivals, sightseeing holidays, short breaks in the UK - in all weathers and temperatures.

Alternately, I cannot relate to the holidays-are-what-I-live-for crowd. There are 52 weeks in the year. I'd rather make my life nice than hold the spending towards those 2 weeks a year... some people have the money for both. I don't. We do go away sometimes, but not on a huge scale as I can't help feeling disappointed sometimes that we are paying to go somewhere that gives us "less" than home.

@GenieGenealogy
They are the most un-curious about the world and life people that I have ever met
I know people like this, no curiosity about anything, travel, books, current affairs, history, such a waste of a life.

Some people would be able to have a nice life and go on holiday and those holidays are not "less than home". Would you be able to relate in that scenario?

Not as bad but I always amused when some of my friends go on holiday and choose to stay in a resort and only hang out with other British tourists. Then on the occasion they venture out they are so pleased to find McDonald's they can eat at instead of trying local cuisine.

Yes, of course...
I thought I'd made it clear it was my personal viewpoint by using I whilst giving an alternate viewpoint to the one I quoted.

We spend around 1.5 times our monthly income on a holiday abroad and its worth every penny.

My best childhood memories are of family holidays abroad and I'm recreating that for my children who get so excited about their annual holiday.

Life is for living OP.

@Happyfluffball
Agree, go away and straight for steak pie at an English pub 🙄🤣

Not as bad but I always amused when some of my friends go on holiday and choose to stay in a resort and only hang out with other British tourists. Then on the occasion they venture out they are so pleased to find McDonald's they can eat at instead of trying local cuisine.

Holidays mean different things to different people, I suspect the kind of people you mention are looking for predictable weather and outdoor pools etc. I don't think we need to be sneering at anyone, whether they holiday or not, or how they choose to holiday.

I don't think they're lesser. I just find it amusing that they act like they've found an oasis in the middle of the dessert.

When my parents first got together money was tight and my mum absolutely refused to save up all year (and stay in) to get two weeks in Spain or what have you.

I used to love holidays, LOVE them. Now it’s a chore and I’d rather be at home with my dog! Have a child, we go for the child really- it’s been awful weather since school broke and forecasts show it’ll remain that way, so we had a week in Spain. She lived in the pool.
If we go again, it’ll be UK based. I’d rather not bother though unless it’s an experience eg Lapland.

I'm with you on this one OP.

The weather in the UK I'd generally OK in summer.
Anything above 33c is too hot for DC.
The faff and stress of packing and travel / airport to destination and same on return.
Older children not wanting to do anything other than stay in hotel room with aircon on their phones
Family arguments often with the topic of "you are so ungrateful/ unappreciative of the cost of this holiday "

And lastly it never lives up to the prior 11 months of expectation.

Oh and the additional workload when you back to work catching up on everything.

Holidays are to explore the world and see its beauty i wasn't born to work like a slave to prop up this society thats been created so that people can live in harmony. But unless you're rich enough to not work, then I have to work to pay to explore this planet.

I'm not interested in working to spend money on material things, the memories I'll have and the things I will see by travelling are worth more than what I even spend doing it.

We never go on two week holidays, we have weekend breaks 6-8 times a year plus a big trip to visit my parents (but that's only airfare).

We have been to Iceland, Sweden, Coopenhagen, Edinburgh, Munich,Norway in the past year as well as some other city breaks in England I.e. Stratford upon Avon and Bristol etc..

We are going to Dublin this weekend. I prefer this set up as we don't need to take any leave and we can go and see places and it provides a welcome change. Also with UK inflation, it's often not significantly cheaper than entertaining ourselves in London and we can also buy groceries from overseas!

Agree with every word spectre.

Too many people on this thread who don't go on away try to portray that holidays only consist of sunbathing by a pool. When there are a million other things to do on holiday.
Well they do say that travel broadens the mind, I suppose.

@Tepoi Our takehome pay is £6400 (soon to rise to £6700). We have spent £7600 this year on holidays; since august 2022, we have had

1. Weekend break to Exeter/Torquay
2. Weekend Break to Bristol
3. Weekend Break to Oslo
4. Caledonian Sleeper and weekend break to Edinburgh
5. Weekend break to Bergen
6. Weekend Break to Coopenhagen & Malmo (hotel was in malmo)
7. Weekend Break to iceland (Reykjavik and Golden Circle)
8. Weekend Break in Stratford upon avon (visited national trust and went to leamington spa as well)
9. Holiday in Germany to celebrate husband's grandfather's 90th but we also paid for a hotel (due to lack of space) and we saw the city (I was sadly wfh for most of it but DH did some day trips with the family)

@Spectre8

"i wasn't born to work like a slave to prop up this society thats been created so that people can live in harmony. "

+++

I sometimes share your frustration about work but surely it would make more sense to change your career to get more fulfilment during the rest of the year rather than spend it counting down the days until your next holiday.

@rosetintedmemories2023

Now a series of long weekends away to interesting places I totally get rather just two weeks away in the summer.

I also get the idea of a week away somewhere warm in October or February when quite frankly it's wet dark and miserable in the UK.

yes, but I don't hold with the old line "travel broadens the mind".
Not necessarily - some folks just seem to want a collection of fridge magnets to show off to folk back home/post pics of themselves on holiday to folks back home WHILE they are on holiday.
And also some of the places some folks go to are effectively holiday destinations.
Tend to think like the OP, though totally accept that it's different if you have kids.

We don’t have a massive house with a big mortgage. We don’t have flashy cars or designer clothes but we have 2 overseas holidays a year plus various long weekends/weeks in the U.K.
The overseas ones are self catering/B&B as we like to get out and eat locally and explore. We usually end up in a 3* SC unit but the sunshine, culture and spending time together is priceless.
It does wonders for my MH.
I would always choose travel over any other big spend.

I think it's because that's when the school holidays start. DINKY couples like us tend to holiday when we can get the cheapest tickets..

I have been told that logistically, it is hard to organize weekend breaks with a toddler or young child. So since it's so much faff arranging it and getting there, people prefer to stay for longer.. I think I will still try to do weekend breaks when I have a child though because it works so well with my lifestyle and it also allows me to spend longer periods of time overseas with my family while still visiting new places. Also there is no issue with changing jobs with weekend breaks. We have cancelled holidays in the past because the screening took a much shorter time than expected and DH had to start at a new job asap.

I absolutely love Rome and if finances allowed would happily go every year