Does anyone else dislike long haul holidays?

[einaonik]

In my head 'long haul' was always more exciting and better. But having been on quite a few, I've come to the firm realisation that I don't want to leave Europe for my future holidays. I've spent huge amounts of money to travel to far away places, and whilst rewarding, I've never really felt relaxed. I suppose the only exception would be Thailand where my money got a nice hotel and good service.

But I've been to three countries in the Caribbean, a South American country, Pacific Island Countries, and one in East Africa. So I'm decently well travelled. Even when I've flown business class, because of the jet lag, I feel even more knackered after the trip than when I set off.

Nope. Love a long haul trip, love the travel (now the kids are older, not when they were small), just love the whole experience.

I’m the complete opposite - I love long haul trips. I go on multiple a year.

This year I’ve been to Antigua, and will be going to Bali in October and India in December.

I don’t tend to do more than 1 week for European trips, and often just do city breaks, which are far more exhausting than 2-3 weeks away.

I also feel like I need to cram as many long haul trips as possible in case DP and I decide to have a baby, as I’ve heard they become infinitely harder with a little person in tow!

Flight and jetlag is a bummer. Holiday itself is the best.

Love a long haul. A bit of culture shock is good.
I could not imagine not being curious to see far flung destinations.

Yes a long plane journey can be a pain, but to me it's totally worth it

Long haul is worth it for

a) winter sun

b) seeing cultures and landscapes that are very different from Europe

b) is by the more important to me

I wouldn’t bother going for a summer beach holiday, or a city break, we have wonderful options in Europe for that.

Agree that you can't beat long haul to escape the British winter (even if only for a couple of weeks). Plus all those sights, sounds and tastes you would be missing out on by sticking to short haul.

I could cope with a round the world cruise however when the clocks only change an hour or so at a time and no airports.

I’d love to, but I can’t be on a plane that long anymore. I top out at about 4.5 hours now. I could only do long haul with Valium or something that knocked me out, and that’s not very responsible.

Only ever been on one long haul in 1996 and was absolutely restless being on a plane that long.
I can’t sleep when I travel and I just felt disoriented and jet lagged.

Since then I’ve gone away 2/3 times every year but always to Europe. I tend to go to different Greek islands most years. And I’m someone who can just switch off and do absolutely nothing but lie on a sunbed which I know would be others idea of total boredom.

Nope i love it off to California in a few weeks, can't wait.
I still love Europe as well.

The worst part of long-haul for me is outbound night flights. I can't sleep on a plane, & starting a holiday whilst exhausted is not good. Don't mind inbound, I can sleep when I get home.
We've just booked a South American tour, & managed to get day flights outbound - at a price, of course.

I far prefer long haul to Europe.

Long haul may be less relaxing but it’s more exciting.
Ideal for me would be one long haul and 2 short haul a year. Plus 2 U.K. weekend breaks.
This year long haul was Florida, short haul Spain and Dubai (kind of mid I guess!) and weekends in London and Lancashire.
Next year so far only have Portugal booked.

Have to disagree, I like a culture shock! Going to Japan soon and am endlessly excited about it! But then holidays aren’t really about relaxing in the physical sense for me - I just love getting away from it all.

jet lag becoming worse the older I get though, so I’ve already planned my melatonin/caffeine schedule…

I am SO done with long haul.....! 25 years ago yeah bring it on but now? Nope. Flying is such a chore with seats getting smaller and queues getting longer. It's bearable only if you only have a short flight! There are still a few places on my bucket list such as Hawaii, South Africa & a road trip of the Pacific North West but for now I am more than happy with Europe.

Nowhere i've been beats the beaches we have in Europe - not Australia, the Caribbean or even Thailand. In fact my brother who lives in Australia and has been to pretty much every continent, still maintains the nicest beach he's ever seen was in Mallorca 😂 The Alps are just as beautiful, if not more so, than the Rockies and European cities have so much more culture/nteresting history/architecture than most others i've been to.

I'm just really grateful that we have Europe on our doorstep with pretty much everything you could possibly want of a holiday just a short skip hop & jump away 😍

I don't really like flying so happy not to do it. I could go to a different bit of Italy every year til I die and be happy so I don't see the point any more 😄

Sardinia has beaches that beat the caribbean and Corsica is probably one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places I have been.

Agreed. The clearest, bluest water i've ever seen was in Sardinia at La Pelosa. I did get stung by a pesky jellyfish though!

Agree that if you are lucky enough to have already travelled long haul to your "must see" destinations then Europe is a great bet for future trips.

Personally I have only done long hauls to places of interest. To me there is no point sitting in a plane for 12+ hours for a few palm trees and a Pina Colada. Beaches are amazing throughout Europe also!

The options for Europe are endless. I have travelled a good bit, but there are so many European destinations I have on my list. No more long hauls for me either, I'm older now and can't be bothered with the length of the journeys anymore. Best to do it when you're young and full of adventure., Places like the US, Canada, China, Japan and Egypt, etc. were highlights for me. Others have other favourites.

I'm checking out how to get to the Faroe Islands and Greenland next. Stopover in Iceland looks likely as the mid point too.

I don’t enjoy long haul holidays anymore, much prefer hopping around Europe. I’ll only do long haul now if we are actually moving there (used to live in the US and South America).

I will now only do long haul if I can fly business. I'm in my 50s and 12 hours in economy would leave me in pain for days. I can't sleep sitting up. My bum gets so painful after a few hours but you can't really change postion in an economy seat. It's an ordeal. So now I do go on less holidays because I'm paying more on the flight. I think there will come a point though where I decide it's all just too much.

I think there's a good reason why cruises are popular amongst retired people. The whole airport/long journey/stress etc does become too much.

I am now though somewhat trying to cram in everywhere long haul I want to see before the time comes when I give it up!

We are going on our first long haul this year - thought it would be easier now the dc are teens. But….. I can’t imagine it being any more spectacular than where we normally holiday in the Alps and Majorca. We shall se!

All this long haul flying and then we wonder why the world is on fire.

I've never been long haul - mainly because I'm not keen on flying but can cope for a short distance. However, as another poster says, there is so much variety within Europe, beautiful beaches, lakes, mountains, cities - I've never felt that I'm missing out .

Hahaha, same would only go long haul for Thailand and east coast America now.

We've cut back on long haul holidays while we have small dc, but looking forward to doing more of them when they're a bit older (we still go to the US annually to visit family, but it lacks the excitement of a normal holiday, sitting in the ILs front room for much of the time). I think there's lots of culture and activities to explore in Europe (which we're planning to cover as much as we can for now), but life would feel very empty without experiencing cultures further afield I think.

I quite like the long haul flights! I can guiltlessly allow unlimited screen time for the dcs and binge watch as many films as I can manage.