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Holidays

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

Do you chat to people on holiday?

103 replies

natarlie · 29/02/2024 12:06

When you’re on holiday, do you chat to strangers/other holiday makers?

I’ve been on holiday to places where couples seem to very much keep to themselves. I’ve been to other destinations where people just start chatting at a bar/in the sea/ at a restaurant

OP posts:
BananaSplitsss · 29/02/2024 17:48

Aquamarine1029 · 29/02/2024 12:09

All of our holidays are at private locations. We want peace and quiet. I have to chat enough in real life.

Yeah this.

BeaRF75 · 29/02/2024 17:49

Dear Lorrd no, what a horrific idea! I go on holiday to get away from people.

GoodlifeGlow · 29/02/2024 17:51

Yes we always end up chatting with other families with kids the same age. It’s nice to share information on restaurants, things to do etc

TheFairyCaravan · 29/02/2024 17:56

I actively try to avoid it but DH does. He could talk a glass eye to sleep, though. I pull my sun hat down and put my Kindle in front of my face, in the hope that people won’t speak to me, but he starts chattering to anyone who will speak to him so it doesn’t always work.

SnapdragonToadflax · 29/02/2024 17:56

God no. I'll talk to random parents if my child is playing with theirs, but I have no desire to make friends with anyone.

Doyouthinktheyknow · 29/02/2024 17:57

We have started doing cruises and they are the friendliest holidays ever so we do chat and share tables for dining etc…
Not so much on land based holidays where we tend to self cater.

NeedthatFridayfeeling · 29/02/2024 18:03

I make small talk in a que.
End up talking to people though as my daughter makes new friends every holiday we go on.

AstralSpace · 29/02/2024 18:09

Yes! My dh is so good at chatting to people (I'm not) and people are usually very friendly.
I went on holiday with the kids by myself last year as dh couldn't make it. I had a few people chat to me, then decided to take a leaf out of dh's book and started chatting to people too. It made the whole trip so much more enjoyable.
I met so many mums on holiday with their kids by themselves that I wouldn't give travelling alone with or without dcs a second thought now.

Moier · 29/02/2024 18:13

No that's why we don't use hotels...if bungalows in a complex and there is friendly people we will chat and pass time.. but we usually encounter people similar to us.
We love peace and quiet.

NewName24 · 29/02/2024 18:14

I'm naturally someone who will 'chat' / pass the time of day / make a friendly comment if - for example - waiting in the same area for something, but I don't want to arrange to meet up the next night or sit at the same table for dinner or drinks or whatever.
We tend to keep ourselves to ourselves.

CeeceeBloomingdale · 29/02/2024 18:20

Never on holiday. I do when I'm not on holiday (at the bus stop, at the theatre etc) but I find on holiday you get stuck with people and I don't want that when it's dedicated time to spend together.

BellaVita · 29/02/2024 18:33

Yes I do.

chimichangaz · 29/02/2024 18:36

When I was married we once met two lovely families through our kids playing together. That still stands out as one of my best holidays.

I go on cruises as a solo, and people always seem really friendly and chatty, more so if you're alone. Plus you share tables at dinner or there are solo meet ups. I'm still in touch with quite a few women I met that way. We would only ever meet up in the evenings for dinner though, there's no way I would want to spend all day with them. It's a solo cruise for a reason Wink

LlynTegid · 29/02/2024 18:36

Depends on the place and the situation, and the extent of my knowledge of the local language.

BarelyLiterate · 29/02/2024 18:41

Definitely not. Holidays are our precious quality time together. Just the two of us. We tend to avoid resorts or holidaying in high season & prefer go to places which are not popular with British tourists, eg Northern Spain, Southern Germany. We keep ourselves to ourselves and while we are polite to people who speak to us, we don’t encourage it & certainly don’t initiate conversations.

Cosycover · 29/02/2024 18:47

I love meeting people on holiday. Best friends for 2 weeks and then never see them again.

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 29/02/2024 18:51

Rarely. I don't mind a bit of random chit-chat with a stranger who engages me in conversation, but I don't actively seek it out. We generally stay in private self-catering accommodation, which makes it less likely to happen.

Kucinghitam · 29/02/2024 18:51

I've sort of been a recipient of a holiday limpet, recently.

(For context, I'm SE Asian by birth, but of East Asian appearance, and I have lived in the UK all my adult life.)

