The pros and cons of summer holidays

The recent unseasonably lovely weather has caused us here in the office to start counting down the days to our holidays with much excitement and anticipation.

I am a firm believer in getting away somewhere, especially in the summer, no matter where to and for how long. I am one of those people who gets dizzyingly excited by the prospect of a mere hotel stay and sometimes the breakfast is the highlight of the whole experience.

When the kids were young and money was tight we had the use of the in-laws’ big caravan and since we hadn’t been on holiday forever, this was the ultimate in excitement and fun. We have progressed to going to different places and then abroad in the last few years. That was a first for my husband as he was never abroad as a child or young adult. He has since been bitten by the sun bug and is determined to go abroad every year. I am happy to have a “staycation” sometimes and I do feel that getting away with the family is the important factor and not just the sun, sea and sand. Although if faced with a choice, sun, sea and sand would win. There are pros and cons to holidaying at home and abroad and it is very much what you make it.

However, that is not to say that it is all fun, fun, fun. Holidays can sometimes bring out the worst in us, especially the organising and travelling parts. Packing and unpacking cases that are too heavy or packed wrong is usually the first holiday crack to show in our house. Busy airports and roads can then lead to frayed tempers and we sometimes find ourselves snapping at each other about who packed the passports, who has the heaviest bag and who is meant to be watching the kids. Then the queues, the shuffle to get on the plane or boat, or being stuck in the car on the road to nowhere.  By this time we have vowed never to do it again and so on. Eventually we flop into plane seat or tumble out of car and after a wee relaxing glass of something, we are sorry and didn’t mean a word of it and are ready to start our holiday. What was all the fuss about?

Having said that, sometimes I do think back with fondness on those simple early holidays in the borrowed caravan.