Biking, it’s the only reason I go on holiday.

That really. It’s usually the Alps… sometimes not all of it is the Alps as we have to allocate some time for the wife too, but the main priority is the biking.

We’ve done the family thing in villa with pool… i find it… boring…

few years ago now, each year the whole family would rent a villa for 2 weeks somewhere, spain, croatia, italy, loved those holidays.
these dont happen any more so me and my wife are happy just to toddle off on our own.
we love greece so have tried a few islands but keep getting drawn back to crete. Love the place and its so big you could never see it all so we keep going there at present, usually twice a year to different areas.

always hire a car so just razz about visiting lovely beaches and villages. im a little more adventurous than my wife who’s happy to sit on a beach/by the pool reading all day with a meal out in the evening, i like to go see a bit more so ill sometimes shoot off on my own. works for us.

also like to integrate a bit with the locals so am currently learning greek.

basically, our holidays are all we work towards. cut right down to the bone on tv subs (none), phone subs (tenner per month contracts), dont go out much.
id love to visit more places in the uk (northumberland for instance shhhh) but just too wary of booking something months ahead and getting a crap weeks weather. would have been lovely just recently but we cant book short notice which is a shame.

Last time, kids 3 and 8 we explored northern Italy. Venice, Garda, Riva, Bologna, Verona, Milan, Modena, etc.

This time, kids 5 and 10, we wanted relaxing with little to no rules, so rented a detached villa with a pool within walking distance (for us ~2.5km each way) of a beach in Northern Sicily. We’ve done a little sightseeing, but this was about the villa/pool/kids being kids.

Since 2019 it’s mainly been an exercise in complex logistics and camping gear packing and unpacking interspersed with lots of biking, hiking and a bit of kayaking and trying in vain to get the kids to wash up some cereal bowls without thinking that their world has ended. They have finally washed some stuff up but I’m not sure the belly aching was worth it.

Before that anything that the family could broadly agree on but the one common feature is spending lots of time outdoors with work phone/email off. I don’t mind beach holidays but my sandy toes and reading threshold is about 8-9 days.

We are now moving into a phase where I think the whole family element is going to be shorter. With a dog with anxiety/separation issues this year’s trip meant several days of boys off biking and Mrs gd dog walking. It is getting harder to balance what the boys want vs. what’s feasible for all four of us for a full two weeks.

Pre-covid, we would head somewhere warm where MrsYeti and kids would hang around the pool getting tanned, whilst i would do the four points of the compass and explore the area. Visits to Silverstone, BTCC, London, etc have filled this year, and my feet have never had so many blisters. Its been great!

Has to active don’t care where, I’m as happy spending a week at Cannock Chase as I am biking in the alps or Pyrenees. Holidays have morphed over the years as the kids have grown older. Used to be MTB in the UK and Road riding in Europe but now I ride gravel by myself and MTB with kids whilst the wife road rides. We do less walking now and more kayaking, Suping and dicking around at aqauparks and open water swimming. We arrived on hols on Saturday night. ÄI’ve done a 25 mile gravel ride, the wife has done a 50 mile bike ride and is out on her second now. The kids have done two rides and two sessions at the aqua park. Walking or kayaking this afternoon. We are out here for three weeks i always need a rest when I get home.

I married a woman who can’t sit still (the warm baths in Pest were a trial for all of us). We go to cities and do things or winter sun with walking and a bit of gentle cycling. Museums, galleries, coffee and cake it’s all good.

Mine starts and ends with 48hrs of flight based terror, which is what I’m experiencing now.

In the middle, it’s pretty much the only opportunity to relax and have other people do things for me, while I enjoy sitting by a pool in the sun. I like to immerse myself in foreign culture so enjoy the food/culture/geographic/historical experience of the places we go.

I like the caravan for accommodation. It’s like camping in that you are in a field by the sea, forest, and/or mountains etc, but you can cook and sleep properly and it’s cosy in the rain. You can cook your own food rather than having to buy something or find somewhere to eat, which can be a chore. But because it’s so small the washing/cleaning up doesn’t take long.

ayjaydoubleyou

The idea of an all inclusive sit by the pool holiday is my idea of hell. Sit around killing time..

The All Inclusive I did, many years ago, had so many events, sports activities, etc I was knackered from playing football and tennis in 40deg heat most of the time. I don’t even remember the pool. Oh yeah, we played water polo in it, that was fun.
Got married the 2nd week, that was the most boring part 😆

The idea of an all inclusive sit by the pool holiday is my idea of hell. Sit around killing time, get given 3 meals a day and don’t leave the compound. Actually more like prison than hell, and people pay for the privilege.

no need to be so condescending if this is what people enjoy. like i said earlier i have just had a week of full on activities which was brilliant but i still had to provide all the meals myself, pay for all the drinks and ice creams, do al the driving and setting up etc. its a graft.

so im still looking forward to the prison compound holiday.

sit around killing time? you mean relaxing, reading or listening to music; or all the swimming, playing with kids, tennnis, footy, volleyball etc.

given 3 meals a day? and the rest, plus its usually fantastic, you dont have to stress about shopping/cooking or choosing a restaurant. kids get to try new stuff without extra expense and theres always a backup if they dont like it. when you do all the cooking for a house full all year long you appreciate this kind of break.

dont leave the compound? well perhaps but thats your choice. i always will always go the the beach some days, theres always a boat trip of some kind, snorkelling, parasailing, jet skis – and i love a nice stroll down to a little bar of an afternoon too… hell

The idea of an all inclusive sit by the pool holiday is my idea of hell

I thought the same, right up until trying it and discovering that my idea of what they’re like and what they are ACTUALLY like were worlds apart, as others have already pointed out

Like most things in life, it’s what you make it. Also like most things in life: don’t knock it til you’ve tried it

given 3 meals a day?

