If you had an amazing holiday this year…

[Sunnydaydreams]

…please share what you did, wherever you went. Having spoken to friends and colleagues, no one seems to have had their best time this year (although most of us have had the ‘pleasure’ of taking grumpy teens bringing down the mood!). Not to everyone’s tastes, but our best family holiday so far has been to Florida, visiting Universal Studios and Disney - it was such good fun.

This is a personal minor irritation but when people say they have “done” a place it annoys me. Sure, you went there. You visited. But I doubt you’ve “done” it, as in seen every single thing it has to offer. Sorry, just a pet peeve!

We had a week in a 5 star all inclusive hotel in Majorca / Mallorca that we’d been desperate to go to for ages and saved hard for. It was a bit disappointing really. It was okay, the hotel was nice but the resort itself (Sa Coma) was a bit of a let down; felt a bit like a Spanish Blackpool (which is fine if that’s what we’d expected but it wasn’t). Ended up using taxis to get to better beaches etc. Then Ds aged 13 became very unwell around 5 days in and was up being sick all night, not sure what caused it - food or heat- was quite stressful and worrying. He did bounce back quickly the next day but put a dampener on things as I was so worried.

We have now just come back from a week at Haven in Caister and honestly we enjoyed that more than the fancy holiday! Just more relaxed, I have complex health issues and felt more at ease being in the UK / near NHS etc (rare autoimmune issue) and we spent a lot on eating out at nice restaurants- we didn’t use the caravan for much except sleeping. We had a really nice time.

Of course absolutely! If my 12 year old DS had his way we wouldn’t go anywhere! Regardless of being asked where we are going and activities he wants to do! My girl is very relaxed and so is my youngest.

Reading all these with utter envy as one of my kids is currently scared of flying so no planes for us. 😭😭😭

We did spend a bit more than I'd usually do on a UK break though given we weren't going abroad and booked a "rockstar" lodge with hot tub at Tattershall Lakes. They have an outdoor heated lido there and with the nice weather we had it was as close to being abroad as I was going to get!

I've been drooling over the Hebridean islands lately. All those beautiful beaches. 😍

We went to Camarthenshire for a week in March and it was absolutely beautiful. We stayed in a lodge on a site with a restaurant/pool complex and I had a few treatments that were heavenly. We walked miles with the dogs along empty beaches, and then went inland to explore some castles. We can't wait to go back.

Who did you go with?

We did two weeks in the Bavarian alps. First week near Garmisch, second in Berchtesgadenerland. Great simple outdoorsy family holiday. Apart from a couple of rainy days at the beginning it was hot and sunny. Swimming in lakes and lovely outdoor pools, doing fantastic mountain hikes, exploring picture postcard towns, driving into Austria to visit Salzburg, an ancient salt mine and the largest ice cave in the world.
My 7 year old complained a bit about the food but she is very fussy, and about walking in the heat but we kept to the shade as much as possible.

Two actually ! Skiing in Livigno in January and then Slovenia and Austria in the summer . Summer was incredible . Gorge walking , zip lining , rafting , lake swimming , paddle boarding! Teens loved it 🥰 !

We went with Exoticca. There are trade offs it’s not a luxury tour company but more affordable than other organisations. Happy to answer questions.

I went to Edinburgh for a family reunion and to show my sons where their grandma came from. My cousin came from America and it was a bit of a disaster. The hostel room she had booked was too small and had no disabled facilities. So we had a mad scramble to find another hotel room (mega bucks)!!! She was struggling to walk anywhere so had to hire a wheelchair. Then storm floris hit and all our trains were cancelled. Managed to get a hotel for another night....😯

Last year I took my 3 year old around Thailand and
Malaysia for a month, it was amazing and he truly thrived travelling around every few days with me 💕 we returned back to Thailand in April this year and loved revisiting our favourite islands and being able to relax more this time

We went to Florida.
2 weeks of Disney, Universal and New Park Epic.
It was nice to see out teenage DS having fun.

we’ve just booked up again for next year !

We had two holidays this month - a week in Zakyinthos and then another week in Icmeler in Turkiye. We thoroughly enjoyed both. It was our first holiday to Turkiye, and we'd go back again. Next time, we'd like to visit a different part though. My son is 14, and enjoyed both trips, he loves different countries, especially those with history and trying new foods.

