In my younger days, traveling by train and bus in Europe was fun. We’d hop a train, spend a couple nights in some town, move on. Packed light. This was before internet and euro! Onetime we bought a Benelux pass. Saw most small towns in the region.
Just wanted to add my nay vote to some huge cruising monstrosity since they were often mentioned in the worst category, concur for all of the reasons listed…
But a barefoot cruise would be heaven by extreme contrast. The wind in the rigging, dolphins, albatrosses, sunrises & sunsets, evening skies. I did one in Maine 10 years ago and loved it. Next time I plan to yes go more tropical. The vessel can’t be too big tho or we’re leaning back to the hell side of the meter.
Amen, the UK standard of my teenage years was the package holiday that saw you being shuttled from pillar to post by bus and on arranged trips. Hated it.
In our early twenties my wife and I switched to arranging it all ourselves. Self-catering, hire car etc. being completely our own bosses and we much prefer it.
You don’t need to at all. Travel by road, rail and cheap air in Europe is really easy and cheap, there’s no shortage of cheap accomodation and loads of places to escape the crowds.
They didn’t exactly end in the 60s- there are still holiday parks to be found Butlins being the cliché one. They’ve not exactly got a ‘middle class’ reputation by UK standards- it’s been so cheap and easy to get somewhere like Spain from here that package holidays in the UK are a bit of a joke to many. Although a lot of people who actually go there are families, especially those with multiple kids and not much money, the popular image of Butlins would be the sort of place your elderly fussy relatives might go every year, because you can’t trust the water in Spain and they’re worried the locals might not speak very good English.
Holiday parks have been slightly reinventing themselves in some cases by hosting events like music weekends, to try attract younger people- like festivals but with indoor sleeping rather than tents. I suppose I could see myself going to something like that if it was bands I actually wanted to see.
I very much used to like to jump in my truck with a buddy or two and camping gear and hit the 4x4 trails. Set a few tents and build a fire and cook.
As more and more people flocked to Colorado, and more and more 4x4 trails got shut down, its very hard to do. But now that I live in the mountains, and have a fire pit right off my deck I have zero desire to do that anymore
This sounds like a British version of Poconos resorts. There was a “circuit” name that evades me right now, that has Jewish overtones.
‘Borscht Belt”?
The Catskills - as in Dirty Dancing or the second season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
That’s it! TYVM.