I start with 3 breakfasts a day and then take it from there 😃

Wife and I had EasyJet flights which we’d moved a couple of times in lockdown, originally booked to go to Iceland but moved them to Pisa in July. We found an apartment on AirB&B and thought it would be a good break. Getting through Manc airport was awful and that took the shine off a bit. Holiday was ok but the apartment was a pain to get to and we decided that ‘killing time’ is exactly what we want to do on holiday so we’ve booked an all inclusive for next year.

Road trips, Camping, travel lodge / premier Inn, maps. Walking cycling, adventure, museums, play parks, picnics. Cooked breakfasts, canned lentil Curry, boil in the bag rice, brie and tomato sandwiches, ice creams.
Or something like that.

Currently away for another week in the Loire valley ( been here a week) can’t look at another chateau seen one seen them all !

The Da Vinci expo at Blois is well worth seeing (IMHO) even if the chateaux are “all the same”
You can hire Kayak’s at Saumer ..

You can also visit Da Vinci’s last residence at Amboise to go full renaissance.

I thought the same, right up until trying it and discovering that my idea of what they’re like and what they are ACTUALLY like were worlds apart, as others have already pointed out

a very fair point and I probably have tarred a lot of things with a broad brush.

I’ve done a Nielson beach club a few times. Absolutely loved them. In hindsight, they could have almost fallen under my original description.

Fighting for a sunlounger so that I can sit and read a book on the other side of the globe/continent – absolutely not.

Holidays are all about getting away with the bikes in the camper and preferably needing a passport aswell. The only exception is the annual ski trip

Not looking at a laptop is a holiday! Early September I’m off to Chamonix on my motorbike for 10 days using Airbnb to walk run, cycle. Never been in Summer always winter. Coffee, cake, beer all sounds great. Beach holiday when kids were younger is also brilliant, mind you bit spoilt as only ever had a villa with our own pool. If we could not afford a villa, we stayed in the UK. Hence kids only been abroad 5/6 times as a family.

I like the caravan for accommodation. It’s like camping in that you are in a field by the sea,

Every year I toy with getting a caravan then when we are on a site that allows caravans Vs one that doesn’t and has a parking away from pitch set up I realise how much nicer environment a campsite without car access is. I might still go for it one year if we do a big road trip as reducing the set-up time / hassle is appealing.

What are all your holiday allowences like? I see a lot of two weeks or multiple holiday mentioned. (One person up there said two kid free holidays plus kids holiday). I have a basic 4weeks + bank holiday allowence and find 1 week gets used by Christmas, 1 by summer holidays, 1 week splits over odd days off on half terms and or Easter and the last week on odd days off for jobs that need doing, odd day off to stop myself going crazy. Bani holidays are always too busy and expensive to go away IME so it’s stuff close to home. Or all of you multiple holy people semi retired/ own a stable reliable business / no kids.

Park the caravan somewhere where we can do activities such as SUP, kayak, bikes, surf, walk with the dogs, run on a beach. Preferably minimise the use of the car and has decent pubs for beer and food within walking distance. Haven’t holidayed abraod with the kids since they were under 3, and don’t really fancy it. Our week (should have been 2) this summer was great for that, and the kids are now the ages where they can do stuff on their own too if they want to.

What are all your holiday allowences like?

Normally 25 days plus BHs, I think – carried some over from last year. Mrs Pondo’s a teacher, which restricts things – normally have a couple of weeks in summer, a week at a half-term, and and few long weekends together, and that leaves me with a few days to do things she’s not interested in, like hoping for traffic in the Mach loop. 🙂

No kids, and I’ve seen nothing in our last fortnight abroad to think that was anything but a brilliant idea. 🙂

It really depends..
With the Mrs and kids it means whiling away many hours doing inane things like sitting on a beach by a pool and traipsing around shops (shush don’t tell her)

With the guys it means blasting down a side of a mountain on a bike or snowboard, some drinking in the evenings and lots of banter.

I can’t really remember what it’s like to go on a holiday that doesn’t involve biking.
I think the last time it happened was 20 odd years ago and involved sleeping all day and eating disco biscuits all night.

Just finishing a 2 week holiday in Portugal in a nice big villa with a pool.

Have probably spent about half a day on beaches, been for a couple of walks (a couple of miles max), a few meals out and a couple of trips out in the car.

On holiday I like to relax, do very little and avoid people. Quite like a trip to the supermarket though.

Another caravan fan. Load up all your stuff, choice of 1000’s of sites, no need to book outside school hols. So many places to see, ride, kayak, walk. Your own mattress and washroom. Dog friendly. £1000 a year covers storage, insurance & depreciation. Sites from £10/night. Develop skills in towing, setting up and all that stuff. (You do learn to be a much more chilled driver, even when not towing)

Or a camper/motorhome. But we like having the car with us once sited and it’s less money tied up.

I do bikepacking with mates and the ‘van is the missus minimum acceptable level of comfort, I call it the wife’s bivvy bag.

What @tomtomthepipersson said except more time on the beach for the summer.
My favourite holiday is in the mountains in the snow though. The perfect balance of activity and indulgence!

@ paino
Just like here.

Grates on me really badly.

Had a week in Majorca earlier in the year.

Got to have another week ‘out there’……

Not giving in this time.