Best or worst holidays

I have had many fantastic holidays, to pick out the best is not easy.

The worst place I have ever visited is Paris, I hate the place and I was just counting the days to when I could go home again.

I have enjoyed many holidays in Iceland (before it became touristy like it is now) and fun internal flights on Fokker 27s and 50s into very remote airports.

I enjoyed visiting Finland and touring round on a Finnrail pass (based in Helsinki we travelled to places such as Turku, Tampere and Joensuu – all very different to anywhere I’d been before).

LA has been fun, hot and hectic. Hawaii was just hot. New Zealand was beautiful and I wish I could have seen more, likewise Australia.

Some of my most enjoyable holidays have been in Belgium – had several trips there each year since 2000 (with the exception of our holiday last year which was ruined by the breaking down of a badly-designed French train which seemed to have a problem operating in snow). Instead of doing the usual thing which Brit tourists do (ie visiting Brussels, Brugge, Gent and Antwerp and occasionally Ieper then mistakenly believing they’ve seen the whole of Belgium) we buy a Rail Pass and catch the train to wherever takes our fancy (and many places which the average Brit tourist either completely overlooks or has never even heard of). To date in Belgium we have visited: Brussels, Brugge, Gent, Antwerp, Oostende, Ieper, Poperinge, Mons, Veurne, Lier, Eupen, Spa, Liege, Oudenaarde, Kortrijk, Tournai, Knokke, Blankenberge, De Panne, De Haan, Genval, Hasselt, Tongeren, Mechelen, Kortenberg, Dinant, Namur, Leuven, Damme and Zeebrugge. Those are what I call fun holidays – the best beer in the world and food which is hard to beat in places where you see very few other tourists and certainly won’t bump into folk you know.

Cheeky Sod, only me and Victoria going this year.:D

That leaves a few spaces more so people can join you then !! – first replies from the forum ??? :diablo:;):rolleyes:

best holiday? Bhutan by a million miles.

haven’t had a bad holiday….yet.

Each to their own I suppose pagen, but there is so much more to the World than the UK. All your points for NOT travelling could be countered by going to a good airport, for a flight with a decent departure time, on a great airline in business class away from everyone else 😉

Anyway…I’m lucky enough to have been quite a few trips so I will try and think of some good examples. Fiji has probably been the most tropical and idyllic place I’ve been – do the northern islands, not Nandi and Suva. I hear the other Pacific Islands are just as nice though.

I’ve had great times travelling round the states. I spent a month on the west coast a couple of years ago and that was a great experience, though I did the whole post-student hostel thing and only booked hostels a couple of nights ahead so was pretty much free to do what I wanted.

Europe should never be discounted, even though it is close. The south of Germany, in the country, is very beautiful. Around the border of Austria, or Austria itself.

Every summer, the majority of my immediate family go and spend 2 months in St Mawes in Cornwall.

Well said, but two weeks at St Mawgan is better!

I prefer camping trips in UK to going abroad really.
I can’t be doing with driving to and waiting around at airports at daft times of the morning, enduring flights in ghastly civil airliners (usually more badly flown than any military flight I’ve had) crammed in with 200 other chavs with Tescos bags that all clap when the aircraft executes an ILS approach when they thought we were crashing etc etc.. have I got the wrong thread?!:eek:

cloud_9 – That’s a good idea,Faceache has always wanted to do the Rockies train trip,but I’m pretty sure the one I saw only goes New York – San Francisco.

Baz – that sounds brilliant if you could do it without the shooting at stuff,being shouted at and seasickness.I wonder if Saga do something similar ?

Steve – Melbourne is the only place where I’ve genuinely thought I was going to die – of hypothermia in the middle of the night in Faceache’s cousin’s house in East Bentleigh.Sorrento looks lovely though.

Keep ’em coming. I don’t know about celebrating 40 years,but it’s time those moths in his wallet saw the light of day again.

Cheeky Sod, only me and Victoria going this year.:D

Anna

Looks like a Premier Lodge to me:D

Never had a bad holiday.

I like to rent this place for myself and the kids to chill in the summer. We have been going back every year since 2006.

http://www.english-country-cottages.co.uk/sites/english-country-cottages/pages/PropertyDetails_C.aspx?QS=2B831DC8-E0A4-4868-B1DF-DDB2FE4FD44A~C~NJH~~216~GBP~~0~~A~N~~64bd1ca8-04df-47d5-a249-e922f1b073e0~17886~0~0~~~Y~N~

Hard to pick my favourite overseas holiday, will have a think. 🙂

Falkland Islands 1982

(Brilliant)

