Since concerns were raised over skin cancer, it is no longer cool to lie on the beach for two weeks and do jack all. Adventure holidays are now main stay, as everyone has to "do" something now on their holiday. The key for me is yes, lets do something, lets go somewhere different, but when we get there, remember we are on holiday and not there to keep the local tourist industry in business. We had an idea a few years back to set up a new type of holiday to deal with this exact point. To let people go somewhere different (our website is www.somewheredifferent.com) to let you experience another world, another culture, to get in touch with yourself again etc etc.. but at the same time to actually enjoy it and make sure that sitting with a large G&T in your hand around a fire is just as important as the safari you will remember forever. Duncan Ridgley, Siwa, Egypt
I couldn't agree more that a real holiday is one where you actively do nothing. The only part I can not agree with is the part where you state the for "relatively little money" you can holiday in England (other than camping). Last year 9 of us rented a lovely quiet house in rural Devon with a shared pool, 1 hour from the sea. This year the same 9 people have rented a rural house in Portugal with a private pool (big advantage with 5 boys), 5 minutes from the sea. The rental, flights and car hire come to the same price that we paid for the Devon house. Eating out in Devon was extortionate. Driving to Devon took 6 hours from Hampshire. Holidaying in England is lovely, but it's very, very expensive and the traffic is horrid - Gill Thomas, via email
I have just finished reading Oliver James' article and it struck such a chord with me that I felt I had to write in response! My husband has an increasingly stressful and responsible job and just cannot unwind easily. Weekends are spent with him either grumping around the house or asking constantly "what do you want to do today" (this generally starts when he opens his eyes in the morning!). Holidays are very rarely relaxing as he can't stand more than a couple of days "relaxing" on a beach before he has the local guidebooks open and is poring over them, planning the next outing and "must see" activity. All of this is incredibly stressful on me and puts pressure on the rest of us to keep up or be seen to be lazy! I so appreciated the sentiments expressed by Oliver in his article. One of the best holidays we had was in 1994 when I won a week's trip to Antigua on a local radio show. It was perfect - nothing much to do except relax, sit on the beach and drink cocktails at sunset. Evening entertainment was almost non- existant. A couple of days in, however, I started to see a change in him (coupled with the fact that on day one he burnt his legs so badly that it was painful to walk. He totally surrendered himself to the experience of chilling out and going with the flow. It was truly wonderous to behold and he came back a completely laid back and mellow soul. In my opinion (as in Oliver's by the sound of it) life is too short to spend it constantly chasing that next (usually expensive) ultimate experience. Hours and hours of driving bored children round exotic locations and then trailing them round monuments that they will not appreciate until they are much older, just does not constitute a true holiday for me. Rather I would prefer time spent in relaxation, good old fashioned conversation and card games and getting to know each other again. Of course it is wonderful to have the resources to visit far flung places and I would hate to think that we would never do this. However when you have a chance to take two weeks away from corporate life with your family I would urge any working person to take a deep breath first and look at what a precious commodity you have in front of you - a loving family who very often feel they come second or third in the pecking order of your busy life - and embrace the experience of spending time with them. Many thanks Oliver - I hope I can get my husband to find time to read your article! P.S. If you do print this article, I would prefer you withold my name to preserve marital harmony! - name and email address withheld
The whole idea of going away after our university final exams was to relax, get some sun on our pale faces and drink ourselves stupid... but it didn't work out like that. We hired a cheap villa in Menorca which looked close to the clifftop on the website, but when we got there it was at the junction of two main roads. One of our party invited some extra friends without telling us and they ended up sleeping on the flat roof. When the villa owner came round on day three, a newspaper had blown into the pool and after seeing that and the hippie camp on the roof they threw us out. A night on the beach left us covered in mosquito bites and we lost half our belongings to the sea. We were also barred from the only decent bar in town. It would have been much more realxing (and fun!) to have stayed at home. Katy Trencher, Glouc
I booked a cheap flight with a group of friends to Tunisia to the island of Djerba a few years ago. Unable to find suitable accommodation within our budget that wasn't a flea pit, we spent the first night on the beach. And two of our party got food poisoning from a beach sausage vendor - it was not a good start. It became very stressful not having planned better in a country that doesn't readily cater for independent travellers. Five days later when I sat down to a lunch of hairy chicken neck we decided to leave ad caught the ferry to Genoa. Back in Italy we gorged and hitch-hiked back to London. Edward Jones, London
By the time we found the right truck (basically a chassis and planks) it was already full, but we squeezed on anyway. We stood squashed at the back for the entire 14-hour journey from Laos to the Vietnam border. For most of the journey I had a 100kg bag of salt on my foot, a goat on my lap and a local hoodie's kalishikinov poked in my ribs. I was without food - refusing to cave in to the frog kebabs proffered through the window at roadside stops - and sun burnt on one side. By the time we reached the Vietnam border I was in no mood for the onslaught of money-exchangers, the guards who told us the border was closed and rifled through our suitcases. To top it off our taxi driver in Vietnam dropped us in the middle of nowhere - and it began to rain. That night the mattresses were damp in the "hotel" - I expected no less. A very stressful experience after six weeks' relaxing in Laos. Nicky Whitehead, Surrey
Girlfriend and I leave London mid-afternoon to beat Friday evening traffic – looking forward to romantic weekend in Northants tavern. M1 is chokka entire way – takes 5 hours. Finally arrive 8.30 pm. The photo in the hotel guidebook had implied a quaint 17th century establishment serving outstanding food. But the photo had been taken from an angle (the only angle possible) which failed to show that most of the building resembles a modern travelodge. A glance into the bar and a squint at the menu confirms this is not where we want to be. It also appears to be in a housing estate – although this is difficult to confirm in the gloom. Back to sit in the car. Rain rattles on the roof. At least we didn’t pay a deposit when we booked the room. Open hotel guidebook. Lots of phone calls later we find a room at Stow-on-the-Wold. Hotel nothing special but at least there are pubs and restaurants around. We dump luggage and pace briskly into town. Just in time to miss last orders. The bell rings as we enter the pub. Back to the hotel, sober and miserable. The morning brings optimism but the hotel has no space tonight so back to the car. We stop at the pretty village of Burford. I crash car while parking causing £ several hundred damage. Ho hum. We lunch and move on. Bingo! A phone call yields success and a nice pub has a four-poster room free. 15 minutes later we are there – but someone else has taken the room in the meantime. They do have another free in the modern annexe. It’s small and soulless but we check-in anyway. It’s cold and pouring with rain but we need some fresh air and go for a muddy walk, getting very wet. When we get back to our room there’s no hot water. Shivering, we make for the public area and turn on the TV to watch the last five minutes of a tense five nations rugby match. The TV crackles, fizzes and packs up. We start peering behind curtains to see if we are being filmed by Jeremy Beedle. Alas not. We make it through to the evening and settle down for a meal. It’s a lovely setting and the food i! s good b ut I am so tired I fall asleep at the table before dessert. I have never done anything like this before or since. Next morning it’s still raining. We decide to go home via the white horse valley in Berkshire. It’s a bit out of the way. We finally arrive but it is too foggy to see the end of the car park, let alone the horse. We head home, tears in our eyes through laughter! - Liam Robb, New Malden, Surrey
