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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think its pointless going abroad if you're just going to stay around the hotel for 2 weeks?

53 replies

SourCreamnChive · 04/03/2009 10:13

My sister has just got back from Egypt. I asked "did you have a nice time?" and she said "Oh yes, it was lovely!"

I asked "what's it like over there? I've always wanted to see Egypt"

She looked a bit lost for words and then said "well, you couldn't really go out of the hotel complex ... but the weather was lovely!"

What's the point in going so far abroad if you can't even leave the hotel? isn't the whole point of going abroad to see a different country?

Its like in brochures when it says "The hotel complex has everything you need so you'll never have to off-site!"

why??

OP posts:

Cies · 04/03/2009 10:42

YABU - it's her holiday, she can do what she likes.

I know there are people for whom a camping holiday in Wales would be hell on Earth, but who are they to complain about me doing it?

Original poster

SourCreamnChive · 04/03/2009 10:42

"He was actually being very kind and wanted me to get the full enjoyment from my nicotine fix; but when someone points a machine gun at you and says "smoke!" you light another one pretty damn quick, I can tell you"

PMSL - sorry but that is going to have me giggling all day

OP posts:

Sassybeast · 04/03/2009 10:44

YABU. I would kill to have a 2 week lounging by a pool holiday

Peachy · 04/03/2009 10:44

If youre going to do the in hotelhol, cruise- at least the view changes!

Egypt is about pyramids and ancient cultures surely? seems an odd choice

Mind my sister will go topalces whre they say you musnt leave complex as too violent and you think wow- that sounds fun

Peachy · 04/03/2009 10:45

(Buta m biased, cant stay still anywhere for more than 10minutres, beach pool included)

Gorionine · 04/03/2009 10:48

ABedad, we do live on a shoe string here and it was less expensive for us to go to a 5stars hotel in Tunisia for 10 days (end of May) for a family of 6 than it would have costed us to go camping in Cornwall. I swear I am not kidding!

HeadFairy · 04/03/2009 10:54

I'm inclined to say YANBU but the thought of doing one of those God awful arranged tours, tramping around following a billion other tourists to see pyramids covered in graffiti and sold tat by hawkers, I'd be inclined to say stuff it and sit on a lounger and read a book. I have scuba dived the south Red Sea on a liveaboard and it was fantastic.

Now if you're talking sightseeing, I'm dying to go and see Machu Pichu (sp?) esp as they're limiting numbers so much to prevent damage. I wouldn't be lying on a lounger if I was in Peru (not that there's many big commercial hotels in Peru either)

Peachy · 04/03/2009 10:55

blimey where were you camping LOL

no seriously camping sites vary hugely- we've got one truip of a week booed for under £200 for 6 but the big fortnight is closer to £800. And if you have start up costs- well I dreqd to think what our kit cost us but easily exceeds a frew thousand acquired over years

piratecat · 04/03/2009 10:56

it depends what you want from the holiday and at what time of year you go and budget.

Spain isn't hot this time of year, maybe they wanted sunshine.

Yet IF i'd gone to Egypt i think i would have gone and had a look at soemthing historical!!!

ChippingIn · 04/03/2009 11:36

I have to say, it sounds like bliss , sun, pool, book, cocktails.... what's not to like??

I tend to do the opposite though, choose somewhere and think I'll spend some of the time relaxing and some of the time sightseeing/absorbing the local culture, but what normally happens is I race around finding that I must see this before I go, when if it was in the next town over at home I'd still not have bothered to go and see it!! LOL

So, I think going somewhere, where there is no pressure to see and do everything is a great idea!

Besides, it's only about a 4-5 hour trip isn't it? That's not bad for some real sunshine.

Wigglesworth · 04/03/2009 11:53

People are going to places like Egypt and Turkey now cos the pound is so poor against the Euro and at least it is still worth something there.

JoandMax · 04/03/2009 11:54

I think YABU - if she wants to sit by the pool and relax for a couple of weeks what's the harm in that??

Also, I went to Egypt a few years ago in October and it was only £300 AI each for 10 days and the flight was 4.5 hours so not sure where the ideas that it's so far away are coming from......... Isn't Tenerife about 5 hours?