We went to New England - Boston, Connecticut and Cape Code. I loved it and want to go back again. 12 year old has started puberty though and was a bit grumpy at times.

We did princess, it was good but for a few reasons wouldn’t pick them again.

we have seen that celebrity do a similar itinerary which we would consider.

We went interrailing again (our 2 are 18 and 21). We were in Basel in Switzerland for a week in some weird apartment complex then moved on to Cologne in Germany and finished in Brussels in Belgium. In Ibis hotels in Germany and Belgium.
We went by Eurostar - definitely worth getting first classs especially as that also covers first class in the UK.
I was quite taken with Brussels; it was full of my favourite things, smurfs and chocolate. DH wanted to visit Avenue Louise as there is a memorial to Jean de Selys Longchamps who did a single handed attack on the Gestapo headquarters on that street and killed 5 Gestapo members.
I wasn't sure about this as DH is very into military history and I'm not, but Avenue Louise turned out to be the main shopping street, so we had a lovely time shopping and eating first, and the plaque was at the very bottom of the street.
Then we went to the Atomium which wasn't much of a deal but Mini Europe was right next to it and that was brilliant, with little models of all the European countries and various interactive parts.On Romania's model, you could try to find Dracula; The UK had the Brexit referendum with the Houses of Parliament; you had to find Boris Johnson and also the Tardis within the model!
We also had a lovely day in Ostend. We did try Bruges first but seems a victim of its own success, Rammed with people, horses, dogs and, for some reason, cardboard, and more people continuously pouring in.
In Cologne we visited the chocolate museum, did the big wheel outside, visited Cologne Cathedral and, of course, C & A. Shopping was still a good experience there.
I'm not sure I would stay in Switzerland again as it's really expensive and it was a relief to get into Germany and Belgium which were a LOT cheaper for eating out etc.
Also DH likes organising the trips and had us staying in Switzerland for SEVEN days, way too long. Ah well, at least the Euros were on and the fan zones were great - especially as Lidl were one of hte sponsors and were giving away tubs of free fruit. Much appreciated by us!
However, we did some lovely train trips including one to Engelberg which I think is very geared ot outdoor pursuits, especially skiiing etc but plenty going on there including live music.
But yes, a good holiday. Only thing is, we ended up going all the way from Newcastle to Basel in one day and that was too much with all the luggage etc, especially having to change in Paris.
On the return journey, it was direct from Brussels to St Pancras so much better not to have to change til back in the UK.

Oh me too! My 11 yr old DD refuses to fly and I really would love to go away. We are trying Eurostar to Amsterdam at the end of September but it’s not quite the same. And that took some persuading! She has never been abroad so at least we can do that. I feel for you!

This sounds lovely - where did you stay?

We just had a lovely bank holiday weekend walking Wainwrights in the Lake District in glorious weather. Some mild moaning from the kids but really not too bad. Prior to that we enjoyed a family visit to a rather wet Sydney, this year they had more than 4 times the average August rainfall, we had a few days of almost 20 degrees, but much more than half the time it was raining, and it's not UK drizzle, it buckets it down. We did enjoy a 3 night stopover in Tokyo on the way back, I have spent quite a lot of time in Japan so this visit was mostly spent at Disney as the kids like it, although they don't know what they are missing. DisneySea is a great park, and luckily we hit a slightly cooler spell (still hot as the humidity is extreme) and missed the worst of the extreme heat Tokyo has had this summer.

Ohh can I please ask where you stayed? Absolutely love Barbados, the self catering place I used to use isn't available for the dates we are looking for next year!

Glad you enjoyed Brussels and Ostend. Both underrated.

We went to Florida and the Bahamas in April - absolutely fabulous time, a lovely relaxing weekend in Majorca in June and we’ve just got back from a week in Kranjska Gora where we hiked a couple of mountains, ate lovely food at food & beer festivals and cycled into Italy for the afternoon to have pizza & icecream!

New York for just before chrismas and Portugal a couple of weeks ago. We travelled along the algarve coast staying in Albufeira, Portimão and Praia da rocha and finished in Lagos. Was absolutely wonderful, each resort had something different to offer. The caves around rocha are stunning.

Just DH and I as DC were at Uni - 2.5 weeks in Vietnam. We loved it.

Narrowboating!