How essential are holidays?

treliac

A few weeks more and the adverts will start coming thick and fast for 2010 holidays.

How important is it to have a holiday (one at least a year)? With the economy in tatters are people going to be changing their habits, either through choice or force of finances?

Or do most of us consider an annual holiday an 'essential' to be funded either at the time or on credit?

Speaking personally, we usually have a summer holiday and have often decided where it's going to be by this point in the year before. Not sure about next year, though - I'm waiting to see how finances pan out before making a decision.

lostinrates

I do not think holidays overseas are essential. Most people managed for a very long time without them. I certainly don't think anual holidays are essential. I think travel is a highly desirable extra.

I think holidaying within UK is rather expensive though.

wageslave

I hate holidays.

From the minute I arrive, I start counting the days until I can go home. I can manage a week maximum and then I start going a bit strange(r).

I have loads of friends who couldn't live without their holidays though. For them their fortnight in a sunny location is non-negotiable.

Each to their own.

zzzLazyDaisy

I consider a holiday to be an 'essential' in as much as I include it in my annual budget. I would never pay for a holiday on credit. I usually book about 4 weeks before I go, based on how I am feeling at the time (I am disabled and have to take my holiday when I am well enough to travel) and what deals are available within my budget when I want to go. I would never book months in advance, firstly because I can't guarantee that I'd be well enough to travel, but mainly because I can't see the point.

However, I can see that people who work and have to book their holidays in advance may have no alternative but to book holidays in advance too.

SingleSue

For us, getting away from the normal round of appointments and hospital visits, a couple of weeks relaxing by the pool is essential.

Well, the relaxing by the pool only happens if we get the weather and we only holiday in the UK!

Next years holiday is in doubt....the friends of my parents whose caravan I borrowed this year for a very nominal sum (paid for by my parents as it was so low), has upgraded their caravan and want full whack for it.

milliemonster

They're not essential but I do think when times are tough especially it gives you something to look forward to........if you can afford it!

When I was growing up, my parents never had any money but always managed to take us on holiday once a year, they tell me we went on a weeks wage and as a child I looked forward to my holiday so much as we didn't get to do much else during the year so our holidays were very special, we went to cornwall most years and stayed on a caravan park but it was fantastic, happy memories!!

I would never get into debt for a holiday though (despite my sig, none of it was ever spent on a holiday) but I think a break from the humdrum of daily life can make all the difference to your mental health if things are tight.

I agree holidaying in the UK is expensive though, when I look at a week in a cottage in the lakes or cornwall now most I've seen are around £1000 min during the summer hols which is extortionate

lostinrates

wageslave wrote: »

Each to their own.

Agree, but would add each to their own affordability.I would never put a holiday on credit card (unless for a benefit of some sort).I also don't like travel planned to far in advance. I like just going where the road/wind takes us, so long as I have the right clothes!

treliac

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

However, I can see that people who work and have to book their holidays in advance may have no alternative but to book holidays in advance too.

Thanks Daisy .... yes, it needs planning if it's to fit in with work commitments. I like your idea of booking close to when you want to go and understand your reasons. It's easier to do that if you can go out of school holiday time and cheaper too of course.

wageslave

I love seeing new places, meeting new people but when it is bedtime I want to go home. Desperately.

I am restless and uncomfortable in hotel rooms and holiday lets.

I think I must be weird:o

treliac

wageslave wrote: »

I love seeing new places, meeting new people but when it is bedtime I want to go home. Desperately.

I am restless and uncomfortable in hotel rooms and holiday lets.

I think I must be weird:o

Not if you've got a comfortable home. How ever good a holiday is, I think most of us like to get back to our own bed at the end of it.

lostinrates

wageslave wrote: »

I love seeing new places, meeting new people but when it is bedtime I want to go home. Desperately.

I am restless and uncomfortable in hotel rooms and holiday lets.

I think I must be weird:o

I love hotels. Have had some great ones though last minute secret hotels. Last one we had was my favourite by far though.

I love that someone else made the bed as well as I do (poor DH tries, but have bed and bedlinen fixation he just doesn't get). I like funny little bottles of shampoo (which I never use). I like that some one cleans when you go out. I like breakfast that someone else prepares and does washing up for. I love that my clothes don't have pet hair or half a field on them without me noticing.


I do howver worry about the animals terribly, and miss the cats in bed at night and i worry that everything won't be ok at home. DH says holiday is good for my ego: I realise I don't hold our world together alone. they cope fne without me for a few days.