My very first holiday was to Blackpool with my parents when I was a small child. My first holiday abroad was in 1963 when I hitch hiked to Greece with a friend (stayed 3 months) though I had been to school in France for a term in 1958 but that certainly wasn't a holiday. Makes me feel so old but I haven't stopped travelling yet.

My first ever holiday was to Blackpool with mum and dad, sis and bro. Went there most years and Filey and Whitby till I was 23. First holiday abroad was to Santa Ponsa in Majorca. Also been to Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Majorca, Minorca(shudder), Lanzarote, Corfu, Crete, Benidorm and Dominican Republic. Trying Cyprus for the first time next year.

Hi,
My first trip abroad was in 1967 to Lloret de Mar with my mum and dad. We flew from the relatively new Glasgow Airport on a scheduled British European Airways Vanguard to Barcelona via London Heathrow, staying in a nice hotel near the front full board for two weeks. On the way home we were delayed at Barcelona because of fog, and therefore missed our connecting flight back to Glasgow. Arriving at Heathrow, BEA took all the Glasgow passengers to one of the airports proper restaurants where we were fed and watered at the airlines expence, before we were put onto one of their new De-Havilland Comet 4C's to Glasgow, flying in 1st Class. I remember sitting next to a young Magnus Magnusson later of Mastermind fame, and getting a visit to the flight deck where my BEA young travellers log-book was signed by the Captain. My mum still has the invoice from the holiday company, Apal and See Spain for £156.00 !! a great holiday, and great memories

My first holiday that I can remember was spending a week in a caravan at a site known as "Fitties" or "Fitty's" Caravan Park. Cleethorpes....anybody remember it.?

It must have been around 1955 and I was about 8 years old.
The reason why I remember this holiday was because my late father was a miner, and like most miners, he suffered with chest problems.
He had a cold and was feeling under the weather, but he didn't want to disappoint the family"¦plus money was too scarce to lose....so we went.

He never came home for 3 months"¦he was admitted into Grimsby Royal Infirmary suffering with bronchial pneumonia and pleurisy, and was then sent to a convalesent home in Scarborough run by the then N.U.M.
We had several holidays at Blackpool, Butlins and Primrose Valley. Filey. N Yorks until I left home at 15 years old.

My first holiday abroad was around 1975/6 and we went on a coach trip organised by the local church to Spain to see the shrine of St James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela can't remember much about that though, apart from walking, being tired, it raining and argueing with my 1st hubby the whole time

Sanji x

My very first holiday abroad was with the family when I was 9 years of age. We went to Costa Brava ( Pineda). One memory that stands out is of the medieval night where I sampled the wine that they poured from one of those glass jugs with the long thin spouts directly into your mouth. Another memory is of my sister (then going on 15) spending most of her holiday travelling up and down the lift at the hotel as she thought that the bellboy was gorgeous

My first holiday as a wife and mother was again to mainland Spain when my children were 1 and 4. We had a great holiday but having sampled many other destinations since have never gone back. Our favourite haunts now are the Greek islands.

I just realised i posted earlier saying my first holiday abroad was 1976 which it was with my friends but i forgot in 1973 i went on a school cruise ss navasa to lanzarote madiera tangiers and vigo in portugal was only 13 so don`t think i took full advantage of it.

1976, 7 years old, Majorca. We stayed in a nice little hotel in Paguera. Our room had a lovely view of the pool and the sea, and we went on local buses to Marineland, which back then was just dolphin and parrot shows (no waterparks back in the old days). We also got a glass-bottom boat from Paguera to Santa Ponsa. We did an island tour which included the Soller train and scary driving around hairpin bends in a big coach which seemd too big for the roads We were only there for a week but it seemed like a long time to be away from home when you're only young. I remember my mum and dad booked it from the April Supersavers in the Thomson brochure, which are so popular they still sell them now!
The following year we went to the El Greco in Portinatx, Ibiza (on a friend's recommendation) and it was the Queen's Silver Jubilee and my dad's birthday while we were there (not on the same day) so we had a great holiday. The entertainment was really good with shows and fancy-dress competitions, and I thought it was fantastic! I seem to remember the entertainments guy was called Emilio and he was always trying to sell his LP of his songs!
A couple of years later we went back to Majorca (Alcudia) but after that times were tight (80's depression, not much money around etc) and we didn't go on any more holidays again apart from a 4 day break at Butlins Pwllhelli in 1983
My first holiday on my own was Benidorm with my then-boyfriend in 1988 and after that I didn't manage to get away again until I took my kids on their first ever holiday to Majorca (Sa Coma) in 1999

cyber what a brilliant memory to be able to go back to when you were 7 in such detail. All my childhood holidays were in Devon, Cornwall or Somerset, which seemed exotic when you lived in the South-East. It took far longer to get there than it does abroad nowdays.

I didn't manage abroad until I was 15 and doing my french GCE, but I did go to Lyons in France for a month to stay with what I called at the time my "French Family". I loved it so much I have never looked back, going abroad one or twice a year ever since, mainly Europe, but a bit of Africa and America thrown if for good measure.

