Page 11 | Why don't people take their kids on holiday?

Micnerhss · 2025-11-26T15:05:45+00:00

Just to be clear, I don’t mean people who genuinely can’t afford holidays... I’m talking about people who ^can^ but still don’t. In my close friendship group, I’m literally the only one who takes my kids away. We love seeing the world, exploring new places, different cultures, and just getting out of the UK for a bit. I honestly think holidays are so important, its proper family time away from the constant busyness of life. But none of my really close friends ever take their kids away, not even for a little UK break, and I just can’t get my head around it. The excuses are things like “I don’t know how airports work” or “I wouldn’t know where to go”… but there’s a whole world out there! If you can afford it, why wouldn’t you treat your kids to a holiday?! They are missing out on so much by never leaving the UK!

Ravenslea · 27/11/2025 12:17

Mummysof · 27/11/2025 09:40

I apologise we live in a dull country and there’s more beautiful world out there to be seen and explored and as I was saying she won’t be the only person getting on any plane so she’s more than entitled to use that form of travel and go on a well deserved holiday to a beautiful country that has more to offer than the UK. You people are crazy that are against people LIVING how they want to. I am not stopping flying because Susan down the road is frightful of what happens to the environment or what ever even is the concern. It’s a normal part of living and a beautiful thing to do. If it was that bad planes wouldn’t exist.

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”If it was that bad planes wouldn’t exist”

?😂

Crushed23 · 27/11/2025 13:03

ObelixtheGaul · 27/11/2025 11:04

Increasingly, though, with the rise and rise of All Inclusives, people aren't eating different food, the kids are playing with the other Brit kids in the resort, etc.

It's getting harder and harder now to have affordable holidays that aren't so catered to the tourist that you'll be lucky to meet anybody from the country you are in unless they are serving you (and, increasingly, not even then, which is part of the current issue with tourism).

I went abroad twice as a child, once was to Greece. I fondly remember playing with the Greek child whose parents owned the apartment we stayed in. These days, it's hard to find locally owned establishments that give you that connection. Even Airbnbs are more likely to be owned by an offshore investor now.

For me, mass tourism has changed the travel experience so that it really isn't this amazing experience of other cultures any more. I travelled across Morocco for the first time in the 90s. Barely saw any other white tourists except in Marrakech. Spent a lot of time drinking tea with locals, chatting to the owners of the very basic places we stayed. Highlight, for me, was the trip out into the desert. One building staffed by Berbers arose out of the sand after we travelled over a rough road from Erfoud. We were the only group there, had a great night chatting to the Berbers, etc.
Fast forward to 2013, we went back. Where that one building was is now a big complex, with 4x4's zipping over the desert, accessed by a tarmacked road and about four times as expensive. Still at least run by hospitable Berbers, but how long before that changes? How long before the multinationals buy the locals out, as has happened in so many other places? How long before the strangling monopoly of AI steamrollers in and shoves the locals out?

Wherever we go, we like to go local. Stay in locally owned accomodation, eat at local places. That is getting harder and harder to do.

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I think the impact of mass tourism is completely overblown. While I agree with you that travel has changed over the last few decades and become more accessible to people, it doesn’t mean that travelling overseas won’t broaden your horizons one bit as everywhere is basically Britain with a nicer climate (an argument I see a lot on MN). I went to a popular Greek island in summer 2024 that attracts a lot of British and other tourists, but while there I stayed in a hotel where every staff member was Greek, I found a cute little cove with one single ramshackle beach bar serving local beer and Greek light snacks. Every night I had dinner in Greek restaurants run by Greek people and which served food and wine local to the island. I did some hiking in terrain that is very different from anywhere near where I lived at the time. Was it as authentic an experience as my gap year in South America years ago, or when DM and DAunt backpacked Eastern Europe in the 1980s? Almost certainly not. Was it still a culturally enriching experience that broadened my horizons and gave me a break from the norm? Absolutely.

