Upper Middle Class not well travelled AIBU?

[Tabbytiger122]

There are some very wealthy folk we know & some I'm acquaintances with on fb from college. All seem to run off similar schedule for holidays... Christmas skiing in France/Switzerland (same place every year) Midterm said place again, summer is always spent somewhere in France ,Italy or Greece (but always the same town)
That's it never different countries... it seems to me they are not well travelled & that familiarity is more important than going somewhere new for the heck of it! Aibu?

I recently discovered that a lot of people do this because they literally own an apartment in a ski resort and another house in a Mediterranean location. This is how rich people continue to grow assets while spending v little actual cash. Unrelatable to the vast majority of us.

Buti also hate going to the same place OP. Did it the last couple of years to indulge DH and felt like gouging my eyes out.

I think OP means professional people with plenty of money basically!

It could be argued that only the 'lower orders' are concerned that they look well travelled. The UMC (whatever that is) don't give a shiny Range Rover what anyone else thinks about them so they just do whatever they want.

There’s a lot of relaxation in familiarity.
Sure, I go on holidays where I can’t speak the language, navigate unfamiliar cities and unfamiliar transport systems. I also like to return to somewhere I know, where to eat, what the entertainment is, what the weather will be like, what’s on for kids, what the cost will be … Hell, we went to the same place every summer for six years at one point. It was only Covid that curtailed the 7th year.

Who cares? Maybe they own property in one of the countries they visit regularly?

I don't think knowing a couple of people on Facebook means you can judge an entire class of people as not well travelled. Surely many will have had a gap year or two travelling in Asia/Aus/S. america when they were teens or early 20s?

Indeed it could be - but one of the posters below believed the UMC travelled to the same places every year to strengthen their social class. - which doesn't square up with doing whatever they want.😂
I don't believe that most UC people don't care how they look to others who they see as equals or above them.
But they might not care how they appear to people they believe are below them - but I've heard too many stories about their behaviour to believe otherwise.

It sounds a lovely way to spend retirement!

This right here is a question that needs answering asap. It's sapping my will to live, that's for sure.

Agreed! I think we’d probably be categorised as wealthy working class😂
A cruise popped up on my SM the other day, round the world, 4mths, 50KPP before excursions, drinks package etc. it does look a good way of seeing the sights, but I’m not sure I could stick it out for that length of time…Southampton to Southampton with no flights though, so at least there’d be no ghastly airports to negotiate. Maybe when/if we retire!

O.M.G. I just ate a bowl of Fruit n Fibre at 10am… have I betrayed my class? 😱 They were Kelloggs. though, not some own brand equivalent.

I must confess that I seem to have fallen into that category in the past few years.
I like to ski in Austria and always go to the same place and hotel. It is family run and it is great to catch up with the family and with other guests from different places, who all ski at the same times of year.
My other destination is more exotic and I have been going there regularly since 1998, although I tend to visit different locations each time. I do always try to spend the final 2 or 3 days at the same place as it is convenient for the flight home and good to catch up with people I have met over the years.
When my husband was still alive and we travelled en famille, we went to a lot of different places, mostly based on last-minute offerings as we were both freelance, so could not plan too far in advance. We were reasonably open-minded about our destinations, though, but they were always outside Europe as we lived within fairly easy driving distance of most European destinations.

I’m quite well travelled but honestly I’d take Spain or Switzerland or France over Barbados or Mauritius. Most of these “fancy” long haul holiday places are just resorts and beaches and you can’t leave the resort much. Also, why is it only the upper classes that do that? Lots of people from all classes are creatures of habit, and holiday in the same place. My parents took their caravan to the same campsite in Scarborough every year of our childhood 😁

Each to their own, @Tabbytiger122 . You want to explore more places, they may like the comfort of knowing what standards to expect and where to find what they need etc. As others have said it's helpful if you want to learn another language.

Christ woman, traditional brands are very naff.
It’s either Aldi own brand, some ultra organic Waitrose variant or you make your own
Kellogg indeed. You’ll be telling us Hienz baked beans and Gold Blend are nice next.

And I know lots of 'working class people' who go to Ibiza or Felixstowe every year. Not sure what the point of this thread is, envy probably.

Absolutely. My SILs and their families go to the same Spanish resort annually.

I doubt it’s a class thing! Some people just like going to the same place, which they really like, and where they know the ropes so don’t have to waste time finding out where to go, what to do.

For quite a few years when dds were at home we went every summer to the same beach resort, where there were excellent watersports run by responsible people (not always the case!) who we’d come to know well. They were fantastic holidays,

Later dh and I have returned several times to the same place in the Pelopponese, since we always thoroughly enjoyed it, and the particular hotel was amazing value with wonderful sea views.

We have visited plenty of other places, but these two were always ‘return’ favourites.

Ibiza can be very upper class too depending on the part & accommodation type. Just thought I'd make a thread interesting replies but if I ever come into money I'll personally be diversifying my holidays!

What age group you are? Why do you hate going to a place twice? Is it because you didn’t like the place that much to return to it or that you are a passport stamp collector?

I consider myself fairly well travelled. Also lived in 4 different countries so far but now in my 40s , there are some places I love to return. Because I really like going to those places, it’s relaxing.

There may be an element of 'class' in that certain places have an appeal for certain types of people (birds of a feather and all that) and some resorts can get a reputation (if that's the word) because of that. Isn't Rock in Cornwall nicknamed 'Chelsea on Sea'?! It would be true to say there's sometimes a dominant demographic in a holiday location. However, the reasons why people return time after time to the same place are varied and perfectly reasonable IMO.

Please tell us more about the "subtle signifiers of wealth," I genuinely would like to know. Do you mean they are used by people deliberately to show how wealthy they are, or they are unconscious things to watch for in others?

Not read the whole thread but lots of people may travel for work and not want long haul travel for holidays with children.

Would love for the OP to elaborate but I think they mean silent markers the wealthy recognise in each other

Well for me those aren’t box ticking, despite the language I used, as I have family in both the US and SA so I won’t ever have “finished” or “ticked off” visiting there.

Some people like spending their holiday money on high end hotels but I would rather spend it to travel further and have more experiences of different places.

I have significantly reduced travelling by plane to reduce my carbon footprint. Therefore most holidays now are in Europe

Same. I've just absolutely had enough of airports. Love a train journey though.