Vacation V Staycation Costs
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Indeed TOB. We haven’t missed one in last nine years. Except for last year of course. That’s some fantastic first day route out of Penzance, and as we know every nook and cranny between Penzance and into St Ives, hoping to get either a good park up spot, or cycle out and up there to get a top of a hill cheering on pitch. Penzance will be a great start point, it dresses its self up lovely for events, and Mounts Bay is simply stunning. Just debating on where to stay now...... it is a debate as the Club Site price is very good value, comparable with many other sites around. (Marazion, not Godrevy).
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Yes we will watching, but in the St Austell area as we will be on a rally at Pentewan.
As you enjoy your cycling then why not a vacation trip to follow the TDF?
Done it twice now and even Jean, who has never ridden a bike, talks about the great time we had with the TGV into Paris to see Cav win the final stage being a real highlight.
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It’s on the list A&J. But I am a Carer for Mum, can’t just swan off for weeks like we used to do, and we wouldn’t take our dog overseas either. We had two glorious days of the TdeF coming to us in 2014, one race finish was a couple of miles away, so we cycled down and spent the whole day there amongst hundreds of thousands of others, the tour buses, the big screens, the Gendarmes, the whole razzamatazz. Great fun. Sadly Cav had kissed the tarmac the day before, but it was a climbers day, and Nibali came in alone. We were out on Moors day before, amongst the millions on the route.
Spent the day in a TOB race car though, part of the caravan that follows the riders around, that started in Cockermouth, then went all over Borders. Bit like being the Queen, you have to wave at the crowds😁0 -
I did another comparison this morning, just for research purposes and the need to do something after waking at silly o'clock, of ferry prices.
The reason being that our friends asked if we will be going to them, in Hampshire,for our usual end of the school year meet up.
This gave me the idea that we could go out from Plymouth but come back to Portsmouth.
The quote was around £20 less, for a morning crossing, but the afternoon crossing would be £208 more.
We would stick with the morning but wonder if some do a quick check of prices and dismiss crossings because they did not look at the options which, as here, could be quite a saving.
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Defence secretary Ben Wallace has refused to rule out the government extending a ban on foreign holidays
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Hi David, Yes it was, and crossings are usually cheaper as you describe.
It caught my eye as last year discussing taking the van abroad, with friends who never have, he said "OK, so if i drive down to Portsmouth in the morning what would it cost me" and I then tried to explain it was not that simple!
I cannot claim to have done any in depth survey of peoples approach to costing a holiday, over there, but have had enough casual conversations to make me think a more detailed look at costs might surprise some.
For many years we did Tuesday out Sunday back,as these crossings were on the Pont Aven, and more recently we have done a Thursday night crossing, again on the Pont.
Usually this would be a more expensive crossing and you needed a cabin but recently it has been £100 less than going on a Friday morning.
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"Was that the return crossing Ouistreham to Portsmouth?
On that route unless its changed it was always cheaper to go Afternoon out Portsmouth Ouistrham, and Morning back as they are the "caravans go free" crossings"
Not that i normally compare prices, just choose what is convenient and go, but for our April - June trip 2021 , which of course we will not be doing i paid
Portsmouth - Caen 08:15 sailing £278, includes dog, and reserved seats, no need for cabin, by the time you have had breakfast you are almost there.
used the early sailing as you could get down to Nantes for overnight stop, as we may now have to pay a visit to the supermarket, might have to stay in the Caen area
Caen - Portsmouth 08:30 sailing £234.30 ditto as above,
used the early sailing as could then be home and caravan sorted by mid P.M., only live 30 mins from Portsmouth port
p.s. they are flexi tickets
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I suspect we aren’t as old as you think😉 Good few years off Govt pension still. We did a lot of adventurous stuff, exploring, thrill seeking in our younger days, got other priorities like loved ones at the moment. Our time will come, meanwhile, we make a list, will do what we really fancy from it at some point.
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It only takes one broken leg, stroke etc to totally change your expectations of life. My detached retina last year, if not caught in time, would have meant the end of caravanning/ motorhoming for ever. British holidays can be taken in your 80s but long haul holidays etc with the associated health insurance costs could well be uneconomic in your 80s.
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Thank you Grandad😁 We had a very adventurous young married life, breeding never interfered, so we are in our caring period at the moment, happily looking after our inheritance. Decades away from our 80’s. I retired at 45, so sort of had a good ten years of no work and living before commitments arrived. 👍
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I'm not that much older than you but I've never had the view that it can only be this country or abroad. Some of our foreign holidays are only 7 days and we actually went to Malta in December 2019 for only 4 days. Variety is the spice of life.
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Totally agree with that; we're not in our dotage yet either, but at 56 OH had to have bypass surgery, completely unexpected, but the months leading up to it were extremely worrying, as it became obvious something was wrong; he'd taken early retirement 3 years earlier with no sign of any health problems. He's so lucky to have survived it, it doesn't matter what age you are, you don't know what's round the corner. We've always walked, cycled and led a healthy lifestyle, but when something like that happens, it's devastating, and out of your control. We've certainly learned that.
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As said, as we don’t know what is round the corner-could be that runaway bus-there is an understandable desire to make the most of life and, I think, many on here may also be considering how long going over there will be an option the wish to consider.
So far this year we have had 14 medical appointments, now thankfully reduced but still looking at five years of ‘surveillance’ for one of us and ongoing appointments, post Covid, for the other-but feel lucky and you don’t have to look around much to find people far, far worse off than us.
I do smile when recalling a colleagues humour when he said “those optimistic fools don’t realise the light at the end of the tunnel is actually an express train”!
We are so lucky to live where we do and for us when over there is not possible we would likely stay at home, except for family visits, not replace it with holidays here.
We would hopefully still be able to have our meet ups with friends on rallies etc but we go over there because it’s different.
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My analogy is a football match (apologies for sounding like JVT) which normally lasts 90 mins and which could be seen to compare with a good life span. Assume you are a striker and at 60 mins gone you still haven't scored a goal: now you might say, no worries I've still got 30 mins left but it is not in your control, you might get injured, substituted or even sent off. The time to score that goal is as soon as possible, if you then go on to score more goals even better.
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At present I very definitely wouldn't want to be abroad unless there was some pressing reason other than a holiday. The virus is running out of control in the EU and the sight of individuals heading for holidays to avoid lockdown indicates further problems. There are all sorts of interesting places in our own isles to explore and I just hope we'll be able to see them this year. It's a seize the day scenario for everyone (with plastic gloves on...
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It depends what you mean by abroad, if Australia/ New Zealand open their borders to vaccinated Brits then we would be off like a shot this Autumn. Australia has almost zero infections and very very few restrictions on the normal way of life.
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I worry about that MA, I am like most folk-I have family in both Oz & NZ but I’d be concerned if I got there to be checked & found to be a carrier or worse a false positive only to be quarantined🤷🏻♂️😞. I’m giving the whole travel gig a swerve until it all makes sense in a tick box way👍🏻
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Not at all-all the major vax makers are already brewing vax 2.0 to combat mutations, eventually they will stop them & it will be the same as winter flu. I will get where I want to be but not at risk to myself others or a costly trip to see the inside of a Southern Hemisphere Hotel-as beautiful as they may be😊
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