ObelixtheGaul · 27/11/2025 14:02

Crushed23 · 27/11/2025 13:03

I think the impact of mass tourism is completely overblown. While I agree with you that travel has changed over the last few decades and become more accessible to people, it doesn’t mean that travelling overseas won’t broaden your horizons one bit as everywhere is basically Britain with a nicer climate (an argument I see a lot on MN). I went to a popular Greek island in summer 2024 that attracts a lot of British and other tourists, but while there I stayed in a hotel where every staff member was Greek, I found a cute little cove with one single ramshackle beach bar serving local beer and Greek light snacks. Every night I had dinner in Greek restaurants run by Greek people and which served food and wine local to the island. I did some hiking in terrain that is very different from anywhere near where I lived at the time. Was it as authentic an experience as my gap year in South America years ago, or when DM and DAunt backpacked Eastern Europe in the 1980s? Almost certainly not. Was it still a culturally enriching experience that broadened my horizons and gave me a break from the norm? Absolutely.

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We had a similar experience on a Greek island two years ago (maybe it was the same one) but compared with the 90s when it didn't matter where you went in Greece, that would be your experience, it's now harder to find on a budget.

And even where we were, our Greek hosts told us their heyday was in the 90s/early 2000s and it was hard for them to compete with the more recent complexes built on the island which were all-inclusive. Added to that, we noticed some empty apartment buildings in the area and asked about it. They were locally run businesses that were victims of COVID.

To survive, the little local tavernas and apartments are having to charge more. We don't have children, but for families on a budget, AI, or larger resort areas will be more economically viable.

It might not 'all' be Britain in the Sun, but increasingly it's going to be all many families can afford. We don't even have kids and we find it harder now to find local-run low budget holidays. All the AI places have special kids go free offers, room deals, food deals, etc.

Crushed23 · 27/11/2025 15:57

ObelixtheGaul · 27/11/2025 14:02

We had a similar experience on a Greek island two years ago (maybe it was the same one) but compared with the 90s when it didn't matter where you went in Greece, that would be your experience, it's now harder to find on a budget.

And even where we were, our Greek hosts told us their heyday was in the 90s/early 2000s and it was hard for them to compete with the more recent complexes built on the island which were all-inclusive. Added to that, we noticed some empty apartment buildings in the area and asked about it. They were locally run businesses that were victims of COVID.

To survive, the little local tavernas and apartments are having to charge more. We don't have children, but for families on a budget, AI, or larger resort areas will be more economically viable.

It might not 'all' be Britain in the Sun, but increasingly it's going to be all many families can afford. We don't even have kids and we find it harder now to find local-run low budget holidays. All the AI places have special kids go free offers, room deals, food deals, etc.

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Just because something wasn’t as good as it was in the 1990s and 2000s that doesn’t mean it should be written off and isn’t worth doing. Most things were better then (90s fanatic here…).

I have never done AI, but the ‘kids get a free place’ offers you mentioned have just unlocked a mystery for me. I can’t for the life of me understand why families pay for AI, including families supposedly on a budget, because whenever I’ve idly researched AI options, they are always, ALWAYS, more costly than a hotel or AirBnB and eating out, and we don’t exactly slum it with our accommodation choices. But it is either just me or me & DP travelling, so no free places.

ObelixtheGaul · 27/11/2025 16:20

Crushed23 · 27/11/2025 15:57

Just because something wasn’t as good as it was in the 1990s and 2000s that doesn’t mean it should be written off and isn’t worth doing. Most things were better then (90s fanatic here…).

I have never done AI, but the ‘kids get a free place’ offers you mentioned have just unlocked a mystery for me. I can’t for the life of me understand why families pay for AI, including families supposedly on a budget, because whenever I’ve idly researched AI options, they are always, ALWAYS, more costly than a hotel or AirBnB and eating out, and we don’t exactly slum it with our accommodation choices. But it is either just me or me & DP travelling, so no free places.

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Yes, it's all the deals. And if you factor in what you get for your money doing AI with a couple of kids, thats most meals, often ice creams and some drinks in the day, etc, you do save.

