Spending all day at the pool?

[longestlurkerever]

I'm aware this post is going to come across as judgy and I genuinely don't mean it to be as fully aware my holidays probably sound shit too, but I am curious about what people mean when they say they spend all day by the pool on holiday as i think i must have the wrong end of the stick. I bloody love pools and swimming and go most days even at homr but after an hour I'm ready to get out and dry and into the shade. Isn't it a bit uncomfortable spending all day in the pool? And even if you include "by" the pool, isn't it difficult to relax while there are kids playing and shouting and splashing you? And are the kids just nagging you to get back in the whole time? It's these kinds of reasons I've never been on a resort holiday or to center parcs but everyone I know seems to enjoy them and say the kids have a ball, so wonder if I'm missing out based on misconceptions.

I’ve always done sight seeing holidays but the last few years DD and I have done adults only/ AI in the sun and literally done nothing but sit by the pool all day, every day and read. I can’t tell you how good it makes you feel especially if there is some dancing in the evening.

I'm on holiday at the moment. It's really hot so not great for sightseeing.

I love a pool/beach holiday. This is my routine...

Get up and have a small breakfast
Find a spot on beach/by pool and set up
Chat with friends/family
Read a book
In and out of the water
Late lunch
Back flopping with book
Hang about in water with large sunhat chatting
About 5pm we might have a cocktail
6pm shower/change
Go walking/sightseeing before late dinner

My life normally is crazily busy with lots of pressured decision making. Its all about the contrast on holiday and It's lovely! Children are teenagers though so they don't need any looking after.

I guess it's what you are used to. We live in the alps and the nearest beach is hours away from us.... so when we book a holiday, it's all about the seaside! Crabbing, sandcastles, 99ers (when visiting the UK).

Walking in the mountains and hanging out by lakes is something we do a lot in our every day life.

I started a thread about it to help my imagination as it was picturing shrieking kids, being nagged at and a general feeling being a bit on public view. Kind of like my local leisure centre but with more sunburn. And i do love my local leisure centre but its sensory overload and not relaxing at all. But I figured that must be the wrong picture and people have given me a be8idea, which I'm grateful for as I will have a better idea of whether I would enjoy a break like that and in what circumstances (without kids seems to be the general advice).

I'm with you. I can swim and sit by the pool for a maximum of 2 hours. I can never seem to get comfortable or the right temperature. I also like to go out exploring somewhere every day. Kids love the pool but happy to go in after we get back.

I could’ve written this post too OP.

All of our friends do all inclusive resort holidays, and whenever we’ve asked them what they did on their holiday, all they tell us is they lounged by the pool, and that the hotel food was good.

Each to their own, but they don’t eat in local restaurants, go to beaches, try regional specialities, go to night markets, visit museums etc. They pay a lot of money to lay by a pool, in what could be pretty much any country with hot weather.

A friend went to Egypt recently. I asked about the pyramids, and she told me she didn’t visit them. I laughed and said oh silly me, I didn’t even ask where in Egypt you stayed, and she said they’d stayed nearby, but it was too hot to sightsee, and she didn’t want to have to get up earlier when it’s more manageable to enable this, so she stayed by the pool for the whole 2 weeks! I just can’t understand why you’d travel that far, and pay so much, when all you do is lay by a pool.

Last holiday me and DD managed to spend about 7 hours in the pool coming out just for toilet and to eat.

We love water. We swim, do tricks, float, swap pools ,play , took part in the games/competitions, water gymnastics, chat etc.

It's definitely doable, if it's the kind of thing you enjoy. Not everyone does , and that's ok.

That’s so not my idea of a holiday. I burn far too easily for a start and chlorine irritates my skin and brings me out in itchy blotches. I’m also intolerant of crowds of people so while a private villa would be more tolerable, a crowded hotel pool would have me sitting in my room in preference.

When on holiday I like to go exploring.

The same goes for centerparcs, minus the sunburn really. A lot of people tell me they think I'd love it and you don't need the extra activities because kids spend all day in the pool, and my imagination is failing me there too as I think we would love that pool but I can't imagine wanting to spend longer than a couple of hours there either before needing a break.

What kind of swimming? Just doing laps can get boring and repetitive .

@longestlurkerever

See I think this is what I mean. I can imagine having a blissful holiday just lying somewhere beautiful with a book. But it wouldn't be by a swimming pool with loads of other people around and my kids nagging me to get soggy again when I've just dried off.
Dc are older. They do other stuff and certainly don't want me 'playing' with them.

