Touring holidays with other friends/ family
Evening all! We are a family with young children (5 and 8), and wondered how many of you go on holiday with other families/ friends? We don't have any friends or other family members that love caravanning as we do, but often see others on site that go as a group? It always seems like the kids enjoy having others of a similar age to play with, especially on site, and the adults get some grown up company! How do you all find others that enjoy the same things?
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Hello Steve!
For a few years we met up with friends to have holidays, not on a regular basis although we all loved going to one particular CL together, lots of walks, pub visits, beaches etc.
They had caravanned for years, taking four children with them so I would say a field, woods and a stream etc on a CL or similar had great appeal. We used to visit them with our three children but we didn't have a van ourselves at that time.
I've seen families on rallies having a good time, especially the ones which cater for children. You'll see some of these events in the Centre section of the Membership area.
I don't know where you're based, we're in the SW and the Avon Centre has a varied programme of rallies to suit all tastes and ages. You can join in with any rallies, whether you are a centre member or not.
Hope you find something you can all enjoy.
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Hi Steve, Thanks for making me smile!
Only yesterday we were reminiscing about holidays past and how camping, in a unit of any type, is the best holiday for children, but as for enjoying the same thing, well you are already doing it!
It was always our daughter that ‘made friends’ and we often joke that on arrival at the beach she would be introducing her new friend before we had even spread out our towels.
In the mid 80s while on holiday in Woolacoombe she introduced her new friend one evening and, the next day, said her parents said to come back to their van for a cuppa-we had a tent so probably looked in need of some TLC.
We politely declined but they persisted and that was to be the start of a friendship that continues to this day with countless shared holidays, just us oldies now of course, both here and abroad.
Our first outing post lockdown will be in May with them so just sit back, let the kids be kids, and the rest will just happen!
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Campsites are usually very friendly places. We have been away with friends who shared our hobby, but also got to know others who we met for first time but stayed in touch with😁 Children seem particularly good at making the most of new chums, so just let them get on with it.
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It was actually some friends that lived around the road from us who had a frame tent who were instrumental in persuading us to buy our first caravan as we didn't think we would like tent camping. Our kids were the same age as theirs. We even went on our first trip abroad to France with them. They moved away because of his job and although for a while we continued to meet up on holiday. Eventually our interests diverged and they eventually gave up caravanning. We are still in contact and very occasionally meet up. I think you are lucky if you meet like minded people and can cope with double the number of opinions on what you want to do together
David
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When we used to take the Gkids we often had a couple of pup tents on the pitch with their friends in, often on a site we used in the New Forest we had 5 kids, 6 bikes, passers by often asked how we got all that we had in 1 car & 1 caravan, of course we didnt as we live quite close to New Forest parents used to bring and collect, i hasten too add it was only just for a long weekend normally
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I had two friends with whom I used to regularly take trips with, both are now unfortunately deceased, but I still join family members now and again either by meeting in the same area if they are in rentals or on the same site becasue one is a caravan owner but not a user of the Clubs' mian sites.
peedee
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We ow mostley tour on our own as at our age we have lost several to the sites in tha sky or they now no longer can manage ,all the family are now quite happy to visit if we are near( FM normally) but none only one niece on the IOW has an LV, but we still can reminisce with those still with us about the great times and the "mishaps" of the past
our children never had any Problems with "palling up" with others when away
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Yes, 40 + years ago we had children that age and used to meet up on campsites with friends who also had children - but meeting them was at fixed points, never driving in convoy, and only for their school summer hols - not weekend after weekend.
Fast forward all those years - and it has become shared holiday houses with groups of our many, far flung grandchildren all getting together and playing together. Their parents - our grown up children - have moved beyond campsites.
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We too are happy to tour alone but would prefer to have the company of our friends for our main holiday.
We usually meet up in France,en route to the destination, so may travel together for a day or so.
As for planning, we have settled into a routine over time whereby we cook, then they cook, then we eat out however, we vary this and it is no way 'fixed'.
I seems to suit us all, they are support for their Granddaughters, who are registered blind, and we have commitments, so our weeks together are quite simply a time for relaxation with a bit of sightseeing thrown in.
There is another couple that we have holidayed with twice-they had never been abroad and asked if they could accompany us- but we are not as close and, for example, apart from a BBQ and eating out, would do our own thing on many days.
We go on a rally every year and have a real laugh with the others but feel privileged to have two such close friends that we can share our enjoyment with.
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In the late 70's/80's (tent times) we often shared holidays with various friends, on one occasion five families met up at a site in Cornwall. The good thing about this was that we all were able to do our own thing or share outings with others which worked well and no one felt left out. However, we once holidayed with just one other couple which, much as we liked them, put a strain on the relationship. Over the years there have been divorces, deaths and general 'moving on' (one family to NZ) so now only have contact with two widows of this group. When we went abroad with our, by then, older children we found that they made friends easily with others of different nationalities and actually picked up a fair amount of French, very useful for high school!
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We have made some very good friends whilst staying on site just through chatting to people. Some we keep in touch with throughout the year others we just see from time to time when we are on site at the same time as them but it is always the same in the respect that we greet each other & catch up like we only saw them a few days ago!! Sometimes "meetings" are arranged so we are on site at the same time but we always travel on our own & do our own thing most of the time, just meeting up for a chat & cup of tea from time to time.
