I hate our holiday and want to go home

[Backwoods57]

I need to rant.

Day 10 of a 13 day visit to the UK. We moved to the USA in 2014 and have to come back every year because MIL can't afford to visit us, and is scared of flying. We are in Aldershot/Farnham area. There is nothing to do apart from walk up and down dead high streets. Traffic is terrible, I smell the pollution and cigarette smoke everywhere.

If we don't come we get a massive guilt trip about MIL not seeing grandkids etc.

This trip cost $4000, we have done very little apart from visit family and sit in my SiL's cramped dirty messy house.

2 weeks of my 3 week vacation allowance has been thrown away. I have start working remotely for A. Something to do, and B so I can claim some vacation days back.

I miss my home, our dogs, I miss countryside and wildlife, I want my space back.....and tap water that doesn't taste like bleach.

I want this thread renamed 'I'm an English person who booked a shitty holiday to Aldershot & I'm furious about its shitness'.

What an opportunity. Leave the kids and husband with in laws and skip on a train to London for a few days. Or do you need to travel with unnecessary baggge all the time?

Plenty of beautiful places to stay in the UK. Book one, and take MIL. If she doesn’t want to go, tough, you’ve done your bit!

Jump on the train into London and do free museums.
Walk in the countryside bordering Aldershot.
Go here coz it looks really cool…..https://activenation.org.uk/venues/alpine-snowsports-aldershot/

Please don’t visit again, we don’t need grumpy people here in the UK.

But it's the school holidays now..? And you can get the train? You're not far from London at all. Surely you can find something to do in London?! Samuel Johnson - tired of London, tired of life! I live near Farnham and it's a gorgous area with loads of countryside around... you're not far from Oxford either. Why on earth are you just sitting around in the house all day?

Generalisations about anything are pretty a pretty narrow way to see the world

oh lord you sound like a right miserable old sod! You’ve had loads of suggestions of things to do but presumably you prefer to sit there helpless whilst whining about a place you’ve been to for ten years running and are somehow shocked it’s the same as it was the last time 🤣

What were you expecting to see in Aldershot- the hanging gardens of babylon? As a PP said, you remind me of the obnoxious American couple from faulty towers 😂

I pity your poor SIL. Imagine having a house guest like you

I don’t get this. Don’t you have any old friends you want to see? I have returned to the the UK (Surrey) every summer for the last 24 years, since my children were born and our time is action-packed. I book everything in advance, well before we leave the US. We rent a car, visit old friends for the day, go to Legoland, the Harry Potter Studios, local farms with loads of stuff for kids to do, go out for lunch or picnics, cinema. We catch a train to London or down to Brighton. In fact, we always run out of time and feel we could have filled another week.

Such a shame. I really love the UK. I moved here as an adult.

Something tells me you aren’t much fun even when you’re in Maine.

Reminds me of that saying “wherever you go, there you are”.

The "cigarette smoke" OMG how true that is. The stench from people that are smoking or are smokers is so noticeable in the UK. That alone would keep me away from the UK

The area, not nice - just go back and put yourself first fro a change

get MiL to fly over I think BA dod 'fear of fliyig' sessions to relax fliers like MiL, but cost

Pay for her ticket or just let your OH come over

Alderhot, I sea what you mean - so put yourself first

Yes your holiday does sound shit but it's entirely down to lack of planning and staying in one underwhelming location.

When overseas people come to us, they use us as a base, we spend about 2 days together. 1 day would be a big party where we would try to get as many people over as possible plus a quieter day. The rest of the time we may or may not see them, as they would be doing what they wanted to do - mainly London, Oxford, Cambridge and Windsor.

You need to do something like this, but you need to organise it and communicate this to your wider family.

Heavens book somewhere nice, and take MIL along. She'd get a nice break and so would you. This time of year isn't the best time to come

Rent a car

Yes but it's not about you but your mother.

@Backwoods57

i agree the country has gone to the dogs mainly due to Brexit

Also it's not fair that you come back every year just because your MIL doesn't like to fly.

She needs to do a fear of flying course or make peace that you can't see her every year.

I am not sure where people are going in the UK that is full of people stinking of cigarette smoke? It's incredibly rare for me to smell it on people nowadays.

When I went to stay with my cousin in Florida, she and her husband puffed away like chimneys (outside).

I can't remember the last time I saw anyone or smelt cigarettes.

I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that you’re visiting such nice area with so much outdoorsy stuff going and think that it’s that bad. The only thing I assume is that because you’re biased you’re looking for things to complain about. As for shooting in your remote lodge in US. Don’t get me started. Yes, the UK is probably not your windlife heaven but it has a lot going for it. You’re just tired of visiting the same spot and the same relatives and coming back to a place which you run from in 2014. Has nothing to do with the Uk though.

If you’ve already spent 4000 on a holiday, seems silly not to spend more to actually enjoy it, than rather begrudgingly that amount to do jack sh*t. I have family and friends in Aldershot, I avoid visiting - so depressing there, and the most run down place I’ve ever visited in the U.K.

TBH the £600 for York would be worthwhile & lovely seaside on the way too. Or just stay up in London for two nights.

Choose to sit home and be miserable or choose to make the best of it. You're there and can't change that.

Can’t you use public transport or hire a car?

It’s ops own decision to
refuse to spend any money and ‘sit in a smelly little house’ But yes ungrateful, extremely ungrateful.