I haven't said it's not worth doing at all, I've just challenged the idea that it's always this wonderful cultural experience. I think people are too quick to dismiss the cultural experiences you can have on your own doorstep. I've met people where I live who have schlepped their kids to Greece, Spain and Italy, yet have never taken their kids down the road to see the thousands of birds nesting on the local cliffs, or taken them in the local free museum.

Those same kids, with whom I work at school, when asked about their holiday, spent most of it at the resort in the pool. My argument is, I'm struggling to see how much more enriched a seven year old who has been to a resort in Spain is than the child who had some great days out at home.

It's not worth more just because you have to get on a plane to do it. It's not worth more because the waiter has a foreign accent. It doesn't intrinsically have more cultural value by virtue of being abroad.

Crushed23 · 27/11/2025 16:25

ObelixtheGaul · 27/11/2025 16:20

Yes, it's all the deals. And if you factor in what you get for your money doing AI with a couple of kids, thats most meals, often ice creams and some drinks in the day, etc, you do save.

I haven't said it's not worth doing at all, I've just challenged the idea that it's always this wonderful cultural experience. I think people are too quick to dismiss the cultural experiences you can have on your own doorstep. I've met people where I live who have schlepped their kids to Greece, Spain and Italy, yet have never taken their kids down the road to see the thousands of birds nesting on the local cliffs, or taken them in the local free museum.

Those same kids, with whom I work at school, when asked about their holiday, spent most of it at the resort in the pool. My argument is, I'm struggling to see how much more enriched a seven year old who has been to a resort in Spain is than the child who had some great days out at home.

It's not worth more just because you have to get on a plane to do it. It's not worth more because the waiter has a foreign accent. It doesn't intrinsically have more cultural value by virtue of being abroad.

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Again, it really isn’t an either or situation. The most well travelled people I met at university did all the other culturally enriching experiences one can do on their doorstep as well. In fact, I would say an interest in travel and the curiosity to explore different places goes hand in hand with a desire to further one’s cultural knowledge and experiences in other ways. School holidays in the UK are, what, 3-4 months of the year? It’s unlikely that kids are taken travelling the whole time. Instead, families do a combination of travelling and cultural activities in their town/city.

CurlewKate · 27/11/2025 16:26

Ah right. I didn’t realise we were in “why don’t disadvantaged people just stop being disadvantaged” territory.

FastTurtle · 27/11/2025 16:42

Crushed23 · 27/11/2025 15:57

Just because something wasn’t as good as it was in the 1990s and 2000s that doesn’t mean it should be written off and isn’t worth doing. Most things were better then (90s fanatic here…).

I have never done AI, but the ‘kids get a free place’ offers you mentioned have just unlocked a mystery for me. I can’t for the life of me understand why families pay for AI, including families supposedly on a budget, because whenever I’ve idly researched AI options, they are always, ALWAYS, more costly than a hotel or AirBnB and eating out, and we don’t exactly slum it with our accommodation choices. But it is either just me or me & DP travelling, so no free places.

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I disagree with the ALWAYS. Once a year my DH and I stay in an all inclusive hotel for a week or 10 days. We eat for a few meals and go on excursions every other or half day trips out every day depending on the location. We have often paid a lot less than if we’d booked flights, seats, suitcases, transfers, accommodation, all meals and drinks separately.

ObelixtheGaul · 27/11/2025 16:49

Crushed23 · 27/11/2025 16:25

Again, it really isn’t an either or situation. The most well travelled people I met at university did all the other culturally enriching experiences one can do on their doorstep as well. In fact, I would say an interest in travel and the curiosity to explore different places goes hand in hand with a desire to further one’s cultural knowledge and experiences in other ways. School holidays in the UK are, what, 3-4 months of the year? It’s unlikely that kids are taken travelling the whole time. Instead, families do a combination of travelling and cultural activities in their town/city.

