What was a holiday like when you were a child?

[meagaein]

far away for example Cornwall or the top of Scotland meaning a 4am start

70s and 80s

One week in same caravan in mid wales (loved it!) in the summer hols

May half term - one week in cottage rental in NW highliands of Scotland. Also loved it!

My dad bless him would make a map of the journey for us and things to spot on the way.

And we would get to stop at a little chef for breakfast. Words can't convey how much I loved this.

Alternate years staying in rented house somewhere, various places in the uk, but always somewhere with historical interest. Often Wales. Spent the days looking round castles and whatever. Always booked for two weeks and went home by the Wednesday of the second week at the latest. Evenings were watching telly while my mother did her usual cooking and cleaning. Beaches, amusements, fun fairs and restaurants/cafes were strictly off limits as my parents didn’t enjoy them, but we might have a Chinese takeaway a couple of times.

Usually a cottage in Devon or Wales. Never Cornwall as it was deemed "too far" from where we lived in Berkshire. For years, I thought of Cornwall as a far away mythical land.

We went to Menorca when I was about seven, and a canal boat holiday in France when I was 13. The next time I went abroad was post A Levels with my friends.

No real holidays as a child. A few trips up north to see relatives. Sometimes in an overnight coach. Once went to Cornwall for four days. Other than that it was an odd day out to the seaside and that was it. I didn't go abroad until I was 14 and that was a German exchange trip. Then when I was 17 i went camping in France with then BFs family. I didn't fly until I was 21!

Driving round wales for hours so my dad could get us the cheapest rooms going.
Pillows you had to fold several times to use, castles, castles and more castles.

Us three girls crammed in the back of the car, sitting on towels, our feet on other stuff. We had a small flat and chalet on the beach. It was bliss for us. We went to Cliftonville every year. The same people in the chalets including some friends from home. Two weeks on the beach whatever the weather. Poor mum worked very hard. There was no money for eating out and she cooked meals on the gas ring in the chalet. Then at the weekend, all their friends would turn up and sit in a big circle on the beach and mum would be making tea for up to forty people. We would play cricket with two proper teams. In the evening we would all sit on the prom and listen to someone play the organ and some years dad’s cousins would be on at the Winter Gardens and would come and sit with us on the beach, causing quite a stir. We loved those holidays. The photos show that sometimes we needed to wear chunky knit cardigans but that’s not how I remember them.

90s-00s

Usually two weeks all inclusive in Majorca, Corfu, Cyprus, Lanzarote etc.

Lots of lounging by the pool, reading tons of books and swimming. Hotel entertainment in the evenings. Usually a day at a waterpark but not too many excursions because they made my parents anxious.

Currently in Cornwall with my own young children and will do an all inclusive next year but good deals are hard to come by. As they get older, I'd like to do some more adventurous holidays travelling round Europe.

Two week all inclusives on Greek Islands.

Trip to Miami one year for New Year's.

Such a mixture! When I was really young, we had 2 great holidays to North America because we had family/friends there to stay with. I assume also as us kids got cheaper plane tickets.
Lots of short trips to Wales to see grandparents. A memorable terrible static caravan trip to Cornwall which was not my mum's thing! After a Scotland self catering holiday, mum decided holidays meant hotels
We were really quite lucky with European foreign summer holidays, often Italy, but were taken out of school a week early to make it cheaper.
Oh and autumn weekends in the New Forest (which is much further away than I realised as a child!)
My parents love to travel and they definitely prioritised holidays over other things.

I went on my first holiday abroad at 11 and before that it was camping holidays in Tenby or Scarborough. We loaded up our estate car with things packed round us to the roof and crammed on the roof rack, covered with a tarp and bungee cords 🙈. We then started going abroad every other year to Majorca or Ibiza.