Flew out to some lovely volcanic Is. just south of the equator where a tour guide bundled us into a smart looking helicopter (called a Humphrey?). A short hop across the bay and we were placed onto a nice looking white boat called the Cunard Countess. The following day we set off across the South Atlantic at a breakneck speed (!), soon to be slowed by storm force winds and 50 foot waves. Only now did the Captain explain why we appeared permanently pi**ed as the gyro stableized thingys had broken and his flat bottomed ship(now he told us!) was wallowing like a fishing boat. To be honest, this only added more excitement to the trip and in the words of a tour guide “errrrrgh!…….errrrrgh!” as he lost his breakfast into a plastic pedal bin. Now this was my idea of a holiday! We limped out of the storm minus a prop shaft on one engine and an engine failure on another, and as we only had three engines in the first place, in the words of another tour guide ” ..if we had lost that, things could have got really interesting!….”
We did notice however, we only had paper plates for the rest of our voyage as all the crockery was destroyed.
Some of the entertainment was fun, firing guns off the back of the boat at black bin bags thrown in by the crew and running around the decks whilst being shouted at by very noisey tour guides. Now, as I was a member of a big flying club(we don’t do exercise), I decided to (successfully)avoid the runney, shouty stuff by hiding in my cabin! The cinema was good, showing films on land mine and ordinance recognition with a bit on first aid during the day and “The Excorsist” during each evening (a bit boring after 3 viewings)

All in all a very nice trip in a boat, however, in the ten day cruise, we only stopped at one place, right at the end, San Carlos. (and there were no shops!!)

For the next 5 months, I was convinced we were in Scotland.

They wouldn’t refund my money.

Baz

I’ve got my eye on an organised holiday across America,including some train trips to amuse Grumpy.
The big attraction for me is that it finishes in San Francisco,so I could get to see the Short Solent at Oakland. Has anyone on here seen it ?

Anna, does your organised trip across America that you have your eye on run the opposite way at all, as in starting in San Fran and ending wherever (you didn’t mention where it stated in your post!?)…

The reason I ask is because I have a suggestion…why not fly to Calgary, take “Grumpy” on the Rocky Mountaineer from Calgary to Vancouver, then fly, drive or indeed take the train down to San Fran (not sure whether it stops at Oakland?), and then you can pick up the organised trip you speak of after spending a few days enjoying San Fran itself?

Just a suggestion, but that would be one hell of a trip and a great way to celebrate 40yrs of marriage!:)

Anne..i’ve been to most countries in the world..but i always can’t wait to get back here because i already live in Paradise..come visit us here in Sorrento

http://www.visitvictoria.com/displayobject.cfm/objectid.000558EA-42A7-1A66-88CD80C476A90318/

Blimey,you lot have been to some nice places.
We’ll have been married for 40 years next year ( OMG ) and I’ve got my eye on an organised holiday across America,including some train trips to amuse Grumpy.
The big attraction for me is that it finishes in San Francisco,so I could get to see the Short Solent at Oakland. Has anyone on here seen it ?

Two holidays really stick out for me…

Both were cruises, but the first one I went on was from Seattle to Alaska having spent a week prior to that touring Canada (Calgary to Vancouver, inc. Rocky Mountaineer train from Jasper to Vancouver, which was simply stunning!). Whilst on the cruise we went on a small floatplane to small island and saw bears catching salmon in the rivers, and we also went sledging with Alaskan huskies on the top of a glacier.

Next up, we went to Hawaii, spending the first week on a cruise going around all the islands doing various activities such as scuba diving & snorkelling. And then we had a relaxing week in a hotel on Waikikki Beach, during which I also took a trip to Pearl Harbour.

Personally, I felt that Hawaii was the better trip, but either way both were unforgettable holidays and ones I will look back on with fond memories.

I am looking to go away in October…might look at either Dubai, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur if I can afford it (recommendations as to which one, anyone?), but sometime in the future I do have hopes that I can one day visit Australia/New Zealand, but thing with a trip like that is that I would need to take a month or two off work in order to take it all in properly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pefkos

Loved it. 🙂

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mawes

Every summer, the majority of my immediate family go and spend 2 months in St Mawes in Cornwall.

Its the most chilled, beautiful place imho in the country! Its a family tradition, and the temps mid summer are well above the 30’s

Yeah but you already live somewhere nice Blue2.

I had some realy good holidays in Hornsea before they dragged away all the old caravans to be burned. Replacing them with multi- thousand pound monsters and higher rates 🙁
I bet the people who stay there now dont have to send there kids to site shop to exchange cool packs :rolleyes: or have to bring a lorrie batterie for electric 😀 I loved the smell of those gas lamps and they made me sleep aswell :rolleyes::)

Ben

http://www.kennacottcourt.co.uk/

been here a few times, first on honeymoon (Ok, that didn’t work out :eek::rolleyes::() but back since twice with the kids. local area is wonderful, local beer is superb, local food is great (no chains, all local food)

location gives great sea views, nice walks, not far from Bude which is not the centre of the universe but has a few places to stroll around.

Holiday? What’s that?! I don’t really do going abroad, but I enjoy a weekend away with really good company, beer and preferably bbq too. I relax more with a weekend like that than I would bored on a beach somewhere for a week 🙂