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Again, I've not said it's always 'either/or' but my experience of families who have travelled isn't really at the end of the spectrum where travel is about cultural experience. It's more about a cheap break in the warm with a pool for the kids. And there's nothing wrong with that, it's just not that mind expanding, to be honest.

So I don't see the automatic 'it broadens your mind' argument some posters have put forward. Whether abroad or at home, how much your mind is broadened isn't so intrinsically linked to the place you went, it's what you did when you got there. Just as there are plenty of kids who go abroad and do cultural things there and when in the UK, there's plenty who frankly don't. Yet some seems to imply that the very act of taking them abroad automatically confers a broadening of horizons. It really doesn't.

By 18, I'd been abroad twice. Most of the kids I work with in Primary school have been more times than that by the age of 11. But if you ask them about it, not one of them talks about the scenery/museums/culture. They all talk about the pool and the beach. Great, lots of fun, but not intrinsically more enriching than the kids who went down the sea front at home and played the penny shuffles in the arcade, really, is it?

Bordercollierun · 27/11/2025 16:52

We can’t afford it. I expect many of the people you think can afford it can’t either.

Or they can’t see the value in spending £5k for a week in Spain.

Cornishmumofone · 27/11/2025 16:55

I could afford to take DD away, but I don’t. I love travel and I love languages but I’m studying as well as working full time. I’m also saving hard so that she can go to university if she wants to.

golemmings · 27/11/2025 17:01

My kids see a lof of the UK. We camp and we youth hostel.

We can't afford to travel overseas. My 14yo doesn't have a passport.

Simple.
DH and I travelled pre kids but he changed jobs to a family friendly role (with naff all salary) and I work for the NHS.

Crushed23 · 27/11/2025 17:26

ObelixtheGaul · 27/11/2025 16:49

Again, I've not said it's always 'either/or' but my experience of families who have travelled isn't really at the end of the spectrum where travel is about cultural experience. It's more about a cheap break in the warm with a pool for the kids. And there's nothing wrong with that, it's just not that mind expanding, to be honest.

So I don't see the automatic 'it broadens your mind' argument some posters have put forward. Whether abroad or at home, how much your mind is broadened isn't so intrinsically linked to the place you went, it's what you did when you got there. Just as there are plenty of kids who go abroad and do cultural things there and when in the UK, there's plenty who frankly don't. Yet some seems to imply that the very act of taking them abroad automatically confers a broadening of horizons. It really doesn't.

By 18, I'd been abroad twice. Most of the kids I work with in Primary school have been more times than that by the age of 11. But if you ask them about it, not one of them talks about the scenery/museums/culture. They all talk about the pool and the beach. Great, lots of fun, but not intrinsically more enriching than the kids who went down the sea front at home and played the penny shuffles in the arcade, really, is it?

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We’ll have to agree to disagree. I believe even the week-in-Spain trips are enriching and confer intangible benefits in life.

Also - and this is not specifically in response to you but to others on the thread - travel in the UK is of course still travel! A hiking trip in Lake District, a week in Cornwall or a city break in Edinburgh or Bath are fab experiences. You don’t need to hop on a plane or cross the channel for enriching travel experiences.

RecordBreakers · 27/11/2025 17:28

Bordercollierun · 27/11/2025 16:52

We can’t afford it. I expect many of the people you think can afford it can’t either.

Or they can’t see the value in spending £5k for a week in Spain.

and I think this is what some people struggle to understand about money.

The OP has said her friends "could afford it", but having the cash in the bank doesn't mean they have to spend it on the same things as the OP, as they don't put the same value on a holiday abroad as the OP does.
There's 101 things different people might spend the same money on even, in the unlikely event all of her friends' families' budgets were identical.

taxguru · 27/11/2025 18:35

Crushed23 · 27/11/2025 15:57

Just because something wasn’t as good as it was in the 1990s and 2000s that doesn’t mean it should be written off and isn’t worth doing. Most things were better then (90s fanatic here…).