I go places that don't have screaming kids or noisy clientele

I'm very happy to sit on a sun lounger under an umbrella and read , take the occasional dip , break for a leisurely lunch out of the heat of the day and then back to the pool. Some times we do the same but at a nice beach bar instead. We always book nice quiet places ( not big all inc resorts ) so not so many noisy kids.

After a few days I do get itchy feet so we then tend to hire a car or a boat and go off and do a few days out exploring the area. Then I'm happy for a few more days on my lounger.

I can easily read 6 or 7 books during a two week holiday.

Just come back from a nice post GCSE and A level holiday with DD16 and DS18. Two weeks doing nothing much was just what we needed but we did do four days of exploring to stop me and DH getting bored

I also love a busy touring type holiday but you book what you know the family need the most at the time.

Well it depends on the time of year but in the summer you can take inflatables and beach balls to the lido which is fun. But no one I have ever taken to the lido has ever said they'd like to spend a week there.

It's too hot to do anything else in the middle of the day.

Days by the pool are blissful!

Sleeping, eating bar snacks & drinking, reading books & magazines, chatting. Some pools will have pool games. I don't sit close enough to get splashed. The days fly by!

Doesn't work for me at all. I want to be exploring not sitting at a beach or pool, but I can see how some people just want to sit and relax with a book

I think it depends on the dc a lot. My kids love a pool. We routinely go to regular one for two hours plus! My friend took us to a David Lloyd pool which has an indoor and outdoor and we spent a day there. They are confident swimmers and older so don’t really need to be constantly watched 9+ They just create challenges for themselves, how many dolphin dives in one breathe type stuff. I can chat,read, swim. It actually was not my thing atall pre kids. I backpacked and did lots of interesting things but now I’m knackered and actually sitting with a book whilst kids have fun is my idea of a holiday.

You don't have to understand! They do what they want to do, and you do what you want.

@longestlurkerever ironically , I'm the other way around. Despite being able to spend days in the pool on holiday, I avoid going to the local pool(I only go for DD's sake), and then an hour is more than enough and slightly dragging.

Nowadays it's strictly adults only hotels outside school holidays.
Lots of books, my crochet and a podcast, under an umbrella (I don't sunbathe).
This will be for an hour here and there with lots of walking, swimming and leisurely meals

When DC were old enough to swim it was bliss as they would happily spend 10 hours a day in the pool. I don't remember them pestering for anything. DH and I would take shifts at watching (lifeguarding) them while the other relaxed. Once they were teens we didn't even need to do that.

We often spend the last day of the holiday by the pool. This year, our flight left at 10.00pm and we had to be out of our room by 12.00, I think. So we had a leisurely breakfast, sauntered down to the pool, I need to keep under cover so a parasol is essential. Couple of hours later wander to the restaurant for lunch. Then a few more hours by the pool, reading, listening to music and podcasts, a bit of a swim, then a late dinner before heading off to the airport. I wouldn't want to do it everyday, but really enjoy the lazy last day of the holiday.

This!

I was recently on holiday in Florida and sometimes it was so hot that all we could do was get in the water to keep cool. So we would just sit in the sea or in the pool chatting for a couple hours 🤷‍♀️

Our kids just get up and go straight into the pool. They're in and out as they please until about 7:30 pm (from around 11 am). I spend time in the shade under an umbrella. My partner just lies on his sunbed tanning, reading and listening to music. We are all so relaxed that even sleeping in becomes possible again.

No idea how people do it, I'll spend 20 minutes not reading my book because it's too noisy, fetch drink (not alcohol honestly ) sit for 10 more minutes and announce I'm going swimming, that lasts all of 15 minutes because it's crowded with children splashing, try book again and well it's now 12 (we don't get up early) so it's sangria time, play on phone then announce I'm hungry so get food, you get the picture, drives dp mad as I just can't settle. By day 2 we head out after breakfast for a few hours and only go to the pool around 4 when its quieter

I love nothing more than a huge resort to explore with a number of pools. We can sit for hours by the pool. We usually go to Turkey so there are waiters on roller skates fetching drinks, there are numerous restaurants within a minutes walk and a beach 5 mins walk away. We spend an entire holiday doing bugger all. Takes a few days to get into the old ‘I don’t have to get up and do anything today’ vibe but once we’re there we just relax, eat, drink, swim in the sea or pools and take a load off. I usually go through 4 books too. The kids are happy in the water parks and finding food huts.