We (DH, teen DDs and me) were in Stratford-Upon-Avon, doing the Shakespeare thing. In the ticket queue at the Shakespeare birthplace museum, a Chinese tourist came up to me with a hopeful expression. He started by asking if I spoke Mandarin, I answered "A bit, not that fluently," and he asked a few questions about whether he was in the right queue and how much his ticket would be. All fine. Good deed done, I thought.

Then once in the museum, Mr Chinese Tourist properly latched on to us. Followed us round every display case, decided that DH would be his photographer, and kept asking me to explain the exhibits - even though it was patently obvious that I completely lack the Mandarin vocabulary to explain Tudor inkstands, Jacobean cloaks, or wattle-and-daub construction.

Every time we shook him off, he managed to reattach himself. At one point, I'd managed to hide myself behind a big ruffed mannequin, Mr Tourist latched on to DDs and was disappointed when they could only stare blankly at his stream of Mandarin questions, so he managed to demand "Mother" at them until they came to get me!

Eventually he escalated to including us in all his photos of the old house, getting us to pose looking at the tassels on the bedcurtains and so forth. DH tried to run away to the next room, and got called back with a frantic "Hello! Hello!"

Things reached a peak when we were talking to one of the staff explainers about the details of Tudor glove-making. Mr Chinese Tourist bustled in and began rearranging us like mannequins in order to take his photos. The explainer was completely bemused, and I whispered "We don't actually know him!" - this caused great consternation and a stream of apologies to us, and a stern instruction to Mr Tourist: "Sir, please do not manhandle other visitors!" which fell on uncomprehending ears.

By the time we got to the next room, the explainer had called a museum supervisor to come and rescue us from Mr Tourist, as they were concerned we were being harassed! (We did feel a bit harassed TBH, but I assured them we would be OK).

As we got to the end of the exhibition, Mr Tourist asked me, in confusion, "Where is the bit about Shakespeare's school?" and I explained that his actual school was elsewhere in town and showed him where it was on Google Maps. He was very grateful and inquired, "Are you all going to visit the school next?" You will be unsurprised to learn that my response was a polite version of "FUCKING HELL NO WAY!" as we all scarpered out of there so fast that we didn't even pause in the gift shop.

Later we were musing about Mr Chinese Tourist's holiday snaps - when he gets home, will he do a slideshow to his friends, "Here's a random confused British family I rearranged into poses, looking at a Tudor beam, and next to some bedcurtains, and here they are holding a glove, and here's the security guard looming at me..."

ilovepixie · 29/02/2024 19:40

No I don't like people. I work in retail and have to be nice to people in my job. I'm
Not going to be nice and chatty to people on holiday!

reluctantbrit · 29/02/2024 20:01

Not really. The only time was when DD befriended another girl on holiday and we ended up at the bar after dinner at the same time and started chatting to the parents. We did a couple of dinners together but only by accident, didn't make plans.

exLtEveDallas · 29/02/2024 20:50

I don't, but DH befriends the world and his wife every holiday. He is the biggest extrovert, all the waiters/staff end up loving him and we get countless free drinks/extra a la carte meals etc and once a room upgrade and laundry!

Weirdly, I always seem to end up with them as FB friends and happily keep in touch, but DH doesn't bother.

Twice we've met up with families we've met on previous holidays - once we were going to the same country, same resort but different hotels so arranged to meet up when we got there, and once by sheer coincidence we met in the airport and ended up on a plane to the same island, but different resorts.

i do the same as a PP, hat down and nose in my kindle. But bloody DH ends up bringing people over to me in any case 😡

BlowDryRat · 29/02/2024 20:54

No. I will be polite but I really don't want to spend my holiday trying to hide from "new friends".

WandaWonder · 29/02/2024 20:55

Sometimes yes sometimes no it depends

Ilovelurchers · 29/02/2024 21:00

I do chat and have had drinks with people met on holiday once or twice. Have never teamed up and spent most of the holiday together though - my parents used to do that and it seems quite popular but I have never been quite extrovert enough for that .......

Stringagal · 29/02/2024 21:32

BlowDryRat · 29/02/2024 20:54

No. I will be polite but I really don't want to spend my holiday trying to hide from "new friends".

Yeah, it was after spending an evening basically hiding on the floor of our balcony with the lights off, that I decided not to befriend people again!

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