Your Favourite Holiday.....

[Smowball]

What has been your favourite holiday so far, and why? I was really thinking about this and I think it was when we rented an old farmhouse in France. It had a small swimming pool, and backed onto woodland. We would walk into the local village for groceries, fresh bread, local wine! The weather was baking and we would either do a BBQ in the evening, or go to one of the many amazing local restaurants. There was also a river nearby with a picnic area, and you could hire boats. Just magical........

[Arksided]

Gness, a mental note ... Tavira....Lagos......Mertola for a night or two. Just wonderful places

I can Imagine they are, I'll seek out that opportunity, I are a bit jealous though of... I'm guessing here of the Pyramids and thinking Peru.

[237SJ]

Yes, we went there by train on our first day after spending the night in a £5 per night dive (D rating on Lonely Planet) We found a lovely B&B in the hills which was an old British Officer's house and it still had an English garden. We did the tourist dancing bit but the best thing I got there was some fantastic Orange Pekoe tea.

[naomi24]

An experience .... to say the least. :o)

[237SJ]

The experience was trying to get home on stand by tickets..

[naomi24]

Oh dear. That bad, eh? Was it a long wait?

I confess we do those places the easy way. Nice flights, nice hotels, and a car with driver.

[237SJ]

We went through Bahrain because an embargo had been slapped on Dubai flights which was the original way I planned to go there. It was the Hajj as well. I reasoned that if we could get back to the Middle East from Colombo we were almost home and dry. We got on the flight no problem from Colombo and arrived into Bahrain at about 8.30 in the morning. Went out in the town and did the usual things. Came back to the airport in the afternoon due to boredom and waiting until the early hours for our flight. Unfortunately, another airline had overbooked and all the passengers had turned up and put on our flight. Hence, we didn't get on. So we sat in the airport all night. The Gulf Air staff were so nice to us, bringing us coffee etc. Couldn't really complain as we were travelling for free anyway and these things happen. We couldn't even buy a ticket to get home on any airline so we decided that we would split up if necessary as I had to get home and go to Singapore the next day. We ended up having to pay £403 each for commercial standbys in Gulf air (the following lunchtime) I`ve never been so glad to get out of and airport in my life. It was a good holiday though.

[naomi24]

Crikey! I’d have been pleased to get out of the airport too! What a nightmare!

[LadyCG]

I have had so many lovely holidays that I can't pick a particular favourite but we've more or less decided on our honeymoon now which we are aiming to take in January 2021.

[237SJ]

I heard that the place we stayed at on the beach for a few days after travelling around was wiped out by the tsunami. Sri Lanka is a nice place though isn't it? I must dig my photos out and put them on the computer.

[Tilly2]

One of my favourite holiday was a trip to Labrador. We went on a whale watching trip on a catamaran and were lucky enough to see Humpback Whales breaching. It was heart stopping and truly emotional.

On another trip to Vancouver, we went into the Puget Sound on a trip and the boat had sonar microphones. We could hear the Orcas communicating with each other. That made me cry. I could not contain my wonder.
Unforgettable.
Finally, our trip to The Galapagos Islands. That has to be done, to be appreciated. The wildlife is sensational but my favourite were the Blue-Footed Boobies doing their courting dance. So lovely.

I am privileged to be able to see the things I have always wanted to see.

There's a lot more but I don't want to be boring. :-)

[Arksided]

237SJ, awe that sounds scary. I can only say that one time coming home from Malta was a nightmare stuck in the airport for 24 hours... with a poorly younger bro and an irate Mother along with many other stranded passengers.

[gness]

It won't be boring, Tilly....this is a lovely thread because we are hearing what people got from different places and that beats a holiday brochure!!....x

[Calicogirl]

I think it's a lovely thread hearing about where everyone found special for whatever reason x

[retrocop]

Best holiays I ever had was camping with the family in Normandy, Brittanny and Alderney when the boys were young. I had sailed to the locales first and then re visited with family,car,trailer and large tent.
Now, it always Malta for the sun,history ,friendly people and, most important for me, the short flight. Can't bedoing with long haul any longer which makes me feel very guilty and selfish for my dear wife.

[237SJ]

Nothing about travelling is ever boring

[naomi24]

237SJ, /I heard that the place we stayed at on the beach for a few days after travelling around was wiped out by the tsunami.//

I was in Sri Lanka very, very shortly after the Tsunami. News reports in this country didn’t - and couldn’t - adequately describe the utter horror of the devastation – but I won’t elaborate. Just thought I’d confirm what you’re saying.

Back to more pleasant memories.

[Caran]

Back in the day we had a 24 foot cruiser. When we retired in 2003 we took it over to France. We sailed the rivers and canals for a month, came home for a couple of weeks then went back for another month. We finally ended up at Toulouse where. We had to leave the boat.
We couldn't bring it back as the tide was too strong for us to go against especially on the major rivers.
It was a fantastic holiday. The wildlife we saw along the waterways was fantastic.
There was one thing I didn't like though.
Back home on the waterways there are pumping stations to enable boats to empty toilets. In France they do not have this facility. Toilets have to be emptied directly into the river. I found this awful, but there was no alternative. Especially as we would see people swimming in some of the rivers.
Years later we bought a motor home and toured all over France, we had some wonderful holidays in the van going as far as the Riviera and into Spain.

[237SJ]

I was on a work trip just before the tsunami. We went to Indonesia and left there on Christmas Eve, arriving home on Christmas Day. Turned on the TV on Boxing Day and saw the news. Terrible.

[tiggerblue10]

My best holiday was when I went to Australia for 6 weeks in 1993/4. We went to visit relatives and I have loads there from both sides of my family, many of whom I have photos with from when I was a baby. Had a fantastic time with them and also trips up the Blue Mountains, kangaroo park etc.

2nd best was a safari in Kenya in 1998. That was amazing.

[naomi24]

tiggerblue10, the first time I did an African safari I decided I never wanted to see an animal in a cage again. (That red dust plays havoc with the hair!).