When I was small the 4 of us would go by train to a seaside holiday. My bro was a lot older, so it wasn’t too long before it was just 3 of us on the summer week away. When I was 11 my Dad bought a car. Mum was partially sighted, so could not drive. We started going further away for hols and on walking hols - Peak District, Lake District, Scotland. Bro and a friend sometimes joined us for a few days. As a small child we would visit my auntie in the midlands and go to her caravan in Wales. She was the maiden aunt and much older than my Dad, a grandmother figure but a fun young one. When I was a bit older my aunt would take her 4 youngest nieces (of which I was one) to the caravan. It was great fun, even though it nearly always rained

Until the age of about 16 we never went on holiday. We were at home all the time in the house. Never went anywhere apart from the park. I used to get very confused when I went back to school in September and classmates would talk about going here and there. I honestly was so confused. So boring.

Driving from Manchester to Devon or Cornwall, or the Isle of Wight setting off in the early hours of the morning. My mum made sandwiches and a flask of milky, sweet coffee. I would lie out across the back seat under a blanket and sleep on.

I can still remember how magical and exciting Blackgang Chine, and Shanklin Chine in the evening were to me as a 4 year old. Went lots with DDs when they were small and hope they too have special memories, even though we have had some lovely more far flung holidays too.

Day trips or boarding house down in Bognor or Ramsgate. It was the forties. Later it was Cornwall but that was really something.

70s/80s childhood. Apart from a week in Ibiza when I was 13 and 3 weeks in America visiting family when I was 14, holidays were Southwold, Cornwall and Tenby (before any of those places were in any way trendy!)

Camping in Suffolk, usually a chalet in Cornwall and cottages in Wales.

Full days on the beach, lots of swimming, elaborate sandcastle/ dam building, badminton and French Cricket. Always a picnic on the beach for lunch, not much eating out but lots of knicker bocker glories in proper ice cream parlours.

We also used to leave in the middle of the night. Only child so I got to lie across the whole back seat. I can remember driving down Oxford Street in London (when cars were still allowed) at 3am and watching the sun rise at Heston service station!

And the the excitement of arriving at our destination and that first magical glimpse of the sea.

For the majority of my childhood we didn’t go on any holidays. Not even a weekend or night away!

Then when I was 12 we went to Spain for a week, and again when I was 14.

That was it.

Self catering cottage somewhere in England or a hotel in Scotland or Cornwall. We had 2 holidays abroad - once to Austria and once to Belgium (where we visited battlefields and war graves -great fun for a little girl!).

My parents had a touring caravan, so we went away every school holiday when the weather was nice. DF worked in a FE college, so while he did work in the school holidays some of the time, he seemed to be able to take more time off in the holidays, than 4 weeks annual leave or whatever?

We went to London quite often (I was born in North London); Pembrokeshire every Easter, Skegness every summer, the West Coast of Scotland, Northumberland, the Brecon Beacons, Barmouth, Dorset, Yorkshire Dales, Norfolk, the Lake District, and Blackpool (to see the lights). That is all I can remember. My grandparents moved around the country frequently, so we would go and see them in the New Forest, Newport and Alford (Lincs) often.

When I was 11, we went to Paris for a week; and I went on a French Exchange to Paris as well.

Grew up in Australia so it was mostly long boring road trips to see distant relatives, with several 'big' holidays (one about every 2/3 years) to somewhere more exotic. Fiji, Lord Howe Island and New Zealand were the highlights.

We went about four times. Once abroad and then the others were to Cornwall on a 9.50 caravan holiday where you get the tokens in the paper.

We mostly went to the USA to visit relatives, but that was less exciting than it sounds. Once we were close to Florida but my DPs didn't fancy Disney so I didn't get to go.

Otherwise mostly in Europe visiting museums and art galleries, no sitting on a beach or fancy hotels.

We went to North Wales in a guest house every year until I was 8.The bar was down a short staircase and my dp used to leave me and db in the room asleep while they had a few drinks.A different time.

8 onwards we went on package holidays to Spain usually b&b or half board

Never went on holidays or even weekends/day trips as a child. Went to Blackpool once as a young teen. That was it. Never even taken to the beach.