MorrisZapp · 04/03/2009 12:27

Sightseeing is overrated in my view. I just get dirty, knackered and harrassed on most sightseeing jaunts. The problem is that most 'sights' attract mass tourism, which is rarely a relaxing experience.

I prefer holidays where you just do as the locals do (ie New York, eat and shop along with New Yorkers etc) or laze by a pool.

I don't even like beaches!! I like the pool and will stick to it for days on end if I get the chance. A week is enough for me.

Just the thought of it - hot sun, gentle breeze rustling the flowers, distant sound of kids playing in the pool as I lie in a sun drenched haze with a chilled drink at my side.... heaven.

firstontheway · 04/03/2009 13:02

YABU!

I don't see how what anyone chooses to do on their holiday is of any interest to anyone else! That's what it is... a holiday! And people relax in different ways. Personally, I'm not one for lying on a beach all day, but my mum and sister could sunbathe 12 hours a day. Their choice.

And besides- do you have any idea how big Egypt as a country is?! It's really not as easy as saying, 'oh, what a shame she didn't see the pyramids' if she wasn't holidaying in Cairo. It's a long way from the beaches!

mumeeee · 04/03/2009 13:03

YANBU

lottiebunny · 04/03/2009 17:53

belgo - We're poor students, no money for fancy scuba diving courses! Plus I spent most of the time laughing at comforting DP about messing his pants when he got a bout of the sharm-el-shits.

I do normally love seeing things. My holiday to Tunisia a few years put me off seeing things when its hot. I didn't even know you could sweat from your fanjo before that holiday.

badgermonkey · 04/03/2009 20:48

I kind of felt like this until we went on one of those holidays and it was bloody fantastic! We've been on city breaks and all over the place, but a holiday in the sun is a completely different beast. I read thirty books in two weeks and every trashy magazine I could lay my hands on. We even had all-inclusive wristbands for drinks so all I had to do was wave a waiter over and order a cold beer . God, it was just plain marvellous. You don't get medals for hauling yourself round ruins in the heat, you know.

Tiramissu · 04/03/2009 21:36

I understand that some people dont like sightseeing (although i do) and prefer just relaxing,swimming and sunbathing.

But i dont understand why they do that at the hotel. I like to swim in natural water, to feel the mediterrean water and salt on my body and to feel the sant on my feet. Not the plastic tiles of the swimming pool.

Tiramissu · 04/03/2009 21:37

30 books in two weeks????

fluffles · 04/03/2009 21:39

normally i'd agree with you entirely but i did once go to greece and stay on-site for a week - but it was an activity place and i did yoga, played tennis and learned to sail. It was a one-off though and i usually prefer more of a cultural experience or to see amazing natural beauty.

hatwoman · 04/03/2009 21:45

tbh going to one of the resort hotels in the Sinai isn't really going to Egypt. it's just going somewhere for some sun. which is obviously what your sister did and what she wanted to do. don't understand it myself either. but horses for courses and all that.

If you actually want to see Egypt you go to Cairo and Luxur which is what we did in October and loved it.

captainpeacock · 04/03/2009 21:55

Ooh yes, me, me, me. Just saw the first post and totally agree. Who would want to go on holiday and not sight see. Actually i know the answer without looking at the other posts. I expect75% want to just relax on holiday. Anyway, I am with you sight seeing rules.

badgermonkey · 04/03/2009 21:58

Really, 30 books! I brought about 14 with me and the rest were taken from a very handy leave-one-take-one bookcase in the hotel lobby . I am a stupidly fast reader, though.

Tiramissu · 04/03/2009 22:05

You should make a living of your speed reading skills

30 books must be the record!

badgermonkey · 04/03/2009 22:09

If only there were some way to profit from it! It's more of a hindrance than a help tbh, it costs me a fortune in books and library fines! Sometimes I really envy the people who can make one newspaper last through a whole flight or long train journey.

Anyway, that's why I love a lying-around holiday - I literally pile up novels at the side of my sunlounger and work my way through them.

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