I have never done AI, but the ‘kids get a free place’ offers you mentioned have just unlocked a mystery for me. I can’t for the life of me understand why families pay for AI, including families supposedly on a budget, because whenever I’ve idly researched AI options, they are always, ALWAYS, more costly than a hotel or AirBnB and eating out, and we don’t exactly slum it with our accommodation choices. But it is either just me or me & DP travelling, so no free places.

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It's not just accommodation and meals though. Many have entertainment for the kids, i.e. kid's clubs, activities, even small water parks, and then there is the "free" snacks and soft drinks and ice cream all day. Some of the people I knew who went AI literally never left the hotel and never paid a penny for anything, so no taxis/buses either. If you have a few kids, the pricing works out very favourably compared to going out every day to water park, beach, restaurants, etc plus the bus/taxi fares etc.

taxguru · 27/11/2025 18:43

Crushed23 · 27/11/2025 17:26

We’ll have to agree to disagree. I believe even the week-in-Spain trips are enriching and confer intangible benefits in life.

Also - and this is not specifically in response to you but to others on the thread - travel in the UK is of course still travel! A hiking trip in Lake District, a week in Cornwall or a city break in Edinburgh or Bath are fab experiences. You don’t need to hop on a plane or cross the channel for enriching travel experiences.

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I agree. It's getting the message across to the children that there's a big world out there and gets them thinking about their future life away from their home towns. As you say, even a day trip to go to something like a national park is enriching, if only to show what's outside their locality. Seeing things outside their hometown will encourage them to seriously consider going to uni in a different city, relocating for work opportunities, etc.

It's very life-limiting for the kids if their parents don't leave the home town often as they may well likewise get stuck in a rut and not venture away either. Even a package holiday to a med resort will give the kids some valuable life experience even if they never leave the hotel! Even if it's just negotiating airports, seeing vehicles on the "wrong" side of the road, notices and signs in a different language etc.

Me and my sister are polar opposites. I've been to dozens of different countries, lived and worked in various different places in the UK, but sister has literally never left the country, only had a couple of UK holidays (in the same region), always worked in her hometown, etc. Her kids are likewise - both working in the same now run down town in minimum wage jobs, never gone abroad, etc - really blinkered views as to hotels and foreign travel. Our son left home to go to uni, then his first graduate job was the other side of the country, and now he's moved again to the opposite end of the country, been on holiday several times with friends whilst at uni and with friends from work, planning 2 or 3 holidays next year with various different friends from different places etc.

taxguru · 27/11/2025 18:45

CurlewKate · 27/11/2025 16:26

Ah right. I didn’t realise we were in “why don’t disadvantaged people just stop being disadvantaged” territory.

That's cherry picking though. Lots of people who choose not to travel AREN'T disadvantaged. They could afford it if they wanted to, but choose not to bother. That's fine for the adults, but very unfair on the children. Those who genuinely can't afford it (or have other genuine reasons not to) are different.

ObelixtheGaul · 27/11/2025 19:20

Crushed23 · 27/11/2025 17:26

We’ll have to agree to disagree. I believe even the week-in-Spain trips are enriching and confer intangible benefits in life.

Also - and this is not specifically in response to you but to others on the thread - travel in the UK is of course still travel! A hiking trip in Lake District, a week in Cornwall or a city break in Edinburgh or Bath are fab experiences. You don’t need to hop on a plane or cross the channel for enriching travel experiences.

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No, you don't have to go overseas to travel, I do agree. But I don't agree that simply 'going abroad' is enriching in and of itself, nor even travelling within the UK if what you DO is something you could do in your home town if you had the weather.

I live in a seaside town. Heard on the bus a young girl on holiday with her grandparents complaining because they had said they were going to the pub when they got off the bus. Little girl said, 'but we have been to three pubs already today.'. Now, what do you think they'd be doing in their home town? What do you imagine they'd do abroad?

Travel's only enriching if you also get out of your own headspace, and some people don't. They do the same thing they do at home, just without work getting in the way.

And, like I said, nothing wrong with it, I just think there's some people who could travel the world and still be living narrow lives. I've met a few people like that. I'm related to a few people like that.

