Cancelled next years holiday abroad

[YellowphantGrey]

And feel awful about it.

Trying to convince myself a UK holiday will be ok bur I know it won't.

We've just returned from disaster holiday after two horrific flights. Holiday itself was fine but the flights were absolutely horrific. People in tears, screaming, crying, my kindle screen broken, DH hurt his back, people throwing up, all from 2 hours worth of severe turbulence on a 4 hour flight and Pilot had to speak several times. It was a night flight and all lights went out and emergency floor strip lights came on. He ended up having to fly lower to try and avoid and was prepared to divert when it started becoming clearer.

On the way over, it was an hours worth of turbulence and not as bad but still took some quite big drops, everyone lifted out of their seats on each drop. Couldn't land and had to retry which was successful second time round.

We decided today after we are all bruised and shaken that we don't really want to fly again but I'm also worried my DS will now be restricted in life and we should be forcing ourselves back on a plane.

Any ideas what to do? I don't think any sort of scared of flying course would help as even the cabin crew were crying yesterday! Apparently turbulence is set to become more frequent, common and extreme.

Cruises are a definitive no as well.

I suppose we could train or drive?

I'm sorry I haven't read the whole thread but in case nobody else has said it, I did want to mention your detail about the pilot telling you to familiarise yourself with emergency instructions before landing. That's something I've heard pilots say on a few different (uneventful) landings. I think some just say it as part of their normal landing spiel. It didn't mean they thought the plane was in extra danger of crashing or anything like that.

I don't fly any more for holidays, for climate reasons, and we are nearly eight years flight free. We've been all over Europe by train with our kids, and also had some amazing UK holidays. But I'm not going to pretend you can have exactly the same free, easy and cheap experience that most flight based holidays provide. You have to accept it's a compromise but there's also so much joy to be had in the journey.

I assume you haven't read the OP's contributions to this thread? Are you always so easily offended?

I would stop flying and go to southern Europe by train/bus if you want nice warm weather. Flying is destroying our planet and you can stop your part in it.
Last year we caught the Eurotunnel to Paris and tgv to gorgeous south of France. Several small kids with us and they coped well.

Where did you stay in the south of France? Any particular areas you'd recommend?

@YellowphantGrey pretty much anywhere in the south of France will be hot and sunny in the summer! We've just stayed near Montpellier this year and then hired a car to go north a bit into the Ardèche. It was a brilliant holiday; sea temp was warm and river was good, too, even if cooler.

We've travelled by train a few times and I recommend booking as early as you can as you can book first class on the TGV very cheaply indeed. We paid for a French family railcard one year when they were still doing it - got our money back and still a discount with just one trip for a family of 4.

That sounds awful, I can understand why you are not keen on flying next year. Could I suggest a couple of options- train as you mentioned or ferry to Santander and hire a villa in northern Spain or the South of France. You will have your own car so you can explore if you want or just stock up on the essentials and flop by the pool.

That sounds really scary op, enough to put anyone off flying, I've Been lucky not to have experienced anything as scary, but my late 1st husband was just flying from.burmingham to Belfast and had some scary turbulence that he said everyone was hanging onto each other he didn't scare easily either.
As for your children, don't worry when they get older they can go off and fly themselves and maybe in a few years you will feel OK I find older I get more nervous I get, but don't fly much purely for the fact would rather drive and we have a dog wherever we go she goes. You still have plenty options you don't have to stay in the UK, France isn't far , is it just cruises that aren't an option or is it boats? You can get ferry to Germany or Spain as well as France. You also have plenty options within UK that still feels like you're going away eg scilly Isles, channel islands, isle of man, etc. And as people have said there's aways the Train.

Not Burmingham * Birmingham

South of France is somewhere we've never actually been, have been to the north twice so the South is going on the list. I'm getting excited about trains as I love trains but DH would rather drive as he gets bored on trains!

I'd say it's more cruising than a short ferry ride though I do get travel sick on boats.

DS is flying twice before Christmas and so is DH. He is fine now but was just shook up after the flight as well as bruised. Mentally it definitely affected me more as when we got home, I kept thinking of the what ifs, not ideal I know

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my post contained none of the above. No idea why it was deleted.

That's good that DS and DH are carrying on flying , what do they think about your views? Re boats there are fairly short ferry options and at least you can take something for travel sickness so you do have that option at least. I think most of us on here would be feeling same as you and also doing what ifs lol. The fact that you could experience turbulence again like that doesn't help and fact it happened on both your flights made it worse, I'd probably take a break from flying and look at other options

DH says they will do whatever makes me happy and though he has rebooked with a shorter flight, he has offered to change again to somewhere where if I really can't do it, I can travel another way. Partly because I'm excited about the potential of a train! DS is fine, he said he's happy to do whatever. I said he might not even want to come away with us next year and he said he definitely does

My goodness, I can't believe the interrogation you are getting on here OP.... why are people like this?

Personally, I'd be a bit put off flying for a while too. Its totally understandable.