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+1. Over the years we have stayed on a lot of sites with friends, on the understanding that if they want to join us to do something during the day, or vice versa, fine. If not, equally fine. Usually spent the evenings together, and that arrangement has worked for nearly 40 years.
We've also met new friends abroad, like AD, by going to the same sites and meeting the same people, and just seeing them on those sites. Unfortunately also like AD, 2 of those are no longer with us now.
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We have a group of caravanning/ camping friends locally which we go away with once a year... We've been doing this since 1992. Last year was the first year we missed - for obvious Covid reasons. This year is on though, although we will need to be socially distanced, and I guess no awning get togethers.
David
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Wow! Thanks for all the replies! Sorry i haven't replied sooner, it's my first time using this site to post, I assumed it would email me to let me know i had received a reply.
We are in Nottingham, I will look into the rallies, this might be a good way to go. My children are quite shy, so that might help them overcome this, to be fair we don't usually go to the typical busy sites, we like to keep our children in a routine with bedtime, and a lot of the bigger sites have children running around to nearly midnight, which would lead to two very grumpy tired kids!
We have been caravanning for six years (and a member of c and m club since then, I must say we try to use the club sites whenever we can, so much nicer!) and recently sold our last caravan as we had outgrown it, and bought a six berth bailey pegasus ancona with fixed bunks as we got fed up with making all the beds every night, so that should make life easier, we are looking forward to our first trip away in our van, we are going to Devon at the end of May, we can't wait!
It would seem the majority of you find friends through your children, hopefully as they get older (and braver) they will make friends too!
Thanks again for all the lovely replies, I will keep popping back to catch up with any other responses.
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Steve, if you click on "follow" below your original post you will be sent an email notifying you that there has been responses to your post. You can also choose this option if you want to see reply to other posts that you might be interested in. The email will take about a day to come through, so hang on in there.
When our children were small we used to rally a lot with the same Centre and they soon made friends there. Just remember that few rallies are on sites with Hookups so you must be prepared for that.
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Hi David, Attitudes re Covid vary considerably and there is no right and wrong just different.
We decide, once vaccines became available, that we would hold on till we had both doses and add two weeks for it to ‘work’.
That for us is 17th May, and for our friends that we will meet up with a few days earlier, and that is when mixing indoors is allowed so we are meeting that day and will, albeit in a less touch freely manner than usual, be socialising in each other’s vans.
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Hi Steve, I always try to avoid saying what people should do and only say what we do, or did.
We are also firm believers in routine however if on holiday then it would be the holiday routine which might involve a little more flexibility over bed times etc but nothing excessive.
Rallies are something we have done in the main with older children, so cant comment on how they would be for your age, but can say that any venue that has plenty of other children about, what some might call a 'family' site, will probably be better than a site with a predominance of couples.
Also, school holiday periods will be better on club site so far as children being there but cant say they would be my first thought as a place to holiday with children.
Besides anything else, they don't have the one requirement we always had-that of a swimming pool-with just a couple of exceptions, like Looe and Hillhead.
As mentioned Avon Centre run some great rallies, as do others, and one advantage of rallies is that often you get to stay at parks with decent facilities but with a good discount on the price.
Our experience of rallies is that you can join in as much, or as little, as you want to and we certainly felt no pressure to do any particular thing but always tried to be at Flagpole as a thank you to the organisers.
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We are all different but the last thing i want is to be couped up or tagging along with other people on holiday. We have tried caravanning weekends away with friends and family and we simply hated it, not least in part because i don’t drink alchohol and it seems that is difficult concept for anyone to grasp. As for rallies, would rather go to the dentist. I spend all week talking to colleagues and surrounded by people at work so splendid isolation is a welcome relief on a weekend or holiday.
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Hi, Have to agree that we are all different, but you seem to have had some bad experiences that are simply not reflected in our experience.
I may find it 'difficult to accept' all sorts of behaviours but unless it directly impacts on me then not really an issue.
As for your comment on rallies, I can see, I think, what you are getting at but when on rallies we interact with others as little, or as much, as we want to and, if isolation is your thing then its available unless you mean you only enjoy small sites with few people-all of whom may see you as the ideal person to have a chat with!
For us camping is a sociable past time but, as you say we are all different and whilst I can get by on a 'morning' or an 'OK' my wife seems to be able, on a quite brief visit to the facility block, and get the life story of the people that she meets!
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Hi David, the year before we bought our van we did a Eurocamp holiday and try as I might to generate interest in a return to Interlaken all Jean recalls was that the site bar was so quiet, it was too cool to sit out, or even in as it was a tent, that the lady serving us, the only customers, was sewing some curtains on a machine between pouring drinks!
We don't need to have company, but some is nice even if you don't have a lot of interaction, something brought home to many by the forced separation caused bu Covid.
Aside from our holidays with our MH buddies our last one was with our youngest daughter, with hubby and three children, and we took two teenage grandchildren.
Apart from a trip to the beach, accompanied by lots of "when are we going back to the pool" and a truly memorable day at Puy Du Fou, it was long round of swimming and eating-oh, and maybe a glass or two-interspersed with games of Uno and Monopoly-Cornwall version.
Simple, but superb!
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