It's frankly why there's so many resorts that re-create British pubs, offer English Breakfast, ex pats running fish and chip shops doing a roaring trade...people want what they have at home. They want to do what they do at home. They just want to do it in nice weather.

mathanxiety · 27/11/2025 21:22

Micnerhss · 26/11/2025 15:39

My son has non verbal severe ASD. Having autism doesn't stop anyone travelling. It may be more stressful at times but its worth it to give your kids that experience.

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Not all non verbal ASD is the same. Just because your son can manage, or you can, doesn't mean someone else's child can, or the parent can face the prospect.

loganrock · 27/11/2025 22:47

Some people are just uncurious. And they pass that lack of curiosity onto their children. It blows my mind. The world is an amazing place and life is short. As for the excuse of ‘delays at the airport’ and ‘jet lag’ - really? You’d let that put you off exploring this fantasticly diverse world we live in?

Crushed23 · 28/11/2025 02:22

ObelixtheGaul · 27/11/2025 19:20

No, you don't have to go overseas to travel, I do agree. But I don't agree that simply 'going abroad' is enriching in and of itself, nor even travelling within the UK if what you DO is something you could do in your home town if you had the weather.

I live in a seaside town. Heard on the bus a young girl on holiday with her grandparents complaining because they had said they were going to the pub when they got off the bus. Little girl said, 'but we have been to three pubs already today.'. Now, what do you think they'd be doing in their home town? What do you imagine they'd do abroad?

Travel's only enriching if you also get out of your own headspace, and some people don't. They do the same thing they do at home, just without work getting in the way.

And, like I said, nothing wrong with it, I just think there's some people who could travel the world and still be living narrow lives. I've met a few people like that. I'm related to a few people like that.

It's frankly why there's so many resorts that re-create British pubs, offer English Breakfast, ex pats running fish and chip shops doing a roaring trade...people want what they have at home. They want to do what they do at home. They just want to do it in nice weather.

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Yes, I got your POV already. We’ll have to agree to disagree. I completely reject the idea that trips of the week-in-the-sun in Spain/Greece variety do not confer benefits over and above a day trip to the seaside local to one’s hometown. But it’s okay to have a different opinion.

Augustus40 · 28/11/2025 05:30

I haven,t been abroad in 17 years. Can't afford them. I find them a bit of a bother to be honest.

ObelixtheGaul · 28/11/2025 06:05

Crushed23 · 28/11/2025 02:22

Yes, I got your POV already. We’ll have to agree to disagree. I completely reject the idea that trips of the week-in-the-sun in Spain/Greece variety do not confer benefits over and above a day trip to the seaside local to one’s hometown. But it’s okay to have a different opinion.

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It certainly is. And at least the seagulls don't nick your doughnut in Spain...

Pigeonpoodle · 28/11/2025 06:14

SilverStripedSunset · 26/11/2025 15:15

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t take their kids on holiday, never mind multiple people. Your experience sounds unusual OP!

I had the same thought. I’ve literally never known anyone with kids who hasn’t gone on holiday if they can afford to do so.

It seems very unusual that you know lots of these people. Are they the type who’s family all live in the same couple of streets and have done for generations, who all work for the same local firm, and who even view the neighbouring town as exotic and foreign?

ObelixtheGaul · 28/11/2025 06:33

loganrock · 27/11/2025 22:47

Some people are just uncurious. And they pass that lack of curiosity onto their children. It blows my mind. The world is an amazing place and life is short. As for the excuse of ‘delays at the airport’ and ‘jet lag’ - really? You’d let that put you off exploring this fantasticly diverse world we live in?

Travel isn't the only way to be curious. It blows my mind how so many people think those who don't travel must be lacking/missing out. And I say this as someone who has travelled a fair bit.

I don't think my friend from school who has never travelled is less curious than me. She's curious about different things in a different way. She's chosen to spend her time expanded her curiosity about how the mind works into a rewarding career in mental health. When I look at what she does, I rather think I'm the one lacking.