Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Unflip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Unflip

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

1 2

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

Holidays

holidays, do you go back to the same place year after year?

32 replies

notthecod · 17/08/2004 08:36

do you like doing that - are you tied to a holiday home you own? or do you do somthing radicaly different each year?

OP posts:

Report

honeybunny · 19/08/2004 07:29

Blu-was that the farm owned by the Tuckers? They own the campsite at Putsborough.... now run by the son I think. We had to camp on the farm the first year as couldnt get on the cliff top. They had repeat yearly bookings that filled it, and had a waiting list in our day!!

Report

honeybunny · 19/08/2004 07:26

Blimey, enid, have you persuaded m+d to have the kids???..... never did get our child free ski hol this yr and looks like there wont much chance of another one for quite some time!

Report

BadHair · 19/08/2004 00:37

We don't do holidays every year due to being skint, but since having kids we've been to Tenby twice (with my parents and they paid, heh heh) and will probably go again next year.

I know it sounds really boring but I just don't feel adventurous with 2 small children in tow - like to know where the good beaches are, which restaurants are child-friendly, where's good to go when its wet, where nappy change places are etc.

We'll probably go somewhere a bit more exotic when they're a bit bigger but for now I prefer familiarity, and its certainly not breeding contempt!

Having said that, I was very adventurous last week and took the 2 children for a couple of days in Scarborough without dp. Went with a friend and her 2 kids (so 2 dimwitted adults and 4 under 4!), and we had a cracking time. Sat on North Beach in thick but sweltering fog, which was weird.

Report

Linnet · 18/08/2004 23:58

We only have one holiday a year and we go to London every year to visit family. One year we broke the mold(sp?) and went to Canada it was fantastic but we can't afford to do trips like that often. So we go to London and get free accommodation
Might be going to France next year though to visit friends.
when I was a child we would go to Blackpool every year. there was my mum, me, my brother and our granny and grandad. I have no inclination to take my dd's there. Not that there is anything wrong with Blackpool, don't want to offend anyone who lives there, but it was the same things every year, my brother would spend a fortune playing in the games arcades, we'd spend a fortune winning cuddly toys from those grabbing machines then have to buy an extra bag to bring them home in and then threw half of them out because they were rubbish. And it always rained and was freezing cold for one week of the holiday. I'm not a great fan of the seaside.
I do have some wonderful memories of us all going there though which as precious to me now that my mum and my grandad have passed away.

Report

JJ · 18/08/2004 22:32

We do both, but our summer holidays are always spent at our house in rural AL. It's next to my parents's house (well, a short run through the woods) and my aunt has a house there also. I've been going to the mountain since I was a babe, so it's a very sentimental place, as well as being perfect for kids.

I've just booked our first ever repeat holiday that's not the above! We went last year and it was so fab I couldn't justify not going again this year. It's in Lermoos, Austria and is a Kinderhotel.

Report

tiredemma · 18/08/2004 13:00

we go back to majorca every year, its where we both used to work (pre kids) and where we met so its very special to us, plus to be honest, ive tried other destinations and have always found myself comparing them to majorca and prefer it there.
in the winter we go to center parcs, want to do florida though next year, ( but will still fit in a week to my beloved majorca!)

Report

bettys · 18/08/2004 12:59

We do both. One week's holiday is spent at our most favouritest bucket & spade place that we all love (usually Easter), and another week is spent somewhere new. I think it's nice for children to have those memories of a familiar childhood holiday place IYKWIM

Report

Blu · 18/08/2004 12:59

Also, for children, I think it is exciting to be able to anticipate a return to a known place, to have something they can picture to look forward to. Or maybe I am just carried away by my memories of Devon. We used to love the ritual of shouting '**my brother's's Bedroom ' as we got the first glimpse of a derelict outbuilding of the farm we stayed on!

Report

Thomcat · 18/08/2004 12:53

That's a good point Sereenequeen.
i'll still keep trying new places while I can but as and when i have more kids and they get older and we find the perfect place that keeps them and us happy, yes it would make sense to return there.

Report

serenequeen · 18/08/2004 12:40

pre-kids - definitely not.

now - well, holidays that are enjoyable and relaxing are much, much harder to find... if we really found a marvellous place, i think we would go back without hesitation.

Report

Thomcat · 18/08/2004 12:35

We went back to the same place in S of France twice as friends at the time had a place there but we stayed in different places both times.

But basically the answer is no. It is tempting when you have found somewhere you love to go back but there are SO many places on my wish list that I can't help but feel it's a shame not to see more of the world and try new things.