We went to the Vendee region in France this summer to a lovely resort that was part campsite, part nice lodges/cottages. We booked one of the nicer/premium cottages with hot tub (just in case the pools got too busy - we weren't sure what to expect in Aug as we normally take our family holiday in May half term). As it turned out the hot tub probably wasn't necessary, though we did use it a few times in the evenings after pool days.

There were 2 separate areas... a more kids friendly zone with pools that had several slides, a separate toddler/young kids pool etc... so much to occupy the children. There was then a separate more chilled out and relaxed pool zone on the other side of the resort... with multiple different parts to it... but no slides..the kids could still.enjoy this zone too but it was a bit more relaxed and there was an adult only hydropool area that was lovely as well. We had a great time and it's the first time I've properly chilled on holiday since having our two kids age 7 and 9. The kids had lots to occupy them and we'd often go to one zone in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Hubby and I would take turns to keep an eye on kids while the other used the hydropool. We could easily chill on loungers keeping an eye on the kids playing and they ran around using the slides themselves, very happy indeed. It was as good as many of the holidays I've had in nice hotels in the Canaries previously, in fact better than a few of them. It is self catering of course, but you can easily eat out within the resort or do takeaway, we went out of resort to different beach areas for dinner on many occasions.... St Gilles Croix de Vie was a great beach nearby. If you are interested in more details, message me and I'll send you over the info. We can't go next year, but I'd definitely go back again.

Travel wise for this trip we drove and got the eurotunnel from Folkestone to Calais. Stopped over in Rouen on the way there and back to avoid doing the full trip in one day - but it is doable in one long day. It was a more relaxed journey though by splitting it. It was probably around 4-5 hours drive each day without stops, so with stops it took most of the days.

We found a lovely place to stop en route between Rouen and Calais also, a gorgeous nature reserve/motorway services area. The driving is fairly easy on the motorways, you get used to being on the other side of the road fairly quickly. We had wonderful warm weather end of July/start of Aug.

Anyway, I hope you find something that suits, let me know if you'd like more info.

Drive to France. It's a lovely country, boiling hot, and honestly not that far.

Give yourselves a year off flying then decide if you cam be bothered the year after.

Agree with others saying drive to France.

Provence is my favourite, beautiful scenery, lots of castles, roman ruins, lovely markets. My preference is to be a bit inland, away from the coast. Year before last we stayed in a lovely villa, own pool, walking distance to supermarket and small town.

Another option is Languedoc-Roussillon, round the coast closer to Spain. Less 'smart' than Cote d'Azure. Lots to see. River jousting is fun to watch. That's where we are heading in 2026.

Thank you, that's helpful

DS will be 17. His routine this year was get up, go to the gym, breakfast then sit around and read, listen to music or podcasts, gym again or shooting or football or basketball. He's older that he can go off and do activities if he wishes.

We tend to get up, go to breakfast and then sit and read.

I've always wanted to go there, thanks to the Peter Mayle books!

France is definitely looking like a contender, when I've got the ability for more time off, I'd like to do more road trip type holidays.

I desperately needed the rest this year, we all did

Yes around Avignon, Aix, St Remy, Salon, Nimes,

The quickest to get to by train is Avignon. St P > Lille, TGV Lille > Avignon.

There are ways you can avoid turbulence in flights, mainly choosing destinations that are closer, and flying earlier in the day. Larger aircraft are less affected. Sitting over the wing as well. I have had a couple of horrendous experiences - but always returned to flying eventually.

Ergh… didn’t a plane fall out of the sky due to turbulence causing the plane to stall in Brazil a few weeks ago? There was a video and it dropped like a stone.

I have been getting more nervous as I get older, couple with the sh customer experience and the higher costs I may stick to UK as well ( a nice spa hotel on the south coast makes up for sunnier climes which tbh are too damn hot any way - look at deaths earlier this year). Or consider ferry/ tunnel/ train to Europe.

Aww am glad they are both understanding and nice that your DS still wants to go on holiday with you. I would love a holiday by train, I love trains and until last year hadn't been on one for years I was quite excited lol ( sad I know) a friend of mine also holidays by train and did couple of trips to Europe. Maybe you could do The Orient Express 🤔 .

An overnight sleeper is on my wishlist! DS and DH wouldn't be keen though so I might save for a solo trip 😂

I can see you’re not keen on cruises, but I wonder if a boat as the mode of transport rather than the holiday itself might be worth a try? I was going to suggest the Isle of Wight or Ireland, but I can also see you’re after sunshine - IOW is usually better than the mainland but not guaranteed. Jersey def worth considering (although some of the crossings can be rough, and again sunshine not guaranteed but better chance than here). Think another poster has suggested Scilly Isles which is another good shout?

OP when we went to Morocco, we flew in to Marrakesh from Spain (not very bumpy), and then to get back, we hired a car from Marrakesh to drop off at Tangier, and drove up over the course of a couple of weeks through Casablance, Fez, Chefchaouin, and Tangier. Then caught the ferry back to Spain. It was an incredible way to enjoy much more of Morocco than we might have otherwise. Just an idea for the future!