Doe

what a brilliant memory to be able to go back to when you were 7 in such detail

I remember it very clearly because it was so exciting! I had never been on any holiday before, not even in the UK, so going on a plane to Spain was really special and wonderful. When times got tight in the 80's and we could only afford day trips to Southport or Wales I always remembered how much I'd enjoyed going to Spain and wishing so much we could go again.
I don't think you ever forget your first holidays (unless you're really young) because it's different from the everyday and that makes it special.

Yes your first holiday abroad does seem special. (Although i loved the family holidays to the west country when I was little). I have the best memories of that first trip abroad to France, we had a great French teacher and she had made the country 'come alive' for us in lessons for years, so I couldn't beleive I was actually going there, so excited.

Perhaps the reason you love the Canaries so much now is because of that first holiday in Spain when you were 7.

My first holiday abroad was in 1996 to Calas De Mallorca (Majorca) with my partner who is now my husband, so it couldnt have been that bad

It was an all inclusive where we ate too much, drank too much and stayed in the sun way too much. Had a brilliant time and have only holidayed in England once since then when my daughter was born and I couldnt/wouldnt travel abroad with her being so young. Not stopped us since then though.

First foreign holiday i remember was Fuengirola in 1984 when i was 9, we stayed in a complex of villas and remember arriving there in the middle of the night and there was nobody around , we searched everywhere round the place and eventually found a little hut that had envelopes with our names on and the keys to the villas. The next day we woke and outside the villa was a huge dead cockroach which we thought was a mosquito because people had told us they bite so assumed they were big
Just returned last night from marbella and visited Fuengirola. cannot believe how the place has changed.

my first holiday abroad was when i was aged 14 !!! went to Disney in florida with my sister

My first holidays were always to Bridlington but after a really cold, wet week in 1969 my dad decided to take us to the Hotel Hawaii in Lloret de Mar in 1970 (I was 7 years old). I still remember getting off the plane and thinking the heat that hit us was coming from the engines and the shock of realising that was the actual temperature.

The photos from that holiday have my kids in stitches. There were 8 adults and my brother and me, we look like the cast from 'Kes' in the sun. Spain was such a culture shock - Franco was still in power, the local women still dressed in black, the Guardia Civil carried guns, the travel company tours always included a trip to a bullfight, which some of the men in our party went on, there was no wondering around town in a bikini top for women and topless sunbathing was a no, no in the resorts.

Everyone came home with a male and female Spanish doll, a pair of castanets, a plastic bull, a bottle of Sangria (the spouted kind) and the customary Sombrero (why????). It really was fun (at the time)!!!!

Everyone came home with a male and female Spanish doll, a pair of castanets, a plastic bull, a bottle of Sangria (the spouted kind) and the customary Sombrero

Yes, my first holiday to Majorca in 1976 (aged 7) saw me coming home with a huge yellow sombrero, a flamenco dancer doll on a stand (which I resisted the temptation to undress to see if her lovely green dress would fit my Sindy doll); and of course I had to have a 3ft-high fur donkey I also remember having some postcards with pictures of flamenco dancers with real fabric on the card for their dresses Ahhhh those were the days...

Regarding the donkeys everyone seemed to bring home from Spain. On occassions there would be so many going around the carousel waiting to be claimed it looked like a donkey derby

Regards Jackie

it has been good hearing everything about other peoples holidays, and yes my mam and dad bought some flamenco dolls back aswell and the spouted sangria and me and my sister who was then 7 got some castanets. i still have them.

on that holiday i remember that they had the childrens clubs and i wouldnt go in one and leave my mam and dad. they must have been pleased he he! i also went on the train from soller to palma and valledemossa, which my dad loved. i spent most of my time in the pool on my lilo with my sister and only came out for something to eat and thought it was brilliant they had a slide. i can also remember stepping off the plane and the heat hitting me as it was about 2pm when we landed. on the nightime i loved the entertainment as alcudia pins was a suncentre hotel for familys. they sang the same songs everynight notably "cartoon heroes" and "the old campfire". i went back to visit the alcudia pins in 2004 as i was in the albufera park with my parents and it hadnt changed one bit and look exactly the same. i am going back next year with my boyfriend to the albufera playa, no doubt it still wont have changed.

mel

Hi all, been interesting ready through this thread.

My first hol was lloret de mar (Quite a few of us eh?). I was 18, and my sister was 16, I can remember the hotel clearly , it was called juan hotel (Would be interresting to see if it's still there), this is going back 20 years, and the food was terrible, we spent a fortune in mcdonalds, and i remember we ran out of money on the last day, not even enough for a bottle of water .The weather was cold and windy too (June), I think I expected it to be about 100 degree (With it being our 1st holiday, we were completedly niave!). We use to go out on a night dressed in matching white calf length boots,(And hair do's! - which took about an hour to style, with a full tin of hairspray!) we thought we looked the bee's knees (God, - what a sight we must have looked, dancing away in the nightclubs, absolutely sweating in our boots, with our make-up running, and our hair flat - due to the heat!), .

Keep them coming, makes an interesting read! Regards, BBB.

DisneWorld Florida when i was 2 but i cant remeber it! Then it was Costa Brava the september just gone. I will go back to Florida some day though.