I just got back from Tuscany and would go again but this time do costal Tuscany rather than inland so it's a bit different. Not that I wouldn't want to go back to the same town as it was wonderful but I'm sure the coastal part we choose next time will be equally as lovley iykwim.

Report

enid · 18/08/2004 12:24

Our neighbours own a gite in Brittany that they leant to us this summer - perfect, beautiful, simple and only £100 a week!! So we'll definitely be going back there for as long as possible. In fact we've been to Brittany for the last three years - I love it.

Planning fab Swiss spa break (no kids) later this year...now that's something I'd like to repeat every year...

Report

Jaxmum · 18/08/2004 12:10

Iota - May I ask where it is you go?

Report

CountessDracula · 18/08/2004 11:51

cd durr that's ME I meant honeybunny

Report

CountessDracula · 18/08/2004 11:51

CD my mum and dad look after dd - you could ask them if they wouldn't mind a couple more! I know we are VERY lucky, hoping that it will continue for a good few years yet - it's the only thing we managed to achieve from our smug pre-kids days of "oh when we have children we will still go clubbing/have lots of weekends away/maintain standards in house (ha ha none of them) but we did always say that we would try to have a child free holiday every year and so far it has worked! Some of you may however remember my pathetic, snivelling thread the day before I was going this year where I almost cancelled the holiday cos I couldn't bear to leave dd (rapidly evaporated as I stepped off the plane into the sunshine I hasten to add!) so doesn have downsides too.

Report

hmb · 18/08/2004 11:48

What do you need to know, codders?

Report

katierocket · 18/08/2004 11:48

notthecod is that really you?
I was wondering when you would come back

Report

Blu · 18/08/2004 11:44

Honeybunny, you have stirred up a huge wave of childhood nostalgia for me! Every year we went and stayed on a farm in N Devon, and spent every day on Putsborough or Saunton Sands. I feel as if I can remember every starfish in every rockpool on Putsborough beach, the taste of the lettuce and sald cream sandwiches...I LOVED it.
I shall be in the campsite you atlk about next summer, without fail!
The Perfect Rockpools!

Report

iota · 17/08/2004 19:04

After years of different holidays abroad, we have discovered the perfect 'bucket and spade' holiday in the UK. We went last yr, booked again for this yr and had a fab time again, so will be booking up for next yr as well.
Having kids has changed our perspective on what makes a good holiday.

(But are also going to Florida later this yr)

Report

honeybunny · 17/08/2004 18:51

As a child, I went back to the same tiny campsite (20 caravans only)on the top of a N Devon cliff opposite Woolacombe Bay (Putsborough-for any that may have heard of it). From the age of 3-16!!! We went for 2weeks in July and another week over the Aug B/H. I loved it, my fav was the week in late Aug when it was quiet, usually crap weather and mum and I would take long walks along the deserted beach while my brother surfed. The wind and rain would buffet (sp??) the caravan, and you could sit and watch the waves crash in and mum would panic about whether we would get blown over the cliff!!
We went back to the same campsite in April, yr after yr for a weeks riding, me with my best friend and her family in a van on one side and family friends on the other side.
I'm amazed that mum survived it all in such a confined space!!
We did explore further afield in the summer from the age of about 14 (usually Europe-France, Germany, Spain) before deciding that the caravan had had its day and opted for S/C villas up until the age of about 20/21.

Putsborough will always have fond memories, but I dont see us repeating history!

V envious of you CD! Jan in the Carrib (sans kids) gimme, gimme, gimme!!! Who looks after the smalls? + will they take mine?

Report

Fio2 · 17/08/2004 18:51

mmm not a typing holiday after all

Report

notthecod · 17/08/2004 18:48

ooh hmb need to speak to you aboutt hta

OP posts:

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Email address

You've subscribed!

hmb · 17/08/2004 18:47

We have gone back to the same region in France, but to different camp sites the last two years. This year was so good we may do the same site next year. Other than that we have gone somewhere different each year.

Report

tallulah · 17/08/2004 18:20

Far too many places to see, not enough time or money to do, to go back to the same place! Having said that, next year will be 3rd visit to Orlando... First visit just me & DH, second visit me & DH plus all 4 kids plus mother, 3rd visit will be 2 kids with me & DH. Different hotel each time & diff places visited. If only money was no object......

Report

Frenchgirl · 17/08/2004 10:31

Usually go to my parents' flat on the Basque Coast (have been going since I was 2 or 3....feels like home!). There's lots to do, I know lots of people there, all the good places to visit and go for drinks and dinner, etc.... I know I'll always have a good time and dh loves it too. I would love to visit new places but I need my fix of that place too, and can't afford to do both things!